Tim Lin is a straight shooter, a prodigiously gifted tenor saxophonist who expresses himself through his horn without irony, sarcasm or misdirection.
His superb debut album, “Romance In Formosa,” is an unabashed valentine to some of his primary influences and the dramatic turn his life took while riding out the pandemic in Taiwan. While the island never really shut down, he experienced an emotional rollercoaster as he sought to establish himself on a scene that serves as an international crossroads.
“I was living by myself, freelancing and teaching, trying to bring everything I’ve learned about jazz onto that small scene,” said Lin, 29, who celebrates the album’s release with a series of gigs around the region, starting July 18 at San Jose’s Five Points.
The Fremont-raised Taiwanese-American musician had plenty of time to woodshed, “practicing five hours a day,” he said. “I was playing four nights a week, big band gigs, pop gigs, and there were three different jam sessions. It was a great time for me to progress when the world was on pause. This whole album is the accumulation of those experiences, including finding someone I fell in love with,” which partly explains the album’s title.
After a fluid sprint through the Sonny Rollins standard “Airegin,” Lin focuses on a set of sumptuous Great American Songbook classics, including a decidedly unsentimental take on Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin’s ode to nostalgia “Long Ago and Far Away” and an exquisite reading of Victor Young and Ned Washington’s ballad “My Foolish Heart.”
The album features a dream team of veteran masters, including pianist Andy LaVerne, bassist Jay Anderson, drummer Billy Drummond, and Bob Sheppard on bass clarinet and tenor and soprano saxophones — an impressive cast for the leader’s first recording. A Los Angeles institution who’s played on hundreds of film and television soundtracks and albums, Sheppard, who also produced “Romance in Formosa,” is probably best known in the jazz world for his prolific stint with Chick Corea’s sextet Origin.
“Each songs represents a different mood and concept and set of connections,” Lin said, noting that “Airegin” represented his “love of Sonny Rollins, and that Billy was his drummer for many years. Bill Evans did a really famous version of ‘My Foolish Heart’ and Andy is his protégé. He did a reharmonization of the song that I love. ‘You’re My Everything’ is a tune that Freddie Hubbard would call when Bob was in his band.”
For Lin’s Monday gig at Five Points he’s performing with rising bassist and Juilliard student Jayla Chee, pianist Charles Chen, winner of the 2019 Jazz Search West competition, and drummer Curran Sinha, who often hosts the weekly Five Points jazz night. Lin also plays San Jose Jazz’s Summer Fest Aug. 14 on the Silicon Valley Stage with Chen, bassist Paul Gill, and New York drum great Billy Drummond. He’s also book at the Black Cat jazz club in San Francisco Aug. 17.
Longtime South Bay music promoter Matt Beasley launched the Summer Fest Silicon Valley Stage in the Hilton San Jose as a showcase for Bay Area talent, and he’s watched closely as Lin “developed a really powerful sound,” Beasley said. “In addition to that I realized, he’s a workhorse. I’ve been in the music biz in the South Bay for 25 years, and there aren’t many who work as hard as he does developing his craft, at homing his sound and presence. The fact that he’d seek out a mentorship with Bob Sheppard speaks to his desire to become the best possible player he could be.”
Lin has thrived studying with a series of celebrated educators, starting with Dann Zinn, who’s something of a saxophone guru. He connected with Sheppard at USC’s Thornton School of Music, where he also played under Bob Mintzer, an acclaimed saxophonist and composer who’s spent decades in the Yellowjackets.
After years of helping build a healthy South Bay jazz scene leading the Sunday jam session at Café Stritch he’s spent time in New York City, Taipei and Boston (where he studied with another illustrious tenor sax educator, Jerry Bergonzi). Though “Romance In Formosa” just came out, Lin is already planning a follow-up with tenor saxophonist Larry Schneider, a heavyweight improviser who’s kept a very low profile in the Bay Area since moving out from New York City in the early ‘80s.
“I’d like to make an album every year, even though financially it’s probably not a great plan,” Lin said. “People aren’t buying CDs anymore, but it’s a way to continue artistic growth and create more art.”
Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.
TIM LIN
When: 8:30 p.m. July 18
Where: Five Points, 169 W. Santa Clara St., San Jose
Tickets: Free admission; www.fivepointssj.com
