“Songs for J-Town” by Mark Izu is a work of American jazz infused with traditional Japanese Gagaku music and poetry about San Francisco’s Japantown.
An epiphany often can occur at the most inopportune moment. Local jazz bassist Mark Izu’s struck him, of all dates, on September 11, 2001, as Americans reeled from the World Trade Center disaster. His band had a Yerba Buena Gardens show booked, and its musicians had already flown in before airports shut down nationwide, so the high-road choice seemed obvious: Cancel the gig.
Inspired by Japan’s traditional Gagaku music and its nature-revering Shinto and Konko religions, Izu — who was artistic director of The City’s Asian American Jazz Festival for 15 years — does stand on ceremony.
Initially, Izu imagined “J-Town” as more cherry-blossom fragrant and verdant. “But after the pandemic, everything feels different — the malls have been sold, and there’s so much vacancy there,” he says of the neighborhood, which no longer houses as many Japanese-descended folks as it used to.
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