American pianist Ronn Branton talks Seoul jazz scene

When American jazz musician Ronn Branton was a young boy, he heard his neighbor’s father playing Chopin and Liszt on the piano. At that moment he said to himself, “I want to write music like that.” After instantly falling in love with the sound of the piano, he desperately tried to learn how to write music, practicing six hours a day to the point where even his own mother would ask him to quit playing.

However, the young artist’s love of music never died and Branton ended up studying music through college, where he first discovered the roots of jazz.

“Jazz is all about trying to react on the spot to what you have and to take it somewhere; and, holy moly, is that difficult,” he explained in an interview with The Korea Herald.

After meeting his Korean wife while working in the U.S., Branton decided to move from his home in Washington D.C. to Seoul, where he has been residing and playing music for the past 13 years. Branton has managed to take his cross-over compositions of well-known Korean folk songs and infuse them with his original jazz interpretation in order to keep an intimate relationship with his new local crowd.

“Nowadays most jazz musicians have big ears and they can play almost any style,” he explained. “I had a chance to do something different and I did and it’s been a lot of fun and had more success than I would have had in D.C.”

“I think of my music as having a Korean theme, but more modern,” said Branton. “My idea was, I wanted to do something to give people an idea about what jazz could be like, so I take certain Korean music and I do jazz arrangements of them. I think this is how I keep myself connected with the audience.”

However, the jazz music scene has not always been easy for musicians such as Branton, who recalled that there have been some local jazz dives that had more people on the stage than they did in the audience.

“Business-wise, trying to find work is very difficult,” he said.

“There were times when if you got paid 5,000 won, then you got lucky; it’s kind of like getting paid in jjiggae (Korean stew),” Branton said laughing, recalling the struggles he and fellow musicians had trying to find gigs in the less-than-thriving Seoul jazz scene many years ago.

Despite the struggles Branton has had to endure as not only a jazz musician, but as a foreign jazz musician who has been playing on the Seoul stage for more than a decade, he still manages to maintain one of his jazz career traditions.

In celebration of the holiday season, he began to hold an annual jazz Christmas concert; and every year for the past 12 years, the musician has created new arrangements of classical Christmas carols and jingles to share with his Korean audience.

“People never really celebrated Christmas when I first came here,” said Branton. “So I started doing this Christmas show as just my way of celebrating.”

Branton and his accompanying band will be performing at his 13th annual Jazz Christmas Concert Show on Dec. 22 at the Sejong Culture Center and on Christmas Eve at the Jangcheon Art Hall in Apgujeong-dong, Seoul.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)