Tommy Emmanuel once said, “Put a guitar in a boy’s hands at a very young age, and magic will happen.” Sungha Jung is a personification of this statement, bringing music to his listeners either vicariously through the internet, or into their hometown via concerts.

On December 16, some one thousand fans of the 16-year-old fingerstyle guitarist had the privilege of witnessing his first ever concert in Kuching, Sarawak. The concert was organized by Borneo TruEvents, a strong force in corporate event organization in the region. “We started out heavily focused on music, but the situation in Sarawak was such that we had to move to corporate events to grow. Now, a couple of years on, we feel it’s time to give back to the community, and we chose to do so through this concert, which also signifies our underlying passion for music,” CEO of TruEvents Silas Michael mentioned.

Indeed, ‘Sungha Jung Live in Kuching’ was a milestone event for the city. It is not often that an artist of his caliber stops by. Hopefully, his visit has inspired fans to take up the guitar seriously, and will be a catalyst to birth new talents.

Sungha opened the concert with an original piece, ‘Irony,’ which is also the title of his second solo album. In halting English, he addressed the crowd, and was careful to thank them for listening to his music. It took a few pieces, however, before he settled down to the atmosphere of the crowd. The transition to the next song, a cover of Maroon 5’s ‘Payphone’ gave signs of his not being fully settled yet as he took a while to tune his guitar from the non-standard tuning of ‘Irony.’ Still, the crowd seemed not to notice, as the song was clearly a crowd favorite.

Sungha gave a preview of his third solo album, due for release next year, with an original tune called ‘Nostalgia.’ Later on in the set, he surprised the crowd by playing two Malaysian songs: ‘Rasa Sayang’ and ‘Sejahtera Malaysia.’ It gave a warm feeling to the listeners to hear their own country’s songs being played so well by someone not from their homeland. It portrayed the ability of music to unify despite differences.

Nevertheless, Sungha’s first set of 8 songs had perhaps one too many covers, each having a heavy rhythm segment. There were a few K-Pop pieces, no doubt to please his teenage fans, as well as a cover of Radiohead’s ‘Creep.’ It was only the last song of the first set, ‘Lupan,’ a Japanase piece arranged by Akihiro Tanaka, that revealed more of his fingerstyle prowess. A running bass line, as his smooth fingers carried it together with the lead and melody, was pleasing to the musically-inclined ear.

After a short intermission Sungha came onstage for the second set with a ukulele. He delighted the audience with a rendition of Goyte’s ‘Somebody That I Used to Know,’ followed by a playful interpretation of the ‘Super Mario’ theme. But by that stage, you’d have had this notion that this young man is still trying to discover himself, despite his prowess on the guitar. He played to draw reactions from the mainly adolescent crowd, and perhaps that’s why he had a wide range of covers that had the sign of being quickly strung together, in order to be current. But then again, he’s only 16.

Back on his Lakewood guitar, he played a beautiful medley of Christmas carols, just right for the festive season. Right after that, the crowd perked up as quizzed them (“What’s the most famous K-Pop song right now?”) as he went on to play ‘Gangnam Style.’ It brought some of the front audience to their feet, and Sungha flashed his trademark grin at them.

Sungha probably did not do himself full justice in his choice of songs. He has a number of original compositions in his manuscript collection, and it was a little disappointing that he only played three of them (‘Sorry’ was the other). Some fans commented after the concert that they would have liked to have heard more original tunes, like ‘Waterfall,’ ‘Hazy Sunshine’ and ‘For You’.

However, towards the end, Sungha displayed his maturity in the guitar, which showed the the level where he is. He played ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ and the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ theme, both excellently arranged by him. These two arrangements showed more thought and elaborate chord work in it. With fewer strums and rhythm, he was able to give more clarity in the individual notes and greater room for dynamics to capture the intent of the pieces.

At the end, he was called back on for an encore, playing ‘Guitar Boogie’ as arranged by Tommy Emmanuel, to cap off an inspiring evening for this young man.

Perhaps it will take a few more years for Sungha to craft his concerts into something that is truly his own, using pieces to hold the set as a whole instead of bringing them out as individual entities. But having said that, Sungha Jung is indeed a remarkable young guitarist with a bright future ahead of him.

Photo Credit : Abdul Malik

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Sungha Jung will be releasing his third album ‘The Duets’, come December 17. The album has a different approach compared with its two predecessors (‘Irony’ and ‘Perfect Blue’), in that every track on it features another guitarist playing with him.

The news was officially released when Sungha uploaded a ‘making of’ video of the album on his highly subscribed to Youtube channel a few days ago. It has been well received by viewers, and fans eagerly anticipate the latest installation from this young guitarist.

There are 9 tracks in the album, and 5 different artists he collaborates with, namely: Masa Sumide, Rynten Okazaki, Shun Komatsubara, Aki Miyoshi and Akihiro Tanaka.

“The Duets shows that one plus one equals more than two and I’m happy to be a part of it,” Masa Sumide comments regarding the album.

Thoughts on the album and Sungha’s growth as a musician

Playing finger-style guitar solo is an impressive skill, and Sungha has mastered that. The next level would be to use his musical skills in relation with another musician. In this case, listening is a vital element, so as not to overplay. To play just the right notes, be it adding a subtlety here and there, or simply playing fewer notes, takes years of experience. And once the musicians lock, that is when the magic happens.

“This project of Sungha Jung making a duo album with other guitarists is a great thing simply because it is not something everyone is able to do. I hope that Sungha will continue to follow his natural talent in music,” Komatsubara mentions.

Sungha is not a stranger to playing duets; he has done that numerous times in concerts with the likes of Tommy Emmanuel, Ulli Boegershausen and Thomas Leeb, to name a few. But being in the studio presents a different world. There is an absence of a live audience to spur on the artist, but it does open up the session for a duo to experiment, generate or discard ideas. On the other hand, the need to get the notes and tone almost perfect weighs more in a studio album. That can be a constraining factor for the nervy hands. With this album, Sungha shows himself to have grown to a level that enables him to blend in well with other musicians in such a situation.

“Sungha is growing to the next level and I’m curious to see how Sungha’s World is going to grow further,” Okazaki observes.

From the preview of the songs, it sounds like it’s going to be a great album. It may be just the perfect Christmas gift for a friend or loved one.

To buy the album when it comes out, visit his website.

To view Sungha’s upcoming shows, click here.

Image Courtesy : Sungha Jung

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