Tatsu Aoki

Yesterday was a great day of music here in Chicago, starting out at the Hyde Park Arts Center where I led a panel discussion about the realities of local musician run record labels. The panelists included Asian Improv Records co-founder Francis Wong (the other co-founder, Jon Jang didn't come out to Chicago for the festival this year), Tatsu Aoki, and co-owner/proprietors of Southport records, Bradley Parker-Sparrow and Joannie Palatto. There was a great crowd of around 75-100 people there, and it took place in a gallery enveloping us in visual art.

After talking about the history of their labels and how they came to be and interact, some interesting points came up in the ensuing conversation. One point made by Francis Wong was that they are not in the record business in the same way Columbia or Blue Note is. This might seem obvious, but his assertion tied into a recurring theme in the conversation, which was that these labels existed more to give these artists a voice than to make a lot of money. That point was hammered home by Tatsu Aoki, when asked about the role of the internet and technology in the label business, he noted that before they peddled records on the internet he sold about 10 copies a year of his solo bass album. Now that his records are all on the internet, he still sells about 10 copies a year.

Once we were done with our yapping, the first music of the day began. Billed as the Jeff Chan Trio Plus One Plus Two, it ended up being a reeds quintet featuring Jimmy Ellis on alto, Ed Wilkerson on tenor and clarinet, Jeff Chan on tenor and bass clarinet, Francis Wong on tenor and flute, and Lewis Jordan on alto and poetics.

Obvious comparisons to the WSQ aside, this was a great lineup that really took the music to a variety of interesting places. There were some very interesting compositions by Jeff Chan that added some structure while maintaining an improvisatory edge, and each member was featured at one point or another in the proceedings. One highlight was a solo montage by Jimmy Ellis who said he was going to paint a picture for the audience of a Sunday in his neighborhood growing up, where everyone would go to church in the morning and then the community would gather to spin jazz records in the afternoon, a trip to a different kind of church. Starting out slow with the sunrise and working through the church service, complete with a Come Sunday quote, once he got to the jazz portion he quoted a variety of standards in a fluid, unforced manner.

The evening festivities brought a reprise of a quartet that first got together last year for the Asian American Jazz Festival, playing two nights last year but only one this year. With Fred Anderson and Francis Wong on tenors, Tatsu Aoki on bass, and Chad Taylor in from New York on drums, I was anticipating the show since last year's music proved to be incendiary. While this year's set might not have reached the otherworldly highs that I recall from last year, it was still a superlative evening of music.

Tatsu Aoki and Chad Taylor are an incredible rhythm section, prone to locking into trance-like yet surprisingly malleable grooves that had many heads in the audience bobbing to the beat. There was one groove in the second set that any hip hop artist would have been proud to sample. It should be noted that Tatsu played incredibly well in spite of the fact that he has badly injured his back and had a full torso body cast on underneath his shirt, causing him considerable discomfort. Here's hoping he heals quickly and fully. Francis Wong and Fred Anderson both did their part, but there wasn't as much meshing of their musical sensibilities as I remember last year.

All in all, a fantastic day of music from all involved. I'm already looking forward to next year's fest.