Music
Tatsu Aoki's ensemble, The MIYUMI Project, is one of the longest-standing amalgams of Chicago's avant-garde jazz and Japanese traditional music. Drawing from aesthetics rooted in the Japanese tradition and Japanese taiko drumming permeate the laboratory of sound where he explores the nexus of cultures: Asian and American; Japanese and African; past and present. The improvised compositions provide a conceptual framework for each band member to interpret, which in turn coalesce and transform into a vast contemporary expanse of musical immersion for the audience. Over the past two decades, each successive grouping of Miyumi Project musicians has contributed to the unique blending of modern application with a traditional sensibility. The final result is a continuous evolution of a "live and raw" musical happening.