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American Sons

Mark Izu (September 30, 1954 – January 12, 2025) was an American jazz double bass player and composer. He was of sansei (third-generation) Japanese ancestry and frequently combined jazz with Asian traditional musics (particularly the ancient Japanese court music known as gagaku) in his compositions. He performed with Anthony Brown and Jon Jang. Izu was a seminal leader in the Asian American jazz movement. His compositions include works for symphony orchestra, film, theater, dance, and jazz. The principal curator of the original Asian American Jazz Festival held at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for nearly two decades, he helped establish the genre. In addition to the double bass, he also played the Japanese shō and Chinese sheng (both free-reed mouth organs).

Mark Izu

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