Contents

AsiAmericanDreaMusic

by Mike Heffley

Copyright © 2013

Some people complain their memories get worse as they age. Not me. Mine is better. I can now remember things that never happened at all. 

--Mark Twain

Contents

[small-font notes to myself about personal interest/connection to each chapter's theme]

Acknowledgements, Made Up and Not  [conventionally true acknowledgements mixed in with fictional ones]

Preface  [conventionally true preface's details mixed in with fictional ones]

Introduction  [conventionally true intro details mixed in with fictional ones]

Part 1: The Overview
Chapter One: Dancing aBout (ArcheTextURe) [nod to Sheron Wray for wordplay there; this chapter's focus is on methodology--my history as a writer about music, from journalism to scholarship, and a de-/re-construction of the disciplinary/professional paradigms and rubrics of same; ends with application of the reconstructed paradigm/rubric to this Asianflected terrain of improvised/experimental music]

Chapter Two: Roots Underground  [a meditation on archaic-cum-living roots of music/humanity, prehistoric, ahistoric, drawing on interdisciplinary lit; applying it to this music, these musicians, in the overview]

Chapter Three: Roots On the Ground  [an overview of the respective (Mongolian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese) historical/traditional elements/aspects in the artists' work, to set the stage for their departures from/applications of same into improvised/experimental/cross-genre/intercultural work examined in their separate chapters]

Part 2: The Women

Chapter Four: Sainkho Namtchylak [Mongolia; as primal as the voice itself (Grauer’s “original culture” primarily sang/played body, not instruments), thru voice & Central Asian shamanist tradition; started to know her work in 1997 diss research; her own scholarly side]

Chapter Five: Wu Man [China, pipa; improv/folk/jazz/new composed music; broad/rich collaborations; NW Chinese ethnic minority, to historical roots of pipa)  
Chapter Six: Min Xiao-Fen [China, pipa; the most improvisational/experimental-collaborative, like Jin; also in direction of white country & jazz (resonant w/ Charlie Haden for that)]
Chapter Seven: Mei Han [China, zheng; same kinds of extensions out from tradition as pipa colleagues, plus more Canadian-scene-specific, and wider instrument array with RRR; her dissertation, scholarship]

•  for all 3, draw on Chimerican SEM talk; talk half-prepped for Guelph; extensive interviews; all CDs, other online info; all 3 are next wave after Jin, most recent from China itself; I learned about them much later, after 2006

Chapter Eight: Jin Hi Kim [(Korea) first on West scene; Living Tones, komungo; her early work as journalist/interviewer; her book; Korea's tie to Mongolian then Chinese culture, anciently; also first I knew, at Wes; like Sainkho, differently, directly tied to female shaman tradition]

Chapter Nine: Miya Masaoka [because of the Pac Rim contact, like PO; from piano to koto to laser koto; explore Arcana essay, all CDs, website]

Chapter Ten: Pauline Oliveros [for early/long engagements with feminism, Asian spiritual traditions; collabs w/ RRR & Miya, others; Deep Listening; ancient Asian free reed roots]

Part 3: The Men
Chapter Eleven: Tatsu Aoki/AIR [as pioneering godfather of post-'60s scene; Chicago/SF resonance with AACM; write up from research, meet/intvu through DK]

Chapter Twelve: Fred Ho [met @ Wes; for his writings & music both; tie in cancer stuff with fiction part (denouement); politics, feminism, esp.]

Chapter Thirteen: Jason Kao Hwang [played with, w/ AB; met @ Wes; much familiar/accessible material; opera, film]

Chapter Fourteen: Randy Raine-Reusch [segue from phoenix CD w/ PO, and weave in more on Mei, via their CDs together; chaps 3 & 7 have hers w/o him; Mel Bay book]

Chapter Fifteen: Taylor Ho Bynum [more beyond identity politics, transcendent/universal, current voice...but part of this particular community in his fresh ways]

Chapter Unnumbered, End:Snapshot As I Write (interactive, to be added to): [an overview of other names not covered but linked, scan online for more. Basically make this a chapter to sum up what the book did not: the Asian/Ami scene, network, loose and tight, that a music jrnlst/scholar wd survey if doing such a book]