Ulaan

Mongolian long song is rare to hear represented in music at all, much less in a marriage with other styles. For Enji, born and raised in Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar, long song just makes sense. She fuses her indigenous singing style with brisk jazz, her elongated syllables stretching out into infinity as they trace the contours of her band’s playful melodies. On her previous album, she split the runtime between long song and jazz standards. For Ulaan, she sings only in Mongolian and performs her own original compositions. This combination’s never been done before, but traditional Mongolian song and vocal jazz end up feeling like a surprisingly natural fit.