Origins of Now Big Band: 30th Year Edition of the Asian American Jazz Festival
Sunday, September 28
TIME: 3:00pm-4:00pm
VENUE: West Stage. Midway Plaisance at South Ellis Ave.
A black and white photo of the band members standing side by side on a stage, some are holding their instruments. Tatsu Aoki is seated cross-legged in the front center.
Origins of Now Big Band: 30th Year Edition of the Asian American Jazz Festival
In celebration of 30 years of empowering Asian American music in Chicago, Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW) brings together a collective of musicians to draw upon the aesthetics of Chicago’s Asian American music with traditional music, experimental music, and creative jazz.
The celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Asian American Jazz Festival is made possible in part by support from the MacArthur Foundation.
Chicago’s Asian American Creative Jazz movement was influenced by the San Francisco Bay Area Asian American Jazz and Improvised Music movement led by Francis Wong, Jon Jang, Anthony Brown, Mark Izu, Glenn Horiuchi and Miya Masaoka in the 80’s. The San Francisco Asian American Jazz Festival was the inspiration for the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, which started 30 years ago at the city's Bop Shop and Hot House. Jon Jang’s Pan Asian Arkestra was presented in 1994, and Anthony Brown’s Asian American Orchestra was presented in 2000 at the Chicago Jazz Festival. In 2001, the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s executive director (at the time) Lauren Deutsch, initiated the inaugural Chicago version of Asian American Big Band, and created a residency program as a local Asian American initiative. Chicago Asian American creative musicians already had solid roots in the city both in Jazz/Creative and Blues music, yet recognition of this important history was few and far between. Thus the first Asian American Creative Jazz Big Band was born as a project, “Origins of Now” MIYUMI project big band. This was the first Asian American big band local in Chicago. Past iterations included the following musicians: Tatsu Aoki, Hiroshi Eguchi, Yoko Noge, Mia Park, Ryan Toguri, Taku Akiyama, Jason Matsumoto, Hide Yoshihashi, Toru Hironaka, Jonathan Chen, Ameen Muhammad, Mwata Bowden were the members. Project was reincarnated in 2006 and 2016 in slightly different formations.
The musicians:
Mai Sugimoto - reeds
Jeff Chan - saxophone
Jonathan Chen - violin
Jamie Kempkers - cello
Karl Evangelista - guitar
Tatsu Aoki - bass
Kioto Aoki - taiko, shamizen, tsuzuki
Noriko Sugiyama - taiko
SuWan Choi - Korean percussion
Miyumi Aoki - dance
OTHERS TBA