Jon Jang comes to the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival on May 17, bringing with him his storytelling and brilliance as a composer and pianist.
In “Unbound Chinatown With Jon Jang Seven Featuring Min Xiao Fen,” Jang delivers an Americanized, jazzed-up version of Chinese folk songs to paint a contemporary musical portrait of resistance within the Asian American experience.
“Unbound Chinatown” is a metaphor for bound feet and liberation, Jang said, built around the story of Alice Fong Yu, a second-generation Chinese American who became the first Chinese American teacher hired by the San Francisco school district. Yu was also a leader in San Francisco’s Chinatown and an activist during the 1930s against the war in Japan.
“In a sense, women like Alice were playing an important role of being part of the United States, but also of validating Chinatown as part of the United states,” Jang said. “The work is about being isolated in Chinatown.”
Jang, who started playing piano at the age of 19, has been influenced strongly by Paul Robeson, considered one of the greatest African American artists of the 21st century. Robeson similarly sang Chinese folk songs of resistance, moving Jang to devote his life to music.
“I consider music the highest level of human expression,” Jang said, “and I have a very close relationship with the piano, even though I started when I was 19. I’ve been blessed to have performed at very inspiring concerts during special, historic times.”
Special indeed — Jang has performed at festivals in Beijing during the handover of Hong Kong, in Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in Europe after Sept. 11. He engages in what he calls a common process in composing these pieces, surrounding the theme of resistance.
“The process is that I try to let the music flow through me, rather than it come to me,” said Jang, who lives in San Francisco. “It’s very organic and intuitive, but using a highly developed compositional language that I’ve developed over the years.”
With “Unbound Chinatown,” Jang aims to celebrate the history of Chinese Americans living in Chinatown and make it a living history by “valorizing and validating Chinese American contributions.”
The ensemble for Saturday’s performance includes saxophonist Francis Wong, trombonist and musical director Wayne Wallace, and special guest vocalist Min Xiao Fen.
Jon Jang performs at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival on May 17 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Admission is free. More info: jonjang.com.