Connie Han on Her Unconventional Path to Jazz Stardom: ‘I’m Adamant About Transcending Culture’
variety.comTodd Gilchrist editor Connie Han has established herself as one of contemporary jazz’s most talented and inventive musicians by combining the precision of her childhood training as a classical pianist with the improvisation, and irrepressible emotion, of her heroes Freddie Hubbard and Kenny Kirklan.
Just 27, it’s hard to believe Han released her first album eight years ago, but in that time, she’s built a dedicated following and gained the respect of genre peers through three full-lengths on Mack Avenue Records.
Her latest, 2022’s “Secrets of Inanna,” draws upon ancient Sumerian myth not just for its song titles but its thematic underpinnings — a sophisticated foundation emblematic of a sophisticated performer.
Ahead of a series of master class sessions in Philadelphia and few months of touring, Han spoke to Variety about the education and experiences that helped shape her meteoric rise in the contemporary jazz world.
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