AIRMW CELEBRATES THE MULTI-CULTURAL, MULTI-ETHNIC REALITY OF CHICAGO WITH THE 30th ANNUAL CHICAGO ASIAN AMERICAN JAZZ FESTIVAL AT ELASTIC ARTS NOV. 7-10
Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW), directed by multi-instrumentalist and media artist Tatsu Aoki, presents the 30th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival at Elastic Arts, 3429 W. Diversey Ave., #208, at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 7-10.
“AIRMW is committed to advancing the understanding and profile of Asian American cultures through the traditional and contemporary cultural arts,” says Aoki. “We are proud of our history of producing high quality arts programs reflecting the multicultural, multi-ethnic reality of Chicago and the nation. For three decades, this annual festival, and especially this year’s program, are perfect examples of that mission in action.”
The 30th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival schedule is as follows. All events take place at Elastic Arts unless otherwise noted.
Friday, Nov. 7
8:30-9:30 p.m., Set 1 - Francis Wong and Chicago Time Code
9:30-10:30, Set 2 - Jeff Chan and Ratchet (Chad Clark, Michael Perkins, Ausbert Acevedo)
Saturday, Nov 8
1:00 p.m., Panel Discussion at AIRMW, 4875 N. Elston Ave.– Panelist roster - Tatsu Aoki, Kioto Aoki, Jeff Chan, Lauren Deutsch, Leon Fontane, Akira Saito, Mai Sugimoto
8:30-9:30 p.m., Set 1 - Ester Hana
9:30-10:30 p.m. Set 2 - Yoko Noge and Jazz Me Blues
Sunday, Nov 9
7:30-8:30 p.m., Set 1 - Takashi Shallow
8:30-9:30 p.m., Set 2 – Chien-an Yuan and All Things Shining (Marcus Elliot, Jon Monteverde, Chace Morris)
9:30-10:30 p.m. Set 3 – Kioto Aoki, Haruhi Kobayashi and Mai Sugimoto
Monday, Nov 10
8:30-9:30 and 9:30-10:30 - Tatsu Aoki and the MIYUMI Project (Mwata Bowden, Edward Wilkerson Jr., Jamie Kempkers, Coco Elysses, Kioto Aoki, and Tsukasa Taiko)
$20 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door
AIRMW presents the 30th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival Friday, Nov. 7 through Monday, Nov. 10. All concerts take place at Elastic Arts, #208, 3429 W. Diversey Ave. Tickets at the door. A panel discussion is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 8 at AIRMW, 4875 N. Elston Ave. For more information, visit airmw.org
Set One:
Takashi Shallow is a socially specific artist whose experiments test notions of medium and taxonomy. His ongoing projects include operating the label Gesamt, organizing Percent–a collective of mixed-race artists–and independently publishing Insider Art, a series of provocations. Dazed Digital includes Shallow in the article 10 of the best Chicago artists right now, and he has received fellowships and residencies at spaces like The Arts Club of Chicago and The Cliff Dwellers. He shows work and collaborates with venues and platforms like Homeroom Chicago, The Chicago International Film Festival, FPE Records, Archer Ballroom, and Evoke. Shallow’s transdisciplinary practice lends him to have taught across departments including art, theater, media, design, education, and music. He is a lecturer at the University of Chicago where he has introduced new topics to the curriculum including video game sound production, experimental DJing, and multimedia fashion design. takashishallow.com
Set Two:
All Things Shining is an experimental improvisational quartet exploring the communal connections that bind people across all communities in times of conflict. Featuring Marcus Elliot, Jon Monteverde, Chace Morris, and Chien-An Yuan
MARCUS ELLIOT
Multifaceted saxophonist and composer, Marcus Elliot, has emerged as one of the leading voices of the Detroit music scene. The New York Times has called him "convincing and confident, evolved in touch and tone...", and the Detroit Free Press has said, "Marcus Elliot represents next generation of jazz". Marcus creates music with the hope of “reminding myself and listeners that we are human beings, and what a gift that is.” He is a recipient of the Joyce Awards (2024), a prestigious award for innovative new projects by pioneered by artists spanning the visual, performing, and multidisciplinary arts that engage diverse communities in the Mid-West. He is also a recipient of the Kresge Fellowship(2020), awarded to artist that are recognized for their creative vision and commitment to excellence within a wide range of artistic disciplines. Marcus is instructor of jazz saxophone at Wayne State University and is director of the Creative Arts Orchestra at University of Michigan. Marcus has performed and/or collaborated with Terence Blanchard, Karriem Riggins, Talib Kwali, Marcus Belgrave, Brian Eno, Shigeto, Robert Hurst, Anthony Davis, Jeff Tain Watts, and many others.
JON MONTEVERDE
Jon Monteverde is an audio engineer and musician in Chicago. His experience runs the gamut from live sound for events, to original music and sound design for media, to music direction for theater. He holds an undergraduate degree in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
CHACE MORRIS
Chace Morris is a writer, performer, & Afrofuturist musicmaker out of Detroit. Blending Black mythbuilding traditions, poetry, and Hip-Hop, Chace creates soul music that moves in constellation with June Jordan, Kendrick Lamar, Nina Simone & Saul Williams. He crafts songs, anthems, curses, and hexes for the light
Chace is a two-time Kresge Arts Fellow (2024 Live Arts Fellow as The TETRA, 2013 Literary Fellow), two-time Rustbelt Poetry Slam Champion, Radical Imagination Grant recipient, a MAP Fund grantee, and recipient of an Alain Locke Award from the Detroit Institution of Arts.
He is also the co-founder of The TETRA Digital Underground Railroad, an arts & ritual project based around emotional liberation, alongside his partner Sherina Rodriguez Sharpe. Their creative curriculum is in practice at Harvard, Columbia, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, and more.
When not writing, Chace is crafting elaborate movie hot takes, laughing as a form of self-medication, and curating playlists that cancel the apocalypse.
CHIEN-AN YUAN
Chien-An Yuan is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and educator based in Ann Arbor, MI.
Yuan runs 1473, a record label specializing in improvisation, electronics, and collaboration. He is also a founding member of IS/LAND, a performance collaborative composed of AAPI movers, artists, and collaborators. Yuan launched the inaugural KYLYN AAPI Arts & Culture Festival in 2024.
His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, NewCity, Salon, ArtSlant, Huffington Post, and WNYC.
Past performances and exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), Cranbrook Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, The Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chinese American Museum of Chicago (CAMOC), Gene Siskel Film Center, Elastic Arts, Convivium 33, Museum of Chinese in America NYC, Syrup Loft, Zhou B Arts Center, Asian American Cultural Center of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Hyde Park Art Center, and Gallery 312.
Set Three:
miminari - Kioto Aoki x Haruhi Kobayashi x Mai Sugimoto
Collaborators Kioto Aoki, Haruhi Kobayashi and Mai Sugimoto release their new album miminari, out from Asian Improv Records in conjunction with the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival (CAAJF). Meaning a“ringing in the ears” in Japanese, the miminari album reorients sensations of miminari towards playful soundscapes with interwoven layers of saxophone, taiko, electronics and vocals. The trio’s bilingual, multicultural experiences are reflected in the titles of the songs, which offer both phonetic and descriptive word play. Their backgrounds in traditional folk, jazz, and electronic sounds coalesce into a unique dialogue grounded in experimental improvisation.
Kioto Aoki is a Chicago-based artist, educator and musician who is 5th generation of the Toyoakimoto house, an okiya (geisha house) performing arts family from Tokyo with roots dating back to the Edo period. Standing on the professional stage from the age of 7, she continues the family legacy as musician on taiko, tsuzumi and shamisen. Her playing is informed by the Japanese aesthetics of ma and emphasizes the melodic phrasing of space and choreography to reorient the notion of percussion as mere rhythm. Her stoic, durational explorations elicit soundscapes that project organic textures of live performance and sonic nuances of cyclical, droning sustain. Aoki balances the artistic and aesthetic integrity of traditional Japanese music with a contemporary sensibility, bringing taiko to contemporary artistic ecologies of music, sound and performance.Musical projects include solo and collaborative albums released by Asian Improv Records and FPE Records, Yoko Ono’s SKYLANDING, Tatsu Aoki’s The MIYUMI Project, Experimental Sound Studio’s Sonic Pavilion Festival, and the Soundtrack series at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago among others.
Haruhi Kobayashi is a Chicago-based sound artist and vocal performer from Tokyo. Originally a J-pop singer-songwriter, she now explores themes of bicultural identity, tradition, and existentialism while seeking to liberate sound from preconceptions. Her work intersects experimental pop, classical composition and avant-garde songwriting through voice, bass, and electronics. She invites audiences to engage with both familiar and unexpected sonic textures.
Mai Sugimoto is a Japanese-born saxophonist and active member of Chicago's jazz and creative music scene. When not leading her own bands, Sugimoto can be heard in ensembles like Hanami, Fred Anderson Legacy Band, Look Both Days, Jeb Bishop Quintet, BYSH, and Natural Information Society’s Community Ensemble. Sunlight Filtering Through Leaves (Asian Improv Records, 2024) is her most recent album as a leader. “She breaks down phrases with the muscle and rigor of vintage Sonny Rollins spiked with a more feverish tone that clearly connects her to the ESP soul-streaked blowers like Charles Tyler,” writes Peter Margasak in his review for Nowhere Street. “[The album] conveys that singular joy of good improvised music, when it’s not about ripping solos but group unity. Naturally, I’m advising you all to pay close attention to Sugimoto from here on out.”