An Afternoon of Japanese Ghost Stories and Jazz

November 01, 2009

The haunting eloquence of Brenda Wong Aoki’s Japanese love stories masterfully performed in concert with Asian Jazz pioneer Mark Izu Ensemble A record release concert for Legend of Morning Glory (a Kabuki Taiko Oratorio).

Anthony Brown – (Percussion)

Shoko Hikage – (Koto)

Janet Koike – (Taiko)

Mas Koga (Sax/Shakuhachi)

2pm show
$5 Kids, $15 adults with kids, $20

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 Japanese Ghost Stories and Jazz

 

The haunting eloquence of Brenda Wong Aoki's ghost stories

Masterfully performed in concert with Asian Jazz pioneer composer Mark Izu,

Featuring the thunder drums of Janet Koike & Maze Daiko,

Multi-percussionist east-west jazz veteran Anthony Brown

Koto extraordinaire Shoko Hikage and Mas Koga on sax and soulful shakuhachi

 

“ Mark Izu’s music is a great gift to the jazz tradition, to its on going transformation and revitalization into energetic and unpredictable new directions” – Downbeat Magazine

 

“…Aoki’s remarkable talents as a performer and storyteller – talents which include an impressive synthesis of modern and traditional Japanese and American theatrical techniques of dance, mime, movement, song and voice placement…” Hollywood Drama-Logue

 

 

Music director Mark Izu is an Emmy Award-winning contemporary jazz composer who has studied and performed Gagaku for over twenty years, Writer/performer Brenda Wong Aoki is steeped in traditional noh and kyogen theatrical traditions, contemporary storytelling and movement. Both artists integrate Japanese theatrical techniques, story, musical instruments, and visual motifs into their work. Joining them is Izu’s long time running partner multi-percussionist, composer & director of the Grammy nominated Asian American Orchestra Dr. Anthony Brown, koto extraordinaire Shoko Hikage, reverberating on Taiko Janet Koike & Maze Daiko and Mas Koga shimmering soulfully on shakuhachi and sax.

 

About Japanese Ghosts:

 

In the Noh theater, the dead are more important than the living because the actions of the dead are what brought us to where we are today. Japanese ghosts are usually female.  Upset females. They are portrayed without feet because they have lost their connection to the earth. They are passionate women on a mission, so filled with love, jealousy or rage; they won't go peacefully to into the night. 

Japanese believe ghosts are people who have died with an unpaid On. On means “debt” or “obligation” but it is much more complicated. An On carries with it a sacred vow that this debt be repaid.  An unpaid on is passed down to your children and to their children. The On begins to grow, like a snowball into an avalanche with each successive generation. Until finally, whole families, villages, countries live under the dark cloud of an unpaid on, because by then, nobody knows what happened, who did it nor how to fix it.  This is where storytellers come in.  We help people remember what happened in the past. Because like autumn leaves falling year after year, people repeat the same mistakes, follow the same patterns and create the same stories/histories over and over again. Love stories soften our hearts. Tales of wonder awaken the awe in us. Heroes bring out the heroic in the listener and remind us that one good person can change the world. Ghost stories remind us that the only thing that remains after we are dead is the consequence of our actions.

 

(For more information go to www.brendawongaoki.com)

 

About the Artists

 

Aoki and Izu had three releases in 2008.  Mermaid Meat the Secret of Immortality - a small picture book with CD featuring full color wood block prints by Yoshitoshi.  The Queen’s Garden (re-release INDIE Award for Best Spoken Word recording), and Threading Time, acclaimed in Japan as “One of the Top 10 jazz recordings of 2008”.  In Fall of 2009 they will release,

Legend of Morning Glory, a Kabuki Taiko Oratorio with Maze Daiko and Christopher Yohmei and Navarasa – duets for shakuhachi and bass featuring Mark Izu and Christopher Yohmei. Their recordings are available on-line at the National Japanese-American Museum, Amazon.com and C.D. Baby.

 

 In 1995, Aoki and Izu founded First Voice, a nonprofit arts organization whose mission is to create, develop, and present the stories and music of people living between worlds. Critical to this mission is "personal experience" or "voice" as essential to authentic contemporary global culture. Through First Voice, Brenda and Mark together with their friends, continue to create music & stories about people and lives that cross spiritual and cultural boundaries.