26th
26th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival (CAAJF)
This year, Asian Improv aRts Midwest, in partnership with the Zhou B Art Center, presents Asian American artists and their collaborators as they explore improvisational happenings. The free 2 day Festival includes performances by The MIYUMI Project, a new CD release performance from Jeff Chan Perspectives Trio, Gary Tu plus Three, and the Mai Sugimoto Trio.
Festival is held at Zhou B Art Center. | MAP
Please Wear MASK.
Thu, Nov 18 | 7 P.M.
Gary Tu plus Three 7:00 pm
the MIYUMI Project 8:00 pm
Fri, Nov 19 | 7 P.M.
Mai Sugimoto Trio 7:00 pm
Jeff Chan’s Perspectives Trio 8:00 pm
CAAJF 2021 is co-presented by Zhou B LL/Zhou B Art Center
Zhou B LLC/Zhou B Art Center
1029 West 35th Street
Chicago, IL 60609
Office: Call us at (773)523-0200
D’Addario Artist Gary Tu mixes the ethereal technique of Pat Metheny and the more muscular stylings of Wes Montgomery. His approach is spacious and bop-ish with fluid lines played with ease and confidence.
Eric Woody – piano
Patrick Williams – bass
Tim Davis – drums
Gary Tu – guitar
The MIYUMI Project is one of the longest standing amalgams, drawing upon the aesthetics of Japanese traditional music and Chicago’s creative jazz and experimental music scene. The presentations are improvised compositions that stem from a conceptual framework for each band member to interpret, which is then transformed into a contemporary musical immersion for the audience. Each successive grouping of MIYUMI Project musicians over the past two decades have contributed to the unique blending of modern application with traditional sensibility.
The current roster of Tatsu Aoki’s MIYUMI Project includes creative musicians: Mwata Bowden, Coco Elysses, Edward Wilkerson Jr.,, Jamie Kempkers, and Kioto Aoki.
Mai Sugimoto is a saxophonist, composer, and active member of Chicago’s jazz and improvisational music scene. Sugimoto draws inspiration from her upbringing in Japan and her roots in jazz to compose and perform from her unique multicultural experience. Born/Raised, her debut album (Asian Improv Records, 2018), explores this cultural and musical binary, juxtaposing, among others, a jazz rendition of a Japanese children’s song alongside compositions inspired by the American jazz idiom.
Mai Sugimoto - saxophone
Joshua Abrams - bass
Isaiah Spencer - drums
Perspectives Trio
Celebrating the release of Perspectives – multi-instrumentalist/composer Jeff Chan’s fifth Asian Improv Records title as a leader – the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival is proud to present the Perspectives Trio, featuring Chan on tenor saxophone, flute and clarinet, bassist Tatsu Aoki and special guest from New York, drummer Vijay Anderson. The Trio will draw from a broad sonic palette as they perform music from the new album.
