Artists' Notes

Mina Cho (Piano)
The Grace Beat Quartet emerged from the larger 9-piece ensemble known as the Gugak Jazz Society, which has significantly influenced my musical journey over the past few years – both on personal and professional levels. Given that my compositions for the Gugak Jazz Society often blend notated amalgamations of Korean and jazz rhythms, I have nurtured a long-standing ambition to create a platform where traditional Korean and jazz musicians can organically exchange ideas for composition and improvisation. This platform would serve as an organic axis that creatively defines the music. The concept of ‘grace beat’ was born from my curiosity to explore the intricate gestures of individual musicians as they execute rhythms and offer a variety of their tasteful interpretations – much like 'grace notes' in music. These elements, often not notated, are among the most crucial in articulating one's artistic and cultural significance. In this context, the album title, Beat Mirage, encapsulates a broad spectrum of how beats are perceived.

​To record the music of the Grace Beat project, Insoo Kim and Yeongjin Kim – traditional Korean and jazz drummers from the Gugak Jazz Society – visited Boston in July 2023 and collaborated with my long-time bassist, Max Ridley. The experience was truly inspirational and graceful, encompassing various concepts of grace that influenced our music-making process – from musical and spiritual grace to the challenges I faced as a mother of a 5-year-old daughter named Grace.

Insoo Kim (Korean Traditional Percussion)
​The music of Grace Beat, where four musicians full of ideas express their own stories in Mina Cho’s beautiful sketches, will become a unique and new experience that is difficult to find anywhere else.

Yeongjin Kim (Drums)
This is the process where leader Mina Cho filled her diverse works with a combination of Korean tradition and the freedom of jazz. It was a precious time where we could directly experience how they harmonize together.

Max Ridley (Bass)
The Grace Beat Ensemble is a special idea that lived in Mina Cho's mind and heart, and it came to life in a beautiful meeting of exactly what the name implies - grace and rhythm/timing. The literal beat of two drummers (drum set and percussion) represents the heartbeats of different humans coming together in life. There is also the grace for people from different backgrounds to be able to speak the same language of music together, and the grace that enabled everyone to safely cross the ocean and record and play together.