For those unaware, on Things Will Pass, Hyeseon Hong leads her 19-piece Jazz Orchestra, beautifully blend American jazz with Korean musical influences, creating an intricate sonic tableau, where East swings West.

Things Will Pass is the long-awaited follow-up to her 2017 debut recording, Ee-Ya-Gi, which featured veteran tenor saxophonist Rich Perry, who played with the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen.

Never taking a moment to pause, she is also a member of the prestigious BMI Jazz workshop as well as an advanced member of the Lehman Engel musical theater workshop. She has been studying the work of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams amongst other theatrical works.

1. Road to Hana (6:29)
2. Memoirs of Ladies (7:34)
3. Raindrop’s Journey (6:56)
4. Run Away (6:20)
5. Waltzing With Dad (6:11)
6. Treasure Hunt (7:07)
7. Night Climbing (6:15)
8. Dance With Dracula (7:20)
9. We Will Meet Again (5:01)

The Korean jazz composer and arranger, who has been working in both NYC and Seoul for many years, opens her brand new recording on the rhythmically staggered Road to Hana and then brings us the sweeping elegance of Memoirs of Ladies, the playfully flirtatious whistler Raindrop’s Journey and the more forthright, guitar-fed Run Away.

With the compositions centering around a theme of hope and resilience, along next is the delightful, aptly-titled Waltzing With Dad and that is in turn backed by the vibrant Treasure Hunt, an aching yearn found within Night Climbing, the album rounding out on the veritably cinematic Dance With Dracula, closing on a dutifully ornate, yet free flowing We Will Meet Again.

These recent deep dives into American musical styles have had an important impact on her more recent big band compositional approach. She is already working on new music for the next recording.

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