* 2025 stock * "There is no jazz in Korea" Music critic Choi Kyung-sik's liner note for the 1974 record by Shin Joong-hyun and the Yup Juns starts off with this stark statement. Though it may have been a rhetorical device to emphasize the birth of an album embodying Korean rock, the statement itself holds nevertheless when one considers that Korean jazz has never enjoyed a place of its own - not in the 8th Army scene nor the civilian general scene. As is usually the case in other countries, jazz was the strongest pillar upon which Korean popular music was founded, during the 1930~1940s. For musicians, jazz was the biggest stage that everyone aspired to. Violinist and Latin music virtuoso Kim Kwang soo, as well as standard jazz / big band pioneer Eom Tomi are widely considered the founders of Korean jazz and even band music in general - such is the extent of their musicianship and influence. Other great names in Korean popular music like Lee Bong-jo or Gil Ok-yoon rose up under the 'roof' of these originators.

However, during the 1960s the mainstream of Korean popular music shifted to pop and gayo. Many musicians moved to different scenes and Korean jazz entered a dark era. It is maestro Lee Pan-geun - the central figure of this recording - who through a strong background in theory and basics preserved the embers of Korean jazz and passed in on to posterity. Lee taught himself jazz during the years following the Korean War. He mastered both the theory and practice of jazz, mentoring great musicians in Korean jazz such as Choi Sun-bae, Kang Tae-hwan, and Jung Sung-jo among countless others. He has also fostered many top singers/composers who are still active in the gayo scene. This recording, <Jazz: Plays...>, can be regarded as the first work that saw direct involvement by maestro Lee.