(born September 19, 1957) is a multi-instrumentalist trained in traditional Japanese music (ie: taiko and shamisen), educator and experimental filmmaker. In his career as Chicago's Jazz and creative improvisor, he is mostly known as a long-standing bassist for Fred Anderson and he has also worked with George Freeman, and Von Freeman in the 90s. Aoki also has curious recording projects with Malachi Favors, Roscoe Mitchell, Don Moye, Wu Man, and other internationally renowned artists. Aoki also directs cultural events that promote the history of Japanese artistic traditions and contemporary Asian influences in jazz. As the founder and artistic director of Asian Improv Arts Midwest, he hosts events such as the annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival and the Japanese American Service Committee's Tsukasa Taiko Legacy arts residency program. Biography Tatsu Aoki is an advocate for the Asian American community as well as a filmmaker, educator, composer and a performer of traditional and experimental music forms. He was born in Tokyo in 1957 to Toyoakimoto, an artisan family proficient in okiya, the tradition of working as booking and training agents for geisha in downtown Tokyo. Starting at the age of four, Aoki was part of his family's performance crew and received traditional Tokyo geisha cultural training and studies which combined history with creativity. In the late 1960s, during Tokyo's economic and social decline, many traditional family businesses were forced to close. With his grandmother's passing, he shifted his training to American pop and experimental music. In the early 1970s, he became a member of Gintenkai, an experimental ensemble that combined traditional music with Western forms. He began to work in small-gauge and experimental films, influenced by his biological father, who was a movie producer at Shintoho studio. In 1977, Aoki left Tokyo to study experimental filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he has taught film production and art history. He has produced more than thirty experimental films and performs on double bass, shamisen, and taiko. He was a visiting professor at Northwestern University, teaching courses in Asian American Arts Practices and Identity. He is the founder and artistic director of the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival. In 1999 he became president of Asian Improv Records in San Francisco. He has managed or produced more than fifty albums for the label, including the Max Roach and Jon Jang collaboration The Beijing Trio. Since 1995, Aoki has led