Fono Forum in Germany awarded Quartets 4 stars in their review. Read the original German and rough translation below:

Review of Quartets
Fono Forum (December 2024)
by Gerd Filtgen

In New Yorks Jazz-Szene akzeptiert zu werden, ist nicht gerade die leichteste Übung. Diese Hürde übersprang der chinesisch-amerikanische Tenorsaxofonist Kevin Sun schon vor geraumer Zeit. Mit seiner unverwechselbaren musikalischen Sprache und seinem Klangspektrum, setzt er sich vom Gros gegenwärtiger Saxofonisten ab. Auf dem vorliegenden Doppelalbum arbeitet er mit zwei unterschiedlichen Quartett-Besetzungen. Wie ein Regisseur, der mit filmischen Mitteln Bildfolgen und Ereignisse gestaltet, behandelt der Saxofonist seine Kompositionen. "Shadows Over The Sea" ist dafür ein apartes Beispiel. In dem impressionistischen Stück gleiten Suns Chorusse wie Schatten über das Meer. Auf der zweiten Seite der Edition wechseln Pianist und Drummer. Doch auf den Bassisten, der auf seine sprunghaften Ideen immer traumhaft sicher reagierte, wollte Sun nicht verzichten. Auch bei dieser Aufnahme-Session stellen Suns Originale den Hauptanteil. Doch die schöpferische Fantasie des Leaders und seiner Band zeigt sich hier auch in der Auslegung des Standards "On The Street Where You Live" und im Kontrast dazu bei "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)" von dem japanischen Komponisten Ryuichi Sakamoto.           
* * * *

Being accepted into New York's jazz scene isn't exactly the easiest task. The Chinese-American tenor saxophonist Kevin Sun jumped over this hurdle some time ago. With his unmistakable musical language and his sound spectrum, he sets himself apart from the majority of current saxophonists. On this double album he works with two different quartet line-ups. The saxophonist treats his compositions like a director who uses filmic means to create sequences of images and events. “Shadows Over The Sea” is a striking example of this. In the impressionistic piece, Sun's choruses glide like shadows across the sea. On the second page of the edition, the pianist and drummer change. But Sun didn't want to do without the bassist, who always responded to his erratic ideas with a fantastic confidence. Sun's originals also make up the majority of this recording session. But the creative imagination of the leader and his band is also evident here in the interpretation of the standard "On The Street Where You Live" and, in contrast, in "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)" by the Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Michael Roberts spoke to members of Mute for Jazziz's Fall 2024 issue. Full text below:

Prelude: Speaking Volumes
by Michael Roberts
Jazziz, Fall 2024

Prelude: Speaking Volumes
With its singular approach to jazz and its cultural references, Mute says plenty.

The spark that led to the creation of Mute, an effortlessly innovative quartet, was struck by accident. Drummer Dayeon Seok invited saxophonist and clarinetist Kevin Sun, bassist Jeonglim Yang and pianist Christian Li for a casual jam at her Brooklyn-area rehearsal space sometime in 2016 or 2017. But Sun says, “I don’t think it was her intention to start a band. It began as a one-off.”

That changed quickly. According to Li, “the actual group dynamic developed when we set up some gigs in both China and Korea. The path was really amazing as to how it affected how everybody plays together.”

The band mates’ intuitive interactions have only strengthened over time. On After You’ve Gone, Mute’s sophomore release, Sun, Li, Yang and Seok navigate a thrillingly wide range of material with ease despite the demands it presents from both technical and thematic standpoints. “Even if I try to bring something that could come across as fussy, it ends up sounding like music because of the personalities of the musicians,” Sun notes.

Mute is frequently described as “Asian- American,” an identifier of dubious accuracy; Seok is a native South Korean who moved back to Seoul a few years ago. Sun doesn’t mind the label, seeing it as effective shorthand. However, Li fears it carries the risk of “closing the door on the way some people can relate to the music.”

The dialogue between artist and listener is particularly important on “China Boy,” a highpoint of After You’ve Gone. The oft-covered 1922 tune sports lyrical references to “oriental moonbeams” and “almond eyes” that offend modern sensibilities. But both sections of Sun’s two-part arrangement eschew the words, as well as the Dixieland style applied by most interpreters. “It was originally a lullaby,” he points out, and on part one, “we take a darker approach to it.” Part two, in contrast, delivers a wild free-jazz workout. “After You’ve Gone,” the offering’s title track, is also a chestnut. Dating back to 1918, it’s been performed by artists as varied as Bessie Smith and Phil Collins, usually as a hard-swinging rouser. But Mute chose an unusual path. “The idea was to play it slow and moody,” Sun says. “Christian’s really good at evoking the depths of twilight and beauty through harmony and texture.”

Li moves in quite another direction on “Reaganomics,” one of his most complex compositions. For him, “it was more about capturing the coldness and disassociation of modern economic policy —something that’s very lacking in human warmth.” In contrast, the pianist’s “Two Way Mirror,” an homage to saxophone great Wayne Shorter, is as reverent as it is joyful. “I’m a huge fan of Wayne as a composer,” he stresses. “So I tried to hear a melody he would play and how it would go with his sound.”

The members of Mute maintain busy schedules outside the group. Sun runs Endectomorph Music, the label that issued After You’ve Gone and The Fate of the Tenor, a vibrant live album featuring Sun with bassist Walter Stinson and drummer Matt Honor, which arrived earlier in 2024. In October, he plans
to unleash another solo effort, That Lights a Star, abetted by Li, Stinson and drummer Kayvon Gordon. But Mute remains a priority, in part, because of the way the players combine the head and the heart.
​
“I don’t think we’re a super conceptual band,” Sun says. “Jeonglim brings an irreverence that makes everything earthier and more direct, just like Dayeon brings grace and accessibility. I have to give it up to all of them, because they make this music sound lively instead of just a concept.”

Thanks to Tristan Geary for his dual write-up of The Fate of the Tenor & Quartets in the November 2024 issue of the NYC Jazz Record. Full text below:

 Quartets
The Fate of the Tenor
Kevin Sun (Endectomorph Music)
by Tristan Geary 

NYC Jazz Record, November 2024

Tenor saxophonist Kevin Sun’s newest project Quartets is a double album of two different quartets, divided up over 19 tracks, united under Sun’s umbrella of witty tenor saxophone playing and pensive compositions. The album opener is the drum-forward “Dance Notation”, which carries a gentle precision, featuring Dana Saul (piano), Walter Stinson (bass) and Matt Honor (drums).

Like labanotation (the dance world equivalent of music notation), the piece is full of dotted shapes, cryptic symbols and angular gestures, but reveals its own pretty logic when looked at from a distance. The first side’s most tender moment, “Shadows Over the Sea”, is reflective of the leader’s thoughtfulness in composition. It is moody and pushes and pulls like the tide. The soft-spoken Sun delivers that same gentleness in his playing though finds moments for stretching out, as can be heard on the cascading “Storied History”.

The album’s second side opens with “Heideggerdashian”—with Christian Li (piano), Stinson (bass) and Kayvon Gordon (drums)—a mashup of old-world Heidegger and new-world Kardashian into one unholy brain-frying title. The piece sounds exactly like worlds colliding, full of chaos and overlapping saxophone/piano chatter. It also shows Sun’s humorous side, with this (and many of his compositions) full of musical punchlines, such as the textism titled “tbh”, which has some nonchalant, cooly tossed-off tenor wizardry. “Rudderless Blues” finds the saxophonist soloing with a satisfying raspiness after an abstract head and a pointillist piano solo. The tenderest moment is the whispered piano and saxophone delivery of “Estate”, with midnight playing from Sun and more expressionist sounds from Li. The album closer is another ungodly philosopher-celebrity mashup, “Kierkegaardashian”, a jumpy and abstract stream of consciousness flow of ripping tenor melodies. It bottles up an overactive brain dishing out fragments of thoughts before skittishly switching topics.

Sun’s other big 2024 project is The Fate of the Tenor (a vinyl-only release, which is additionally available as a digital download). While Quartets is more of a venture into composition, this album, recorded at Lowlands Bar
(in Gowanus, Brooklyn), where his trio (with Stinson
and Honor) has played every Tuesday for three years,
is the band in its musical living room. In Sun’s words,
it bottles up the band “at our most comfortable and
also at our most adventurous.” The album’s cover and
title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Joe Henderson’s
The State of the Tenor (Blue Note, 1985). Sun’s cover
mirrors Henderson’s album, striking the same chinresting-in-forefinger-and-thumb pose, begging the
question of whether Sun is a bit of a prankster. The two
albums rhyme in more ways than one. Album opener,
“Involuted Blues”, unfolds from snarky blues into the
conversational “Elden Steps”: it’s “Giant Steps” from
an alternate abstract universe, where everything is
more elastic. Stinson is equally the star, complementing
with well-articulated refrains, while Honor has his
own quips. A looseness permeates the entire first side,
striking that deliciously sweet spot between form and
formlessness. Side two’s “Dance Bleak” shoulders more
of a backbeat, although the sans piano setup frees up
the leader to go where he wants, low into the trough,
high into inquisitive monologuing, always ending in a
question mark. “Demonesque” opens with a torturedsounding arco bass introduction and abruptly breaks
into some saxophone noise music, out of which pops a
highly-syncopated angular tune, increasing in intensity;
Sun is rapid-fire, with some strange honking, but always
palatable, never harsh. At its climax the album spins
the listener around in the suddenly funky “Lowlands”.
But that backbeat comfort gives way to a rapturous
swinging affair, celebrating the dive bar’s namesake,
and how it feels to be at home with your band.
For more info visit endectomorph.com. The Quartets album
release concert is at Close Up Nov. 14. See Calendar.

Textura reviewed Kevin Sun's Quartets. Full text here and copied below (PDF archived here):

Kevin Sun: Quartets
Endectomorph Music
(review via Textura)
Issued on his own Endectomorph Music label, Quartets is more than a mere title for NYC-based tenor saxophonist Kevin Sun. As this double-disc set reveals, the group format is particularly well-suited to him; further to that, two separate quartets are featured, his original with pianist Dana Saul, bassist Walter Stinson, and drummer Matt Honor on disc one and his latest with Christian Li and Kayvon Gordon replacing Saul and Honor, respectively, on the second. While differences are evident between the units, both exemplify the principles of mobility and malleability that are central to Sun's approach. However much the style changes from one tune to the next, the four players are equally integral to the music's shape, even if Sun's is the lead voice. The impression is strengthened when many a piece is intricately mapped out as a composition and not just used as a springboard for soloing.
Sun's a resourceful and prolific player who's issued five albums since his 2018 debut, Trio, with Quartets the follow-up to 2023's The Depths of Memory. Perhaps some of that productivity is attributable to the weekly residency he's enjoyed at Brooklyn's Lowlands Bar since September 2021; the security of an ongoing base helps stoke creativity when the opportunity's constantly available for new material to be tested out. Why two quartets? Having played with the original for many years, Sun felt it was time to change things up and so last year brought the new players aboard.
The quartet format might be the same all the way through the ninety-minute release, but the material presented ranges widely, from straight-ahead jazz, rubato meditations, and blues runs to inspired treatments of Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo),” Lerner and Loewe's "On the Street Where You Live" (from My Fair Lady), and Koji Kondo's title theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Inspirations come from far afield, with a pair of tunes name-checking Existentialists Heidegger and Kierkegaard and another, “Far East Western,” composed with Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Seven Samurai in mind. Continuity between the discs is ensured by the presence of Sun and Stinson, who establish a through-line despite the personnel switch-ups otherwise.
Sun's writing is in places unusual, the arresting off-kilter “Dance Notation” and “Melpomene” cases in point. The wonky grooves are more rock and funk than jazz, but with the unpredictable moves by the leader and Saul factored in, the performances align themselves to jazz, if jazz of a distinctly idiosyncratic kind. In such cases, Honor's inventiveness definitely elevates the music. Bolstering the music's accessibility is Sun's tone, which generally eschews abrasiveness for a smooth, even sometimes feathery delivery. Occasions do arise, however, when a more aggressive attack is called for, and he's more than happy to oblige when it does. He isn't averse to playing ballads either, as shown by the evocative “Shadows Over the Sea” and a dreamy treatment of Kondo's “Title Theme” on the opening disc and, in a duet arrangement for tenor and piano, Bruno Martino's “Estate” on the second.
Elasticity characterizes the original unit's attack as exemplified by its slippery, tempo-shifting handling of the adventurous “Far East Western.” Riffing off Jerome Kern's “All the Things You Are,” the furious “Storied History” provides a deeply satisfying account of the quartet operating in hard bop mode (watch for the wild episode spotlighting Sun and Honor). The quartet on the second disc shows itself to be as elastic as responsive, with “Homage Kondo” distinguished by Li's elegant voicings and Sun's romantic expression and “On the Street Where You Live” and “Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)” enhanced by the group's breezy, Latin-tinged swing. Gordon shows he's a more than adequate substitute for Honor on the mercurial Sun originals “Outlawry” and “tbh,” and “That Lights a Star” shows there's bebop on disc two also. With respect to design, some degree of imbalance is present in the first one being thirty-nine minutes and the other fifty-one. There's no filler on the longer disc, however, and the two together offer a compelling and encompassing account of Sun and his music.October 2024