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| Park Sung-yeon smiles during a performance held to mark the 40th anniversary of Jazz Club Janus in this Nov. 23, 2018 file photo. Courtesy of JNH Music |
By Park Ji-won
Park Sung-yeon, known to music fans here as the godmother of jazz in Korea and founder of the country's first jazz club, died on Saturday. She was 76.
In 2015 she collapsed from chronic renal failure and had been in a nursing home since then.
As part of Korea's first generation of jazz singers, she is a pioneer in the genre here. She helped introduce jazz to Korea and contributed to its expansion, founding Janus, Korea's first jazz club. Since debuting as a singer with a band at the 8th United States Army after graduating from high school, she devoted herself to jazz on all counts.
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| Park Sung-yeon performs at Janus in this June 17 file photo. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
The club played a pivotal role for aspiring and professional jazz musicians.
In a media interview, she said she had been short of money all her life.
Financially strapped, her club had to relocate several times from Sinchon in western Seoul to Daehangno in northeastern Seoul, then to Cheongdam-dong in southern Seoul and finally further south to Seocho.
In 2012, she sold her collection of vinyl records to continue operating the club. As her kidney problem got worse, a jazz vocalist who performs under the stage name Malo took over the club and has been running it as Diva Janus since 2015.
Malo said Park was a life-time jazz musician who never left despite myriad challenges.
"Even when she was hit hardest by financial difficulties, she used to say she had no regrets about her choice to become a jazz musician because she liked the blues so much. Rather she was grateful for all those challenges because they made her stronger and her music deeper," Malo said.
In 2018, the jazz club marked its 40th anniversary. Park performed in a wheelchair to celebrate the anniversary.
She said jazz equaled freedom and a life of her own.
"There are no limits in jazz," Park told The Korea Times in June 2010. "It always lacks something and that is what artists need to fill in. There was not once when I thought of quitting singing. I think without jazz, my life would get shorter."
JHN Music wrote in a press release, "About 40 years ago, it was a wasteland for jazz in Korea. But now the country has become an abundant forest of jazz with many popular jazz stars and international jazz festivals. Janus was the first tree of the forest." The press release added that she took hardships as a blessing for her music. She was quoted as saying, "Whenever I feel lonely and pain, I thought I would sing blues better."
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| Cover image of "The Wind is Blowing" sung by Park Sung-yeon and Park Hyo-shin |
Her funeral will take place until Tuesday at Seoul National University Hospital.
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