Asian American Jazz Festival 2002

09/26/02

CONTACT:
Adele Field
Luckman Complex
(323) 343-6616

Calendar
of Events

The Luckman Presents
ASIAN AMERICAN JAZZ 2002
in Los Angeles

Los Angeles —The San Francisco-based Asian American Jazz Festival comes to Los Angeles for the first time in its 21-year history, on Saturday, October 19, at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, California State University, Los Angeles. Presented this year in five cities, Asian American Jazz 2002 includes two events at the Luckman: a matinee at 3:00 p.m. of traditional Chinese music by Melody of China, and an 8:00 p.m. evening jazz concert with Jon Jang, Francis Wong, Melody of China and special guest Max Roach.

The evening program will feature the L.A. première of "Up from the Root!" a new work by Jon Jang commissioned by the Rockefeller Multi Arts Production and Creativity Fund with support from Meet The Composer New Residencies Program. “Up from the Root!” will be performed by the Flying Dragon Company under the direction of Jon Jang. Flying Dragon is composed of Francis Wong, tenor saxophone; Jon Jang, piano; and the following musicians from Melody of China: Yangqin Zhao on yangqin, Hong Wang on erhu, zhonghu and suona, and Wei Wang on Chinese percussion.

Inspired by the first Chinese diaspora conference held in San Francisco in 1992, Jang has taken the theme of the conference, Luodi Shenggen (“where the root falls, it shall grow”), and created a new American work based on Chinese tradition. “Up from the Root!” is a suite of three to four movements, one still unfinished, including: I. “Moonlight Night in Xunyang,” II. “Jasmine Among the Magnolias (dedicated to Robert Seto Quan and the Mississippi Chinese), and III. “Variation on a Golden Snake Dance.” The work is dedicated to Professor Ling-chi Wang at the University of California at Berkeley.

About the Artists
Jon Jang was born on March 11, 1954 in Los Angeles. After the tragic loss of his father in a two plane collison over the Grand Canyon in 1956, Jon and his brother and sister were raised singlehandedly by his mother in Palo Alto. Not following his mother’s dream of becoming a chemical engineer like his late father, Jon dropped out of academia and began piano lessons at the late age of 19. Since then, Jang has followed his own path of creating music which has become "two flowers on a stem," a metaphor expressing the symbiotic relationship of his cultural identity as a Chinese American as well as his musical philosophy of honoring tradition and encouraging innovation. "My music does not come from the third stream, but the flowing stream." As a composer, Jang has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Library of Congress, Kronos Quartet, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Chanticleer, Brava! for Women in the Arts, Kulintang Arts and others. Last year Jang was one of six artists awarded New Residency from Meet the Composer. As a pianist and artistic director, Jon Jang has toured with his ensembles at major concert halls and music festivals in China, South Africa (1994), Europe, Canada and the United States. With over ten recordings as a leader or collaborator, Jang has recorded with distinguished artists such as Max Roach, Maxine Hong Kingston, James Newton, David Murray, Zhang Yan and Jiebing Chen.

Francis Wong has been a performer on the saxophone and the flute for the past 20 years and a composer for the past 16 years. He is currently a Meet The Composer New Resident in the San Francisco Bay Area and a recording artist for Asian Improv Records. He leads the ensemble Gathering of Ancestors in addition to directing many special projects. He is a frequent collaborator with musicians Tatsu Aoki, Elliot Humberto Kavee, William Roper and with poet/performer Genny Lim. He has also worked with the late Glenn Horiuchi, with Jon Jang, John Tchicai, James Newton, Cecil Taylor, Anthony Brown and Liu Qi-Chao. He has composed scores for choreographers Sachiko Nakamura and Pearl Ubungen and for theater companies San Francisco Mime Troupe, Thick Description and A World of Tales. He is co-founder and Creative Director of Asian Improv aRts, a 15-year-old multidisciplinary arts production company. As a saxophonist, he is recognized as carrying on the legacy of that instrument in American music, owing a particular debt to the work of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and the contemporary master, David Murray. In addition to the African American masters, he is inspired by the late Native American saxophonist Jim Pepper and the respected Persian American saxophonist and scholar Hafez Modirzadeh. San Francisco Examiner critic Philip Elwood has named Wong “...among the great saxophonists of his generation.”

Max Roach is hailed as the world’s greatest trap drummer, but that is only one of his musical feats. As a musical explorer, performer, composer, musicologist and educator, he has served as an ambassador to the vast universe of sound, ushering in new movements in music for the past six decades. His career serves as a timeline that traces the rise of American music as the dominant musical force of the 20th century. In the 1940s, he was there experimenting with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Oscar Pettiford, Coleman Hawkins, and Thelonious Monk. His first theatre job was in 1942, when he was called to sub for Sonny Greer with the great Duke Ellington Orchestra at New York’s Paramount Theater; he was 18 years old. For the last two decades, he has been experimenting with new ensembles, mixed media collaborations and performance art. Mr. Roach has also composed a tremendous body of music, maintained a teaching career, and continues to act as an impresario in developing new music ensembles.

Melody of China, a Chinese music ensemble based in the San Francisco Bay Area, was formed in 1993 by a group of enthusiastic professional musicians from some of the most prestigious music conservatories in China. The ensemble, headed by multi-instrumentalist Hong Wang, has a twofold mission: to promote Chinese classical, folk, and contemporary music, and to provide quality entertainment through the synergy between an ancient cultural tradition and the youthful, multicolored American culture. More information is available in both Chinese and English online at www.melodyofchina.com.

Asian American Jazz Festival Background
The Asian American Jazz Festival is the oldest continuous jazz festival in San Francisco. The Festival began as an idea of poet/writer George Leong. In 1981, Leong, members of the Kearny Street Workshop, and representatives of the Asian American jazz community worked together to produce the first AAJF. This festival highlighted the history of Asian American participation in jazz, from bebop to jazz fusion to free jazz. In its 21-year history, the festival has presented hundreds of artists and created an international awareness of the significant contributions of Asian American musicians in cross cultural musical expression. Today, the festival is also presented in Los Angeles, San Jose, Chicago, and at Swarthmore College in Philadelphia. Information is available online at www.asianimprov.com.

Future Jazz Programming at the Luckman
The next jazz event at the Luckman will be the Luckman Jazz Orchestra’s Charles Mingus 80th Birthday Celebration Concert (November 23), supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Luckman Jazz Orchestra, conducted by James Newton, was formed in 2001 as the resident orchestra of the Harriet & Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State L.A. Newton is also a professor of music at Cal State L.A. and the Luckman director of music programming and research. For 21 years he has been voted top jazz flutist in the Downbeat critics’ poll. Other jazz concerts scheduled for the Luckman’s 2002-03 season include Bobby Rodriguez’ LatinJazz Christmas (December 7), Winter Blues: Bobby Bland (February 1), and the Jazz on the Latin Side Allstars (April 5).

WHAT:
Asian American Jazz Festival: Asian American Jazz 2002

WHO:
Jon Jang, Francis Wong, Melody of China, special guest Max Roach

WHEN:
Saturday, October 19, 3:00 p.m. – traditional Chinese music by Melody of China
Saturday, October 19, 8:00 p.m. – jazz concert featuring Jon Jang’s “Up From the Root!”

WHERE:
Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State L.A., 5151 State University Dr., Los Angeles

TICKETS:
$35/$30/$25, discounts available for students, seniors, and groups.
Luckman Box Office (323) 343-6600 or TicketMaster (213) 365-3500 / www.ticketmaster.com

INFO:
(323) 343-6600 / www.luckmanfineartscomplex.org

All programs and artists subject to change.

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