Jon Jang is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 pianist, composer, and bandleader. Of Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 ancestry, he is active in the Asian American jazz

Asian American jazz

Asian American jazz is a musical movement in the United States begun in the 20th century by Asian American jazz musicians.Although Asian Americans had been performing jazz music almost since that music's inception, it was not until the late 20th century when a distinctly Asian American brand of...

 movement and specializes in music which combines elements of jazz and Asian musics.

Jang holds a B.M. degree in music performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music

Oberlin Conservatory of Music

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, located on the campus of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, was founded in 1865 and is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Students of Oberlin Conservatory enter a very broad network within the music world, as the school's alumni...

 (1978). He has performed with David Murray

David Murray (jazz musician)

David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...

, James Newton

James Newton

James W. Newton is an American jazz flautist, composer, and conductor.-Biography:From his earliest years, James Newton grew up immersed in the sounds of African American music, including urban blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel. In his early teens he played electric bass guitar, alto saxophone,...

, Anthony Brown

Anthony Brown

Anthony Brown is an American jazz percussionist, drummer, composer, and bandleader, and ethnomusicologist. He is the son of a Choctaw and African American father and a Japanese mother. Long associated with the Asian American jazz movement, he specializes in the juxtaposition of American and Asian...

, Mark Izu

Mark Izu

Mark Izu is an American jazz double bass player and composer. He is of Japanese ancestry and frequently combines jazz with Asian traditional musics in his compositions. He has performed with Anthony Brown and Jon Jang. Mark Izu is a seminal leader in the'Asian American Jazz movement...

, Jiebing Chen

Jiebing Chen

Jiebing Chen is a Chinese musician based in the United States specializing in the erhu .Born in Shanghai, China, Chen went to the United States in 1989 to study at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she received an M.A...

, Liu Qi-Chao

Liu Qi-Chao

Liu Qichao is a Chinese-born multi-instrumentalist. He graduated from the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He now lives in Los Angeles.-Instruments:...

, and Max Roach

Max Roach

Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...

.

The Jon Jang Sextet performed at the Beijing Jazz Festival in 1997.

Jang lives in San Francisco, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. He has recorded for the Asian Improv and Soul Note labels.

External links

• "The Music of the Flowing Stream: An Interview With Jazz Composer Jon Jang", by Ken Chen, from Satellite, v. 1, issue 3 (January 2001)
• "An interview with composers Jon Jang and James Newton", by Nic Paget-Clarke