Bay Area Beats: Ultra World X-tet

When Gary Schwantes first heard Chinese music, he was mesmerized with the sound of the traditional instruments and saw potential for fusing it with jazz. Out of that was born the Ultra World X-tet, which he formed with guzheng player Winnie Wong. They both spoke to KALW's Martina Castro about their music and upcoming concert for this installment of Bay Area Beats.

*     *     *

GARY SCHWANTES: I'm Gary Schwantes. I play saxophone, bamboo flutes, sometimes guitar.

WINNIE WONG: I'm Winnie Wong and I play the guzheng.

SCHWANTES: You see the X-Tet in the name, basically that came because the instrumentation kept changing. It took a while to solidify. And this latest version actually has four guzhengs.

If you had to put a label on it, I'd say it's world fusion. But our kind of world fusion is a little bit different because it's more a fusion of the classical elements and real modern jazz, not like smooth jazz and R&B and that kind of thing. Though we're trying to create a new musical language, we do it with a real respect for, and we try to master, the traditional forms and have that inform our new direction.

I think the Bay Area is one of the few places where this kind of band could have even sprung up just because the kind of DNA of the whole... There's just such a large Chinese population here and there's a tradition of being open to this new kind of musical experimentation.

WONG: The Bay Area is very accepting to outside culture and sometimes it almost doesn't even have a choice because we're already just, it's almost like it's born culturally diversified. So I think Gary's right. There's really no other place that would be better for the birth of this type of music. We get the most appreciative audience – those that want to hear some traditional, but not too traditional, and would like to have it connect with the modern world.

Catch the Ultra World X Tet live at the Old First Church in San Francisco this Friday, October 21. Click here for more information.