Note: Each month, KPLU invites a teen guest DJ to play his or her favorite pieces on the air. The program is part of KPLU's School of Jazz.
Jungwoo Lee from Bellevue High School is the Student DJ for the month of March. Jungwoo's hour aired from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on March 3.
To get to know him better we asked Jungwoo to answer a few questions about jazz:
Which instrument do you play and why?
I play the clarinet. I was more or less “tricked” into playing the clarinet at first, but as I got better and as I got to experiment with the instrument, I fell in love with the potential and the variety of the instrument. Clarinet, though it seems a bit restricted to classical music, is capable of being featured in countless genres of music; everything from Benny Goodman’s classics to the recent Apple TV commercials.
What’s your all-time favorite jazz piece and why?
I would have to go with Sophisticated Lady by the great Duke Ellington. I have heard numerous arrangements of this particular song, and every single one of them really connect with me at a deeper level than any other song has, not to mention how fun it is to play the featured solos, whether it’s on the Alto sax or the Bari Sax.
Who’s your jazz hero and why?
With me being a jazz clarinetist the two big “jazz heroes” of mine would be James Mac Hamilton and Benny Goodman. In recordings such as VIP’s Boogie played by the Duke Ellington Orchestra featuring J.M. Hamilton or Sing Sing Sing by B. Goodman’s Orchestra, those legends have shaped the way I play and have inspired me to experiment more and to pursue what I really like.
What is jazz, exactly? How would you explain it?
I don’t mean to sound cheesy or stereotypical, but jazz, like all other types of music, is one of the best means of self-expression. This probably would define Music all together, but through the variety of vibratos, tone qualities and the overall feeling of the music can communicate how I feel and what I have experienced better than I could talking to them.
Jungwoo's Setlist:
- “LULLABY OF THE LEAVES” GERRY MULLIGAN (Portrait)
- “LA FIESTA” CHICK COREA (Definitive Chick Corea on Stretch and Concord)
- “COME FLY WITH ME” FRANK SINATRA (Come Fly With Me)
- “BLOODCOUNT” JOE HENDERSON (Lush Life: Music of Billy Strayhorn)
- “I’M A FOOL TO WANT YOU” DEXTER GORDON (Ballads)
- “I’LL REMEMBER APRIL” CHET BAKER (Chet In Paris)
- “SUNSET AND THE MOCKINGBIRD” JAZZ @ LINCOLN CTR ORCH. (Live in Cuba)
- “THIS I DIG OF YOU” HANK MOBLEY (Soul Station)
- “SING, SING, SING” BENNY GOODMAN (The Essential Benny Goodman)
