Amy Tan & Joey Alexander

Amy Tan is the author of novels, memoirs, and essays, including The Joy Luck Club and The Backyard Bird Chronicles, which was a New York Times bestseller for 70 weeks. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Humanities Medal, and she has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Her musical background includes 15 years as a failed classical piano student; she was the accompanist for the Girls Glee in high school. She wrote libretto for the opera The Bonesetter’s Daughter, which premiered at San Francisco Opera in 2008. And for 33 years, she has served as lead rhythm dominatrix in the all-author garage band “The Rock Bottom Remainders,” whose members include Stephen King, Dave Barry, and Scott Turow.

During the pandemic shutdown, Tan spent long hours observing the behavior of wild birds in her backyard. Her editor, Dan Halpern, suggested she turn those pencil sketches, colored portraits and journal notes into an illustrated book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, published in April 2024 by Knopf, which became an instant #1 bestseller.  Her drawings were on special exhibition at the Roger Torey Peterson Institute.

Born in Bali, Indonesia, Joey Alexander has been performing professionally since 2013 when Wynton Marsalis invited him to perform at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala. Alexander subsequently moved to New York City and released his debut album, My Favorite Things, in 2015 on Motéma Music, followed by three more on the label, a fifth on Verve as well as his Mack Avenue debut album, Origin, in 2022. Alexander’s albums have netted three GRAMMY® Award nominations: one for Best Jazz Instrumental Album (My Favorite Things) and two for Best Improvised Jazz Solo (“Giant Steps,” from My Favorite Things, and “Countdown” from the album of the same name), with My Favorite Things and Countdown securing the No. 1 spot on the Billboard jazz charts and Eclipse coming at No. 3.

On Continuance, his seventh album as a leader, Joey Alexander has far surpassed his earlier incarnations: He’s now comfortable in his new identity as a composer-pianist of fertile imagination and emotional depth. Continuance is also the first album he has recorded with his regular touring trio of Kris Funn on upright bass and John Davis on drums, a group with whom he has played hundreds of gigs over the past four years. They are augmented on four tracks by Grammy-nominated trumpet player Theo Croker.