It’s been said that jazz, at its best, bridges differences and amplifies diverse voices. Sure enough, throughout its rich, 100-year history, jazz has been a flexible, open medium wielded by artists of all stripes for expressions of self-exploration, camaraderie, joy, and pain.
Still, some critics have noted that discussion and appreciation of jazz music remains attached to a Black and white racial binary, leaving out jazz musicians from other cultural backgrounds, like Asian Americans, who also find resonance in the symbolism of jazz and have their own approach to share. Relatedly, there are comparatively few Asian American jazz artists whose names are known widely.
That said, since the 1930s there have been Asian American musicians in jazz who’ve made their mark.
Seattle’s own Josh Hou, a Chinese-Malaysian-American jazz accordionist and composer, exists within and beyond this legacy. His new record, Diaspora, explores his multicultural identity and diasporic experience. Hou does this through original compositions and jazz-adapted renditions of traditional and pop melodies from his Chinese and Malaysian heritages — like the Qing dynasty folk song “Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon” (彩雲追月) and “Rasa Sayang,” a Malay folk song he heard often when he lived in Malaysia’s capital city.
