Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

(b) Japanese.

Japanese American music is an expression of ethnic identity, a bi-cultural form drawing on the idiomatic playing styles of traditional Japanese instruments and use of pentatonic melodies, rhythms, forms, stylistic and aesthetic elements from Japanese folk or classical traditions. The incorporation of these elements in Western or American music has resulted in a transculturated music with varying degrees of experimentation and success.

Japanese American music has developed primarily in the hands of sansei, third generation immigrants who were born after World War II. A number of sansei musician-composers, taking their cues from black American culture and the black power movement, write in a jazz-based idiom as a vehicle for their artistry and in some cases politics. The improvisational nature of jazz offers great freedom of expression, allowing for experimentation in form, rhythm and melody, especially in avant-garde jazz. Sansei musicians consider the openness and spirit of jazz to be conducive for incorporating Japanese and Asian musical ideas in their compositions.

The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the redress and reparations movement in the 1980s serve as themes for several sansei jazz-based compositions: Glenn Horiuchi’s Poston Sonata for shamisen (three-string plucked lute), alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, bass, percussion and piano, Sumi Tonooka’s Out from the Silence (inspired by her mother’s internment experience) for koto (13-string board zither), shakuhachi (end-blown bamboo flute), violin, clarinet, trumpet, tenor saxophone, trombone, vibes, rhythm section and voice; and Anthony Brown’s E.O. 9066 (Truth be Told) for piano, bass, drum set and percussion, sheng (Chinese mouth organ), di (Chinese transverse bamboo flute), suona (shawm), tenor saxophone, clarinet and taiko (Japanese barrel drum). The sansei Key Kool and his partner Rhettmatic also address internment in their rap song Reconcentrated for voice, turntable, DJ mixer and other ‘scratch’ equipment. The expressive range of these compositions, from anger to reconciliation, address the injustices and humiliation of the internment experience and its aftermath.

The greatest concentration of Japanese American musical activity is in California, particularly in the urban areas of San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Asian American creative music scene in San Francisco is home to a number of sansei musician-composers, many of whom study or have studied Japanese court music (gagaku; see Japan, §V). The San Francisco Gagaku Society, directed by the pianist and koto player Miya Masaoka, received training under the tutelage of Suenobu Togi, former Imperial Japanese court dancer and musician, who taught these forms for more than 20 years at UCLA. Gagaku’s tripartite jo-ha-kyū form and aesthetic concept of ma (silent beat) are examples of musical elements that broaden the musical landscape for sanseis in their own work.

Other forms of traditional music from which sansei musician-composers draw include Japanese taiko drumming, folksongs and the repertories of the koto, shamisen and shakuhachi. This music is combined with a wide spectrum of contemporary musical styles. Nobuko Miyamoto, with the assistance of Reverend Kodani of the Senshin Buddhist Church in Los Angeles, composed two Japanese folksongs set to English-language lyrics, Yuiyo Bon Odori and Tanpopo, intended for use at Bon festivals of the dead. Among fusion bands, the well-known Los Angeles-based group Hiroshima was first to incorporate the koto, shakuhachi, taiko and shamisen in popular music. The spectrum of Hiroshima’s music fuses elements of rock, rhythm and blues, jazz, pop and Latin, with the pentatonic style of the koto.

Taiko drumming (see Kumi-daiko) continues to be the most pervasive and popular Japanese American genre among sansei and yonsei (fourth generation). It is an adaptation of the Japanese folk genre suwa daiko, which combines music and choreographed movement. A taiko ensemble consists of five to thirty or more performers, and includes drums of various sizes (most of which are made by the drummers themselves), atarigane (small bronze gong), hōragai (conch-shell trumpet), and takebue (Japanese bamboo transverse flute). There were about 100 taiko groups in the USA in the 1990s, and the numbers continue to grow. The annual taiko festival sponsored by the Japan America theatre in Los Angeles, featuring around eight or ten groups, is a response to the popularity of this genre among audiences. Other contexts for taiko drumming include sacred events, such as the Buddhist Hōraku Festival, as well as secular celebrations – the Cherry Blossom Festivals of San Francisco, New York and Washington, DC; the Asian-Pacific American Heritage Festival in New York and elsewhere, and at summer O-Bon festivals throughout the USA.

(c) Korean.

Before the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Koreans in the USA constituted a small population mainly concentrated in Hawaii and California. Since then, the increase in Korean immigrants to the USA has given rise to thriving Korean American communities in urban areas. In Korean American societies, music is the main emblem for high culture, an indispensable vehicle for social and religious functions and the favoured medium for the expression of Korean identity. As such, Korean American music embraces such diverse categories as Korean traditional performing arts, the Western musical canon, Christian evangelical music and recent popular idioms.

Most visibly within the USA, Korean Americans perform and create music of the Western canon. Not only do Korean and Korean American students predominate in the string sections and piano classes of the leading musical conservatories, but Korean Americans sponsor and participate in their own organizations, such as the Korean Philharmonic of Los Angeles, and sponsor musical events at prestigious concert halls throughout the country. These events typically feature Korean and Korean American artists performing virtuosic and lyrical repertories of 19th-century Europe or new works by Korean composers.

Within Korean American society, the Christian church serves as perhaps the most important social institution. 70–80% of Korean Americans and recent Korean immigrants are church members. As a result, old Protestant hymns, sung in Korean often at a slow pace, and other evangelical music, either in a Korean gospel or European Romantic style, comprise musical knowledge common to most Korean Americans. Even in small churches, choirs attempt a challenging repertory, and the musical director and worship accompanist are highly valued. Korean churches also serve as cultural institutions, often sponsoring musical events.

The preservation and performance of Korean traditional music and dance are important to Korean immigrants. This urge to maintain, teach and exhibit their heritage has given rise to several cultural centres in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, the Halla Pai Huhm Dance Studio in Hawaii, the Korean Classical Music Institute in Los Angeles and the Korean Traditional Music Institute in New York. Increasingly, younger generations of Korean Americans are taking up p’ungmul (farmers’ dance music popularized by the group Samul Nori) in order to give sound and visibility to their ethnic identity and political entity as Korean Americans. Korean drumming groups have been formed on college campuses (such as Stanford Hwimori, Yale Unity, MIT Hansori) and in Korean American communities such as P’ungmulpae of Oakland. Numerous p’ungmul workshops are offered every year by different organizations. As a traditional musical idiom recently adopted by student and labour groups in Korea as a symbol of power against oppression, p’ungmul offers American student groups a ready musical form to express Korean identity and to bring attention to the socio-political obstacles facing Korean Americans.

The musical expression of Korean American identity extends to hip hop and rock music. Korean American rappers (e.g. Fists of Fury and rap artist Jamez Chang), like their black American counterparts, focus on social and political issues as they perform on college campuses and at heritage festivals. Many of them point especially to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which devastated the Korean American community and brought forth a new call for political action. Artists such as Sooyoung Park take part in the larger scene of Asian American ‘indie rock’. Park’s compilation album, Ear of the Dragon, and its subsequent tour seek to show that Korean and Asian Americans can create rock and roll, hence breaking the stereotype of the meek, ‘good minority’ Asian American.

USA, §II, 5: Traditional music: Asian American music