With the start of a new school year comes the age old question: Did you go anywhere this summer? 

For Annie Chen, jazz vocalist and Community Music School faculty member, the answer is: “A different city every day.” Her performance tour took her to various venues across China, from the Hunan Museum to the JZ Club in Hangzhou, where she and her quintet began a residency on June 2nd. Night after night, they filled the club with jazz standards and experimental pieces that stretched late into the evening. 

Among the quintet are BKCM piano faculty member Shinya Lin and two familiar faces who have been performing with Annie for nearly a decade: BKCM faculty members Deric Dickens on drums, and Marius Duboule on guitar, who is also Annie’s husband. Since 2014, they have spent many summers in China playing for a passionate fanbase that has followed her career from thousands of miles across the ocean.

This particular tour was centered around Annie’s new ecologically-themed album, Guardians, released back in February 2024. “It is one thing to hear a recording,” Annie says, “but another thing to hear it live.” Audiences in her hometown of Beijing showed out for the opportunity, filling DeFactto Jazz Bar – a sprawling vinyl shop slash performance venue – to one-hundred percent capacity. 

These were dedicated fans. Following Annie’s set at RealLive AndBooks in Xiamen, audience members came up eagerly to speak with the quintet: “They knew all the musicians in the band, their background and history, who they’ve played with and what they’ve released… I was like: Wow, I didn’t even know all of that!” Those with particularly experimental leanings even recognized Deric from his work in the free improv jazz scene here in NYC. 

These were dedicated fans. Following Annie’s set at RealLive AndBooks in Xiamen, audience members came up eagerly to speak with the quintet: “They knew all the musicians in the band, their background and history, who they’ve played with and what they’ve released… I was like: Wow, I didn’t even know all of that!” Those with particularly experimental leanings even recognized Deric from his work in the free improv jazz scene here in NYC. 

Amidst all the delicious food during the tour, Annie’s saxophonist Alex Lowry joked: “90% of the time we’re eating, and 10% of the time we’re performing.” When they weren’t doing either of those things, Annie was busy teaching students in her vocal workshop how to sing for jazz. This year at BKCM, she is teaching a similar Adult Vocal Lab with both beginner and advanced sections. Like her workshop in China, it will be all about rhythm from the get-go: “Maybe the singer has good pronunciation. Maybe they can sing well, and the pitch is good. Okay. Now swing.”