Stephanie Chou: Chinatown Dreams

Following April’s successful performance of Comfort Girl, Stephanie brings her band back to Joe’s Pub for a performance of entirely different material! Stephanie Chou is a composer/saxophonist/singer who blends influences from her Chinese heritage with Western jazz and pop to create a bracingly original sound. Tonight’s show will feature live premieres of newly-written material and fan favorites from her eclectic and wide-ranging body of work.

Chinatown Dreams is a songwriting album following the journey of a young, second-generation Chinese-American woman, as she and her Chinatown community go through a year of tremendous challenges. This semi-autobiographical story examines the conflict between choosing the safe, expected path vs. following one’s heart, a conflict so many second-generation Americans of all sorts face. Chinatown Dreams will be a concept album written for her band, with lyrics in English and Mandarin. The music combines the energy of improvised jazz with the precision of progressive rock, in an homage to Manhattan’s Chinatown.