October 2001
Tatsu Aoki's 'Rooted: The Origins of Now,' during Asian American Jazz Fest at the MCA
by Howard Reich, METROMIX (TRIBUNE Interactive)

With a phalanx of Japanese taiko drummers to his right, a screaming jazz horn section to his left and a jubilant rock drummer at stage center, Chicago bandleader Tatsu Aoki was engulfed in sound.

More important, Aoki—headlining this year's Asian American Jazz Festival—arranged for the glorious collision of several distinct musical idioms, from ancient Japanese drumming to classic Chicago blues to up-to-the-minute improvisation.
In August, when Aoki unveiled his orchestral suite "Rooted: The Origins of Now" at Ping Tom Memorial Park, it sounded somewhat rambling and unfocused. But Aoki clearly has been honing the work ever since, for his performance with his multicultural big band Saturday night at the Museum of Contemporary Art gave the Asian American Jazz Festival its most triumphant moments.

From the day Aoki began writing this suite more than a year ago, he conceived of a work that would underscore musical elements shared by Japanese percussion, jazz rhythm and free, avant-garde improvisation. But that's a tall order, for the heavy rhythmic accents that define Japanese taiko drumming do not easily yield to the looser swing rhythms that course through almost the entire history of American jazz. Moreover, the simple motifs of Japanese folkloric music bear scant relation to the typically complex solos at which jazz horn players excel.
Nevertheless, Aoki and his big band proved beyond doubt that all the aforementioned musical languages can converge to fantastic effect, so long as the players know the score intimately and the composer has edited a previously discursive work. In a four-movement suite that includes many indelible moments, a few stood out. To hear the massive taiko drumbeats that opened the work answered by the roaring, hard-swing lines of the brass and reeds was to behold two cultures in urgent musical dialogue.

By the second movement, Aoki had turned to the past, with violinist Jonathen Chen playing a simple folk melody evoking music of Japanese antiquity. Once again, the Japanese themes were answered by their American counterpart, the blues, as articulated by Aoki himself on standup bass. By using a small glass as a slide, Aoki eloquently transferred the sound of classic Delta guitar to the acoustic bass.

But not every climactic passage of this piece was composed, for Aoki left plenty of room for solo improvisation. The most memorable statements came from trumpeter Ameen Muhammad, drawing extraordinary shrieks and howls from his instrument; baritone saxophonist Mwata Bowden, whose low-register rumbles had to be heard to be believed; and singer Yoko Noge, who established palpable links between Japanese melody and American blues phrasings.
Compared with Aoki's galvanic work, the evening's first band got off to a slow start, with surprisingly monochromatic music from violinist Eyvind Kang's Trio. Eventually, however, Kang and his players—Raz Mesinai on hand-held percussion and Amir Koushkani on Persian tar (a six-stringed lute)—thickened the texture and intensified the rhythmic momentum.
If the Saadet Turkoz Trio was less effective Sunday night at the MCA, it wasn't because this group's Turkish songs lacked fascinating melodies and expressively bent pitches. But even with lush and adventurous instrumental support of violinist Kang and guitarist Elliott Sharp, Turkoz's hour-plus vocals wearied an audience that had been given no translation of her text.
Even so, one applauds the planners of the Asian American Jazz Festival for the sheer fearlessness of their bookings. Perhaps that's why this event has become the largest of its kind in the country—as well as the best.

Copyright 2001 Tribune Interactive