Jon Jang
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Jon Jang (; born March 11, 1954) is an American
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
pianist, composer, and bandleader. Of Chinese ancestry, he specializes in music which combines elements of jazz and Asian musics, and is known for musical works exploring international as well as Asian American social justice struggles.


Career

Jang holds a B.Mus degree in piano performance from the
Oberlin Conservatory of Music The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music school, music conservatory of Oberlin College, a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the ...
(1978), where he studied African American music with Dr. Wendell Logan, who Jang describes as a "mentor and a father figure." Jang has recorded many albums as a composer-bandleader and pianist, performing with
Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He wo ...
,
David Murray (saxophonist) David Keith Murray (born February 19, 1955) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who performs mostly on tenor and bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s. He lives in New York City. Biograp ...
,
James Newton James W. Newton (born May 1, 1953) is an American jazz and classical flutist. Biography He was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. From his earliest years, James Newton grew up immersed in the sounds of African-American music, inclu ...
, Francis Wong, and
Fred Ho Fred Ho (; born Fred Wei-han Houn; August 10, 1957 – April 12, 2014) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist, composer, bandleader, playwright, writer and Marxist social activist. Biography He was born in Palo Alto, California, and moved a ...
, among numerous others. Jang lives in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. He has recorded for the Asian Improv and
Soul Note Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz. History Black S ...
labels and has performed at leading music venues including
Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and Philanthropy, philanthropist whose donations assis ...
, the Beijing Jazz Festival, the
Monterey Jazz Festival The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz ...
, and the
Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...
, as well as San Francisco venues such as the
Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
Music Festival. From 1999 to 2001, Jang toured with
Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He wo ...
as part of the Beijing Trio, which included performances at London's
Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...
and the
Berlin Jazz Festival JazzFest Berlin (also known as the Berlin Jazz Festival) is a jazz festival in Berlin, Germany. Originally called the "Berliner Jazztage" (''Berlin Jazz Days''), it was founded in 1964 in West Berlin by the Berliner Festspiele. Venues included B ...
. He has been awarded two commissions from
Cal Performances Cal Performances is the performing arts presenting, commissioning and producing organization based at the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California. The origins of Cal Performances date from 1906, when stage actress Sarah Bernhard ...
and has performed four times under the organization's auspices. He has received composition commissions from the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
and the
Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...
, and in 2000 received the
Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has co ...
Award in the discipline of Performing Arts.


Music and politics

In the early 1980s, Jang began releasing recordings as a bandleader that included ''Are you Chinese or Charlie Chan?'' (1983, RPM) and ''The Ballad or the Bullet?'' (1988, Asian Improv), the latter referencing
Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...
's famous speech " The Ballot or the Bullet." Jang and Francis Wong first founded the record label Asian Improv Records to support work by Jang, Glenn Horiuchi and other Asian American artists, and in 1987 created Asian Improv aRts (using the same acronym, AIR) as a non-profit organization that continues to support both Asian Improv Records and other educational and community activities in order "to produce, present and document artistic works that represent the Asian American experience." Jang has said his music during much of the 1980s paralleled the Asian American movement, in which he was also engaged as a political activist. Young Asian Americans were also inspired by the artistic-political synergy of the
Black Arts Movement The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an African Americans, African-American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The mov ...
, and as an organization, AIR drew inspiration directly from earlier Black artist collectives such as the
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is an American nonprofit organization, founded in 1965 in Chicago by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall, and composer Phil Cohran. The AA ...
(AACM) of Chicago, the Black Artist Group (BAG) of St. Louis, as well as the Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA) of Los Angeles. ''Reparations Now! Concerto for Jazz Ensemble and Taiko'' was one of Jang's first major works of this period, referencing the Redress and Reparations movement. Inspired by
Horace Tapscott Horace Elva Tapscott (April 6, 1934 – February 27, 1999) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (also known as P.A.P.A., or The Ark) in 1961 and led the ensemble through the 1990s. Early lif ...
and his Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Jang named the performing ensemble the Pan Asian Arkestra. Tapscott taught Jang about “passin’ the magic” onto future generations through the Ark and the music. Additionally, Jang learned from Black mentors such as
Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He wo ...
,
Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous b ...
,
Horace Tapscott Horace Elva Tapscott (April 6, 1934 – February 27, 1999) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (also known as P.A.P.A., or The Ark) in 1961 and led the ensemble through the 1990s. Early lif ...
, and Wendell Logan that, as James Baldwin noted, "this music begins on the auction block." As Jang and Francis Wong have described, 1988 marked a turning point both for the Asian American movement and their own work as artists and activists:
"The Redress and Reparations movement was a civil rights victory for the 1980s. One of the first major works after ''Are You Chinese or Charlie Chan?'' was ''Reparations Now! Concerto for Jazz Ensemble and Taiko''. From 1980 to 1988 we were informed by the movement. After that, the Asian American movement was re-defined."
Jang's work during the 1990s reflects an increasingly international perspective on social justice struggles and a deeper engagement with Chinese American history, the latter resonating artistically with his expanding use of Chinese traditional musical materials and instruments. His 1996 composition ''Island: the Immigrant Suite No.2'' reflected on San Francisco's Angel Island Immigration Station, and his major work with the Pan Asian Arkestra, ''Tiananmen!'' was released on Soul Note in 1993 and performed on the main stage of the Chicago Jazz Festival in 1994. Francis Wong describes the latter as a significant breakthrough in exposure for the work they had been cultivating in the early 1990s, noting that although AIR was still too small an organization to receive significant funding, they nonetheless succeeded in finding enough community support to enable performances and recordings that led to this broader exposure and enabled Jang to be signed by the Soul Note record label . One of Jang's next major projects, ''When Sorrow Turns to Joy'' (2000), is a collaboration with composer
James Newton James W. Newton (born May 1, 1953) is an American jazz and classical flutist. Biography He was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. From his earliest years, James Newton grew up immersed in the sounds of African-American music, inclu ...
and poet Genny Lim that also reflects the shift to internationally framed political themes as well as Jang's expanding network of artistic collaborators. The work is a tribute to
Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...
and
Mei Lanfang Mei Lan (22 October 1894 – 8 August 1961), better known by his stage name Mei Lanfang, was a notable Chinese Peking opera artist in Chinese theater, modern Chinese theater. Mei was known as the "Queen of Peking Opera". Mei was exclusively know ...
, who Jang praises as "international citizens of the world" who were "not only great artists for the people but they also were outspoken. They were people that had integrity and took stands against oppression." Though often written about by critics as primarily a jazz musician, Jang has also composed notated works for classical performers, and in addition to numerous jazz influences, has cited composers such as William Grant Still as models for his approach to memorializing history and exploring political struggles through musical composition. Jang's 2007 Chinese American Symphony, premiered in 2007 by the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, is a symphonic composition addressing the history of Chinese immigrant railroad workers in the late 19th century. Building on his history of collaboration with African American artists and cultural work since the 1980s, Jang has also created work explicitly aligned with the later
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...
movement, including “Can’t Stop Cryin’ for America! (Black Lives Matter)," a 2017 collaboration with poet Amanda Kemp. As a public intellectual, Jang has given a number of presentations at universities and colleges throughout the U.S. such as
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
,
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
,
Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
, and
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
on topics such as "Traditions in Transformation: The Musical Language of Jon Jang," "Sounds of Struggle: Music from the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s to the Asian American Movement of the 1980s," and "One Day American, One Day Alien: Black and Brown Artists Who Made the National Anthem Their Own." In 2012, Jang was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr./Césár Chavez/Rosa Parks Visiting Professorship at the University of Michigan.


Discography

As Leader or Co-Leader As Ensemble Performer


References


External links

* *
"Jon Jang Speaks Out About His Recent Album, Amiri Baraka, and Malcolm X," an interview with Daniel King in ''Mother Jones'', June 26, 2020.


by Ken Chen, from ''Satellite'', v. 1, issue 3 (January 2001)

by Nic Paget-Clarke {{DEFAULTSORT:Jang, Jon 1954 births Living people American musicians of Chinese descent American jazz composers American male jazz composers American jazz pianists American male jazz pianists Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area 20th-century American pianists Jazz musicians from California 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians Black Saint/Soul Note artists