Playing the flute came naturally to Washington D.C.-based musician Sara Zhu. She’s spent time in Charleston regularly for the last two decades, and on March 29-30, Zhu performs back-to-back concerts at Forte Jazz Lounge. The first show features instrumental jazz standards, and the second features Zhu singing Great American Songbook classics.
“I’m looking to play an expansive palette,” she said. “Jazz has come a long way over the last 100-plus years — so I think a little bit of everything.”
Her piano-playing mom and music-loving dad made sure she had various instruments to try out as a kid before she landed on the flute at 10 years old. She went on to receive classical training, although her listening tendencies were eclectic, and she really leaned into jazz in her early high school years. She found her dad’s old collection of recordings and taught herself to sing. The first recording she fell in love with was the classic 1956 Ella and Louis album and then, the 1994 Pure Ella compilation and the music of jazz pianist Bill Evans.
“And it really just spiraled from that,” she said. She tried violin, cello and piano, but they didn’t stick. She was drawn to the flute because it was stringless, which meant no blisters, and more compact so it was easier to handle.
By the time she attended college, she settled on classical flute performance — but midway through her studies, she realized she was much happier playing jazz, and embraced the art of improvisation and honed her singing skills.
“I thought [the flute] was so beautiful,” she said. “I listened to operas and ballets with my parents as a kid, and the flute was always featured in Tchaikovsky ballets and Mozart symphonies.”
She earned her bachelor’s degree in jazz studies in 2020 at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. For someone who has a lot of energy, Zhu said jazz was something unpredictable she could channel without parameters — whereas classical music felt as if the performance had to be pristine each time.
“You listen to classic recordings of Miles Davis — he’s splitting notes, but he’s making so many cool things right on the spot,” she said. “And the band has such a great ear, they catch him. Maybe he plays the wrong note, but then the chord changes behind him to fit it. It just felt much more artistic and much more freeing to be able to do what you are feeling in the moment.”
Zhu has made a seasonal home of Charleston for the past 20 years, regularly visiting her aunt and uncle, Tony and Kelly Chu, who own and operate Red Orchids China Bistro in West Ashley.
She met Forte Jazz Lounge owner Joe Clarke through her aunt, and played her first show there last November.
As a freelance musician, Zhu has played over the years in rock bands, R&B acts and even a gogo band in D.C. In addition to playing in jazz combos, she and her boyfriend perform as duo Sara & Austin, tying in other genres when the mood strikes. She also teaches private flute lessons to students ranging from age 7 to 79, and it keeps her on her toes creatively.
“Right now I’m trying to take guitar lessons from my boyfriend and it’s definitely not as second nature,” she said. “The older you get, when your brain gets more informed, I think we become too aware, like, ‘Oh, maybe I should be doing this.’ And ‘I should sound like this, right?’ Whereas kids, they just do whatever because it’s kind of fun.”
To Zhu, Charleston musicians have been particularly inviting and accepting.
“We have this word in jazz called being ‘vibed’ — when people in the band try to put you down or test your knowledge — and unfortunately, it happens a lot, especially as a woman and especially as a singer in jazz. But when I came to play in Charleston, I got none of that at all.”
As a freelance musician and a songwriter, Zhu said there are lots of highs and lows.
“It can be hard when suddenly you’re feeling like I have all these gigs — I’m on the top of the world — then suddenly I have to consider maybe a day job to get by until maybe the wedding season. Creatively, it can be exhausting trying to write songs.”
Zhu said she enjoys writing acoustic indie folk music, whether it’s writing stories or writing music to poetry. She hopes to release original music later this year.
“I think it sometimes can be very hard to write something that’s honest while you’re just trying to create something that’s good. Like, ‘What if it doesn’t sell?’ ‘What if it’s not what I should do?’ It’s hard to kind of separate yourself from it. It has to come from a personal place.”
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