ABOUT JON SHEN

Jazz Fusion, Neo-Soul, Gospel Funk Musician
Singer, Improvisation Vocalist
Pianist, Keyboardist
Composer, Producer
Band Leader, Director
Contemporary Music Educator
World Music Trophy Winner

Jon Shen is a singer, keyboardist, composer and producer whose passion for music and composition runs deep in his soul. Improvisation comes naturally to Jon, as he sees music as a language and possesses an extensive musical vocabulary. Jon enjoys using rhythm and harmony to express the world from his creative perspective. You will hear a solid background of Jazz, Funk, Gospel, Soul, R&B, Afro-Beat, EDM, and more elements in his music. Jon rarely composes within a single genre; instead, he blends multiple styles to form a unique listening experience. His time spent living in the US and Spain has also helped to infuse his compositions with a special mellowness.

Jon has trained in “Speech Level Singing” for many years. His voice has the ability to adapt to various musical styles such as Classical Jazz and Contemporary Neo-Funk Gospel, dance freely between high and low pitches, and across varying dynamics and frequencies. He can improvise without restraint, and has been deemed a “Vocal Player”.

Jon began to learn classical piano at the age of 5. At 13, he formed a band where he played the keyboard, composed and arranged songs. His music was heavily influenced by musicians such as Marcus Miller, D’Angelo, Roy Hargrove, Tony Allen, George Duke, Don Blackman, etc. At church, Jon played the keyboard and was also the lead singer of the church gospel choir. At the age of 18, he held his first solo concert and was admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. It was there that he studied under the famous singers Wang Zuoxin, Dong Fang, and Yang Xiaoyong. At 23, Jon was admitted to the Berklee College of Music where he studied Jazz and went on to attain a master’s degree in contemporary music performance. At Berklee, he studied under renowned jazz and Latin singer Celia Mur, Spanish jazz pianist Polo Orti, Drummer Mariano Steimberg, and Enric Alberich, professor of Contemporary Harmony Theory. Jon has performed many live concerts in the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and mainland China. He also has performed at the “European Summer Festival”, the “American Music and Culture Series Concert” in Spain, the “JZ Jazz Festival” in China, and other music festivals/concerts of different scales. He has performed alongside many well-known masters such as Funk R&B pianist and singer Patrice Rushen, pop legend Siedah Garret, and Jazz pianist Marc Mangen from Luxembourg, to name a few.

EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS:

- Singer and keyboardist in “B-Funk”, a Berklee Alumni band, from 2014 to 2015, where they performed at many Jazz Fusion and Neo Soul-Funk style concerts in the US and Europe.

- Established a music company JON Music Limited in 2014, and began to engage in music composing, music production, and education worldwide.

- Composed and produced the song “Pear Flower” in 2015, fusing oriental music style with soul and jazz. It received acclaim from Berklee professors and is used as a teaching example for the “Contemporary Arrangement” course. It won the 2017 World Music Trophy.

- In 2016 and 2017, Jon toured in China Mainland, performed at Shanghai JZ, Guangzhou Being Wild, Shenzhen MIDI, Xiamen Midai and etc., gave a special performance of his rearrangement of the classic Taiwanese song “Bāng Tshun-hong” in the Jazz style, and he was invited to attend many local interviews, performed a live recording of this song with the band on multiple TV Shows and radio programs.

- In 2017, Jon toured in the UK, received an invitation to be a guest performer at the “Chinese Song UK finals" held in Manchester Central, organized and performed personal charity concert “LUV Jazz and Funk” in Leeds.

- In 2018-2019, Jon composed and produced his album “Sole Divinity”. After its worldwide release, he toured multiple cities in Asia performing with his band.

- In 2020, Jon moved to Hong Kong to regroup the band with some outstanding musicians, now signed with Divine Field Records under the new name "Jazove Mixtape", and they play regularly in Hong Kong music events.

- In 2021, Jon joined different bands one after another, performed, composed, produced for different music units in Hong Kong, and worked with many well-known artists such as Gin Lee, Candy Lo, Mansonvibes, Crystal Cheung, J.Arie, Jocelyn Chan, Jonathan Wong, to name a few.

- In 2022, Jon and his own label's music production team - Orbit JX3 released a new Hybrid Future Space music album, which is also his first instrumental/film scoring album in the role of a composer and producer.

As a musician, Jon not only composes and performs, but he is also devoted to contemporary music education for aspiring musicians. His approach to teaching music is to teach it like a language. He combines technique, contemporary theory, practical application and uses listening, observation, speaking, and writing as tools to learn. He guides students to develop their listening, playing, and improvisational skills to become well-rounded musicians. The goal is to give students the ability to use music as a language to build their own masterpieces. Jon’s students have gone on to become professional singers, performers, composers, arrangers, teachers, and to work in the contemporary music industry. Jon continues to collect musical elements from around the world and to integrate them and his life experiences into his music and teaching practice.

JON SHEN ON BEING A MUSICIAN:

Every style of music originates from a certain place, but my opinion is that music is mean to be shared and played around the world as ONE - music can't be labeled by any place or race. Music is a gift from God, we can all appreciate and learn from it, rising above racial and ethnic barriers. Having an open perspective as a musician allows us to be freer when we play and compose, learn about different cultures, customs, and history through music. We can take different styles and fuse them to form our own musical language. Through this language, we have the ability to build and communicate our stories and more possibility.

融合爵士、新騷靈、放克福音音樂家
歌手、即興演唱家
鋼琴、鍵盤手
作曲編曲家、音樂製作人
樂隊主領、音樂總監
現代音樂教育者
“美國World Music Trophy”獲獎者

Jon Shen是一位用溶於自身血液的音樂語境譜寫音符的音樂家，秉持「音符就是語言」的他擅於在音樂中即興使用每個節奏點、和聲和樂句去表達他想像的情境和世界觀，無論在創作上還是演藝上都充滿他自由的個人色彩。在他的音樂中能聽出他堅實的Jazz、Funk、Gospel、Soul、R&B、Afro-Beat、Urban EDM以及其他風格的音樂背景，卻又不拘泥於某種風格，融合出屬於他特有的聽覺動態，美國和西班牙的旅居生活使他的音樂披上了一層靈動和灑脫。多年研習「Speech Level Singing」聲樂技術的他，擁有自由行走於高低音、胸頭聲的Jazz, Gospel聲線，加上濃厚的人聲合唱編排和自由的即興，而被譽為「Vocal Player」。

他5歲開始學習古典鋼琴；13歲開始組建樂隊擔任鍵盤手及創作編排歌曲，音樂上深受Marcus Miller、D’Angelo、Roy Hargrove、Tony Allen、George Duke、Don Blackman等音樂家的影響；同時也在這個年紀開始教會詩班福音音樂的司琴和領唱；18歲舉辦首場個人音樂會，同年赴上海音樂學院，主修音樂劇表演，師從著名歌唱家王作欣、董芳和楊小勇教授；23歲赴美國伯克利音樂學院碩士院（Berklee College of Music）深造爵士樂表演及編曲製作並獲現代音樂表演碩士學位，師從著名爵士及拉丁歌手Celia Mur、西班牙著名爵士鋼琴家Polo Orti、爵士鼓演奏家Mariano Steimberg、現代和聲理論教授Enric Alberich等。他曾在美國、英國、中國大陸及香港等地舉行多場現場演出，他還曾在「歐洲Summer音樂節」、「西班牙American Music and Culture系列音樂會」、「西班牙Valencia Lago Del Conciertos露天音樂會」”、「中國JZ爵士音樂節」等音樂活動的舞台上，曾與流行天後Siedah Garrett、盧森堡爵士鋼琴家Marc Mangen、葛萊美獎得主Funk R&B鋼琴家及歌手Patrice Rushen等大師同台合作演出。

主要歷程：

- 2014-2015年與同屆Berklee校友組建樂團「B-Funk」並擔任歌手和鍵盤手，以現代Jazz Fusion & Neo Soul-Funk為主打風格，活躍於美國及歐洲各大音樂表演活動。

- 2014年成立音樂公司JON Music Limited，開始為全球範圍提供音樂創作、音樂製作及教學。

- 2015年創作製作及發行的《夢醒梨花》（Pear Flower）首次嘗試將東方韻律同西方靈魂樂、爵士樂進行融合，受到伯克利音樂學院教授與歐洲樂迷們的青睞，該曲曾在伯克利音樂學院「Contemporary Arranging」課程作為教學範例，亦憑藉此曲斬獲2017年度「美國World Music Trophy音樂獎項」。

- 2016年於中國內地巡迴演出，在上海JZ爵士音樂節、廣州別野、深圳MIDI、廈門迷待等多地進行專場演出，改編成爵士風格的經典台語歌曲《望春風》廣受好評，並受到表演當地多家廣播媒體節目組邀請，帶領樂隊進行訪談和節目現場錄製。

- 2017年於英國巡迴演出，受邀於Manchester Central舉行的「Chinese Song UK (唱響英倫歌手大賽)」決賽現場擔任表演嘉賓，並與英國Leeds舉辦個人慈善專場音樂會「LUV Jazz-Funk Concert」。

- 2018-2019年間潛心創作製作全新專輯《Sole Divinity》於全球發行，並帶領樂團於多個國家及地區舉行巡迴演出和新專輯音樂會。

- 2020年移居香港後，與幾位傑出的音樂家以新名「Jazove Mixtape」重組樂團，樂團正式以藝人單位加入Divine Field Records，並活躍在香港各大音樂活動。

- 2021年陸續加入不同樂團，並為不同音樂團體擔任表演、作曲、編曲製作等工作，曾與李幸倪Gin Lee、盧巧音Candy Lo、張紋嘉Crystal Cheung、J.Arie雷深如、陳明熹Jocelyn Chan、張進翹Mansonvibes、王梓軒Jonathan Wong等知名香港藝人合作。

-2022年Jon聯合自家廠牌的音樂製作團隊Orbit JX3推出全新的Hybrid Future Space音樂專輯，也是個人首張以作曲家、製作人角色推出的純音樂/影視配樂專輯。

作為音樂人，他不僅從事音樂表演和製作，且潛心研究系統的現代音樂教學，提倡「語言式現代音樂教學」的他將技巧、理論、實踐應用有機結合，加入語言學習中的「聽、看、說、寫」概念，著重引導學員開發即興演奏演唱和即興創作、即聽即彈即唱、用自己的音樂語言建立音樂等能力，並以培養全能型音樂人為目標，其學員已不乏成為歌手、演奏家、創作人、編曲製作人、教師，以及在現代音樂行業的工作者。他同時也沒有停下遊歷世界的腳步，用生活感受去收集來自不同地區及民族的音樂元素並融入自身的音樂語匯，以繼續創作、表演、教授更多樣的音樂性及音樂理念。

Jon Shen的音樂人價值觀：

每種音樂都是從某個地方和民族發源的，但我不認為這些音樂就只屬於那個地區或國家的，也不需關注音樂人來自哪裡，區域和種族絕對不是用來判斷音樂的標籤。音樂是上帝賜給人類的一種世界性語言，無論風格或出處，我們都可以用「世界人」的身份跨越地域種族局限去認識學習它們，這是作為musician應有的獨立視野，這除了讓音樂創作可以更自由及更多可能性之外，也能讓我們通過音樂而認識不同的文化背景、生活習俗和價值觀等，然後通過喜好去融合它們形成自己入血的音樂語言，好像將手裡越來越多款式的積木通過設計拼搭出更多漂亮的組合，這種體驗甚至改變了我的思維和處世方式，是音樂帶給我很好玩的體驗。