Malo - MALO LIVE AT MUDDY

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* Random components included in this album are composed with the same probability.

[Album Specifications]

* 3-panel digipak (matte coating / cover lettering epoxy processing)

* 2 CD

* 28-page color printed lyrics

Malo's special night to be remembered forever

Hwang Deok-ho (Jazz Columnist)

Since the birth of the record in the early 20th century, producers who make records have had one dream. It was to record live performances of musicians in front of a real audience, rather than recording in a controlled studio. That dream could enter a complete realization stage with the advent of reel tapes and LPs that could play those recordings in the late 1940s.

Various types of music have been released as albums through live recordings, but jazz is a genre that has produced many live albums. This is because jazz was routinely performed in clubs and new works were released in the process. Unlike other music that released works through studio recordings, jazz always released new works through live performances. And it was delivered to more audiences through recordings.

Therefore, in other music, live recordings are a 'special version' different from studio recordings, but it is different in jazz. In jazz, the live version is often the actual original. Duke Ellington's masterpiece 'Diminuendo & Crescendo in Blue' was already recorded in 1937, but it gained today's fame thanks to a re-recording with a long improvisation of about 15 minutes in the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival live album. Bill Evans' famous song 'Waltz for Debby' was already recorded on his first studio album in 1956, but few people remember that recording. This song was also imprinted in people's minds through a 7-minute live recording at the Village Vanguard club in 1961. The reason is clear. The charm of jazz is, above all, improvisation, and that improvisation flows naturally and passionately in unspoken interaction with the audience.

Malo, a jazz vocalist who has represented Korea, would have had a longing for a live album, just like many jazz musicians. Although he has already released several studio albums and received both public love and critical acclaim, he may have thought that it was only half of his appearance. I guess he thought that the actual appearance of the songs he sang in the club could not be properly captured in the studio album.

Because Malo's songs heard in live clubs are quite different from studio albums. He fearlessly uses scat, an improvisational technique, and widely expands it through musical ideas. He is one of the few jazz vocalists in Korea who can captivate and lead audiences not only in clubs but also on large festival stages. So, I dare to say that the essence of Malo is on the live stage. I have experienced that many times.

However, it is not easy to capture that charm of the scene on a record. First of all, a band with solid teamwork that can create performances with perfect breathing from time to time is the first essential condition, and a club, a space where their sound can resonate beautifully, must exist here. In addition, the sound must meet a great recording engineer. Only then is the live album finally completed.

These difficult conditions were solved one by one. Muddy, a jazz club preparing to open in Gunsan in May 2024, emerged as the best place to record Malo's live album, and excellent sound engineers Hwang Byung-jun and Yoon Jung-oh willingly participated in this project. And Malo already has the best band 'Malo Band' that he has been with for many years.

What I newly feel through this live album is Malo's wide musicality. From the song of early jazz legend Sidney Bechet to Anne Ronell, George David Weiss, Luiz Bonfá, Henry Mancini, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Betty Carter, Chick Corea, and even Egberto Gismonti, Malo's songs, which completely digest and sing this wide repertoire in his own style, convey at least part of his history of singing in clubs for countless nights.

That's right. The night at Muddy on May 30-31, 2024, when this album was recorded, is one of Malo's countless nights where he sang many songs and the traces disappeared into the air. To borrow Cole Porter's lyrics, Just One of Those Things. But somehow, these two nights were eventually sealed with recordings, and we can take out these songs whenever we want and replay that ecstatic night. So, whenever we encounter these famous jazz songs elsewhere, we will recall our memories, saying, "Ah, that song that Malo recorded at Club Muddy." That night became a special night that created our 'original version'.

[Jazz Club Muddy]

Muddy is the first jazz club in Gunsan, which opened in June 2025. The live recording took place for two days, May 30 and 31, 2024, one year before the opening. Malo performed in November 2019 at the site where the interior of the building that would house Muddy was demolished, celebrating the start of construction of the club. Malo was also the first musician to take the stage after the club was completed and before it opened.

Muddy was created as part of the 'Re＼Turning' project for urban regeneration in Gunsan. In 2019, people who love Gunsan gathered and started the project with a big dream to make it a 'Gunsan to return to'. Muddy was designed to preserve the original form of the wooden house built during the Japanese colonial period as much as possible and to create a space that realizes the best sound conditions. As a result, it became a very special jazz club that has embraced more than 100 years of time.

The protagonist of this album is time. A one-time event that can never be reproduced, thrown into the accidental time of life, is captured on the album. Band members Lee Myung-gun, Hwang Yi-hyun, Jung Young-jun, and Lee Do-heon deliver the best performance and make that time a gift. They have been working with Malo for more than 10 years, and their musical souls are now connected enough to perfectly read each other just by looking at each other's eyes. Their conversation was more than full, and the audience responded warmly without missing a single breath. Therefore, this album belongs to the musicians and the audience in Gunsan. There was also a happening where a piano string broke during the performance (the moment's sound is hidden somewhere in the song 'A time to love, a time to cry (Florzinha)'). No living time can be perfect. This album is also the same. It is the fate of live.

The live recording and album mastering were done by Hwang Byung-jun, Korea's only Grammy Award winner, and the live sound director and album mixing were done by the best engineer Yoon Jung-oh.

Author: Malo

Publisher: Universal