Anthony Brown's Asian American Orchestra

Big Bands Behind Barbed Wire

Released 1999

Click on a title below to hear audio samples. (Real Player required).

1. EO 9066
2. Camp Life
3. Jerome Camp
4. The Photograph
5. The Last Dance
6. Kiryoku
7. Ichikotsu-cho
8. Prelude (Truth Be Told)
9. Intro to Rhymes
10. Rhymes (For Children)
11. Redress/Blues
12. Reparations Now!
13. Ikiru

Asian American Jazz Orchestra presents its debut album; a lushly human and soulfully guided musical tour of life in the Japanese American civilian internment camps during World War II. The beautifully artificed swing and jazz repertoire of the bluesy "Big Bands Behind Barbed Wire" consists of 3 major works inspired by the internment experience: Anthony Brown's "Executive Order 9066"; Jon Jang's "Reparations Now!"; and Mark Izu's "Last Dance."

At 13 tracks, the CD provokes the audience to delve deeply into the human condition. "Buddhahead Blues" (track 3) details the despair and betrayal of the detainees, while "Jerome Camp" (track 2), conveys the mundanity of crowded communal camp life. The transitional "Rhymes (For Children)" (track 10) commemorates the injustices suffered by Japanese Latin Americans, and celebrates hope for a future that will not see the imprisonment of children.

Using the vehicle of jazz to increase public knowledge of the internment experience are the internationally recognized Anthony Brown (drums); Mark Izu (bass, sheng); Jon Jang (piano); Qi Chao Liu (sheng, suona, dizi); Hafez Modirzadeh (saxophones, ney); Wayne Wallace (trombone); Francis Wong (saxophone, flute, clarinet); and John Worley Jr. (trumpet). San Jose Taiko artists include PJ Hirabayashi; Michelle Fujii; Yumi Ishihara; Crissy Sato. Special Guests include Brenda Wong Aoki (performance artist/ storyteller), and George Yoshida (former internee, educator, musician, and author of "Reminiscing in Swingtime").