Alan Chan Jazz Orchestra

A Los Angeles-based creative big band directed by Alan Chan!

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PRESS

"...distinction is evident on the first downbeat."
— Kirk Silsbee, DownBeat Magazine

"Alan is bringing a set of sounds that haven't been heard before in an L.A. big band"
— Rick Baptist

8.21.2018
▶ LA Times Review
by Mark Swed

▶ PDF Version
LAWeekly
3.1.2017
About Denali Residency
Quick Read | PDF
Performances Magazine
1.27.2017
▶ LA Weekly Preview
LAWeekly

SHRIMP TALE REVIEWS
Kota Ffunction jkpopimage(imgpath, popwidth, popheight, textdescription){Jazz Critique (Jazz Hihyo)
Brent Black – criticaljazz.com
Jack Bowers – AllAboutJazz.com
Dan Bilawsky – AllAboutJazz.com
George Harris – Jazz Weekly
George Kanzler – NYC Jazz Record
James Hule – DownBeat
Marc Myers – JazzWax
Matthew Ruddick – Kind of Jazz
Dave Sumner – Wondering Sound


INTERVIEWS

10.15.2018,
SINOVISION Programs
(in Mandarin Chinese)
Baked Potato Documentary
Angelino Documentary
Los Angeles Meeting Room
2.7.2017
▶ Apple Daily Interview
(Mandarin Chinese)
AppleDaily

3.2016 - LA18 Interviews:
Kat Iniba (Eng.) / Juliette Zhuo (Chi.)
En Zh

2.19.2016 - Alhambra Source Interview
by Victoria MoyAlhambra Source Logo

3.2016 - LA18 Interviews:
Kat Iniba (Eng.) / Juliette Zhuo (Chi.)
En Zh

9.22.2015 - Kat Iniba Interview
Youtube LinkEntertainment Crush Interview

1.8.2015
Phil Whelan Interview (23 min.) MP3
RTHK3 – Solita / Shrimp Tale

2.2014 - DownBeat article by Kirk Silsbee
February issue | Link | PDF

2.2014 - Yvonne Maisonette Interview
Youtube LinkEntertainment Crush Interview

11.8.2013 - TV interview with Juliette Zhuo on "LA Living" program - LA18 (Chinese)

Sept. 2013 - RTHK Interviews
9.7
- RTHK4: Ben Pelletier (46 min.) MP3
9.3 - RTHK3: Phil Whelan (19 min.) MP3


ALAN CHAN • BIOGRAPHY

"The four movements of Moon Walk…are full of small and large wonders."
— Los Angeles Times, August. 2018 / Mark Swed


Photo credit: Dana Ross

Composer and pianist Alan Chan recently received the 2023 OPERA America’s IDEA Grant, to develop his new opera Immortal Labia, in collaboration with New York City-based librettist Victoria Moy.  He was the winner of the first ASCAP George Duke Commissioning Prize in 2015. His imaginative composition “Denali World” was premiered by the 67-piece Symphonic Jazz Orchestra in 2017. He is also a winner of the ArtEZ International Jazz Composition Contest (the Netherlands, 2011), Percussive Arts Society Composition Contests (2004, 2008), together with awards and fellowships from Konstnärsnämnden (Sweden), the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and Ucross Foundation, among others.

For more than a decade, he has been focused on creating unique music for his 17-piece Alan Chan Jazz Orchestra (ACJO), which is comprised of top studio/jazz musicians in Los Angeles. Their debut "Shrimp Tale" album was released in 2014, which received rave reviews and radio plays across the U.S. ACJO appears in Los Angeles venues such as the Baked Potato, Vibrato Grill Jazz, the Huntington, Vitello’s, Catalina Jazz Club, Westin Bonaventure Hotel and the Jonathan Club. His band also presented concerts at the Brooklyn Public Library, Stone NYC and ShapeShifter Lab in New York City. 

In recent years, Alan Chan began to collaborate with Chinese instrumentalists to explore the possibility of merging jazz, improvisation and traditional Chinese vibes into a dramatic and innovative form. ACJO’s new project “Moon Walk,” with pipa (Chinese lute) virtuoso Min Xiao-Fen (New York City), was premiered in Los Angeles in August 2018 and subsequently on the East Coast in Brooklyn Central Library in New York City in February 2019. "Moon Walk" was selected to be featured at the Jazz Education Network Annual Conference in Orlando in January 2023. It received a review from Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times.

"Chan has given Los Angeles a jazz big band with an utterly unique tonal personality."
— DownBeat Magazine, February 2014 / Kirk Silsbee

The “Camel Walk” project, started in 2016 with the prominent performer of suona (Chinese trumpet) Guo Yazhi (Boston), received its first performance of the complete version on the Marsee Auditorium stage on May 10, 2019. It was subsequently webcasted at JENX, the virtual Jazz Education Network Conference, in January 2021.

Professional groups that have presented his works have included Grammy-nominated Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Millennium Jazz Orchestra (the Netherlands), Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Taipei Percussion, Taipei City Chinese Orchestra, Symphonic Jazz Orchestra (Los Angeles) and La Jolla Symphony.

Alan Chan’s music often takes inspiration from his life experiences around the world, with a take of surprising wittiness and humor. Coming from a classical background, he began composing for jazz big band under the mentorship of Gary Lindsay in Miami, then Vince Mendoza and Shelly Berg in Los Angeles, and Jim McNeely who fanned his flame of desire to create works for jazz ensembles.

As an educator, Alan directed the El Camino College Concert Jazz Band and the Jazz program for five years. He presented more than 20 concerts in the community, and conducted over 120 big band compositions from across jazz style periods. His work as an Adjunct Professor and Coordinator of the ECC Jazz Festival has earned him Achievement Award for Distinguished Teaching and Student Learning in December 2017 from Academic Senate.

He was also a guest artist and clinician at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), Hong Kong Jazz Summer 2016, and a judge of international/national competitions such as Percussive Arts Society Composition Contests, SCI/ASCAP Student Composition Awards and ASMAC Bill Conti Big Band Arranging & Composing Competition. He is a voting member of the Recording Academy.

Camel Walk EPK
Youtube ▶︎ https://youtu.be/dK4Yp_mgE6o

Moon Walk EPK
Youtube ▶︎ https://youtu.be/vps1nwxFBRw

Rancho Calavers • Live in Studio

Yazhi Blues • Guo Yazhi + ACJO

CONTACT US!

For bookings and inquires, please contact Alan Chan at a@alanchanjazzorchestra.com.