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DESCRIPTION:JazzCity premieres Tatsu Aoki and Miyumi Project's\nre: ROOTED\
 nwith special guests Jon Jang and Francis Wong\n\nWhat do Korean rock drum
 mers\, Japanese Taiko drummers\, Chinese folk singers\, and African-Americ
 an jazz musicians have in common?  The drum\, as it turns out\, unites the
 m all. Tatsu Aoki's re: Rooted project is the culmination of a community b
 ased project exploring Asian identity and cultural integration in three di
 fferent communities.  Marrying traditional and unconventional musical inst
 ruments and forms\, re:Rooted also blends the unique perspectives of older
  and younger generations of musicians.  Pianist Jon Jang and saxophonist F
 rancis Wong will bring new perspectives to the project.\n \nTatsu Aoki is 
 a fixture in the Chicago jazz scene\, and he has organized\, curated\, and
  produced its Asian American Jazz Festival since its inception. He is also
  an Issei-a Japanese immigrant-who self-identifies as Asian American.\n \n
 Aoki's long-term involvement in the Asian American creative improvisation 
 scene is well known\, but his more recent work with his band\, The Miyumi 
 Project suggests that the interface between the 'traditional' and the 'exp
 erimental' can create new forms of community-based transnational performan
 ce.  Aoki's achievements as a soloist notwithstanding\, he has also create
 d a body of music with an astounding variety of collaborators representing
  the stalwarts of Chicago's creative jazz traditions including Fred Anders
 on\, Von Freeman\, Afifi Phillard\, Mwata Bowden and Hamid Drake\, all the
  while maintaining his foothold in the rhythm & blues community with Elija
 h Levi and Yoko Noge   re: Rooted is a return to the composition the Jazz 
 Institute commissioned Aoki to write in 2001. Howard Reich of the Chicago 
 Tribune called it "an eloquent\, often dramatic merger of ancient Japanese
  music and experimental American jazz." Aoki has written\, "Who we are is 
 what we sound like\, and what we sound like is who we are."  This year Aok
 i returns to the theme with new ideas and new players to help him express 
 what is really a unique new form of the music: Asian American jazz.\n \nJo
 n Jang has broken barriers and genres as a composer\, pianist and artistic
  director of ensembles in developing original works noted for their compel
 ling mix of different influences and sounds.  Jang and James Newton were c
 ommissioned to compose Cantata for Paul Robeson and Mei Manfang\, a work w
 hich features an African American baritone\, Chinese soprano\, jazz quarte
 t\, chamber music ensemble and African and Chinese instrumentation.  As th
 e artistic director and pianist of the Pan Asian Arkestra and the Jon Jang
  Sextet\, which features David Murray and Chen Jiebing\, Mr. Jang's ensemb
 les have toured at major jazz festivals and concerts in South Africa\, Eur
 ope\, Canada and the United States. He has also collaborated and performed
  with Max Roach and Sonia Sanchez\, among many others.\n\nFrancis Wong has
  been a performer on the saxophone and the flute for the past 20 years and
  a composer for the past 16 years. As a saxophonist\, he is recognized as 
 carrying on the legacy of that instrument in American music\, owing a part
 icular debt to the work of John Coltrane\, Sonny Rollins and the contempor
 ary master\, David Murray. In addition to the African American masters\, h
 e is inspired by the late Native American saxophonist Jim Pepper and the r
 espected Persian American saxophonist and scholar Hafez Modirzadeh.\n \nTh
 e full composition will be performed on July 27th as part of a new series 
 co-programmed by the Jazz Institute and Millennium Park called Made in Chi
 cago: World Class Jazz. The 8-concert series will highlight the ways in wh
 ich the Chicago music scene continues to influence musicians from around t
 he globe. This summer series will explore the Chicago jazz community and t
 he connections it has created throughout the world.\n \nThe JazzCity serie
 s is an innovative music education series that traces the evolution of Swi
 ng\, Bebop\, Latin-Jazz and Free-Jazz\, highlighting Chicago's rich histor
 ical jazz legacy with legendary local musicians. Several programs travel c
 itywide-repeating the themes of Bebop Brass\, Saxophone Summit\, Big Band/
 Big Dance and Sonidos Calientes (Hot Sounds)\, with a different roster of 
 performers presenting their interpretations of the themes at each park. Th
 rough oral history\, workshops and concerts\, JazzCity reconnects Chicago'
 s communities to their own jazz history and America's own art form.\n\nAll
  programs are free and open to the public - seating may be limited. For mo
 re information\, please call 312/427-1676.\n\nThe Chicago Jazz and Heritag
 e Program is a program of the Chicago Park District and the Jazz Institute
  of Chicago.\nThe Jazz Institute is supported by\nThe Alphawood Foundation
 \, The Illinois Arts Council\, a state agency\; a CityArts grant from the 
 Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs\, The Benjamin Rosenthal Foundation
 \, The Polk Bros. Foundation\, The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundatio
 n\, MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at the Richard Driehaus Foundation
 .\n
DTSTAMP:20240425T120014Z
SUMMARY:Tatsu Aoki and Miyumi Project's re: ROOTED
URL:/en/events/2006/05/12/re-rooted-chicago/
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