What's Cooking?

Performing Monk Tonight

Yoon — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:29:47 +0000

This is day three for my residency at Array Music with pianist Jacob Sacks. Jacob just completed two nights of solo piano performing all Thelonious Monk tunes. We complete Monk’s repertoire tonight. The audiences have been wonderful and Toronto has been great. Anyone in Toronto, come on down to Array!

Details:

Wednesday, October 21
8:00pm

The Music of Monk
Jacob Sacks – piano
Yoon Sun Choi – voice
at
Array Music
60 Atlantic Ave
Toronto, ON

$15 adults, $10 students/seniors/artists

Performances in Toronto This Week

Yoon — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:21:56 +0000

So I am finally in Toronto and totally psyched to be here. My friend and duo partner, Jacob Sacks and I are doing a residency at Array Music from Monday, October 19th to Friday, October 23rd.
Tonight Jacob Sacks will perform works by Thelonious Monk. Should be pretty awesome. He starts at 8:00pm. So anyone in the Toronto area, I hope to see you there.

Details:

Monday, October 19th, 2009
8:00pm
Array Music
60 Atlantic Ave
Toronto, ON
Jacob Sacks solo piano
The works of Thelonious Monk
$15 adults, $10 students, seniors, artists

Dan Weiss Trio in Toronto, Canada

Yoon — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:30:57 +0000

My friends, drummer Dan Weiss, pianist Jacob Sacks and bassist Thomas Morgan are in Toronto today doing an open master class at the University of Toronto today. If any of you have heard this trio and their compositions you should definitely take the opportunity to hear and see them. They are some of the best young musicians in New York. So you Torontonians get out there and check them out!

Details
What: music clinic
Where: Edward Johnson Building, University of Toronto
When: 3:00pm
How much: free

Evolving Voices Series Tonight

Yoon — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:00:16 +0000

Tonight I will be playing with my quartet at Local 269 in the east village/lower east side as part of the Evolving Voices Series. I’m really excited about this gig since it’s the first show since I got my green card (hurray!) I hope to see some friendly faces over there.
Here’s the skinny:

Tuesday, September 29th (tonight!)
8:00pm

YSC Quartet
Jacob Sacks – keyboard
Thomas Morgan – bass
Vinnie Sperrazza – drums

Local 269
269 East Houston
at the corner of Suffolk Street
F train to Second Avenue
cover $10

Born To Run

Yoon — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:25:59 +0000

Why do my feet hurt? Over the past eight months I have been suffering from what I think is plantar fascitis. Whenever I walk, jog or run any kind of distance my left heel is killing me and I can barely walk on my foot. A friend of mine advised me to stretch a lot and wear comfortable shoes. I have tried to do as much as I can (without seeing a doctor) to cure this injury but I am at a loss. Not only that, I’m very flat-footed, which probably doesn’t help.

All that said, I just recently finished a book by Christopher McDougall called Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. It begins with McDougall complaining about his foot pain while he’s running. He sees the top sports medicine doctor in the country and is told to stop running. Instead of taking his advice, McDougall went looking for another solution to his problem.

His search takes him to Mexico in the Copper Canyons where the greatest long distance runners live: the Tarahumara Indians. With the help from a mysterious loner named Caballo Blanco, McDougall uncovers the secrets of the Tarahumara and is inspired to discover the ultra-athlete within himself. McDougall speaks to sports coaches, athletes, doctors, scientists and biologists to find out more about human beings and their relationship to running.

This book is captivating and inspiring. Even before I got to the last half of the book I felt like going for a 10k run. The story is exciting, and the people that he writes about are fascinating, a little mysterious and very entertaining. The high point of the narrative is the 50 mile marathon in the Copper Canyons against the Tarahumara and some of North America’s best ultra athletes. There is no advertising, no sponsorships, no publicity or attention from the outside world—nothing except a group of individuals who love to run.

I found the discussions of running barefoot especially interesting. According to some evolutionary biologists, we started off as barefoot hunters running down our prey, a form of hunting still practiced today by some peoples, such as the Kalahari Bushmen. How did we come to believe that we needed $200 Nike shoes to go for a jog? Months ago I read an article about running barefoot that raised some of the same questions, and I was so intrigued by the concept of walking around barefoot that I still plan to experiment and hope that maybe I can get rid of this nasty pain in my heel. Whatever the case, I highly recommend this page turner. If it doesn’t get you off your ass to go for a little spin around the neighbourhood then I don’t know what will.

“Up”

Yoon — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:29:15 +0000

Last week was my eighth wedding anniversary. As I write that down I can’t believe that I have been married for so long. I honestly have to say that it has been pretty awesome and I married the most amazing man (except when he leaves the cupboard doors open and I smash my head on them as I walk into the kitchen!)
Last week we had a wonderful dinner at one of my favourite seafood restaurants called Pearl Oyster Bar and I ordered the steamed lobster which was delicious.

Before we went Pearl we went to a movie at the AMC 25 theater in Time Square. This theater is absolutely massive and, as the title of the theater suggests, yes, there are 25 movies playing there (geesh!) We saw the new Pixar animated film “Up” in 3D and it was wonderful. I know this movie has been showing since June but I wanted to recommend it to anyone who wants to see a great little movie and to try and catch in the theaters while you still can.

This comedy-adventure is about 78 year old retired balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who fulfills his lifelong dream to travel to South America in an unusual way. His plans are perfect until he discovers an accidental stow away, an 8 year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. The movie is quite touching and the opening scene is a heart-breaker especially if you are a married couple celebrating an anniversary. Overall it is cute and funny and it makes you feel good. I especially liked the fact the Russell is Asian. It’s nice to see ethnic diversity in movies whether they are animated or not. There just isn’t enough of it in the industry. Go see the movie and you’ll have a good time.

Where Have I Been?

Yoon — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:58:08 +0000

My apologies to anyone who has been reading my posts. I have not been around and I haven’t been the most loyal updater. I hope to change that over the next little while.

The E-String Residency Begins Tomorrow

Yoon — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:36:35 +0000

Tomorrow night is the first night of my residency at I-Beam in Brooklyn. I’m really excited to finally get a bunch of shows in this month and work on some new music. And the end of the residency I will be doing a concert recording over Memorial weekend. I just got together with the guys in the band and they sound awesome as usual.

If you are in Brooklyn tomorrow night stop by I-Beam and share in the experience. Also, my friend Justin Kellar will be performing before and he writes some sweet songs. Check it out!

Saturday, May 9th
8:30pm
Justin Kellar
9:30pm
E-String Band with yours truly on toy piano and voice, Jacob Sacks (melodica), Thomas Morgan (guitar), Khabu Doug Young (ukuleles) and Vinnie Sperrazza (percussion)

at I-Beam
168 7th Street
Gowanus, Brooklyn

Yeah Yeah Records And Friends Festival Week 3

Yoon — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:40:58 +0000

I’m looking forward to tonight’s performance at I-Beam. There will be solo ukulele, a piano, trumpet duo and a woodwind, bass and drums trio. All really different and fantastic. I hope to see some folks there.

Friday, April 17th

8:00pm Khabu Doug Young (ukuleles)
9:00pm Jesse Stacken/Kirk Knuffke (piano/trumpet)
10:00pm Andrew Bishop/Chris Lightcap/Matt Wilson (woodwinds/bass/drums)

at

I-Beam
168 7th St (between 2nd and 3rd Ave)
Gowanus, Brooklyn

Yeah Yeah Records And Friends Festival Continues

Yoon — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:05:25 +0000

So I dropped the ball on my own gig last week and forgot to post that I was performing. Geesh!!
Tonight will be a great show with Dan Weiss performing solo drum set. If you haven’t seen this show you must! After, Jacob Sacks’ Quintet will be playing and closing the night will be the trio OK/OK. Last week was a wonderful success with lots of people and incredible music. I hope you can come by and support our little event.

Yean Yeah Records and Friends Festival at I-Beam Music

8:00pm Dan Weiss (solo drum set)
9:00pm Jacob Sacks Quintet with Jacob Garchik (trombone), Ben Gerstein (trombone), Dave Ambrosio (bass) and Dan Weiss (drums)
10:00pm OK/OK with Kyoko Kitamura (voice and laptop), Khabu Doug Young (ukuleles) and Mike McGinnis (woodwinds)

at I-Beam Music in Gowanus, Brooklyn, 168 7th Street