FEATURE/Ponpon does polka: Taiwanese jazz musician whistles, scats her way onto US news

By Hans Lin and James Lo, CNA staff reporter and writer

"Originally from Taiwan and now one of California's rising young jazz artists, here is Ponpon Chen and her quintet," declared the announcer of American news program World News Now (WNN) at the conclusion of a May 9 broadcast as the credits rolled.

Fronting her band with an electric guitar, Taiwanese jazz musician Ponpon Chen (陳芃瑄) then broke into her unique rendition of American musical comedian Barry Mitchell's famous jingle: "World News Polka."

"It's late at night, you're wide awake and you're not wearing pants. So grab your World News Now mug and everybody dance!" Chen sang jubilantly as the rest of her quintet -- featuring Aaron Provisor on keys, Jim Jedeikin on saxophone, Lakshmi Ramirez on bass and Mark San Filippo on drums -- backed her up with a boisterous "Hey!"

Originally commissioned by David Bohrman, the current showrunner of WNN at United States TV channel ABC News, the tune was supposed to be a one-off gag to irritate one of the program's original anchors, Lisa McRee, who was known to hate the polka.

Mitchell was then brought on initially to pen the jingle the same year with tongue-in-cheek lyrics to rundown the news of the week in a one time deal before the popularity of the song saw the comedian record over 100 versions of the tune with his accordion.

The jingle has since serve as the news program's Friday theme song for over 30 years.

Recently, Mitchell has invited YouTube artists to record their own versions to air after the Friday taping, one of which was Chen and her band.

With the appearance, Chen and her quintet joined a pantheon of prestigious duet collaborators and guest performers the likes of seasoned actor William Shatner, singer "Weird Al" Yankovic and even superstar Muppet: Kermit the Frog.

"Have some fun. Be a pal. Every anchor guy and gal, Do the World News Polka!" Chen continued the song before entering into a resounding and tuney whistle that was followed by her signature style of improv scatting.

The 1 minute and 45 seconds interpretation of the upbeat jingle by the 23 year-old and her group has garnered over 1.2 million views on the Facebook page of of ABC News since its debut on May 9.

Scatwoman Pon

Currently residing in Los Angeles, California, Chen is based in the Studio City Sound recording studio where she does most of her sessions and practices.

Not only has the renowned location been used by music legends the caliber of Rod Stewart and Weezer to record their albums, it is also the location that gave her the chance to meet her jazz idol George Benson and also Tom Weir, the studio's Grammy Award-winning owner who sat down with Chen on July 17 to tell CNA about her ABC News debut.

According to Weir, he only met Chen six months ago in the hallway of the studio but quickly discovered her talent and potential.

Weir complimented Chen on her one-of-a-kind vocal style which mixes singing with whistling and scatting, a unique vocal improv most often adopted in jazz where vocalists use their voices as instruments to make sounds that go with the rhythm of their songs.

The studio owner also went on to praise Chen's guitar riffing abilities, adding that her unique vocal style, "animates" her guitar solos during performances.

"It's like an animated version of a guitar solo," Weir said of Chen's style. "There's a million singers out there and a lot of guitar people. There's very few people that combine it together with singing, scatting, whistling and that kind of stuff with true talent."

Weir would go on to become the person who encouraged Chen to upload videos of her performances onto his YouTube channel, ensuring the Taiwanese musician that things would go well for her. "I said, Ponpon, put your email in the video because the videos had done so well and I bet someone's gonna get a hold of you."

Lo and behold, WNN came knocking on her door in early May after ABC News' production team saw the two videos of her playing in jazz clubs around L.A.

Knock, knock, it's The Doors

Speaking with CNA, Chen said she received the invite to perform for WNN via an email, but initially thought the letter was a scam.

She explained that she went to the U.S. three years ago to further study jazz, leaving little time for TV, let alone news.

"I remember that my first reaction of course was a sense of happiness," she said. "It sounded like a TV station but I had never heard of it. And then of course I thought 'hm ... could this be a scam?'"

The artist said to focus on jazz piano, she doesn't even own a television, which was why ABC News was a title that meant so little to her that she was skeptical.

Chen said she eventually called the owner of the studio to ask him "Hey have you heard of a company called ABC News?" which Tom Weir found amusing.

"She goes 'Did they get a hold of you?'" Weir laughed. "And I go 'yeah,' and she goes 'Is that any good?' I was like 'That's unbelievable! Let me see the email.' I couldn't believe it!"

Chen would go on to arrange her version of the World News Polka which aired on May 9.

On writing her interpretation of the famous jingle, Chen said while she has had a lot of experience performing live in the U.S., the polka was the first time that she had to arrange a tune.

She said she spent three days straight without sleep before completing the version which was shown just two days after she and her band recorded the track on May 7, an arrangement which Weir himself said was "really, really special."

"Tom gave me the idea (of the intro)," she said. "He asked me whether or not I had watched ABC, which I really had not, so he hummed the rhythm and told me that Americans will automatically know the news is coming on upon hearing the opening."

The 1:45 clip has since received 1.2 million views on ABC News' Facebook page alone, not counting other platforms including YouTube.

"I mean, look at what happened. Just three videos, and all sudden, she's on a national news show," Weir said.

"It's never happened with anyone I've worked with all these years, and very quick because Ponpon's so unique. There's no one like that around. She's getting her own genre. Let's see her own bag of style."

The Grammy winner went on to show off his high hopes for the Taiwanese artist who has already fit comfortably into L.A.'s vibrant music scene.

"Do you know that band The Doors?" Weir said with enthusiasm.

"We (Chen and the studio) just remade 'Light My Fire' with Robby Krieger (of The Doors), the guy who wrote Light My Fire and played guitar in that big hit! We just did a song. We just remade their song!"

Enditem/AW