Francis Wong

Chien-An Yuan

Naomi Columna

AIRMW is proud to present the 29th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival. (Nov 1&2 at Elastic, Nov 4 at Greenline Performing Arts Center)

This critically acclaimed annual event is an essential cornerstone for highlighting and documenting the significant role that Asian Americans and their collaborators have in contributing to the city’s historic and vibrant musical landscape. Come and celebrate the 29th anniversary of the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival (CAAJF). The CAAJF features the finest in contemporary Asian American music. Curated by Asian Improv aRts Midwest, national and internationally acclaimed Asian American artists and their collaborators weave together their collective flair to create an improvisational experience.

Tonight will open with a duo from Chien-An Yuan and Naomi Columna. The night will close with the Francis Wong Ensemble, ft. Tatsu Aoki, Kioto Aoki, Mwata Bowden, Edward Wilkerson Jr., and Mai Sugimoto,

$15 / $10 w/ Student ID -Tickets Available at the Door

First Set: Chien-An Yuan & Naomi Columna

Chien-An Yuan is a musician, 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), Elastic Arts, Convivium 33, Detroit Institute of Arts, The Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Gene Siskel Film Center, Museum of Chinese in America NYC, Syrup Loft, Zhou B Arts Center, Asian American Cultural Center of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Hyde Park Art Center.

Naomi Columna is a musician and artist focused on new/experimental works and multidisciplinary collaborations. With a BM in Vocal Performance from the Cleveland institute of Music, and MM in Vocal Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Columna uses her western, classical training as a framework to reference, as well as a medium to manipulate. Columna is frequently featured in CUSP, the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project, with performances including a live rescoring of the 1928 silent film, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, for 3 Vocalists and Electronics, as a guest performer in the Jelly Ear ensemble, and in Halumnen, trio for Harp, Voice and Electronic Processing, among others. Through projects supported by SPACES Gallery and the Andy Warhol Foundation, as well as Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, Columna has also composed and directed original works/projects for multidisciplinary ensembles, like DANCING_BANANAS.GIF, for live musicians and video, and Belong To You, for Prerecorded Ensemble, Video Installation, and Live Dancer. Later this year with partner Katalin La Favre, Percussion, will be releasing their debut album of original songs, Mud Window Mud Mirror, for their newly founded duo of the same title, MWMM.

Francis Wong brings to the Festival a Midwest version of his Legends and Legacies ensemble featuring Tatsu Aoki, Kioto Aoki, Mwata Bowden, Edward Wilkerson Jr., and Mai Sugimoto. Featured on the program will be selections from his Legends and Legacies II and III CD projects that explore significant musical moments in his family history in the Chinese diaspora.

Few musicians are as accomplished as Francis Wong, considered one of "the great saxophonists of his generation" by the late jazz critic Phil Elwood. A prolific recording artist, Wong is featured on more than forty titles as a leader and sideman. For over two decades he has performed his innovative brand of jazz and creative music for audiences in North America, Asia, and Europe with such with such luminaries as Jon Jang, Tatsu Aoki, Genny Lim,William Roper, Bobby Bradford, John Tchicai, James Newton, Joseph Jarman, Don Moye and the late Glenn Horiuchi.

But to simply call the Bay Area native a musician would be to ignore his pioneering leadership in communities throughout Northern California. Wong's imaginative career straddles roles as varied as performing artist, youth mentor, composer, artistic director, community activist, non-profit organization manager, consultant, music producer, and academic lecturer. Key vehicles for his work are Asian Improv aRts, the company he co-founded with Jon Jang and as a Senior Fellow at the Wildflowers Institute. In addition, Wong was a California Arts Council Artist in Residence from 1992 through 1998, and a Meet The Composer New Resident in 2000-2003. In 2000-2001 he was a Rockefeller Next Generation Leadership Fellow. He has also been a guest member of the faculty at San Francisco State University (1996-98) and at University of California at Santa Cruz (1996-2001).