Youn Sun Nah

Youn Sun Nah, a Korean jazz vocalist who commands a substantial audience in France, entered the world in Seoul. Musical parents guided her upbringing, and she launched her professional path by joining the Korean Symphony Orchestra. In 1995 she departed her homeland for Paris, enrolling at the CIM Jazz School, Europe’s venerable jazz academy, to pursue studies in jazz alongside French chanson. Though new to the idiom, she quickly mastered jazz and fused it with Asian folk elements and avant-garde pop. Leading her own ensemble, she ascended the French jazz charts through a succession of distinctive, refined recordings, among them Voyage, her 2009 Act debut. Initial acclaim stayed concentrated in France and Korea, the primary destinations for her live work, until Same Girl arrived in 2010 and carried her sound across the rest of Europe; several outlets promptly hailed her as the next Melody Gardot. Voyage appeared the following year via Vitamin Entertainment, after which she rejoined Act for the 2013 release Lento, supported by guitarist Ulf Wakenius, bassist Lars Danielsson, and percussionist Xavier Desandre Navarre. Same Girl and Lento each attained gold status in Germany and France, rewards tied directly to her relentless touring schedule. Lento further secured the Korean Music Award in her native country, and she performed at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics. The next year the National Theatre of Korea named her artistic director of the 2015 Korean traditional Music Festival Yeowoorak. Once the event concluded she embarked on a short tour before returning to the studio. Act issued She Moves On in May 2017; Jamie Saft produced the album and contributed keyboards, while he and Vanessa Saft supplied original material tailored for her, supplemented by one additional original alongside covers of traditional folk and pop songs by Fairport Convention, Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Noel Paul Stookey, and Johnny Mercer. Marc Ribot on guitar, bassist Dan Rieser, and a string quartet joined Saft in backing Sun Nah, who then sustained a two-year tour in support of the recording.