This chapter explores the lives and music of a group of mainly Chinese American and Japanese American musicians that came together in the 1980s to support one another under the rubric of Asian American jazz and creative music. Black nationalist ideas about music and race proved especially attractive to these musicians, and free jazz in particular inspired them to put forward their own revolutionary dreams through music. Personal interviews with many participants—including Glenn Horiuchi, Francis Wong, Mark Izu, Jason Kao Hwang, and Jon Jang—trace the cultivation of an Asian voice within...

This chapter explores the lives and music of a group of mainly Chinese American and Japanese American musicians that came together in the 1980s to support one another under the rubric of Asian American jazz and creative music. Black nationalist ideas about music and race proved especially attractive to these musicians, and free jazz in particular inspired them to put forward their own revolutionary dreams through music. Personal interviews with many participants—including Glenn Horiuchi, Francis Wong, Mark Izu, Jason Kao Hwang, and Jon Jang—trace the cultivation of an Asian voice within jazz's complicated cultural history.