Tatsu Aoki
| Tatsu Aoki | |
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Tatsu Aoki
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| Background information | |
| Native name | 青木 達幸 |
| Born | 1957 (age 59–60) Tokyo, Japan |
| Origin | Chicago |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, record producer, filmmaker |
| Instruments | Double bass |
Tatsu Aoki (青木 達幸 Aoki Tatsuyuki) (born 1957 in Tokyo, Japan) is a jazz double bass player and record producer.
Aoki is an active musician in the field of Asian American jazz, filmmaker and is the founder and artistic director of Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW), The Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival and The JASC Tsukasa Taiko Legacy arts residency program.
Aoki lives in Oak Park, Illinois. Aoki also teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Tatsu Aoki is a prolific artist, composer, musician, educator and a consummate bassist and Shamisen Lute player. Based in Chicago, Aoki works in a wide range of musical genres, ranging from traditional Japanese music, jazz, experimental and creative music.
Aoki was born in 1957 in Tokyo, Japan into an artisan family called TOYOAKI MOTO, traditionally categorized as OKIYA, meaning a booking and training agent for Geisha ladies in downtown Tokyo's designated area. While the economy and social environment forced many of those traditional artisan family business to close down in the 60s, Aoki was luckily able to receive some of the important essence of traditional Tokyo Geisha cultural training and studies at age 4, and became a part of the performing crew in early childhood. After his grandmother died, he had kept the Tokyo music training until early teen, and shifted his musical focus to American pop music and experimental music. Basically, he started jazz music in Japan in reflection from traditional Japanese music. Since his biological father was a movie producer at Shin Toho Studio, he had also begun working in small gage films and started to produce experimental films. Aoki was active performer during the early 70's in the mist of Tokyo Underground Arts movement. Became a member of Japanese Experimental Music ensemble, GINTENKAI presenting mixture of traditional music and new western music.
After coming to U.S. in 1977, Aoki studied experimental filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently an adjunct Associate Professor at the Film, Video and New Media Department, and teaches a course related to Celluloid and Advanced image making projectss and has an experience of teaching film production and history courses. In addition to his teaching job at SAIC, Aoki teaches Asian Identity in Cinema at Northwestern as well. During the late 80's, 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). Working in film and music.
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