Linda May Han Oh

Linda May Han Oh is an Australian jazz bassist and composer, born in Malaysia and raised in Perth, Western Australia. She plays double bass and electric bass, and her work sits in jazz and post-bop. She is associated with Les Ingénues, the Fabian Almazan Trio, Anthony Branker & Imagine, and the Linda Oh Trio.

Early life and education

She begins on piano and bassoon, and at fifteen starts playing electric bass in high school jazz groups. She studies at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where she graduates with first-class honours. She later completes a master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 2008, studying with Jay Anderson, John Riley, Phil Markowitz, Dave Liebman and Rodney Jones.

Awards and recognition

Her early recognition includes being a James Morrison Scholarship finalist in 2003 and an IAJE Sister in Jazz in 2004. She receives the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer’s Award in 2008, an honorary mention at the Thelonious Monk Bass Competition in 2009, and the Bell Award for Young Australian Artist of the Year in 2010. In 2010 she is also nominated for the Jazz Journalists’ Awards as Up and Coming Artist of the Year, receives the DownBeat critics’ poll award for No. 1 Acoustic Bass Rising Star, and places second in the BASS2010 competition in Berlin.

Teaching and other work

She teaches in the precollege division at the Manhattan School of Music and takes part in jazz videoconference masterclasses for high schools in the United States. She also helps create lessons for the BassGuru app for iPad and iPhone. Alongside performance and teaching, she composes for ensembles and short films, and takes part in the BMI Film Composers Workshop and Sundance Labs at Skywalker Ranch.

Performing career

She performs with artists including Joe Lovano, Steve Wilson, Vijay Iyer, Dave Douglas, Kenny Barron, Geri Allen, Fabian Almazan and Terri Lyne Carrington. She is also the bassist in Pat Metheny’s quartet projects. Her debut trio album, Entry, appears in 2009 with Obed Calvaire and Ambrose Akinmusire, and receives critical attention, including being listed in Artforum as one of Vijay Iyer’s top ten albums of 2009.

Recordings

Her second album, Initial Here, appears on Greenleaf Records in 2012 and features Dayna Stephens on tenor saxophone, Fabian Almazan on piano and Rudy Royston on drums, with Jen Shyu as a guest vocalist. The release is noted in several year-end jazz polls. Her third release, Sun Pictures, is a live quartet recording from WKCR studios with Ben Wendel, James Muller and Ted Poor.

Further projects

She is also working on a second trumpet-trio album and an eight-piece group that includes a string quartet. The music for that larger project is commissioned by the Jazz Gallery in 2012.