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10th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival |
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Written by Ronaldo Oregano
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Friday, 30 September 2005 |
The 2005 Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival (AAJF) will celebrate its 10th year by exploring the history and development of Asian American music over the past decade. The AAJF will run through October 2005 at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Chicago Cultural Center, the HotHouse and Links Hall.
Initiated in 1996, the Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival was created in order to meet the needs for a venue to present creative works that address the Asian American experience. Inspired by the San Francisco Asian American Jazz Festival, the Chicago AAJF has grown into the largest event of its kind and is a greatly anticipated highlight of Chicago's vibrant cultural landscape. Though international in scope, the Chicago AAJF is committed to its Chicago roots, presenting resident Chicago artists as well as artists of national and international acclaim whose work advances the understanding of the Asian American cultural perspective.
Schedule of events:
October 1
The Museum of Contemporary Art
220 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago -
7:30pm
$18 general/$14 MCA members (Tickets are available at the MCA Box Office at (312) 397 4010, or www.mcachicago.org)
The opening weekend of the AAJF presents San Francisco saxophonist/composer Francis Wong's "Legends and Legacies Big Band" featuring many of the pioneers of the West Coast Asian American music movement, including pianist Jon Jang and spoken word artist Genny Lim as well as Chicago's legendary multi-instrumentalist, Mwata Bowden. Opening the evening will be spoken-word artist Kate Rigg with electric violinist Lyris Hung from New York.
Kate Rigg makes her Chicago debut with Lyris Hung on electric violin, performing Slanty Eye Mama, a trip-hop exploration of Asian-American identity.
October 2
The Museum of Contemporary Art
220 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago -
3pm
$12 general/only $2 for children under 12! (Tickets are available at the MCA Box Office at (312) 397 4010, or www.mcachicago.org)
On October 2 will be the Chicago Taiko Legacy program which features two of the nation's premiere taiko (Japanese drumming) artists and their ensembles: Chicago's Hide Yoshihashi and JASC Tsukasa Taiko along with Melody Takata and her Gen Taiko ensemble from San Francisco. Don't miss this thunderous drumming exhibition as these dynamic groups battle it out during this family-friendly Sunday matinee performance.
 Jon Jang
Artists Up Close
Two events bring together the audience and the artists during the festival. On October 1, at 6:30 pm, a pre-performance conversation, "Asian American Jazz Retrospective," features Francis Wong, Jon Jang, and Tatsu Aoki. An October 2 pre- performance talk begins at 2 pm with Deborah Wong, Hide Yoshihashi, Melody Takata, and Tatsu Aoki speaking about Chicago Taiko development.
October 8
The Chicago Cultural Center
78 E. Washington Street, Chicago -
2pm
Free Admission! This concert will be a CD release party for "Graphic Evidence" a collective ensemble project featuring New York violinist Jason Kao Hwang, San Francisco saxophonist Francis Wong and Chicago bassist Tatsu Aoki.
An opening performance will be presented by daegum (Korean transverse flute) virtuoso and Chicago resident artist, Ms. Hyun Chung Kim.
October 8
The HotHouse 31 E. Balbo Avenue, Chicago -
8pm
$18 general, $15 students (tickets available at the door or on-line at www.hothouse.net)
This program features Japanese swing jazz group "Soul Food Cafe" from Tokyo. Also this evening will be a very special retrospective program of two of the leading Asian American musicians on Chicago's jazz scene, Steve Hashimoto and Yoko Noge. Closing out the night will be saxophonist Jeff Chan's "big fUn philharmonic: Chicago-style" featuing Avreeayl Ra, Kirk Brown, Ed Wilkerson Jr., Taku Akiyama and artists featured at the 10th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival.
October 20, 21, 22
Links Hall 3435 N. Sheffield Avenue, 2nd floor, Chicago -
8pm
$12 general, $10 students (RSVP for tickets at (773) 281-0824) http://www.linkshall.org/p-oct.htm
"Living Memory/Living Absence" is a multi-media work that marks the return of Cambodian American artist, Anida Yoeu Esguerra, to her birth country after 25 years of absence. A musical performance by taiko/shamisen (Japanese lute) artist Amy Homma will open each show.
The 10th Anniversary of the Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, the Illinois Humanities Council, Meet The Composer's Creative Connections Program and the dedication and generosity of our friends in the community.
The 10th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival is a program of Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW). AIRMW is an Illinois-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to the presentation, development, study and documentation of the Asian American cultural arts.
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 Tuesday, 02 December 2008
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