Clay Lyons Alto Saxophone Kwok Wing Hei Trumpet Lee Dynes Guitar Tsang Tak Hong Bass Nate Wong - Drums
thejazztellers@gmail.com USA, Nate: 1 (415) 806 4880 HK, Hei: 00852-6055 5540 http://myspace.com/thejazztellers The Jazz Tellers is an ensemble that brings two established Hong Kong professionals and three of the hottest aspiring young jazz lions of the United States together for a tour of Hong Kong in 2010. The band comprises Tsang Tak Hong (bass) and Kwok Wing Hei (trumpet) from Hong Kong as well as three young and highly talented musicians from the USA, Lee Dynes (guitar), Clay Lyons saxophone) and Nate Wong (drums) who are some of Berklee College of Music s most accomplished students, having garnered several awards and full tuition scholarships. Members of this band have performed with the highest level jazz musicians in Asia and America, including Eugene Pao, Ted Lo, James Moody, Phil Woods, and Tiger Okoshi, and have won prestigious awards such as the Tom Lee/Yamaha Woodwind Contest, Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Band, Berklee Full Tuition Ambassador Scholarship and many others. This band or its individual members will be available for booking for performances/clinics in Hong Kong during May/June of 2010. Music can be found at: http://myspace.com/thejazztellers Clay Lyons, a native of Madison, Wisconsin was born into a musical family. He picked up the saxophone at age 11 and now attends Berklee College of Music on a full ride scholarship. Lyons talents began being noticed in high school where he was invited to play in Isthmus High School Jazz All Stars, the MATC Jazz Orchestra and the Wisconsin All-State High School Honors Jazz Ensemble. At Berklee College of Music Lyons has studied with some of the biggest names in the jazz world including George Garzone, Dino Govoni and Richard Davis. After only his second year at Berklee the college recognized his accomplishments and awarded him with the Berklee Woodwind Department Award. Kwok Wing Hei has been playing trumpet for over 16 years. He is currently a member of the Basic Notes Jazz Big Band, Saturday Night Jazz Orchestra, Discovery Bay Big Band and Stray Katz Big Band. In 2003, he was the winner of the Woodwind Contest organized by Tom Lee and Yamaha. Hei is an in demand trumpet player in Hong Kong and has played in most jazz venues in Hong Kong including the Fringe Club Backstage Live, The Melting Pot, Kubrick Café, Ned Kelly s and many others. In 2008 Hei traveled to Boston to study with highly acclaimed trumpet teacher Mario Guarneri and Tiger Okoshi.
Lee Dynes began playing the guitar at the age of 10, and has been in love with music ever since. After absorbing the sounds of blues, rock, and heavy metal, Lee then developed an interest in jazz. His relationship with jazz has done nothing but grow exponentially since then, leading him to play hundreds of professional gigs as a leader and a sideman before graduating high school. A few notable performances include his experience with the Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensemble (which included performances with Phil Woods and James Moody), and a night where Dynes had the opportunity to play for master guitarist Pat Metheny. After receiving a full-tuition scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Dynes has been residing in Boston, Massachusetts, where he continues to rigorously expand his musical horizons, and develop his craft. Tsang Tak Hong was born in Hong Kong and now at 23 Hong has become one of the most in demand bass players in Asia. His skillful sound are heard in recordings of many Canto-pop singers, namely Miriam Yeung, Twins, Gigi Leung, Sally Yep, Candy Lo, Faye Wong, Andy Hui, Alan Tam, Hacken Lee, Eason Chan, Karen Mok, and many more. His music career reached a new height with his touring with Asian pop diva Faye Wong from 2004 to 2006. He also wrote film score for the Cantonese movie Sum Sze Sze in the 90s. Other than the pop music scene, Hong is making himself more visible as a jazz musician. His name was seen in many international jazz festivals in the past eight years - Krakow Art festival (Poland) 2001, Seoul Fringe festival 2005, Hong Kong Jazz Festival 2005 etc. He toured in 2005 with the jazz band JR in Shanghai and Tsing Tao, China. In 2006, he performed at the Vietnam Cultural Festival and Bangkok International Jazz Festival with Tamaya Honda and two jazz legends in Hong Kong Eugene Pao and Ted Lo. He will be joining Hong Kong Jazz Festival again and Taichung Jazz Festival in October, 2009. Nate Wong grew up in Hong Kong before he immigrated to California in 2001. Wong has been an active member of the Bay Area jazz scene in California and Boston. During his time in high school Wong garnered outstanding musicianship awards from the Redwood Empire Jazz Festival, the International Association for Jazz Education and the Bank of America Achievement Award, as well as being a student conductor of an award winning high school band. Wong now attends the Berklee College of Music as a World Scholarship Tour recipient. In 2008 Berklee awarded Nate with a Berklee Achievement Scholarship. Since 2006, every other summer Nate has been in Hong Kong to form the Nate Wong and Friends Band. These bands have had well received performances at the Fringe Club, Backstage Live and the Kubrick Café. This will be the first time Wong has brought American musicians with him and it promises to be the strongest and most exciting band yet.
The Jazz Tellers Live Date: 9 June 2010 (Wed) Time: 7:00 8:30 p.m. Venue: Tsang Shiu Tim Art Hall Program Oleo Waltz For Alavatam Roselyn Black Bird With All My Heart Hong Kong Wong Sad Song Berklee Beached Finding Strength In Change Waltz for Debby La Fiesta
Workshop: The Jazz Tellers on Jazz Improvisation Date: 8 June 2010 (Tue) Time: 6:30 8:30 p.m. Venue: Tsang Shiu Tim Art Hall The Jazz Tellers will present their techniques on jazz and improvisation. They will demonstrate the improvisation of the following songs. Tenor Madness by Sonny Rollins
Chameleon by Herbie Hancock