Sun-Mi Hong BIDA Orchestra

Sun-Mi Hong BIDA Orchestra

(BE, GB, KR, NO, US)

A Jazzfest Berlin favorite, Amsterdam-based drummer, bandleader, and composer Sun-Mi Hong returns leading her most exploratory, adventurous ensemble yet. In 2022 the Korean native led her agile post-bop quintet through the indelible compositions of her album “Third Page: Resonance”, but since then she’s steadily pushed beyond jazz orthodoxy, and forging new relationships with some of the greatest improvisers of our time. Her new project, Sun-Mi Hong BIDA Orchestra, features trumpeter Alistair Payne, the Scot who remains an anchor of the drummer’s ongoing quintet, but the rest of the sextet includes newer, more established collaborators.
 
The band’s muscular frontline is rounded out by the explosive Danish alto saxophonist Mette Rasmussen – who has often played Jazzfest Berlin, including a 2022 set with her own Trio North – and American expat saxophone fire-breather John Dikeman. London veteran John Edwards simultaneously holds down the bottom and redirects the music from behind the bass, while Belgian keyboardist Jozef Dumoulin channels new timbres through electronic interventions. The drummer shapes that improvisational spirit with a suite of music that glides seamlessly between modes, but the driving pulse at the core of all of her work remains elegantly undiminished.