Linda May Han Oh – Bass

Born in Malaysia, Oh was raised in Western Australia. When she was 11, she started to play the clarinet and at the age of 13 bassoon. She went to Churchlands Senior High School. As a bass guitarist, she started in a high school band; and in 2002, she attended the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where she picked up the upright bass and studied solo transcriptions of Dave Holland. Her thesis was on the classical Indian music rhythms in Holland’s solos. After more scholarships she moved to New York in 2008, where she completed her master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music, among others with Jay Anderson, John Riley, Phil Markowitz, DavLiebman and Rodney Jones as supervisors.

In 2008, she released her debut album Entry with own compositions and a cover version of Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘Oztrax’, with the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Obed Calvaire. Oh also contributed to albums with the alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon (Outright, 2008), Sarah Bemanning (Løvetann Klokke, 2010), Brian Girley (Tro, 2011) and Art Hirahara (Hygget & Meditasjoner, 2014). In 2012, the album Initial Here with pianist Fabian Almazan was released, followed by Sun Pictures (Greenleaf), among others with Ted Poor. In addition, she has performed with Slide Hampton, T. S. Monk, Nathan Davis, George Kabler, James Morrison, Nasheet Venter, Joel Frahm, Pat Metheny, Steve Wilson and Billy Childs. She lives in the Harlem district in New York City. She is married to Cuban American pianist Fabian Almazan since 2018.

(biographical information from WIkipedia)

I have a couple of Oh albums and she is a really strong player. I was looking for something interesting to transcribe and came across a solo bass performance of the Miles Davis tune, ‘The Theme’. This is not a commercial recording but a video on YouTube (attached). There is something amiss about this transcription as it shifts a couple of beats somewhere. I don’t know whether it is my ears or her improvisation but I cannot find the glitch. It is too good to bank without publishing so here it is, warts and all.