By Brian Earley
The “distractions” of Greg Kelley’s trumpet and Yoona Kim’s ajaeng on this
new album for Relative Pitch are hardly simple diversions for the listener,
as one often thinks about the term. Actually, I find the music on this
lovely duet recording to be at various times quieting, disruptive,
disturbing, and even a challenge. Listeners familiar with Greg Kelley’s
recorded output will not be shocked by what they hear, and at times this
album reminds me a great deal of the trumpet player’s provocative,
whisper-improvising duo Nmperign. Actually, the other half of that duo,
Bhob Rainey, mixed and mastered Distractions.
Kelley performs wonderfully and utilizes a reticence that nearly always
prevents him from easily erupting into high energy bursts. His patience and
discipline are admirable. The unexplored story here, however, is ajaeng
player Yoona Kim. I was not familiar with Kim’s instrument of choice, and
this reality is part of what first drew me to this recording. An ajaeng is
a Korean zither-like instrument–think a bendier, more temperamental cello
laid on its back. It can be plucked, but is often bowed with a stick or a
more standard Western bow of horsehair.
Kim is a polymath of musical styles and performs at least seven distinct
genres, according to her website. Free improvisation and jazz are two of
these, as are contemporary and traditional Korean music. The others are
more surprising: Delta Blues, Klezmer, and Appalachian Old-Time Music.
Despite an extensive set of online live performances, Kim is still
relatively young and has only three recordings as a leader to her name.
Distractions is one of these, and the other two,
Deltat Dokkaebi
and Modern Gagok, are all but impossible to find. A strong outing
with pianist Anthony Coleman can be
viewed here
. This dazzling performance has a mere 25 views and 2 likes as of this
writing. Free Jazz Blog readers, you know what to do.
With all this being said, Yoona Kim is particularly challenging to define,
though she has performed in some of the revered free jazz spaces (The
Stone, for a week-long residence in July of 2026) and studied or played
with many names readers of the FJC are quite familiar with: Tom Rainey,
Chris Corsano, Joe Morris, and Linda May Han Oh. And of course, Greg
Kelley.
Distractions for Trumpet and Ajaeng is a wonderful album, full of
quiet restraint and unsettling surprises. While the opening track,
“Display,” starts with insistent blowing and bending, the first minute and
a half is about as busy as the album gets. Kim bows and pulls the strings
of her ajaeng while Greg Kelley flutters a raspy, metallic horn down into
registers so low and frequencies so wobbly I had to stop the music to see
if something was wrong with my speakers.
The aesthetic largely, however, is quiet. To be more precise, silence that
alternates with tiny eruptions of activity. Listen to the second track,
the lovely “Dispute,” for this as Yoona Kim rips and bows urgently just
before the one minute mark, at which point the recording falls into total
silence. When the musicians return, Greg Kelley is more active and works
his way into an exploration of one wavering note. This interplay builds as
the two play an eerie high-harmony fit for hungry ghosts that largely bends
and vibrates as it squeals and scrapes.
While the dynamics never really reach the loudest of volumes, all of this
silence makes certain mid-level insertions of noise jarring. For example,
on my favorite piece on the album, the closer “Disappear,” Kelley forces
air through his horn with such subtle power, and balances a series of soft
notes so sinister, that my dog ran out of the room when I first played it.
This, of course, is the power of understatement, and the album as a whole
serves as a wonderful reminder that so often in music, as in our day-to-day
laboring, what produces joy or excitement, as well as heaviness, sorrow, or
surprise is how the moments fall together. Distractions is a
delight of quiet echoes and disquieting interruptions that is well worth the
listen.
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