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| Avant-garde jazzman who lives on the Chicago/Oak Park border is the most recorded Asian-American bassist in U.S. jazz history. His newest recording, due this summer, is a number of bass duets with Malachi Favors (Art Ensemble of Chicago). The previous, Eigen is in his usual solo bass setting. Kioto (Asian Improv Records) features duets with Michael Zerang, Jim O'Rourke & Sanjuro Tsubaki. Other recordings include Depressingly Happy (IEL), Needless to Say (Sound Aspects), Avant Bass Live (IEL), Strange Familiar (BOOKish Inc.), Chicago Time Code (Asian Improv), If It Weren't For Paul, Urban Reception, and Fire (all on Southport Records), Actual Music (Toe Inc.), Sounds Like 1996: Asian American Artists, Live at the Blue Rider Theatre, and Experimental Tokyo. He performs in a number of groups. His Trio includes saxophone/clarinetist Mwata Bowden (best known from Eight Bold Souls and the AACM), and drummer Afifi Phillard (who played with, among others, Sun Ra). He also plays in another trio with local drummer Dave Pavkovic and San Francisco saxophonist Francis Wong, another of our country's better Asian-American jazzers. He's a member of Von Freeman's Fire, and regularly plays with Bradley Parker-Sparrow, Lynn Book, and Fred Anderson. Unusually for a bassist (though he has 6 albums of solo bass work, so it shouldn't surprise too much), He also plays solo shows (including legendary 2-hour-straight marathons at the Blue Rider Theatre), sometimes sampling a looped bass line to solo over... Born in Tokyo in 1957, Tatsu grew up listening to traditional Asian music, studied the shamisen and taiko as well as the piano and guitar before taking up the acoustic bass, and began playing in Tokyo clubs. He dropped out of high school and -- at 19 -- left Japan to study filmmaking in the United States (his father is a movie producer) first at Ohio University, and then at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has a graduate degree in film from the School of the Art Institute, and is also an assistant professor there). Founder of the Chicago Asian-Asmerican Jazz Festival. Says the Chicago Reader jazz critic Neil Tesser, "He has harnessed his technique to the yoke of clear communications." In addition, Aoki books (and helped found) the Asian American Jazz Festival and several other local concert series. He's currently Executive Producer of Asian Improv Records in San Francisco. For more information, visit their website: http://www.avantbass.com/
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