{"id":1845,"date":"2026-09-21T13:59:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T04:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2026-09-21T14:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:01:17","slug":"rich-huang-the-drum-king-of-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/?p=1845","title":{"rendered":"Rich Huang, the \u201cDrum King\u201d of Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rich Huang, the \u201cDrum King\u201d of Taiwan, whom I featured in my book Echoes of Swing: Translocal Journeys Across the Jazz Scenes of Aomori, Japan, and Taiwan<\/a><\/em>, visited Tokyo, and I had the opportunity to help him reconnect with his longtime friend, Japan\u2019s \u201cDrum King\u201d Tsuda \u2606 Hiro, for the first time in about 20 years.<\/p>\n

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Rich Huang at the drum with Hiro\u2606Tsunoda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They spoke fondly of their past collaborations at events like the Summer Drum School.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to introduce Rich and Tsunoda in a series of posts.
\nFor Americans and people worldwide interested in AI, the surname Huang brings to mind Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, the company with the world\u2019s highest market capitalization. While Jensen is almost too famous, Rich is also world-class.<\/p>\n

It goes without saying for many readers, but drums (percussion) are often mistakenly viewed as \u201cnon-musical\u201d instruments that aren\u2019t essential to music. Of course, this is completely wrong; an outstanding drummer (percussionist) understands music even better than players of instruments with a musical scale, uses their instruments with boundless freedom, and can depict the myriad phenomena of the world.
\nNow, let me introduce three of Rich Huang\u2019s recent works.
\nThe opening track of Xiang (Homeland, 2017)<\/em>, which is sprinkled with Taiwanese pop tunes, begins with the upbeat bossa nova track \u201cSi Mu De Ren\u201d (Adore You). Track 6, \u201cGang Dou Ye Yu\u201d (\u201cNight Rain\u201d), is another timeless classic of Taiwanese pop music that captures the night, the rain, and the nostalgia of travel in the Taiwanese port city of Keelung. Because the original songs are all superb classics, people around the world love this work.<\/p>\n

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Xiang (Homeland), 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His 2022 album Chao (Tide)<\/em> features Baby Chung (Baby C., Chung Hsing-min) as co-producer, composer, and arranger.\u3000Baby Chung has won 10 Golden Melody Awards, the equivalent of the Grammy Awards for the entire Chinese-speaking world, and could be described as one of the most influential figures in Taiwan\u2019s popular music.\u3000This album unfolds with grand music, including collaborations with a string ensemble. It recalls the past experiences that lie at the source of Rich Huang\u2019s musical creativity\u2014as he confided to me during our interview. He explained that even though he felt swallowed up by the ocean\u2019s waves and lost his sense of direction, that very place was where wonderful inspiration was born.<\/p>\n

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Chao (Tide), 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 2025 album Dual Legendary Rhythms: A New Worldview<\/em> is an ambitious, innovative collaboration between Rich and his student, Alex Wu, who has earned praise as a legendary percussionist, following in his mentor’s footsteps. Just three months ago, the album won the \u201cBest Album Producer\u201d award at the 37th Golden Melody Awards in June 2026.<\/p>\n

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Dual Legendary Rhythms: A New Worldview, 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because the liner notes help the listener understand the album, I will quote them here.<\/p>\n

Inspired by the essence of traditional eight-tone music, this
\nalbum weaves playful rhythmic dialogues, forging a sound that
\nis both wild and refined, traditional yet avant-garde.
\nIt expands the boundaries of percussion, opening a new realm
\nof musical possibilities.
\nBeyond a masterful rhythmic exchange, it is a profound
\nexploration and reimagination of the musical world.<\/p>\n

The concept of Bayin (eight sounds) originates from the eight categories of instrument materials Metal (Jin), Stone (Shi), Silk (Si), Bamboo (Zhu), Gourd (Pao), Clay (Tu), Leather (Ge), Wood (Mu) listed in the *Rites of Zhou* from the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046\u2013771 BCE). The eight tracks on this amazing album correspond to these eight categories. Listen to Track 4, \u201cSilk,\u201d and you\u2019ll experience firsthand the vibrant exchange between the East and West along the Silk Road\u2014a world far removed from today\u2019s divisions.<\/p>\n

Rich Huang has more than 60 years of drumming experience. At the age of 14, this self-taught, die-hard fan of Art Blakey joined a local big band and then the U.S. Air Force band in Taichung, eventually becoming Taiwan\u2019s \u201cDrum King,\u201d a multiple time winner of the Golden Melody Awards, with a staggering output of more than 100,000 recorded works of various music. There are a few famous people named Alex Wu, but this Taiwanese crossover percussionist is well known for his mastery of various world music styles, jazz, Latin, and, of course, Chinese music. You can fully appreciate Alex\u2019s highly melodic and nuanced percussion in \u201cDouble Strike,\u201d a collaboration with the \u201cDrum King\u201d Rich Huang.<\/p>\n

\u200e \u9ec3\u745e\u8c50 – Apple Music<\/a><\/p>\n

\u9ec3\u745e\u8c50 | Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rich Huang, the \u201cDrum King\u201d of Taiwan, whom I featured in my book Echoes of Swing: Translocal Journeys Across … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080 Rich Huang, the \u201cDrum King\u201d of Taiwan<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newpostmusic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1845"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1877,"href":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions\/1877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorikido.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}