Moments

Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, I have been working on a memoir that reflects upon my experiences as a community worker and musician. A recurring theme is the lessons I have learned through my various personal and working relationships over the decades. I have begun to share these stories informally through a series of chapbooks. What follows are a few of the chapbook entries that explore how various influences have shaped my thoughts about a career—or rather, a life—as an independent artist.The first entry was read as part of a panel presentation with Jon Jang and Dr. Loren Kajikawa at the “Asian American Jazz: Past, Present, and Future” symposium. It discusses how I began my career under Jon's tutelage. The rest of the vignettes concern our development of Asian Improv Records and my experiences with dear friends, such as dance artist Sachiko Nakamura, pianist-composer Glenn Horiuchi, and multi-instrumentalist Tatsu Aoki. I also include a discussion of how my experiences as a student activist have influenced my approaches to working in the community.There is a song written and performed by Abbey Lincoln called “You Gotta Pay the Band,” which speaks to me quite deeply. As with a lot of her songs, there are profound messages here, especially the lines that say, “Everybody living / Pays their share of dues.”1 The song has a broader meaning—one needs to take responsibility for one's life, to “own it”—but it also has a particular meaning for musicians and other artists trying to sustain themselves and their work. For me—as a composer, bandleader, and producer—this has meant paying attention to where my support comes from, as well as my own responsibility to provide support.Although I played paying gigs as a teenage violinist, my professional career began at Stanford some time in 1981–82 when Jon Jang invited me to play with him at the People's Teahouse (by then, I was trying to play the saxophone). The Teahouse was an independent, student-run shop adjacent to the Asian American dorm. It served ramen, bao, siu mai, almond cookies, arare, and tea—and stayed open till midnight! The proceeds went to community organizations that the Teahouse volunteers would pick. It really was part of an amazing community-building process among Asian American students on campus during the early days of the student movement at Stanford, beginning in the early to mid-1970s.2 A poster at the Teahouse said something to the effect of “Food for the people, food for the soul, funds for the community!”There happened to be an upright piano in the Teahouse, and they sometimes hosted a band called Jazz-min (人). They even paid musicians who performed there! One night, Jon was invited. He said to me, “Come play!” I had just started playing saxophone, but Jon took a chance on me. Amid the bank of steamers with cha siu bao, shiu mai on hot plates, and rows of ramen steeping in bowls of boiled water (providing quite the fragrant ambience), Jon and I went through a program of standards (if you consider Ornette Coleman's “Broken Shadows” a standard, for example). Steam some frozen bao, cook a package of ramen, maybe put on Jon's Self-Portrait album: You're there! We were well received, in any case, which was nice. Just another night at the People's Teahouse.When the evening was over, Jon handed me $25. “Huh?,” I said. I'd just figured that here was Jon Jang, the conservatory graduate and gigging musician, whereas I was kind of a beginner. But with his grand generosity, which I have known now for 40 years, Jon said, “You're a musician; you get paid.” It was a transformative moment.Jon would school me on getting gigs and how to show appreciation to one's fellow musicians. Fundamental to the ethic was promoting the fact that we were in this together. Also critical was passing on the knowledge we'd learned about how to effectively lead bands, so that we could all contribute to our getting work. In this way, we created an economy of sorts.Back to Abbey Lincoln's song: Beyond the crucial idea that we need to be supported for our work, I also came away with new means of thinking about mutual accountability between communities and artists. And this has been essentially the way the crew at Asian Improv and I pursue support for our work. We are committed to our work because we understand that there are those out in the community—in our Asian communities and beyond—that believe, and are ready to demonstrate in meaningful ways, that “You Gotta Pay the Band!”. . . And so, Poston Sonata, Glenn Horiuchi's first CD, featuring him and his aunt Lillian Nakano, was born (he had already made three critically acclaimed vinyl albums). It was 1991. He would record everything at home, even mastering the recording to analog tape there, before sending it to the factory for duplication. He had already, like so many of us, purchased keyboards, software, and recording equipment, setting up his home studio. With the low cost of digital recording and CD manufacturing, one could produce a project for less than half the cost of producing a vinyl LP.We were pretty nerdy, engaging with the new technology, in a new phase of our creative work. It was our way, along with other do-it-yourself (DIY) peers in the field, to act as independent producers. We would not wait to be discovered. We would be artistically productive, directly reaching out and building community around our work. I remember Glenn being particularly excited about a software program he bought for about $10 called My Mailing List!Underlying this way of working, of course, is what is called the entrepreneurial spirit. But added to this was his community's own history of ethnic economic support in the face of racist and exclusionary atmospheres in any field of work. While I was already learning Jon Jang's way, I would also learn Horiuchi's, based upon his particular genius and background, when he joined the Asian Improv movement.I learned so much between 1984 and 2000 while playing in his bands: Main Force; Unit A with William Roper; Shamisen Quintet and Trio with Lillian Nakano; the Octet. Gigging in grand venues like the Japan Society and the Asia Society in New York, and the Berliner Philharmonie, as well as the Little Tokyo Village Plaza, the Japanese American National Museum, and Harbor College in Santa Monica, along with so many recording sessions at Pacifica Studios.I cherished all those visits to Los Angeles, flying into Burbank at least a couple of times a year for rather intense week-long gigs, doing our work while hitting the colleges, community spaces, KPFK radio. And, of course, there was hanging out in bookstores, record stores, all sorts of hole-in-the-wall places—like the Thai taco joint we went to before recording sessions. Outlines of a culture—how we would sustain ourselves. I was so lucky to head out there two or more times a year. Somewhere to go; to do our thing.Glenn was such a productive person. How did he get it all done? He had his ways—various procedures and methods that he repeatedly carried out. Upon leaving for a gig, he would undertake his rituals, making sure nothing was forgotten. He wanted to ensure that, once out the door, we could focus on getting to the gig—especially in the case of those really long drive-times crisscrossing L.A., or heading to Orange County, or north to CalArts, in Valencia.Beyond his attention to detail in his projects, Glenn was a formidable strategist. All on his own, he entered arts administration, writing successful grant proposals at the local and statewide levels in order to support his creation and self-presentation of new works. He went even further in building his own traditional arts community program teaching shamisen in Little Tokyo with his aunt, Lillian Nakano (1928–2015). Lillian had been trained and certified as part of the Kineya tradition on the shamisen under the professional name Kineya Fukuju, and was a notable Japanese American movement activist who, formerly incarcerated herself, had played a key role in advocating and winning reparations for Japanese Americans interned in World War II concentration camps.3 She had been a profound influence on Glenn's musical and political development, and joined his band (myself included) on tours to New York, Seattle, Denver, Vancouver, and Berlin. Her husband, Bert Nakano, himself a noted redress and reparations activist (who was also formerly incarcerated) and a supporter of the arts, would join us on these trips.In so many ways, Glenn modeled the self-reliant and sustainable strategies that made for an exemplary, committed, and impactful career. Moreover, if one were to tag along with him through his weekly rounds, as I had the good fortune to do, one would get a deep sense of how many people and communities were, in turn, sustained by his contributions. The present-day nationwide Asian Improv arts community is certainly among them.More nerdiness: One time when I visited Glenn, back in the 1980s, he had just come back from an East Coast tour playing solo piano. It had gone well, but what he mainly wanted to talk about was a conversation he overheard between two other passengers. Apparently one of the passengers owned an art gallery. What Glenn gleaned from his eavesdropping was how they talked about artworks as investments for collectors. This was fairly common knowledge, of course. But it inspired Glenn to think about how to discuss our work as possible investments.We had a conversation for the few days about the of our work when as We had to some one was in the to in our people could our but our really the cost of recording and than that, the of the was by the and could be at at that in our career—or even one wanted to own our work in the way a or a took an idea that had been is a good that be owned by the who from the the for in or other One of the from the once the arts to or other He this to there was for the this for for the arts, community could how they could join the by or that could the work. A of this was when Japanese American community and their to to Glenn's Poston Sonata, a work for and It was a way of Glenn for his role in that community to out for redress and The work would known as one of Glenn's as a in our grant the work as an of a musical work a The of the Poston could also a work that the could or our work was of and that if our of work over be as a as a could get paid for our the such as an In this way, of our would contribute to our to at us for and and our as an to the community at are the of our work, This is where we had to be more or at least We had to a case that our own community's history and were and to a We would have to through quite a of and because we up in the when was the of I remember being so to do you on that you are I so lucky to have been part of that us to on to the that we were about I would even that I was to be an artist to up my Asian on what levels was our work of to the broader Beyond the discussion of the role of art in of life, we would that our work and about and work the of our that be Moreover, our work and we not for paid but also support for We and our so as to an in their over Glenn began to get for new from as well as from or the and the of Los He would for that, along with their would the of for those and as of course, made of the musical through even more It would also and means of for a work. We had to in all sorts of that our case for the of our work. But what is the way of the also take a to the fact of this Glenn was an and committed as we made our way in our when about my I say, learned so much as an that I to a while they have not to my did provide me with that me contribute to the I to Stanford, there was a of World among the and graduate I like to think of it as the were of political and movement to from to like The of to by such as the a and activist from was particularly by a his How It was the first time I an of the of on The in the was pretty in that we were not just any We were to just a few in he was the of a political at the of about and a in A he had up in the of the for from the of was in had come to Stanford in through the of the He was to the program at the school and in the East was an part of the and there was a movement to it a some wanted to the teaching in was an of the to a kind of in and like of the that and visited upon World In to he with the on and as well as other with of his Stanford was quite a for and he was He would say, they were to me I would be to like We in of the as well as the of was trying to a for an economic from World I was part of a of students who to on his This was during that in which the of the movement were beginning to be back in had a on me, He invited me to at his home and with other pretty amazing to He really about the his experiences as a activist and We stayed in he Stanford, and he my I him a of Jon Jang's or and he put it on his his he said, pretty I learned how to at and our ethnic as of He talked about between of a I this in my own work as that are and to our of our from first to Asian American to any kind of Asian American in my year as a The Asian American Asian American which was in and would for more than years, had been invited to at Stanford in the Asian American theme dorm. I kind of and into the which took in our They up the and the to the of the the had that from all the and served that so I in their on the and kind of I had my share of that as part of my and I that my fellow had a the show went it was were around who really the doing work that to our experiences as Asian The first that my attention was by Sachiko I was the They started like around like this called The was called the Village People's as an A now a on and was one of the in his The two to be on a and and a more there was another by Sachiko with called which inspired by an of a was one of those a of Asian Americans in movement based on Asian American in one of the early of Asian American arts a for the arts community we have in the I would work with who was one of the A Sachiko was among the first of artists who were also arts and She was at the of the Asian American which was one of the first organizations to for the of the “Asian with on three of her and I the with made of with in and stories of her of in school with I played a as a her It was an to show my own, II the with hanging and was of The theme was of from and to through She of the in with the I into the playing a have the In I had to be not to be was to to take on with in New in to a American and in of all at the National the on the with to a New York, we stayed in an on the just the from the where I played with this in It was pretty amazing working in and also hanging with in the dance I once for and with but you me to another of her a and artist with the had her graduate project at on Glenn Horiuchi's We also a mutual and in I was already in my I came to that this with was my in Asian American few invited me to be part of a new project by called It was a new kind of work and for me, in that had a of artists to a together. It had a performed by and a that at the of the out a of playing and joined me in the band for that had wanted me to her her dance series and had even some to the It was so that we her so that, through this work with and other work that I in the I really from my as a into a artist with Asian American and I to the of that our Asian American movement and experiences in producing work. In learning and relationships the of and I would an that my work is but a to this this this was and we were on tour in Jon Jang and the along with under the of and had been invited to in and the two more than musicians and of were Asian We performed at the and the was a the were and Also was the And We performed an in the of a The performed Jon's for and his of A in as well as to and who would in is known for his with and and the new performed dance work at the of the by a grant from the National for the with in by Jon and the when this was an Jon was already working with on the a few of us were to for the in the featuring by and My is of with a the in the of the for the tour were by The also did to the paid by the a grant from an called we performed in a a by had me to work in the a year in my first arts I professional from her as an of and musicians. was on of her role in the into a the there was a lot of and work. One of the I remember was for on the was the for such a this was before you could do this work I also package the grant to remember it as a really couple of The also made a tour of the in to home at the and in an We even the first of our own in of course, a productive of artists and I to have been a part of the up doing in my work is an of what I learned there, from to would be if I the crucial role that and the played in the to the of the and in among arts As was one of the few organizations to have an it the of Asian American artists and were through to or there, as were key arts community like and the In to work winning the grant for in and the for one of the first local directly arts played a role in one of the first Asian American arts which took at the and the of the by the was and is of my own career as an to the that essentially me on my way to focus on my my time in the It was pretty to have a creative artist to me that I do my own work. As is the case for a lot of my I with this along with Jon's and Glenn's in me, me along the the lessons learned about the role of as an for And I to this knowledge and to those who have it to me. leaving I joined her of on which I would for the time when I was to get about my own work the and a I with my own work the Asian Improv and Records in by Jon and me to and that the Asian American this my in that out of our Just of and of by then, of in the living and I was the for some of the early In came over to the times to the process of into the of his process in making the for this his and was an I by to me and on how we were it all was also when my was and my and I were to I remember Sachiko Nakamura, with I was working quite a when or if I would be getting other of work and on to the of the Records I was to get a lot of from Asian American artists excited by the fact that such a I would how of people some were to pursue their in by our of at the I good about being I started to the of this in my development, I had a fairly of the to up to I quite that more meant more work. I remember a conversation with Jon Jang, career had to the with his with and through on the about the to new artists. While we would about we kind of that it was our responsibility to the We also that we had to be open to the that new artists would for not than us, one of those artists was Tatsu who would be a for Asian Improv and for the field of Asian American Tatsu had been a to his for his first And, in my about the of the I was his a to but this was just before I began The would in these with and to be by This is Tatsu from I to if you my I much would like to with We that he called me or it was more than three or said, really think you this are so nice. And he like from the I made the it was all Tatsu a of and with him to Asian Improv that he had his career up to that He even had his own and which he had to and Japanese the It was the of what I had rather than a on us, this would our and I began to I of Japanese community of artists and their that an with the the for the of Tatsu would the and a of Asian Improv the of Asian Improv the at Asian Improv to of and arts and community so we through this process during the of making a for Asian American My with Tatsu has influenced all of our approaches to the over the decades. We an of the and created by a movement of artists in Asian American especially

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