Korean singer Youn Sun Nah beautiful voyage to the magical world of jazz music

Youn Sun Nah is an Award-winning Korean professional jazz singer born in Seoul on August 28, 1969. Strong from her musical background, her mother was an Opera singer and father a choir director, Youn Sun Nah follow her parents footsteps in the musical industry, but on a different music genre: jazz. At a younger age, while searching for her passion, Youn Sun Nah wanted to start a career in the fashion industry. But she later on decide to come back to music roots and it was a good decision we can now tell knowing the successful career Youn Sun Nah now have as a jazz singer. In 1992, at the young age of only 23 years old, Youn Sun Nah started her musical career with the worldwide acclaim Korean Symphony Orchestra. Youn Sun Nah was born to sing. Even without formal training as a musical actress, Youn Sun Nah had been giving a role in three musical comedies. While still performing with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, Youn Sun Nah decided to move to Paris in 1995 to study jazz and French chanson at the CIMSchool, at the National Music Institute of Beauvais and at the Nadia and Lili Boulanger. Located in Paris, the CIM School is one the oldest jazz schools in Europe. In France, Youn discover the music of artists such as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Norma Winstone, Sidsel Endresen and Mari Boine.

Before 1995, Youn Sun Nah didn’t know jazz, but she wanted to find a more complete musical environment. Youn Sun Nah studies jazz following the recommendation of a Korean bassist friend. In Korea, still on date of today, jazz is being seen as an underground music genre, not really known from the general public. But jazz is getting more popular in Korea as artists like Youn Sun Nah decided to concentrate on the genre. Following her jazz studies, Youn Sun Nah had recorded a half-dozen CDs, among other, just to name a few: Voyage (ACT, 2009), Memory Lane (Seoul Records, 2007), Down by Love (Sony Music, 2003), Reflet (Sony Music, 2001).

In 1996, Youn Sun Nah led the Youn Sun Nah 5Tet (YSN 5tet) with college classmates. The jazz band had been active for 10 years in the European music scene. The Youn Sun Nah 5Tet had released 2 CDs: So I Am (ICG, 2004) and Light for the People (ICG, 2002). The Youn Sun Nah 5Tet had won many prices and had been offered a seven-year deal by the French label Blue Note. Youn Sun Nah had declined the offer as she wanted to start something different by her own and wanted musical freedom.

Following her strong jazz band debut, Youn Sun Nah begins her solo career. While being in Korea, a meeting with Ulf Wakenius led to Voyage (2009), her latest album. Ulf Wakenius is a Swedish jazz guitarist who had been a member of the Oscar Peterson quartet. Ulf Wakenius had recorded many albums and he’s a well-known jazz musician.

Youn Sun Nah had been giving many concerts to promote Voyage. For Voyage, Youn had performed over 19 countries and 50 cities. In each city she stops in, Youn performed with local jazz musicians. To get ready for the show, she sends them the parts of Ulf Wakenius by email.

In 2009, the French government honored Youn Sun Nah with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres award title. After what, Youn Sun Nah made her London debut at the Vortex in May 2009. Since that time, Youn Sun Nah had been acclaimed worldwide. The jazz artist sings in Korean, French, English and Portuguese. Her latest album, Same Girl will be release on August 17th, 2010 in South Korea. The rest of the world will have to wait until September 24th, 2010 to get a taste of Youn Sun Nah latest album Same Girl.