VISIONARY PIPA SOLOIST, VOCALIST AND COMPOSER MIN XIAO-FEN’S “WHITE LOTUS” RELEASED ON JUNE 25, 2021
White Lotus is multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Min Xiao-Fen’s original soundtrack to The Goddess, a 1934 silent film from China’s cinematic golden age. Best known for her genre-breaking performances on the four-string pipa, Min has collaborated with artists like Wadada Leo Smith, Randy Weston, John Zorn and Bjork. White Lotus also features the work of acclaimed guitarist Rez Abbasi, co-producer and multi-Grammy winning recording engineer Jim Anderson, and Grammy-nominated immersive sound producer Ulrike Schwarz.
“White Lotus” is available on:https://www.amazon.com/White-Lotus-MinXiaoFen/dp/B08YQCPYB9/ref=zg_bs_34_35?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=21HWAW1ZJ7RYT4K8HCGX
Also available now in DSD & DXD at NativeDSD: https://www.nativedsd.com/catalogue/albums/aanyoim2120d-white-lotus/
“Mao, Monk and Me” – In celebration of the 100th Birthday of Thelonious Monk
CD “Mao, Monk and Me” is available on CD Baby Spotify amazon
“Ms. Min, a spry and fearless practitioner of the pipa, a Chinese lute, has a new album out, titled “Mao, Monk and Me.” On it she performs and sings unaccompanied, blending the music of Thelonious Monk with Chinese folk song and her own experimental excursions… ” — Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times
“…Monk’s music has become intertwined with her own on Min’s most personal release to date, ‘Mao, Monk and Me.’ The striking album reimagines Monk’s iconic melodies for the pipa, the Chinese lute of which Min is a long-recognized master and innovator, fusing those jazz classics with traditional Chinese folk songs and Min’s startlingly original sounds.” — Shaun Brady, Jazzizz
“Mao, Monk and Me, an inventive solo homage from Min Xiao-Fen, who plays the four-stringed Chinese pipa.” — Larry Blumenfeld, The Wall Street Journal
“Min Xiao-Fen is a masterful interpreter of Monk. Unburdened by instrumental lineage or cultural signifiers, she is free to treat Monk the same way Monet did his waterlilies…You’ve never heard Monk like this.” — Andrey Henkin, The New York City Jazz Record
Dim Sum (2012, Blue Pipa)
CD is available on Amazon, iTunes, CD Baby
Min Xiao-Fen, finger piano, sanxian, Nanying pipa, toy pipa, voice and electronics
Satoshi Takeishi, percussions and electronics
“Min Xiao-Fen, a master of the Chinese pipa, has also done extensive research into the links between her native musical traditions and jazz. She’s brought this to bear in her collaborations with pianist Randy Weston, and in her own work. Here, on her first release in 6 years, she plays with percussionist Satoshi Takeishi.” –Larry Blumenfeld, Blu Notes
Min Xiao-Fen with Six Composers (1998, Avant)
— Tim Owen, The Wire – 100 Best CDs That Set the World on Fire in 1998
CD is available on Amazon
Spring, River, Flower, Moon, Night (1997, Asphodel)
Min Xiao-Fen, solo pipa, traditional repertoire
“Xiao-Fen focuses on each note with the acuity of someone who loves to operate in the moment. By doing so, she takes these pieces to a place where sensuousness has a near religious resonance, and a plink can sound like a bomb.” — Jim Macnie, Jazziz
The Moon Rising (1996, Cala)
CD is available on, iTunes Amazon
Min Xiao-Fen, pipa and ruan, traditional and modern music
“Faces with a modernising society, old traditional can easily go defensive. If you think that is a suicidal course to take, you still have the option of responding creatively. Here is one woman’s answer to the stimulus of making music in the USA – an excitingly-played mix of established and Western-influenced compositions with traditional numbers for Chinese plucked strings: flamboyant pictorial and abrasive by turns.”
Robert Maycock , BBC Music Magazien – Critics’ Choice 100 Best CDs of Year in 1996
Viper – Derek Bailey and Min Xiao-Fen (1998, Avant)
Tim Owen, The Wire – 100 Best CDs That Set the World on Fire in 1998
“Min Xiao-Fen plays the pipa, a traditional Chinese string instrument; Derek Bailey plays acoustic guitar. You might expect oriental exotic backed by familiar strums, but that underestimates Baileys radical reconstruction of western guitarism. Having absorbed Webern, flamenco and the blues – and listened to oriental instruments like koto and komungo – he is ready to complement Xiao-Fen note-for -note in terms of attack, timbre and ornament. The two instruments tangle, swap places and improvise instant cameos of surpassing prettiness.” —Hi-Fi New
CD is available on Amazon and Dicogs
Flying Dragons – Derek Bailey and Min Xiao-Fen (1999,Incus)Min Xiao-Fen with Other Artists:
Chang’E and Elixir of Immortality – Anthony De Ritis
Rosa Parks: Pure Love – Wadada Leo Smith, TUM
Mbira – Dark Lady of the Sonners – Wadada Leo Smith, TUM
To the Four Corners – Huang Ruo (featuring Min Xiao-Fen), Naxos
Best of Filmworks: 20 years of Soundtrack Music – John Zorn, Tzadik
Live at Tonic NYC – Tonic
Filmworks VIII – John Zorn, Tzadik
Filmworks XII – John Zorn, Tzadik
The African Nobian Suite – Randy Weston, African Rhythms
Khepera – Randy Weston, Verve
The Art of Improvisation – Leroy Jenkins, Mutable Music
The Flowing Stream -The Shanghai Quartet, Delos
The Ineffable -Zhou Long, Cala
Sparkle – Chen Yi, CRL804
Bitter Love – Tan Dun, Sony Classical
2000 Today – Tan Dun, Sony Classical
Ghost Stories – Ned Rothenberg, Tzadik
Stanley Kubricks Mountain Home – Paul Elwood
The Floating Box: A Story in Chinatown – Jason Kao Hwang
The Music of Chen Yi: Symphony No. 2 and other works – Chen Yi
The Gossamer Song – Min Hui Fen and Min Xiao-Fen’s Blue Pipa Ensemble
Purr –Chien-Yin Chen
The Book of Songs – Zhou Long