Our conversation with Linda May Han Oh on musical beginnings and “Invisible Threads”

One of the world’s most in-demand bass players, Linda May Han Oh (AUS/USA), brings a daring world-premiere commission Invisible Threads to the Melbourne International Jazz Festival in 2025.

This creative collaboration features trailblazing vocalist/composer and media artist Pamela Z (USA), prolific illustrator Keith Henry Brown (USA) and some of Australia’s finest jazz players.

We chatted with Oh about her musical beginnings and how Invisible Threads came to be:

MIJF:  Could you tell us a little bit about your journey taking up the bass, and the paths that led you to jazz and improvisation?

LMHO:

I grew up in Perth, WA, and at a young age, I started playing piano, just like my older sisters. My parents really wanted us to learn music, especially my mother, who never had the chance to learn piano but always wanted to. So, from a young age, we had music in our lives, and as I got a little older, I transitioned through to clarinet and bassoon. Bless public schools and the wonderful music programs there, because that’s how I managed to play those instruments. And then I went to a fantastic public high school which was a specialist music school, and during that time, I picked up the electric bass. I started playing in rock bands with my friends – a lot of Metallica and Rage Against the Machine – and then after that, I started playing in the school jazz band and listening to a lot of the local jazz musicians.

I played bassoon in a local jazz orchestra that was comprised of mainly conservatory students at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAPA). And I would turn around in my woodwind section and look at all the jazz players, musicians such as Troy Roberts, who has played with Jeff “Tain” Watts and Joey DeFrancesco to bass player Dane Alderson, who’s now playing in Yellowjackets. So, a lot of fantastic musicians in Perth inspired me, including Mat Jodrell who will be on the stage with us for this show. Mat was on that stage when I was playing bassoon and turning around and I was wishing I could learn how to improvise, and from that moment, I decided to concentrate on jazz and improvisation. I went to WAPA as for university and started taking up the upright bass when I heard Ray Brown, Charlie Hayden, Charles Mingus, Larry Grenadier, Christian McBride, Dave Holland – I was very much influenced by a lot of fantastic bass players who have paved the way in jazz and improvised music history. I have to thank one of my older sisters for exposing me to all of this music throughout high school as well. She fed me all sorts of eclectic music, from Miles Davis of all eras, Bill Evans, Jaco Pastorius from Weather Report and many more. After I did my studies at WAPA, I moved to New York and I’ve been there ever since. I split my time between New York City and Cambridge, which is right near Boston, because I teach at Berkeley College of Music.

MIJF: What are you most looking forward to about performing this new collaboration at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival?

LMHO:

I’m excited about working with the wonderful Pamela Z. She’s a pioneer in the field of electronic music. She’s one of the first to do what she does – it’s so unique. The looping, the manipulation of her live sound, as well as pre-recorded samples, and the way she integrates that with her voice and just storytelling in general, she has a beautiful way of expressing herself. It’s experimental, but it’s super touching and there’s a really wonderful human element to it, that’s that has heavy components, but also has this light, humorous energy that I really think that everyone can connect with. I’ve been a fan of her for a long time, and I’ve never had the chance to actually work with her. I’ve seen her perform, I’ve seen her perform with other musicians, and been a huge fan of all of her work, her recordings, and this is the first time I’ll be working with her. I’m very excited about that.

I’m also excited for the first time to be working with visual art – working with a wonderful illustrator, Keith Henry Brown, who is kind of a staple in the New York jazz scene. He’s done all sorts of wonderful sketches and drawings of musicians on the scene and has worked with Christian McBride on his artwork album artwork. And he’s also just a huge fan of the music. He’s a local New Yorker, and I’ve always really loved his work, so I was so happy when he said yes to collaborate on this. And we’ve been working quite hard over the months, Zooming, coming up with a storyboard and all the minute details of this project. And I when you see his gorgeous illustrations, they’re just really touching, and I’m really excited for everyone to see that. I’m also excited to be working with wonderful musicians, Andrea Keller, Mat Jodrell and Ben Vanderwell, who I’ve worked with for a long time. Mat Jodrell, I’ve worked with on and off over the years, but I’ve known since I was 15, and I’ve always wanted to play with Andrea.

MIJF: What can audiences expect to experience at the show?

LMHO:

Absolutely. The show is essentially about the invisible threads that connect us and bind us as human beings. And I really do believe that we are all connected in some way, shape or form. And I tell this narrative through some different perspectives. We begin from the perspective of a character who embodies my mother, who was born in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur and although only having a fourth-grade education, she managed to start her own sewing school by the time she was 20, teaching other young women how to sew, how to make a living, how to tailor good quality clothes, ones we don’t see so often these days with fast fashion. It shows her progression, and it follows the theme of sewing, of threading the needle, of connecting elements together, and that’s inherently the main theme of the whole work. We then pass through some different characters we’re all connected in some way and come to a point where some of these threads break conceptually and literally within the piece, and find ourselves trying to reconnect these threads and build them back up. The music itself, combines a lot of Pamela’s expertise of looping lyrics and spoken word, together with her manipulation of samples and electronics, but it also features a lot of improvisation coming from myself and the rest of the band, along with composed material that accompanies each movement and each illustration as it fades into one another.

MIJF: Can you tell us a little bit about the process of developing Invisible Threads and collaborating with Pamela Z and Keith Henry Brown?

LMHO:

I first start with a lot of visualization of what I’d want to see if I was sitting front row in my own show. And so, from that viewpoint, I try to piece together how the narrative will be told, piecing together what these stories will be, these individual narratives, and how many movements, how many sections, and how we flow from one to another. Then from that, coming up with a storyboard that’s coherent with Keith as well, with elements that accompany each movement, and trying to see how they thread together. And when you’re working with someone as extraordinary as Pamela Z, I was really thinking about as far as the spoken word and the lyrics. It’s really thinking about how I want to tell the story with some with instrumental music and word elements and figuring out how they can coherently go together to complete the story.

MIJF: Have you been working in person, or have you mostly been collaborating remotely?

LMHO:

At the moment, it’s just remote. Pamela Z’s currently in Berlin doing a residency, so we’re trying to find ways to overlap. I think, you know, it’s interesting with the pandemic, we’ve really found a way to figure out how to work remotely. It doesn’t make up for being in person, improvising and working with someone face to face. But there are certain things that we can navigate, I think, to get the bulk of the music together, especially when you’re improvising musicians, people who are used to collaborating on the fly. Keith lives in Brooklyn, so I’m able to see him in person at times as well, to get that connection. But yeah, with Pamela, it’s mainly online and sending clips back to each other. And, yeah, when we rehearse all together in the days leading up to the show, that will be the first time all of us will be playing together.

MIJF: What’s next on the horizon for you after the Melbourne International Jazz Festival?

I have quite a lot of touring in 2026, a lot of work in France, with some French positions. I’m working with Emile Garrison. I have a trio. It’s collaborative trio with an Austrian guitarist; I really love playing with them. We’re coming to Australia in September 2026 for the Guitar Festival in Adelaide and some other shows. So yeah, lots of touring. And I have an album coming out in August, so I’m looking forward to that coming out.

MIJF:  What was it like working on the Pixar film “Soul”? And are film scores an area of interest for you?

LMHO:

Yeah, it was a tremendous experience! It was my only time ever getting to play with the amazing Roy Haynes. So that, for me, is a bucket list experience. It was great to play with John Baptiste again. I mean, he’s just such a force of nature – he’s really one tremendously talented human being. Also working with Marcus Gilmore, who’s one of my favourite musicians. I got to meet the crew at Pixar, and I think they’re really wonderful at the way that they tell stories. I have a four-year-old son, so we’re big Pixar fans, and it was really surreal to have all these cameras on you. They were very accurate with the way that they wanted to depict how I was fingering the notes. So I was impressed at that and thankful for that as well, and also just to bring jazz music to children, kind of advanced, philosophical concepts in the music and in the movie which are really great to introduce to kids. I really like film scoring. I’ve done some independent short films, and I just finished an independent documentary.

MIJF: What’s exciting you in the world of jazz right now?

LMHO:

I’m inspired by a lot of young musicians coming up among the ranks. I teach a lot, and I see a lot of growth in my students. And, I mean, it’s nice to see a lot of very strong young women coming up among the ranks as well. So, yeah, I’m just excited to hear what the next generation will bring. You know, these are crazy times right now, I just pray that there will be more support for the arts. I believe they’re going to have to come from different sources, depending on where you are in the world, especially in America, where I’m living now. So, I just wish the best for some of these young artists. And you know, for everybody who is helping to support live music, thank you. Let’s do more. Let’s do more to support these young artists who are up and coming.

MIJF: Any final words for MIJF audiences about your show?

LMHO:

I believe in the message of the story, that we are all connected. And I hope that when people come to the show, they will leave feeling maybe some of that connection – thinking about how, how, even as strangers, how we are connected in some way, and we’re not so different from our neighbours. And some of these musicians that I’ll be playing with are incredibly unique. And for those who haven’t seen Ms Pamela Z perform, it really is one of the most unique experiences that you’ll have – I really expect that people will be very moved by it. And the illustrations are just gorgeous.

MIJF: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us, Linda. We can’t wait for the show.

LMHO:

Thank you!