Youn Sun Nah Live in Vienne, France

Few singers are pushing the limits of jazz vocals quite like the South Korean artist Youn Sun Nah. With an incredible range, delicacy and precision, Nah’s performances amaze audiences in the same way that a high-wire tight-rope walker might: it is the level of skill that is immediately impressive before the realization that she could, at any moment, slip off. This is dare-devil singing, and somehow she always pulls it off. 

Matching an artist of such intimidating perfection requires equally audacious accompanists, and for this performance Nah is joined by her longtime collaborators: the Swedish acrobatic guitarist Ulf Wakenius; the French stalwart of the accordion Vincent Peirani; and his countryman and supreme double-bassist, Simon Tailleu. Together, at the 2013 edition of the famous Jazz à Vienne festival, they run through tracks from her album Lento, which was recorded the same year, and her 2010 project, Same Girl. 

Particular highlights include the track “Pancake,” a funny and characterful expression of vocal ingenuity, a Tom Waits’ cover and “Breakfast In Baghdad, a Wakenius composition in which he strikes his guitar strings with an empty plastic bottle. Throughout, Nah is extremely likeable in the way she relates to the crowd that piles up the bleaches of the old amphitheatre. Staring out into the night sky, she exclaims “je vais jamais oublier cette soirée” (I will never forget this night).