Ekah Hyunjoong Kim - Kumba Kumbaya

Topic: Jazz - Title
Some jazz musicians have recorded versions of "Kumbaya" that didn’t include even a token reference to the original song. They left their reasons for the use of the word as a title for a jazz performance to their listeners to intuit. Like Carmen Lundy’s juxtaposition of "Kumbaya" with a reference to the esoteric and exoteric codes for Black behavior in Code Noir, it was easy to over-intellectualize their thinking. [1]

Ekah Kim recorded "Kumba Kumbaya" in 2010 with fellow students from the Berkee College of Music. The drummer had formed a quartet in 2009 with Junya Fukumoto on piano and Keisuke Higashino on bass. [2] His preferred instrumental soloist was a saxophonist: on "Kumba Kumbaya" it was an Israeli-born musician, Jonathan Greenstein.

For the MP3 album he produced his senior year, Kim wanted to explore Brazilian jazz. [3] He added a conga player and a Brazilian-born singer. "Kumba Kumbaya" opened and closed with a verse by Tais Alvarenga that made no reference to the original in text or tune. Between her solos, the group reverted to the usual modern jazz format: virtuoso solos by the saxophone and piano over a smooth continuo of piano and congas that replaced the string bass in this role.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Tais Alvarenga
Vocal Group: none

Instrumental Soloists: Jonathan Greenstein, tenor saxophone; Junya Fukumoto, piano

Instrumental Accompaniment: Keisuke Higashino, bass

Rhythm Accompaniment: Ekah Hyunjoong Kim, drums; Jorge Pérez González, congas [4]

Credits
(C) 2010 Ekah Hyunjoong Kim

Notes on Lyrics
Language: Portuguese [assumed]
Verses: own

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: upbeat

Basic Structure: medley of instrumental solos, framed by a vocal solo

Singing Style: one syllable to one note

Notes on Performers
Kim was born in Seoul, Korea, and lived in various parts of Southeast Asia. He said he began playing drums after a UN Day festival at his school in Singapore. He also learned classical guitar. [5]

After graduation from Berkee, he produced another album of Latin jazz, Ekahsonic, with many of the same musicians. Liutauras Janusaitis played the sax. [6] Kim and Janusaitis continued to work with Junya Fukumoto and Keisuke Higashino as the Boylston Jazz Quartet in Korea, Japan, and Lithuania. Fukumoto had graduated from the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo before he went to Boston, while Higashino graduated from the Osaka University of Arts. [7]

Alvarenga was from Rio Janeiro where she began singing in church when she was seven-years-old. She since returned to Brazil and had a contract with Sony. [8]

The conga player, Jorge Pérez González, was born in Boston and raised in Madrid. Since graduating he remained in Boston where he performed with Patax, a fusion band. [9]

Greenstein was trained in Tel Aviv [10] He recently moved from Brooklyn to Madison, Wisconsin, where he was pursuing a doctorate in music from the University of Wisconsin. [11] He had released a number of albums in the interim, and was working as a sideman and appearing with his own trio.

Availability
MP3: Treasure Hunt. 1 March 2010.

YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 19 July 2015.

End Notes
1. Carmen Lundy was discussed in the post for 12 March 2018.
2. "Boylston Jazz." Facebook.
3. "Treasure Hunt by Ekah Hyunjoong Kim." CD Baby website.
4. List of performers from CD Baby, Treasure Hunt.
5. "Bio." Ekah Kim website. Translated by Google Translate.
6. "Ekahsonic by Ekah Hyunjoong Kim." CD baby website.
7. "Ekah Kim Latin Jazz Quintet." Korean All That Jazz website.
8. "About Tais Alvarenga." Facebook.
9. "About Jorge Perez Gonzalez." Facebook.
10. "Jonathan Greenstein." Smalls Live website.

11. "DMA Recital: Jonathan Greenstein, Saxophone." University of Wisconsin press release for an event scheduled for 7 December 2017.