What's at Stake? Considering the Case for “Asian American Jazz”

This essay brings together my opening remarks as Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University with my concluding thoughts offered as the final speaker on a panel with Hafez Modirzadeh and Jen Shyu at the Asian American Jazz: Past, Present, Future symposium held on February 17, 2023.When I wrote “Silent But Not Silenced: Asian American Jazz” sixteen years ago, there was very little published on Asian American involvement in jazz.1 I drew from Susan Asai's “Cultural Politics: The African American Connection to Asian American Jazz-based Music”;2 Deborah Wong's Speak It Louder, with baritone saxophonist Fred Ho on its cover;3 George Yoshida's Reminiscing in Swingtime;4 and conversations with tenor saxophonist Francis Wong and pianist Jon Jang, among many other musicians, to help me hear the long history of Asian American musicians’ involvement with US-American popular music, and jazz in particular. Since then, there has been a small upswell of writing, authored by some of the speakers assembled here today for this spring 2023 symposium on Asian American jazz at Columbia University's Center for Jazz Studies.On a day devoted to thinking about Asian American involvement with jazz, I do want to ground our conversations in jazz production in Asia, because this occurs as early as the so-called Jazz Age of the 1920s, as Taylor Atkins and Fritz Schenker will detail for us this morning. Their opening panel is meant to explicitly acknowledge a “parallel” history of Asians performing jazz, wherever they have been located. Asian participation not only indicates the rapid globalization of jazz, particularly through recordings and radio, but it also speaks to the music's articulation of modernity, industrialization, and cultural commodification—concepts that accompanied the music and drew in Asian musicians and audiences who were invested in adopting a cosmopolitan perspective. I do not assume any necessary and organic relationship among the terms Asia, Asian America, Asians, and Asian Americans, as each of these are debatable categories themselves. Nevertheless, if we begin simply on a material, organological level, we should recognize that without Asian drums and cymbals, we would not have the modern trap drum set, as even a cursory look at photographs of percussion batteries gathered together by drummers in the early twentieth century unquestionably proves. In other words, Asians and their instruments have been a part of jazz since its emergence.Here in the United States, there have been and continue to be a number of Asian American (including expatriate Asian) jazz musicians who enjoy international recognition, such as Toshiko Akiyoshi, Jennifer Choi, Susie Ibarra, Vijay Iyer, Mark Izu, Takuya Kuroda, Grace Lee, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Linda May Han Oh, and Hiromi Uehara. Others, such as Tatsu Aoki, Anthony Brown, Ken Chan, John Chin, Masaru Koga, Miles Okazaki, Gerald Oshita, Akira Tana, Deems Akihiko Tsutakawa, and Samuel Yahel are known to a smaller group of jazz cognoscenti. Still others, such as Keiko Matsui, Jeff Kashiwa, and the band Hiroshima, perform the types of jazz that, while perhaps more visible than most of the artists mentioned, are rarely given serious engagement by scholars or journalists.There are older generations of jazz and jazz-adjacent pop musicians like Gabe Baltazar, Paul Higaki, Teal Joy (Elsie Itashiki), Joseph “Flip” Nunez, and Pat Suzuki who have largely sailed under the radar or been forgotten by the wider public. There are the Asian American jazz artists who made their careers in Asia a century ago, such as Alice Fumiko Kawabata (née Fumie Tachibana). Finally, there are musicians such as African American saxophonist Patrick Bartley who leads the Brooklyn-based J-Music Ensemble, a group whose book, or repertoire, consists of Bartley's jazz arrangements of music drawn from Japanese anime, computer games, and J-Pop. Can we say that Bartley's music is Asian American jazz in some way? Relatedly, we might ask about sonic difference. Why, we might ask, does Makoto Horiuchi's eponymous debut album on Quincy Jones's Qwest imprint end its credit notes by stating, “Makoto Horiuchi should not be confused with the fine young Japanese pianist Makoto Ozone”?5 Why would anyone mistake Horiuchi, a fusion (jazz-rock-funk) guitarist, with Ozone, an acoustic pianist who performs bebop-oriented jazz? Do Asians also all sound alike, no matter where they were born, what instrument they play, or what their surname might be?My point in mentioning these artists and asking these questions, some admittedly rhetorical, is twofold. First, I want to explicitly acknowledge that there is no way that we are going to address the full range of Asian American musicians who have engaged jazz musicking at our gathering today. This leads to my second point that there is a long history and a wide spectrum of musicking and musicians we might label “Asian American jazz” or “Asian American jazz musicians.” The question, then, for me, is not so much “what is Asian American jazz?” or “who is an Asian American jazz musician?,” nor is my project to map out a history or lineage of Asian American jazz musicians.Rather, I want to ask what is at stake when we say that Asian and Asian American musicians have taken part in jazz since its beginnings a little over a century ago. What are the stakes involved for musicians who claim that their Asian American identity informs their participation in jazz musicking? What is at stake in recognizing Asian-ness as a part of an artist's aesthetic palette at all? What is at stake in adopting a pan-Asian American identity (or aesthetics, for that matter) versus claiming a Vietnamese American identity, for instance, or claiming a mixed heritage, including the somewhat controversial category hapa?6 What might be shared or held as unique among the musicians and their musicking in the Asian Pacific, the Asian Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, and the Asian Mediterranean, let alone in Asian America? Are there shared aesthetics? Are there productive discrepancies? Are any of these musicians, with their varied aesthetics and geographies, related in any fashion at all?In bringing together this mix of scholars and musicians for this day of conversation and discussion, I hope to get at some of the issues these questions raise, underlined by an understanding that “Asian American-ness” does not automatically assume an individual's identification with Asia or with Asian-ness as mobilized through dominant US racial discourse. While everyone will be using the term “Asian American” throughout the day-long symposium, individuals will likely be addressing distinct—similar, perhaps, but not identical—cultural formations, identity claims, and aesthetic choices mobilized under the sign “Asian American.” There is also the complication of applying the term to different historical conjunctures, particularly when discussing groups or individuals prior to the term's emergence in the 1960s, as well as in discussions regarding the continuing political or aesthetic utility of the term today.In any case, Asians have long been in the Americas. Filipinos are documented in what is now Louisiana as early as the sixteenth century as members of transpacific trade circuits. When the Chinese were officially excluded from the United States in 1882, it meant that they were a significant enough presence in the US-American political imaginary by the late nineteenth century to warrant congressional action (not to mention the Asiatic Exclusion League of the early twentieth century or the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 between the United States and Japan, which came about as a result of anti-Japanese education policies in San Francisco, California). Still, despite their deep historical roots in this country, Asians do not fit into the normative US-American racial discourse predicated on a Black/white racial paradigm—a notion that also underpins conventional jazz histories. Granted, Asian Americans are not alone in this regard; Indigenous, Caribbean, and Central and South American jazz musicians face similar marginalization in jazz histories or in discussions regarding jazz aesthetics. Additionally, there is the “model minority” stereotype Asian Americans confront in the United States, which has been used to dismiss Asian American creativity, particularly in the arts.In the present moment, anti-Asian racism has exploded in violent physical assaults on Asians and Asian Americans in public spaces. These heinous acts echo the lynchings of Chinese and the attacks on Chinatowns in the nineteenth century, as well as similar assaults in the 1980s in response to fears of Japanese economic dominance. One such attack was the murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin by two white autoworkers, Ronald Ebens and his stepson, Michael Nitz, who mistook Chin for a Japanese individual. However, while I am uninterested in simply cataloging the history of anti-Asian racism in the United States, I purposely scheduled this symposium to coincide with the weekend's Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration during World War II. The Day of Remembrance was declared by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on February 18, 2022, eighty years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which “stripp[ed] people of Japanese descent of their civil rights,” to quote from the Day of Remembrance's official statement.7Taking up this era is today's second panel, “Music and Im/mobility: Migration, Incarceration, Remembrance,” in which Susan Miyo Asai, Eric Hung, and Alexander Murphy consider the entanglements between musical performance and the legacies of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II, including Japanese American musicians who chose to immigrate to Japan in order to pursue careers that were impossible in the United States at the time. Asai, Hung, and Murphy will provide a thoughtful reconsideration of this legacy as mapped through intergenerational trauma experienced by those who suffered through the forced removal to isolated concentration camps and the lingering effects of transgenerational material dispossession experienced by Japanese families. Incarcerees were forced to sell businesses, homes, and family heirlooms at fire-sale prices due to the extremely limited time—from as little as four days to a maximum of two weeks—they were given to comply with the evacuation orders. This history is further complicated today by the awareness of Asian Americans’ subject positioning as settlers in the Americas.Beyond this commemorative focus, I encouraged the symposium speakers to highlight the long history of Asian creativity and artistic ambition that has been unleashed beneath the generic banner of jazz and in the service of multiple and varied aesthetic and political perspectives. Many of the conversations throughout the day will engage ongoing debates within Asian American communities and scholarship that have rarely taken place, if at all, even as a side note to larger discussions within jazz scholarship. This begs the question of whether Asian American participation in jazz is simply peripheral. The uneasy social positioning of the Asian American, I want to suggest, is not a niche issue but is fundamental to deciphering race in the United States. One of the central motivations for gathering at this symposium is to point out that the larger issues of cultural inclusion alongside aesthetic pluralism and political advocacy, which have long resounded within jazz, have yet to inquire very deeply about the involvement and contributions of Asian Americans. We hope, in fact, to join those who have been working to raise the volume on Asian American musicians and their musicking, even if limiting ourselves to jazz.To return to the questions I raised above, grappling with race in the United States necessitates an understanding of what is at stake in considering Asian American involvement with jazz, a musical tradition that, since its inception, has held debates largely between Black and white musicians over cultural and material ownership. Even if we can outline a history of Asian American involvement with jazz and speak to contemporary artists or developments as participating in an aesthetic lineage with an audible resonance today, what do we stand to gain from doing so? As mentioned, the discussion begins in Asia before moving on to Asian US-American involvement with jazz (by using the clumsy term, “Asian US-American,” I am calling attention to the admittedly narrow focus on US North America while admitting there is much to discuss about Asian musical entanglements in Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean). After lunch, Loren Kajikawa will lead a roundtable discussion on the 1980s Asian American jazz movement and its continuing legacy with the founders of the still-vibrant Asian Improv Arts record label, Francis Wong and Jon Jang. The final roundtable conversation will revolve around the fundamental question of whether Asian American culture is an always-already-hybrid formation with provocations and considerations from Hafez Modirzadeh, Jen Shyu, and me.As alto saxophonist Charlie Parker has been credited with saying, “If you don't it out of This speaks to the relationship between a and their The jazz to on an artist's to of in their music as many jazz musicians, the to has meant of their into their It then, that in of Asian heritage, a jazz not simply an Asian American jazz to most musicians, Asian American jazz musicians hope their music with difference. an Asian American after begin or all the Hafez in our the the Indigenous, the like Patrick Bartley with his J-Music Ensemble, might consider such as which will help us in we can about the stakes of Asian American participation in do we whether or not a performance is The or race of the we to musical such as the the of musical from or musical and such as the these of deciphering musical have long been used by cultural music and Even if all of those in would that a performance is a jazz I want to a further to out complicated it to hear we might “Asian American Even if we all of those and race of or a of musical such as an attention to the of but in music meant to the or between the for instance, or sound used in and the of or for American jazz” does not in the way that jazz” does for including and Many jazz can out a or performance from a or performance and of all the as a of those and with and a and many would they were simply to an Asian of music, even if a were the they might hear it as an a than part of a or an of this has out in the I to the acoustic fusion band in by John and Indian who were by and jazz and Indian music, also the and music of the band came from all was about fusion of what jazz” and while many jazz with Michael who wrote that hear any Indian and does aesthetic or from Asia automatically the of a musical George has offered to this issue in his after and in which the two terms as to musical and in my of musical this to the that what might be What of has from Asian American musicking that might help us does as an Asian American out of a given does a face the of a musical tradition and an of and for that One response has been to do what Hafez Modirzadeh and Jen well as Francis Wong and Jon which is to deeply with musicians in Asian musical their and musical with musicians such as and my be to an organic between Asian Americans and Asians, so me to I am about who anyone with or what musical tradition anyone instance, Jang, Modirzadeh, Shyu, and Wong have also jazz and music with musicians in those of the provocations Hafez us to consider are Asians who are not in the so-called or dominant in which jazz is as a long As Hafez what of Relatedly, might we Central Asians such as and into the or a to a performance or might be as at is with the of in a musical I am here with the of musical the is and as the and the musicking of Asian Americans in the way as jazz? the discourse to up with the and the and Jazz essay on jazz and on Indian fusion are but the is on jazz, so Asian Americans are to be I up the because for the of Asian American jazz artists is that Asian Americans the in the United States as well as in are not Americans, and not to return to the with jazz, not as if Americans are to the United States, as the at the nor do they a such do not get in the way of understanding jazz as a wide of from the to the to to the as a of jazz tradition (or of while from other of There is simply no “Asian American jazz” to up our discussion even more to ask, the to “Asian American jazz” from other of at all? I ask even after by Francis Wong and Jon Jang, who us to the political and historical for as “Asian American” and as musicians.” But is it musicians, such as Akira Tana, have long the for as “Asian American jazz I simply be a in fact, a for the term “Asian American” to jazz? the question should American even to Asian two Asian American jazz and saxophonist Jeff their an Asian it in an Kashiwa, no to his Asian heritage, while also performing an While and as part of its with other band members such as on the the band also in and from their Kashiwa, for his has with a Japanese or Asian for instance, nor taken an Asian as for a jazz nor taken to a in a public many artists in jazz, and enjoy a and of African American, American, and Asian American and What these artists do not is or of their to In the jazz their musicking will be a their as jazz and face the of Asian American musicians working in any they are between a or performing on a or in an Asian and no to an Asian and have taken two in that I would like to two that or Asian American musicians’ long involvement with jazz larger issues regarding Asian American in the US-American popular music culture by the also highlight Asian American which have been largely from the The the of the Asian American within a social in which they have been and it the to jazz While the a to Asian American participation as the second is a that Asian American jazz can be within the wider jazz and with the of the Asian Americans, in other words, are in the jazz on and the the San Jazz from its (including going to multiple throughout any given so I a of the Toshiko it would be a largely Asian if can be who were not present at other only in In fact, on many in this Asian would before at the end of It be that, for members were largely jazz more to this as second not only the of Asian American jazz but also at a question that to jazz where are the audiences of for jazz? family who is a music a to a jazz from a no in jazz, this offered me the Since it was to a jazz I not in some in a sign to it out The a band and my family not about the I the band was about to its set, and I that the only white individuals in the were on The was a mix of African and Americans, with a of Asian Americans mixed in as the saxophonist was a in the band performing that the and a number of throughout a musical It not only my about jazz this it also me into what audiences of to enjoy as jazz, of what jazz and scholars or not jazz is by most jazz and they were to and deeply engaged by music they were calling an as a jazz at a for its largely jazz conversations among the were with of the music as they to the music the way my and his of jazz and in and Even more many in the including many of the Asian Americans, were to the While we have been more in about musicians than audiences at the symposium today, this should us that when we about “Asian American we to the Asian Americans who are and as I hope, as a to Deborah Wong's the discussions we have in today that Asian American jazz and its artists have been by their in the United States and their Asian these into a unique cultural formation and artistic Still largely as well as Asian American jazz musicians’ recognition, and stakes at and significant enough to claim and given these musicians’ long history of participation as and We also to Asian American and who jazz American and alongside the The question for then, is we can their more audible and Asian American and jazz spaces. As our conversations today have there is much at want to everyone who their to the Asian American jazz Susan Miyo Asai, Taylor Eric Hung, Jon Jang, Loren Hafez Modirzadeh, Alexander Fritz Jen Shyu, Francis and our Deborah I am for their to their unique to the discussion, their and to a day on the contributions of Asian American musicians to the music we as

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