One of the more fascinating aspects of ancient Chinese cultural history is the distinct African connection of the Shang Dynasty. Traversing the centuries to the 21st century, one musician who has consistently made that connection in the modern world, and who has engaged elements of ancient Chinese music culture in the way he views jazz music and the art of improvisation, is pianist-composer Jon Jang. Encountering Jon Jang is always stimulating; he’s a deeply thoughtful man who also has an enormous thirst for viewing African American culture through the lens of his Chinese upbringing and his life in California, and vice versa. Always a man of deep conviction who has eagerly and successfully collaborated with jazz masters ranging from the ancestor Max Roach to his contemporary  James Newton, and who always seems to be juggling any number of intriguing projects, I sought Jon out with some questions recently.

What has so motivated you throughout your career to bridge elements of your Chinese cultural heritage with jazz music and the art of the improvisers?

When I was an undergraduate student at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music during the mid 70s, Professor Wendell Logan of the African American Music Department was my mentor.  [Editor’s note: Dr. Wendell Logan, who founded and chaired the Oberlin jazz program, passed on to ancestry last June after battling cancer.]  Dr. Logan’s African American music history course had a profound impact on me when he introduced our class to the works of Duke Ellington‘s “A Tone Parallel to Harlem” and William Grant Still’s “Afro American Symphony.”  These works valorize the struggles and contributions of African American people.

Dr. Wendell Logan

Morover, the course covered a broader ground than “jazz,” a changing tradition that must always be traced back to West Africa and the auction blocks of slavery in the United States.  One of the few books we were required to read was Blues People by LeRoi Jones, now known as Amiri Baraka.  I began to gain an understanding about the changing music tradition and its connection to social history.

Dr. Logan’s African American music history course inspired me to recover a history and music tradition that has been silent: Chinese America.  Since then, the trajectory of my musical and life journey has been to compose works to valorize the contributions of Chinese Americans.  Commissioned and performed by the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra and the Oakland East Bay Symphony, my work, “Chinese American Symphony,” pays tribute to the Chinese laborers who built the first transcontinental railroad in the United States during the 19th century.  Not only is it “literally” inspired by William Grant Still’s “Afro-American Symphony,” there is an inherent working class sensibility in the title itself.

W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson inspired me to search for Chinese “sorrow songs” or folk songs in which I recovered later in life.  I also began to learn about the changing music tradition of Chinese bittersweet melodies such as the “Flower Drum Song,” a beggar’s song from the Ming Dynasty, and the “Butterfly Lovers Song” from the Shaoxing Opera, the first all woman Chinese opera company during the 20s.  I “Americanized” these Chinese folk songs into new works of mine, becoming the musical blood of an American-born Chinese composer.

For example, if we examine my work “Variation on a Sorrow Song of Mengjiang Nu” or sometimes called “New Beginnings,” the story ends with a woman killing herself in resistance to marrying an emperor who killed her husband.  The woman, Mengjiang Nu, leaps into the sea and transforms into a silver fish.  By linking it with African American spirituals such as “Wade in the Water” and “Deep River,” water symbolized freedom.  I remember playing a recording of the traditional Chinese melody from Jiangsu Province for Max Roach and he became very moved by the feeling.

In my work, I added a bridge section based on Max Roach’s “Lonesome Lover” because it not only worked musically but also in terms of the whole notion of freedom: “Take me back where I belong.”  Max told me that he and Abbey Lincoln had completely different perspectives when they recorded “Lonesome Lover.”  Max told me that he was making a political statement and said that Abbey interpreted it as a love song.  With me, it was clearer that “Lonesome Lover” artistically and politically complimented the [Roach] works “The Dream/It’s Time” on the politically provocative Chattahoochi Red recording, in reference to the dead bodies of young African American men found near the Chattahoochi River in Atlanta, GA. 

From the unexpected passing of my father when I was two years old to being confused about the status of my surname as a descendent of a “paper son,” which was an act of resisitance against the Chinese Exclusion Act, the trajectory of my whole life has been about discontinuity and recovery, which is very similar to the modes of regeneration, new beginnings and symbolic transformation found in many of the Chinese folk songs such as “Butterfly Lovers Song” or “Mengjiang Nu.”

Are you familiar with the historic African presence in China during the Shang Dynasty and do you find that fairly unknown part of China’s history to be ultimately inspiring to your work in any way?

Yes, I am quite familiar with this.  About twenty years ago during the early 90s, I first stumbled across the African presence in China in a book by W.E.B. DuBois called The World and Africa: An inquiry into the part which Africa has played in world history.  Seven years later when James Newton and I were collaborating on a work called “When Sorrow Turns to Joy – Songlines: The Spiritual Tributary of Paul Robeson and Mei Lanfang,” James gave me a book by Cheikh Anta Diop called Great African Thinkers which also supported the African presence in China and included a photo of black African human statue figures in China!  In both DuBois and Diop’s articles, these people were described by a Chinese source called Chou as “diminutive, black and oily skin.”

Talk about your latest projects, including your collaborations with master pipa player Min Xiao Fen, who has previously collaborated with Randy Weston and Mor Thiam.

Min Xao Fen

The San Francisco Arts Commission awarded me a grant to compose “Angel Voices – Rhapsody from Angel Island Poetry,” a work for poet and chamber jazz ensemble.  The work will feature my ensemble Unbound Chinatown and be scored for pipa (Chinese lute) performed by Min Xao Fen; clarinet/soprano saxophone/bass flute; piano; double bass and multiple percussion.  There will also be poems of “sorrow” and “defiance” performed by Genny Lim selected from Chinese, Japanese, and Russian Jewish immigrants who were detained on Angel Island during 1910-1940 in the San Francisco Bay Area.  SFJazz will present this work on Sunday, October 24 at 3pm at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival.  Collaborating in the presentation will be the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, which is commemorating the Centennial of the opening of the Immigration Station throughout 2010.

I  previously worked with these poems (which are translated in the landmark book Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island by Genny Lim, Him Mark Lai, and Judy Yung) in my works “Island: the Immigrant Suite No. 1” for the Jon Jang Octet featuring Min Xao Fen on pipa and “Island: the Immigrant Suite No. 2” for string quartet and a (pre-recorded) Cantonese Opera singer that was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet.  I was taken with the spirit of the poetry in which detainees on Angel Island waiting for processing by U.S. immigration authorities express both feelings of lament and defiance with regard to their treatment.  Within my efforts to create works that reflect on the history of Americans of Chinese descent, this sense of lament balanced with defiance is a crucial source of “creative tension” that informs my approach to compositional narrative.

The major departure in this new work will be my exploration of poetry from Japanese and Russian Jewish immigrants on Angel Island.  This calls for interpretation of the significance of Angel Island beyondd the experience of Chinese immigrants to recast the multicultural character of the experience on the island.

One of my goals is also to compose five symphonic works.  My second symphonic work, “Symphony No. 2: Echoes from the Grand Canyon,” will be a 30-minute three movement work for orchestra and Native American flute.  The work will commemorate the collision of two commercial airplanes over the Grand Canyon on June 30, 1956.  All 128 passengers and crew aboard on United and TWA died, including my father.  This day transformed aviation history, which led to an overhaul of the nation’s antiquated air traffic control system and the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration by Congress.  For this new work, it is very important to note that both Hopi and Navajo tribes recognized that all these people had died on sacred grounds.  They both held 24-hour prayer vigils for the victims.

Similar to Olivier Messiaen’s “Des Canyons Aux Etoiles,” which was inspired by the canyons of Utah and Don Pullen’s powerful works on his last recording, Sacred Common Ground, there will be a strong spiritual aspect to “Echoes from the Grand Canyon.”  The collision of the two airplanes over the vast and stunning beauty of the Grand Canyon that left ashes of human remains on sacred grounds creates a powerful image.  It speaks to the universal truths of mortality, fragility of human life, a survival test of the unknown dangers behind the beauty of nature and spirituality.  I hope and pray God will help lead mee to another place with this new work.

You can catch up with Jon Jang and his deeply spiritual work, as well as his various projects and recordings (including his landmark Beijing Trio recording with Max Roach at www.jonjang.com.  In addition to his October 24, 2010 premier of the Angel Island work at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Jon will be performing as part of the Asian American Music Festival 2010 (broadened from the former Asian American Jazz Festival) in Los Angeles on October 16 in solo piano and at the Japanese American National Museum (369 E. First Street).

 The Asian American Music Festival: October 15-17, 2010 at the Japanese American National Museum, 369 E. First Street in L.A.

The summer of 2010 has been a melancholy one in terms of friends and jazz warriors passing on to ancestry. Last weekend’s loss of Abbey Lincoln, and prior to that her compadre Hank Jones were well-noted. Good friend and longtime Randy Weston African Rhythms and Basie band trombonist Benny Powell’s passing, though at the ripe age of 80, was a bit more stunning because Benny had not been the victim of the slow and gradual decline that seemed to befall Abbey and Hank, and had only recently gone in for what seemed to be a fairly routine medical procedure, from which he never recovered. Benny received a beautiful and well-deserved send-off last month at St. Peters in New York, appropos such a true gentleman and great jazz contributor.

Coming right on the heels of Abbey Lincoln’s passing was the ascension of the great photographer Herman Leonard, at 87. It had been such a pleasure getting to know Herman and re-introduce myself to his extraordinary work back in ’92 when Gilbey’s Gin collaborated with the National Jazz Service Organization on a national tour of Herman’s work. Who could ever forget his iconic images once encountered. Herman was a man blessed with not only an extraordinary eye and ear for great jazz, but also with a true zest for life, never losing that warm twinkle in his eye. I remember encountering him in more recent years hungrily shooting images at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. His loss of stock images from the flood that devastated New Orleans post-Katrina seemed to deal him a particularly hard blow, hastening his relocation to the west coast, where he lived out his final years on the planet.

Herman Leonard’s iconic image of Dexter Gordon

Your correspondent in high cotton, with Herman Leonard and two great masters, James Moody and Ray Brown

The weekend prior to the passing of Abbey Lincoln and Herman Leonard saw the passing on to ancestry of one less sung but no less a contributor to this music. On August 6 New Orleans lost a true jazz warrior with the passing of trumpeter-educator Clyde Kerr Jr. During my 16-month 2007/08 residency in New Orleans one of the great pleasures of that stay was being engaged by trumpeter Ed Anderson for a series of oral history interviews for a Dillard University project. Among those interviewees was Clyde Kerr Jr. When we sat down in his comfortable Dumaine Avenue home just around the corner from City Park in the Mid-City neighborhood, it was immediately as if with a friend of 30 years or more. Always quick with a laugh, Clyde Kerr was always a pleasure to be around. Evidence of his trumpet prowess can be heard on the superb recording “This is Now”, released last year through the generosity of the Jazz Foundation of America.

Clyde Kerr  Jr.

A native of the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans, now famous from this year’s HBO series and fabled as one of, if not THE, oldest African American neighborhoods in the U.S., Clyde reflects that upbringing in his closing composition “Treme” on This is Now!. Pick up that gem online at the Louisiana Music Factory. My last memory of Clyde was several months ago on a trip to the Crescent City for a NEA Jazz Masters “Live” site visit of a Phil Woods residency at the CAC. I called Clyde on the way in from Louis Armstrong Airport because he’d previously informed me that his long-awaited first release was finally ready. So the first stop in town, before the obligatory fried oyster ‘po boy from Parasol’s or checking into my hotel, was Clyde’s crib on Dumaine Street. He greeted me supported by a walker, which gave me pause, but nothing about his attitude suggested anything but the usual joie de vivre. Clyde Kerr Jr. left us all too soon, at the age of 67 on August 6.

There’s a tendency among some to view the presentation of live jazz as purely an urban, major-market phenomenon. I’ve had the privilege of experiencing jazz in seemingly unlikely places since developing the first regional jazz service program, at Arts Midwest in the mid-80s. Since then one of the great pleasures of this work has been hearing the stories of those who have striven successfully to present jazz performances in places that to some are off the figurative beaten path.

Communicating with good people like Arnie Malina, first about his jazz exploits in Helena, Montana, then about his more recent work in Burlington, Vermont at the Flynn Center and their annual Discover Jazz Festival, one of this country’s finest festivals; learning how Tom Guralnick developed Outpost Productions in Albuquerque, New Mexico; the work of Tim Jackson in Santa Cruz, California with the Kuumba Jazz Center; Ken Fischer’s exceptional series in Ann Arbor, Michigan; the Art Center in Carborro, North Carolina; and countless otherwise unlikey places for jazz presentation, speak to why my glass is perpetually half-full when questions are raised as to the current state of jazz music.

I’ve been fortunate to have been part of funding efforts to support the presentation of jazz in smaller communities across this country, from Arts Midwest through the National Jazz Service Organization and our administration of the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest National Jazz Network, to my present work with the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters “Live” funding program. Among the organizations which have been supported by the latter is the Tennessee Valley Jazz Society in Huntsville, Alabama (TVJS). I recently sought out the TVJS executive director Howard Bankhead for the latest installment in our series of African Americans presenting jazz music.

What’s the history of the TVJS?

Howard Bankhead: The Tennessee Valley Jazz Society was founded in 1981 by some local jazz enthusiasts as a social club that loved jazz. In 1986 good friend Tyrone (who has since moved to the Gambia in Africa) and I wanted to start a non-profit organization to promote jazz. Through Kenneth Gurley’s (then a jazz producer at a local public radio station) radio program “Jazz Expression” we got introduced to local jazz activities and TVJS. From there we met TVJS member Jon Freeman and joined TVJS. Tyrone and I invested our human capital and cash and helped TVJS to survive, strive and become a successful non-profit arts presenting organization.

TVJS has a board of directors and executive director and over 180 members. TVJS operates and presents programs with funding from grants, membership dues, donations, sponsorships, and human capital.

TVJS executive director Howard Bankhead with TVJS education supporter Wynton Marsalis

It is difficult to give a brief history on an organization that has been around for going on 30 years and have a unique story on how it fulfills its missions. Before my time, TVJS was more performance-oriented by presenting local bands and musicians for community events and private gatherings. After we helped build TVJS’ performance/entertainment components, in 1998 I felt the need to expand the organization to the educational component targeting the youth. Since 1998 we have presented Jazz Education is Cool in the schools program to over 27,000 students, faculty and administrators.

Among the artists TVJS has presented are Roy Ayers, Jimmy Heath, Randy Weston, Freddy Cole, Marian McPartland, Fred Wesley, Dave Valentin, Richie Cole, Nnenna Freelon, Jerry Tachoir, Abstrace Jazz Band, Eric Essex, Devere Pride, Jaspects, Victor Goines and many others.

Annually TVJS presents three major projects and several smaller activities; the major projects include:
– Jazz History is American History Celebration (Feb.)
– Annual Jazz-N-June Festival: 8 days of jazz
– Jazz Education is Cool-in-the-Schools, offered
during the ninth month of the school year.
In 2011 we will celebrate 25 years of presenting Jazz History Celebration and the Jazz-N-June Festival.

So many folks seem clueless about anything happening in jazz beyond the major markets; why Huntsville, AL?

That’s a good question; the answer is supernatural. Huntsville, AL is a growing conservative town in the (Red State) south and in order for me to exist and deal with the old southern mind-set, I decided to use my entrepreneurial skills to present and promote what I love. I was not willing to wait on someone else to provide for me, when I was able to provide for them. The music affected me so, that I was compelled to share my personal experiences with others. So myself and a few others have been dedicated to presenting and preserving one of America’s true art forms.

Alabama has fertilized the world with jazz artists, including W.C. Handy, Sun Ra, Nat King Cole, Jothan Callins, Cleveland Eaton, and many others. I’m dedicated to the music, because I love what jazz has given me and I want to share that with others. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said at his opening speech at the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, “Jazz speaks for live. The blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music.”

Jazz Education-in-the-Schools is the major endeavor I’ve grown to appreciate the most. TVJS is committed to exposing young minds to positive music in today’s negative music culture. With the diversity of TVJS’ membership, we’ve presented the “smooth jazz” flavor as well, but for the most part, when TVJS presents a project, local and regional mainstream jazz is on the menu.

Howard Bankhead at one of the TVJS jazz education sites

What venues does TVJS use for your presentations?

Most of our jazz education programs are presented in the elementary and middle schools of our community. Other education venues include Alabama A&M University; the University of Alabama in Huntsville; public libraries and community centers. Our concerts take place at art museums; civic centers; hotels; clubs; parks and other public locations. For years we have partnered with the Huntsville Housing Authority to entertain senior citizens in the Authority’s retirement centers. In addition TVJS has contracted with private retirement communities to bring seniors the joy of music. Developing a jazz mobile concept is part of our long-term planning.

What other efforts has TVJS engaged in, beyond your public presentations?

We’ve engaged in youth golf and life skills development programs, and health awareness projects. In 1998 I proposed to that board that we expand our territory to expand our mission to offer education in other endeavors, such as sports (golf) and health. I felt that by offering the community other services to benefit the development of the youth and the general populace as a whole, TVJS could apply for additional funding beyond our jazz presentation grants, and increase our financial base.

Since then we’ve been on the Golf Channel twice, we’ve gotten golf scholarships for students, and we’ve impacted the lives of over 1,900 youth with life skills; we’ve introduced youth to alternative ways of living (health awareness), all the while continuing our core mission of being trustees for jazz in our community.

Would you say TVJS has broadened the audience for jazz in your community?

Through grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA), the National Endowment for the Arts, local financial support, and in-kind services from other partners (local media) and TVJS, we have presented jazz education to over 24,500 students, faculty and staff in the efforts at broadening the jazz audience. We must understand that the cultural war is waged on all fronts. Since 1998, TVJS has donated overe $300,000 in in-kind services to education.

Another part of TVJS’ long-range goals is to propose to ASCA the presentation of a state-wide jazz festival. We recognize that jazz education in the schools can make school and learning fun for students. We can seamlessly educate a percentage of the populace by presenting TVJS initiatives, which in turn helps to broaden the audience for jazz and the arts.

Visit the Tennessee Valley Jazz Society-Huntsville online at www.tvjs.webs.com.

For the full story on the long journey towards development of the forthcoming book African Rhythms, the as-told-to autobiography of NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston, check out Bret Primack (“The Jazz Video Guy”)’s outstanding new video.  Click on below…