The Asian American Arts Alliance is hosting its first-ever Soundfest on Saturday in New York’s Chinatown. The free show (2-6pm; Columbus Park, corner of Mulberry & Worth Streets) features music ranging from hip hop to Bollywood, sitar to taiko, alternative rock to avant garde, and will be hosted by spoken word artist Kelly Tsai. The lineup includes Abstract Vision, The Jack Lords and Slanty Eyed Mama.
But I’ll be going firstmost to see Bora Yoon (pictured), who I recently caught at Jazz at Lincoln Center and was amazed by the ethereal performer’s ability to jump from electric violin and Tibetan singing bowl to a Samsung 2004 E-105 cell phone. Yoon plays a mean mobile, mixing in software like Pophorns, which can transform a phone into various instruments, and says the tonality of this particular Samsung model is total early Brian Eno. She also regularly plays and collaborates with people like DJ Spooky and beatbox maestro Adam Matta, so expect some hot guest appearances.
