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| The Luckman Presents Los Angeles ÂThe 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, three musicians from Melody of China and special guest Max Roach. Melody of ChinaÂs afternoon concert of traditional Chinese music will be performed by Hong Wang on multiple instruments, Yangqin Zhao on yangqin (hammered dulcimer), Gangqin on guzheng (Chinese table harp); Wenpeng Guo on sheng (mouth organ), Linhong Li on pipa (lute), Haiyue Zhang on ruan (moon guitar), and Wei Wang on percussion. The evening program will feature pianist Jon Jang and legendary drummer Max Roach in a duo format, and the L.A. première of JangÂs ÂUp from the Root! performed by the Flying Dragon Company. Flying Dragon, under JangÂs direction, 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 (Âwhere the root falls, it shall growÂ), and created a new American work based on Chinese tradition. ÂUp from the Root! is a suite of three to four movements, one still unfinished, including: I. ÂMoonlight Night in Xunyang, II. ÂJasmine Among the Magnolias (dedicated to Robert Seto Quan and the Mississippi Chinese), and III. ÂWhen the Snake Celebrates the Golden Dance. Commissioned by the Rockefeller Multi Arts Production and Creativity Fund with support from Meet The Composer New Residencies Program, the work is dedicated to Professor Ling-chi Wang at the University of California at Berkeley. About the Artists 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 Â...among the great saxophonists of his generation. Max Roach is hailed as the worldÂs 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 YorkÂs 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 Future Jazz Programming at the Luckman WHAT: WHO: WHEN: WHERE: TICKETS: INFO: All programs and artists subject to change.
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