Origins of Now Artists
ORIGINS OF NOW BIOGRAPHIES
Born
in Japan into an artisan family, Tatsu Aoki began studies
in the traditional Japanese performing arts at age 3. Since arriving
in the US in 1977, Aoki has become a leading advocate for Chicago's
Asian American community and one of Chicago's most in-demand musicians
on both contrabass, taiko (Japanese drums) and shamisen (Japanese lute).
As founder and Executive Director of AIRMW, Aoki has initiated and managed
several programs to advance the understanding of Asian American culture
and community through the arts, including the Annual Chicago Asian American
Jazz Festival and the JASC Tsukasa Taiko Legacy arts residency project.
His work as an artist and educator in the cultural arts and as a leader
in the Asian American community address as well as define the issues
facing the community, including the need for quality artistic programs
that reflect the Asian American experience.
Avotcja
is a Poet/Playwright & multi-instrumentalist who has opened for
Betty Carter in N.Y.C. & Peru's Susana Baca at San Francisco's Encuentro
Popular, played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Luis & Bobi Cespedes,
John Handy, Sonido Afro Latina, Dimensions Dance Theater, Black Poets
With Attitudes, Nikki Giovanni, Diamano Coura West African Dance Co,
Terry Garthwaite, Caribeana Etc, Lisa Cohen. Shared stages with Sonia
Sanchez, Piri Thomas, Janice Mirikitani, Diane DiPrima, Michael Franti,
Jayne Cortez, & with Jose Montoya's Royal Chicano Air Force.
Her Poetry has been recorded by Piri Thomas, & performed by Purple
Moon Dance Project, Bobby Matos Heritage Ensemble in Los Angeles, Karlton
Hester’s Musicism, and was the 1st Poetry used by New York's Dance
Mobile. She's appeared at Lorraine Hansberry Theater in San Francisco,
The Scottish Rite Temple & Yoshi's in Oakland, Jose Castellar's
Man From San Juan in San Francisco, Club Le Monmartre in Copenhagen
Denmark, Stanford University, at San Francisco's Brava Theater For The
Arts with Cine Accion, New York's Henry Street Settlement Theater and
Afro Solo in San Francisco. Avotcja a is popular Bay Area DJ. &
the founder & Director of "The Clean Scene Theater Project/Proyecto
Teatral De La Escena Sobria". She teaches Poetry, Creative Writing,
Music & Drama in Public Schools & thanks to the California Arts
Council she is also an Artist in Residence at Milestones Project &
the Penal System. Avotcja is an ASCAP recording Artist & a very
proud & active member of DAMO (Disability Advocates Of
Minorities Organization) & the National Writers Union Local #3.
www.avotcja.com
John
Calloway is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger
who has performed with many renowned jazz and Latin music artists throughout
the United States, Europe and Latin America, among them: Israel “Cachao”
Lopez, Max Roach, Omar Sosa and Dizzy Gillespie. In the San Francisco
Bay Area, John has built a solid foundation, with credits as a as a
performer/arranger include work, Pete Escovedo, Jesus Diaz, John Santos,
Quique Cruz, Rebeca Mauleon and Wayne Wallace. He has recently traveled
to South America with the Chilean jazz group Quijerema, and with Teatro
Arcoiris for the critically acclaimed theatre piece “Poeta Pan,”
based on the life and poetry of Pablo Neruda.
His recording credits as a performer and composer include his debut
CD Diaspora, his recently released The Code (Bombo music) and collaborations
with John Santos, Jesus Diaz and Omar Sosa. Included in his recording
and writing credits are the Grammy nominations given to "SF Bay"
(2003) with the Machete Ensemble, and Ritmo y Candela (1996) and Ritmo
y Candela II (1998), produced by Greg Landau and featuring Cuban percussionists
Changuito, Patato, and Orestes Vilato.
Photo by Amanda Lopez
www.johncalloway.com
Jose
B. Cuellar (saxophone, ocarina, reed flute, accordion)
Jose B. Cuellar, Ph.D. (a.k.a. “Dr. Loco”)
is widely recognized as a successful Chicano musician and dedicated
ethnic studies educator. Over the past two decades, he has gained international
recognition as an exciting performer, especially with his critically
acclaimed Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalapeño Band. Cuellar
produced four critically acclaimed music albums (Con/Safos, 1991; Movimiento
Music, 1992; Puro Party! 1995; Barrio Ritmos & Blues, 1998), plus
a feature film soundtrack (Alambrista! The Director’s Cut, 2004).
Cuellar has served as Professor of Raza Studies at San Francisco State University since 1990, where he also was department chair (1991-98) and director of the Cesar E. Chavez Institute for Public Policy (1994-2001). His distinguished teaching and research career includes positions at the Claremont Colleges (1971-73, 1975-77), University of Southern California (1973-75), University of Colorado at Boulder (1977-78), University of California at Santa Barbara (1978-79), Allied Home Health Association (1979-80), San Diego State University (1980-85), Stanford University (1983-88), the Prevention Research Center and the University of California at Berkeley (1988-90).
Cuellar’s recent honors and awards include: SF Weekly’s WAMMIE Award for Best Unsigned Latin Band (1991); KGO TV’s Hispanic Profile of Excellence Award (1991); Bank of America/ KQED TV’s Hispanic Heritage Month Hero (1993); Rockefeller Humanities Gateways Fellow (1997-98); The Diversity in Teaching and Learning Distinguished Faculty Award (2000); California State University at Long Beach’s Chicano & Latino Studies Department’s Certificate of Achievement for Outstanding Leadership and Contributions to the Chicano/Latino Community (2000); the Distinguished Alumnus, California State University at Long Beach’s College of Arts and Letters (2002); and Golden West Community College’s Pillar of Achievement Award (2003); San Francisco Arts Commissioner (2005); Denver’s Escuela Tlatelolco’s Champion of Change Award (2006).
www.drloco.com
Isabel
Douglass performs on accordion in a variety of styles including
tango, French musette, Balkan dance styles, klezmer, early jazz, and
experimental music. She is founder of the group Les Croque-Notes, a
quartet specializing in the music of George Brassens. She is also currently
a member of Tango No. 9, Rupa and the April Fishes, Kugelplex, and The
Red Shoes. Isabel has worked with a variety of projects, including The
Japonize Elephants, Eric McFadden, Eric Burdon, Amaldecor, Faun Fables,
Gaucho, and Welcome to Hell. Recent dance and theater groups she has
collaborated with are Octavio Solis, Tango Confusion, Dandelion Dance
Theater, Roccoco Risque, and Yuko Kaseki.
Thomas Edler
After some brushes with piano and trombone, Tom started playing upright
bass at age 13, when he had already reached a gangly six feet and was
deemed "too big to play the cello."
He currently studies classical music with Shinji Eshima of the San Francisco
Ballet and San Francisco Opera orchestras. He has also studied bass
with jazz greats Richard Davis and Gerald Cannon. Tom was reared in
the frozen wilds of Green Bay, Wisconsin and has now made San Francisco
his home.
Nasim Gorgani was born in the Bay Area in 1987, and raised
in Tehran. Upon graduation from high school she returned to California
where she is now continuing her college education at SFSU. She became
interested in Classical Persian Music since her high school years and
started playing Daff about six years ago. She was very fortunate to
have Vandad Massahzadeh as a very competent instructor.
As
a pianist and artistic director of ensembles, Jon Jang
has toured at major concert halls and music festivals in China, South
Africa (1994), Europe, Canada and the United States. At the same time
Jang has been a consistent presence in the community here in the San
Francisco Bay Area as a California Arts Council Artist in Residence
1990-1993, Meet The Composer New Resident 2000-2003 and founder and
director of his resident company Jon Jang Performances. With over ten
recordings as a leader or collaborator, Jang has recorded with distinguished
artists such as Max Roach, Maxine Hong Kingston, James Newton, David
Murray, Zhang Yan and Jiebing Chen. As a composer, Jang has received
commissions from the Sacramento Philharmonic and Oakland East Bay Symphony
(Chinese American Symphony), the National Endowment for the Arts, The
Library of Congress, Kronos Quartet, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Chanticleer,
Brava! for Women in the Arts, Kulintang Arts and others.
Photo by Bob Hsiang
www.jonjang.com
Danongan
Kalanduyan is a master musician, ethnomusicologist and cultural
consultant on Muslim-Filipino culture, and he is the only master artist
of Maguindanao Kulintang music in the United States. Mr. Kalanduyan
earned his graduate degree in Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington
at Seattle, where he was an Artist-in-Residence for many years. In 1995,
Mr. Kalanduyan received the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship
from the National Endowment for the Arts [presented in this photo by
First Lady Hillary Clinton]. Currently based in San Francisco, he is
the Executive Director of the Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble.
www.kulintang.com
Artistic
director, composer and performer Dohee Lee, explores
her training in shamanistic ritual music, dance and Korean percussion
to create unique work. Ms. Lee's performances have been described as
"stunning" and "irrepressible and soul-shaking.”
The Chicago Tribune characterized her work as " an extraordinary
lexicon of vocal colors, tones and textures." Ms. Lee received
her degree in Korean traditional dance and percussion in Korea. She
regularly performs Korean traditional dance and music as well as her
own original pieces of music, voice work and dance throughout the Bay
Area and the United States. She will present work with Kunst-Stoff's
10th Anniversary "Un state-world premier" as a composer and
performer, and Shinichi Koga's Ink-Boat "cHord-world premier"
as a performer and costume designer at Yerba Buena Center For the Arts
in 2008. She was commissioned to compose music for Kronos Quartet "SINAWI"
in 2007 and performed as guest vocalist and composer at 2007 SF Jazz
Festival of Kronos Quartet at the Herbst Theater in San-Francisco.
Genny
Lim is a native San Franciscan poet, performer, playwright,
educator and cultural activist whose artistic vision strives to express
the uniqueness and universality of my experience as the child of immigrant
Chinese, deeply engaged in the civil rights and Asian American arts
movement since the early 1970s. Her work has always been deeply informed
by her commitment to social justice issues on many fronts. Her two books
of poetry, Winter Place (1989, Kearny Street Workshop) and Child of
War (2003, Kalamaku Press) have been widely recognized for defining
a distinctive Asian American voice in the Bay Area and international
literary landscape. Recently she toured Venezuela as a participant in
the Second Annual World Poetry Festival in Caracas. Her award-winning
play about Angel Island immigrants, Paper Angels aired on American Playhouse
in 1995 and the anthology she co-authored, Island: Poetry and History
of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, brought national attention to
institutional racism against immigrants. Bitter Cane, a second play
set in the Hawaiian sugar plantations of the 1920s, has also been published
and performed nationally and overseas. She also been commissioned to
create a libretto for Jon Jang’s Immigrant Suite; and poetry for
Francis Wong’s, Shanghai 1948. My work has been featured on the
PBS series, The United States of Poetry; and KQED's feature, San Francisco
Chinatown.
Cathleen
McCarthy, originally from San Mateo, California, received a
Ford Foundation Scholarship from Violet Verdy at age twelve. In 1983,
she received her B.F.A. from Purchase College. In New York City she
danced with the companies, Kevin Wynn Collection and Larry Clark and
Dancers. In 1985 she returned to the Bay Area and danced in several
local companies--New Dance Co/San Jose (Cliff Keuter-Director), Zaccho
Dance Theater (Joanna Haigood-Director), Della Davidson Dance Co. and
also as a guest artist with local companies, Macfarland/Whistler/DanceArtCompany
and Ruth Langridge Dance Company. In 1988, she assisted Emily Keeler
in choreographing “The Awakening” for the Oakland Ballet.
In 1994, she co-choreographed “Our Town” with Emily Keeler,
for the Oakland Ballet. In 1992 and 1993 she was awarded Dance Bay Area
Commissioning Project Grants for her choreography. The Zellerbach Family
Fund has also awarded her grants for choreographic projects. In 1992,
Ms. McCarthy founded Summerfest/Dance and was a Director for 10 years.
In 2003, she was commissioned by the Composers- Choreographers Consortium
for a collaboration with composer Daniel David Feinsmith to create “Leviticus”.
She has taught at School of the Arts as an Artist in Residence, San
Francisco Arts Education Project, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, and is
currently on faculty at San Francisco State University as a Lecturer
in the School of Music and Dance, teaching advanced Modern Dance, Dance
Medicine, Dance Conditioning, Organizational Strategies, and is a Director
of the University Dance Theater. The company tours to local colleges,
high schools and to the American College Dance Festivals. She is also
a certified Pilates and GYROTONIC instructor with her own private practice.
Hafez
Modirzadeh has focused on integrative directions for the practice
and education of jazz and world music. On both international and local
fronts, he is active in the realms of performing, teaching, recording,
publishing, and presenting cross-cultural perspectives regarding musical
culture, tradition and innovation, and individual representations thereof.
Dr. Modirzadeh received an M.A. from UCLA ('86) and a PhD from Wesleyan
('92), both in ethnomusicology, and continues to develop an interdisciplinary
musical approach he calls "Chromodal Discourse". From Tehran
to Brown Universities, Chromodal theory has been presented within both
musical and scientific academic arenas, most recently acknowledged as
a formal subject for the Doctorate of Musical Arts by the University
of Madison, Wisconsin (Frey 2002). Modirzadeh's contributing research
has been published in such journals as the Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology
(1986), Horn Call (1995-96), Music in China (2000), Ethnomusicology
(2001), and Black Music Research (2002). Over the last three decades,
his work on saxophones and a variety of other reeds has been documented
on dozens of creative jazz and world LP/CD releases, listed in the Penguin
Guide to Jazz, and in 1999, contributing to a Grammy nomination for
Anthony Brown's Asian American Orchestra. Modirzadeh has appeared from
the Berlin to Monterey Jazz Festivals, and has performed with such artists
as Omar Sosa, Don Cherry, Peter Apfelbaum, Steve Lacy, Fred Ho, Zakir
Hussein, Oliver Lake, as well as many on the local San Francisco creative
music scene. Dr. Modirzadeh's composed works have been supported by
two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships ('89, '91), Other Minds
(1998), and the Djerassi Composer's Residency Program (2003), while
his educational outreach has been repeatedly funded by California Arts
Council Artist in Residency (1996-99). Through the 90's, he coordinated
San Jose State University's Improvised Music Studies Program until joining
the music faculty at San Francisco State in 1998 to develop programs
in both jazz and world music and dance.
www.hafezmodir.com
Saed
Muhssin is a performer of traditional and modern Arabic art
music, Turkish music, Arab folk music, and free improvisation. In his
solo work the traditional Arabic roots as well as the influences of
other traditions can clearly be heard. In addition to giving solo performances,
Saed currently directs and performs with the Arab Orchestra of San Francisco
and the Saed Muhssin trio.
Photo by Matty Nematollahi
www.saedmuhssin.com
John-Carlos
Perea
Electric Bass Guitar, Northern Plains Pow-Wow Singing and Drumming,
Cedar Flute
Grammy winning pow-wow singer and cedar flutist John-Carlos Perea
(Mescalero Apache, Irish, German) was born in Dulce, New Mexico and
raised in San Francisco, California. He received his BA in Music from
San Francisco State University in 2000, studying under David Motto,
Dr. Dee Spencer, and Dr. Hafez Modirzadeh. During his time at San Francisco
State, John-Carlos also studied Northern style pow-wow music with Dr.
Bernard Hoehner-Peji and sang with the Blue Horse Singers, Dr. Hoehner-Peji’s
pow-wow drum group.
John-Carlos released his first CD, First Dance, in 2001 and since then has performed alongside many eminent American Indian artists including Joy Harjo, Charlie Hill, and Sandra Osawa. In addition to leading his own sextet and performing with San Francisco-based ensembles such as Francis Wong’s Gathering Of Ancestors and Dr. Loco y sus Tiburones del Norte, John-Carlos co-leads the Sweetwater Singers, a Northern Plains intertribal pow-wow drum.
John-Carlos received his MA in Music from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005 and is currently a doctoral candidate in Music at UC Berkeley. His dissertation focuses on the life and music of Native jazz saxophonist Jim Pepper. John-Carlos has lectured at San Francisco State, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Harvard on the subjects of American Indian Music and American Indian Modern and Creative Performing Arts. He recently completed a Visiting Artist Fellowship with the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University.
In May 2007, John-Carlos toured Japan with the Paul Winter Consort to premiere music from "Crestone" (Living Music, 2007), the new Consort CD on which John-Carlos contributes pow-wow vocals and cedar flute. "Crestone" received its US premiere in December 2007 at Paul Winter’s 28th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration held at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York. “Crestone” is a 2007 Grammy winner (Best New Age Album, Vocal or Instrumental).
Photo by Niki Magtoto
www.myspace.com/johncarlosperea.
Matthew
Shenoda is a faculty member in the College of Ethnic Studies
at San Francisco State University. Author of Somewhere Else, winner
of the 2007 Hala Maksoud Award for Emerging Voice, and a 2006 American
Book Award, his latest collection, Seasons of Lotus, Seasons of Bone,
will be published in 2009 from BOA Editions.
Photo by Sherwin Bitsui
www.matthewshenoda.com
Sensei
Melody Takata is a taiko artist (Japanese drumming)
and dancer/choreographer trained in classical Japanese dance. In her
20+ year career she has engaged in the interpretation of traditional
pieces as well as created new works in the tradition. She has further
explored the role of innovation as a means to advance the tradition
as living culture, experimenting both with interdisciplinary integration
of traditional art disciplines (taiko, folk dance, folk music, ozashiki
music, classical dance) as well as the use of contemporary forms such
as modern dance, spoken word and improvised music.
Photo by Darrell Miho
www.gentaiko.com
Wesley
Ueunten is a sansei Okinawan born and raised on Kaua'i, Hawai'i
. After spending nearly 10 years living in Okinawa and Japan , he moved
to California to pursue a Ph.D. degree in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley.
He received his Ph.D. in 2007 and now teaches in the Asian American
Studies Department at San Francisco State University . While in Okinawa
and Japan , Wesley studied Okinawan sanshin (three-stringed lute). He
is a co-founder of Genyukai Berkeley, a group that learns, practices,
and performs traditional and contemporary Okinawan music.
Photo by Lina Hoshino
Musician,
arranger, composer, educator, and producer Wayne Wallace (trombone,
keyboards, vocals) has recorded with and arranged music for artists
such as Pete Escovedo, John Lee Hooker, Chris Issak, Machete, Jesus
Diaz and QBA, Santana and Sister Sledge. His performance credits include
the Asian American Jazz Orchestra, The Count Basie Orchestra, The Benny
Carter Big Band, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, John Handy, Bobby Hutcherson,
Tito Puente, Gladys Knight, Pattie Labelle, Sonny Rollins, The Temptations,
The McCoy Tyner Big Band, Dionne Warwick, and Stevie Wonder. In 1993
Wayne received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to compose
a three part suite “Digging Up the Roots” reflecting the
diverse musical cultures of the San Francisco Bay Area. In the same
year he composed and arranged the music for the American Conservatory
Theater’s production of “Pecong” by Steve Carter,
which was awarded the Bay Area Theater Critics Award for best original
score in a drama. Wayne received grants from both the San Francisco
Arts Commission and the Creative Work Fund in 2002 for composition of
the music to “The Quilt.” Wayne has taught jazz theory &
composition, improvisation, jazz trombone at San Francisco State University,
The Jazz School, Stanford University, Antioch College, UC Berkeley,
Jazz Camp West, and San Jose State University.
Photo by David Belove
www.walacomusic.com
Kevin
Washington is an academician, a dynamic speaker, author, life/relationship
coach, percussionist and Afrikan Centered Psychologist who has served
as a behavioral consultant for Essence Magazine, Black Entertainment
Television (BET) News, MayaTech Corporation, Mississippi and Maryland
Fatherhood Initiative as well as the International Black Buyers and
Manufacturers Conference (IBBMEC). Kevin Washington, Ph.D. received
a bachelors degree in Psychology from Grambling State University and
a masters degree in Educational Psychology as well as a doctoral degree
in Counseling Psychology from Texas A & M University. He has served
as Clinical Coordinator and Consulting Psychologist for several mental
health agencies and a foster care agency and has taught at several universities
including Grambling State University, Howard University, Morgan State
University, University of the District of Columbia, University of Nebraska,
Trinity College, and Rollins College. Currently, he is an Assistant
Professor in the Africana Studies Department at San Francisco State
University. As a Fulbright-Hays scholar Kevin researched the impact
of socializing institutions on the healing or restructuring of post-apartheid
South Afrika along with traditional healing systems in South Afrika
and Ghana, West Afrika. Kevin is developing therapy (healing) paradigms
for working with ethnically and culturally diverse populations with
an emphasis on Afrikan American families, relationships, and men. Most
recently, he and his wife have published a book entitled, The Resurrection
of Black: Empowering Black Relationships to Succeed.
Deborah
Wong is an ethnomusicologist, specializing in the musics of
Thailand and Asian America. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. (1991) from
the University of Michigan, where she worked with ethnomusicologist
Judith Becker; her B.A., magna cum laude (1982), in anthropology and
music, is from the University of Pennsylvania. Her first book, Sounding
the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Ritual (Chicago
University Press, 2001), addresses ritual performance about performance
and its implications for the cultural politics of Thai court music and
dance in late twentieth-century Bangkok. Speak It Louder: Asian Americans
Making Music (Routledge, 2004), focuses on music and identity work in
a series of case studies (Southeast Asian immigrant musics, Chinese
American and Japanese American jazz in the Bay Area, and Asian American
hip-hop). She has taught at UCR since fall 1996 and is Professor of
Music. Wong has taught as Assistant Professor of Music at Pomona College
(1991-93) and at the University of Pennsylvania (1993-96); she was a
visiting professor at Princeton University and the University of Chicago.
Wong is very active in the Society for Ethnomusicology. She has served
on its Board of Directors for three consecutive terms as Secretary (199-2001,
2001-03, 2003-05) as well as on the SEM Council (1992-94). She was president
of the SEM Mid-Atlantic Chapter (1994-96), and served as co-editor of
the SEM Newsletter with René T.A. Lysloff from 1994-99. She founded
the SEM Committee on the Status of Women with Elizabeth Tolbert in 1996.
Asian American issues and activities are a priority for Wong. She has
served on numerous committees addressing issues in Asian American studies
curriculum as well as Asian American student needs. She has studied
Japanese American drumming (taiko) since 1997 and is a member of Satori
Daiko, the performing group of th Taiko Center of Los Angeles. Her book
in progress will address taiko in California. Born on the East Coast,
Wong is now an enthusiastic Californian. She self-identifies as Chinese
American (third generation), as multiethnic, and as Asian American.
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 Asian American jazz/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 Generational 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).
”I choose for my work to build community and to seek out how I, as an artist can meet the challenges that our community faces. In the Asian American community, the biggest challenge is continuity of culture and the impact of assimilation. Through music, I envision a way to create continuity through the integration of tradition and innovation.
Photo by Kallan Nishimoto
www.franciswong.net