Asian American jazz
Encyclopedia
Asian American jazz is a musical movement in the United States
begun in the 20th century by Asian American
jazz
musicians.
Although Asian Americans had been performing jazz music almost since that music's inception, it was not until the late 20th century when a distinctly Asian American brand of jazz began to develop. In the 1970s and early 1980s, West Coast musicians such as Gerald Oshita
, Glenn Horiuchi
, Anthony Brown, Jon Jang
, Mark Izu
, and Russel Baba, as well as New Yorkers
like Fred Ho
and Jason Kao Hwang
, began to create a hybrid music that was reflective of their ancestral heritages and experiences as Asian Americans, but which was at the same time also rooted in jazz, a music of African American
origin. Most of the first musicians associated with the movement were of Japan
ese or Chinese
ancestry, though more recently musicians of Philippine
, Vietnam
ese, India
n, and Iran
ian descent have also become active.
Often, Asian American jazz combines standard jazz instruments with Asian instruments (such as taiko
, shamisen
, erhu
, suona
, or kulintang
), which are often performed by musicians from Asia. Also, they may play jazz instruments in a manner imitative of Asian instruments. Many Asian American jazz ensembles also include musicians who are not of Asian descent.
Of particular significance to the development and promotion of the movement are the San Francisco Asian American Jazz Festival (1981-2006) and the Asian Improv record label, as well as the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival begun by Chicago musician Tatsu Aoki
.
One of the first and most prominent Asian American jazz bands is the Japanese American
fusion jazz
band Hiroshima
, which was formed in 1974. In 2000, Anthony Brown's Asian American Orchestra received a Grammy
nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance for their recording of Ellington-Strayhorn's Far East Suite.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
begun in the 20th century by Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musicians.
Although Asian Americans had been performing jazz music almost since that music's inception, it was not until the late 20th century when a distinctly Asian American brand of jazz began to develop. In the 1970s and early 1980s, West Coast musicians such as Gerald Oshita
Gerald Oshita
Gerald Oshita was an American musician, composer, and sound recordist.Oshita, who was of Japanese ancestry, lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and specialized in unusual wind instruments, particularly those of especially low register...
, Glenn Horiuchi
Glenn Horiuchi
Glenn Horiuchi was an American jazz pianist, composer, and shamisen player. He was a central figure in the development of the Asian American jazz movement....
, Anthony Brown, Jon Jang
Jon Jang
Jon Jang is an American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader. Of Chinese ancestry, he is active in the Asian American jazz movement and specializes in music which combines elements of jazz and Asian musics....
, Mark Izu
Mark Izu
Mark Izu is an American jazz double bass player and composer. He is of Japanese ancestry and frequently combines jazz with Asian traditional musics in his compositions. He has performed with Anthony Brown and Jon Jang. Mark Izu is a seminal leader in the'Asian American Jazz movement...
, and Russel Baba, as well as New Yorkers
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
like Fred Ho
Fred Ho
Fred Ho is an American jazz baritone saxophonist, composer, bandleader, playwright, writer, and social activist....
and Jason Kao Hwang
Jason Kao Hwang
Jason Kao Hwang is a Chinese American violinist and composer.A versatile performer, Hwang focuses primarily on jazz and improvised musics, and has a particular interest in cross-cultural projects...
, began to create a hybrid music that was reflective of their ancestral heritages and experiences as Asian Americans, but which was at the same time also rooted in jazz, a music of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
origin. Most of the first musicians associated with the movement were of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese or Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
ancestry, though more recently musicians of Philippine
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n, and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian descent have also become active.
Often, Asian American jazz combines standard jazz instruments with Asian instruments (such as taiko
Taiko
means "drum" in Japanese . Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming...
, shamisen
Shamisen
The , also called is a three-stringed, Japanese musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usually "shamisen" but sometimes "jamisen" when used as a suffix . -Construction:The shamisen is a plucked stringed instrument...
, erhu
Erhu
The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a "southern fiddle", and sometimes known in the Western world as the "Chinese violin" or a "Chinese two-stringed fiddle". It is used as a solo instrument as well as in small ensembles...
, suona
Suona
The suona ; also called laba or haidi is a Han Chinese shawm . It has a distinctively loud and high-pitched sound, and is used frequently in Chinese traditional music ensembles, particularly those that perform outdoors...
, or kulintang
Kulintang
Kulintang is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of small, horizontally-laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums...
), which are often performed by musicians from Asia. Also, they may play jazz instruments in a manner imitative of Asian instruments. Many Asian American jazz ensembles also include musicians who are not of Asian descent.
Of particular significance to the development and promotion of the movement are the San Francisco Asian American Jazz Festival (1981-2006) and the Asian Improv record label, as well as the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival begun by Chicago musician Tatsu Aoki
Tatsu Aoki
is a jazz double bass player and record producer.Aoki is an active musician in the field of Asian American jazz and is the founder and artistic director of...
.
One of the first and most prominent Asian American jazz bands is the Japanese American
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
fusion jazz
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
band Hiroshima
Hiroshima (band)
Hiroshima is an American jazz fusion/smooth jazz band formed in 1974 by Sansei Japanese American Dan Kuramoto , Peter Hata , June Kuramoto , Johnny Mori , Dave Iwataki and Danny Yamamoto...
, which was formed in 1974. In 2000, Anthony Brown's Asian American Orchestra received a Grammy
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance for their recording of Ellington-Strayhorn's Far East Suite.
Musicians associated with the Asian American jazz movement
- Gabe BaltazarGabe BaltazarGabe Baltazar is a Filipino-American jazz alto saxophonist.Considered as one of the last great alumni from the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Baltazar moved to the U.S. mainland from Hawaii in the mid-1950s, to record music with Paul Togawa in 1957, and spent a brief unrecorded period in 1960 with the...
- Anthony Brown (musician)
- Jeff ChanJeff ChanJeff Chan was born in Concord, California on November 23, 1970. He is an Asian American tenor saxophonist and composer who is currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Chan is inspired by the work of African American creative musicians and takes note of the spirit of dedication, individuality,...
- Jiebing ChenJiebing ChenJiebing Chen is a Chinese musician based in the United States specializing in the erhu .Born in Shanghai, China, Chen went to the United States in 1989 to study at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she received an M.A...
- Charmaine ClamorCharmaine ClamorCharmaine Clamor is a Filipina jazz singer based in Hollywood, California best known for melding traditional Filipino folk songs and instruments with American jazz and blues in a newly developed musical genre called "Jazzipino"-Biography:...
(creator of "jazzipino") - Bobby EnriquezBobby EnriquezRoberto Delprado Yulo Enriquez , better known as Bobby Enriquez, was a Filipino jazz pianist who became prominent in the United States and well-known internationally.New York Times critic John S. Wilson wrote:Mr...
- Gene EssGene EssGene Ess is a Japanese American award winning guitarist who has a diverse background which contributes to his unique style. After Graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1989, Ess moved to New York in 1991 where his musical career soon took off...
- HiroshimaHiroshima (band)Hiroshima is an American jazz fusion/smooth jazz band formed in 1974 by Sansei Japanese American Dan Kuramoto , Peter Hata , June Kuramoto , Johnny Mori , Dave Iwataki and Danny Yamamoto...
- Fred HoFred HoFred Ho is an American jazz baritone saxophonist, composer, bandleader, playwright, writer, and social activist....
- Glenn HoriuchiGlenn HoriuchiGlenn Horiuchi was an American jazz pianist, composer, and shamisen player. He was a central figure in the development of the Asian American jazz movement....
- Jason Kao HwangJason Kao HwangJason Kao Hwang is a Chinese American violinist and composer.A versatile performer, Hwang focuses primarily on jazz and improvised musics, and has a particular interest in cross-cultural projects...
- Susie IbarraSusie IbarraSusie Ibarra is a Contemporary Composer and Percussionist who has worked and recorded with jazz, classical, world, and Indigenous musicians. She is known for her work as a performer in avant-garde, jazz, world and new music...
- Vijay IyerVijay IyerVijay Iyer is a jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, producer, electronic musician, and writer based in New York City.-Biography:Born in 1971 and raised in Rochester, New York, Vijay Iyer is the son of Indian Tamil immigrants to the US. He received 15 years of Western classical training on violin...
- Mark IzuMark IzuMark Izu is an American jazz double bass player and composer. He is of Japanese ancestry and frequently combines jazz with Asian traditional musics in his compositions. He has performed with Anthony Brown and Jon Jang. Mark Izu is a seminal leader in the'Asian American Jazz movement...
- Jon JangJon JangJon Jang is an American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader. Of Chinese ancestry, he is active in the Asian American jazz movement and specializes in music which combines elements of jazz and Asian musics....
- Jin Hi KimJin Hi KimKim Jin-Hi is a geomungo player and composer.She is known for introducing the geomungo to the wider world through her contemporary chamber and orchestral compositions and large-scale multimedia pieces, as well as her extensive work in avant-garde and cross-cultural free...
- Robbie Kwock
- Liu Qi-ChaoLiu Qi-ChaoLiu Qichao is a Chinese-born multi-instrumentalist. He graduated from the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He now lives in Los Angeles.-Instruments:...
- Lee Pui MingLee Pui MingLee Pui Ming is a Hong Kong-born pianist, vocalist, and composer. Her work combines elements of contemporary classical music, jazz, and Chinese music...
(based in Canada) - Melecio Magdaluyo
- Miya MasaokaMiya MasaokaMiya Masaoka is an American musician and composer who performs on the 17-string Japanese koto zither, often augmenting it with string preparations and electronic triggers...
- Hafez Modirzadeh
- Dawn Xiana Moon
- Meg OkuraMeg OkuraMeg Okura is a jazz violinist, ehru player, composer and leader of the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble, based in New York City. She is also a member of the band Pharaoh's Daughter, led by Basya Schechter.Okura was born in Tokyo, Japan...
- Gerald OshitaGerald OshitaGerald Oshita was an American musician, composer, and sound recordist.Oshita, who was of Japanese ancestry, lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and specialized in unusual wind instruments, particularly those of especially low register...
- Tom Toyama
- Francis WongFrancis WongFrancis Wong is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, and erhu player.He is of Chinese descent; his father is from Shanghai and his mother is Cantonese. He specializes in the fusion of free jazz and Asian musics, and is a central member in the Asian American jazz movement...