Harry Aoki is a musical legend.  He has a strong vision about music, and how it crosses boundaries and builds bridges to help enrich both culture and society, as well as personal lives.

Harry Aoki stands beside his musical friend Themba Tana and holds his special gift from the evening, a yellow cedar paddle carved by Chief Cedric Billy, mast carver of the Squamish Nation.  Harry has a long time respect for First Nations heritage.  - photo Todd Wong

Last Sunday's Harry Aoki Tribute concert July 20th, at the Firehall Arts Centre not only highlighted Harry's musical legacy through a wonderful multicultural music event, but it also established the Aoki Legacy Fund for St. John's College, UBC.  Here's the program write-up for The Aoki Legacy Fund:


The musical program featured many musicians and friends, with some such as mezzo-soprano Liya Ahmad flying in from Edmonton, and pipa player Xiao Yu flying in from Florida to perform.  Long time Aoki supporter Cath Bray flew in from Nova Scotia.  There was also a very special surprise appearance from Harry's brother Ted Aoki, who arrived from Edmonton.

Harry Aoki was featured at this year's Vancouver International Jazz Festival, participating in the JazzStreet presentations at the Vancouver Public Library on June 10th.  Another highlight for Harry this year was performing "Star Dust" on his harmonica with the Dal Richards big band at the Britannia  High School Reunion in May 2008.

Harry Aoki performed at the first public open house event at Historic Joy Kogawa House in September 2006.  Harry had been a big supporter of the "Save Kogawa House campaign," . - photo Deb Martin

I have known Harry since 2002, and he gladly performed at some of our awareness-raising or fund-raising events for Joy Kogawa House, as well as attended our literary events.  It was a real honour to participate in the Harry Aoki Tribute concert with so many wonderful musicians such as CBC radio journalist Margaret Gallagher, oboeist Janine Oye, drummers Thema Tana and Albert St. Albert, pianist Alison Nishihara, cellis Kira Van Deusen, and shakuhachi player Al Ramos.

Harry has been producing an event held at the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre, called First Friday Forum.  He brings together musicians and stories and songs from ethnically diverse cultures, and demonstrates the links between them. 

The first half of the tribute concert started off with emulating the format of these forums,  by inviting all the performers on stage to perform a musical soundscape.  Themba Tana and Albert St. Albert played percussion to start a musical journey around the world, that represented music and stories from the world's 5 major continents.  Margaret Gallagher followed by singing the celtic song  "Danny Boy", followed by an Indonesian song titled "Putri Gunung" accompanied by Sutrisno Hartano who played an Indonesian gamelan instrument.

"Moo Li Hua" is a traditional chinese song known as "Jasmine Flower", was played by clarinetist Janine Oye and accordionist Todd Wong.  I had a lot of fun practicing this traditional song with Janine, as we played it first by alternating 8 bars of music, then by playing a musical game of tag, as Janine followed my playing, two bars behind me to create "a round."

Highlights of the event included:
A reading of "My Enemy" by Duncan Shields in English, and Chigusa Sherry Barnes in Japanese, while Janine Oye and FFF Friends accompanied them performing a Harry Aoki composition "Yoko's Theme."

"Bachianas Brasilieras" sung by mezzo-soprano Aliya Ahmad with Kira Van Deusen on cello and Alison Nishihara on piano.

Todd Wong plays "Dark Eyes" - photo Deb Martin

"Harry loves Romanian and gypsy music," I told the audience.  I once asked him if he could attend a concert with me, and he told me "No... I have to go on a cruise, with Gypsy musicians."  For Harry I played the traditional song "Dark Eyes."

Co-MC Jan Walls recited the words to the Hoagy Carmichael song "Star Dust," as Harry went to pick up his harmonica and returned to centre stage.  Ken Keneda accompanied Harry on piano, as Harry performed a very touching harmonica solo of  "Star Dust" - one of Harry's favorite songs.  You can hear a You Tube performance of Harry playing "Star Dust" at the 2007 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, accompanied by Jaye Krebs on piano.
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/gung-haggis-fat-choy-207-harry-aoki-stardust/2045846013

It is hard not to have met Harry, and been touched both musically and personally by him.  I think of Harry as a courageous man, who at age 21 left Vancouver in 1942 on his own, to avoid being forcibly sent to the  Japanese-Canadian internment camps during WW2.  He couldn't take his violin with him, but he took his harmonica.  Harry knows that he can reach people through music, and his life has become a tribute to end racism through musicians playing together, and people learning about intercultural cross-boundary similarities of the world's musical cultures.

- photo Todd Wong

Janine Oye, Harry Aoki, Chigusa Sherry Barnes, Bev Nann and Todd Wong, share a moment with Harry after the concert as all the performers and the event organizers went for dinner at the Congee Noodle House. 

Harry Aoki is interviewed in the Bulletin, a journal of Japanese Canadian community, history and culture

John Endo Greenaway is the editor of Bulletin, published by the Japanese Canadian Citizens' Association of Greater Vancouver,
celebrating their 50th Anniversary in 2008.  There are two feature interviews about Harry in the July/August 2008 Bulletin.

Interview: Harry Aoki

I sat down with Gary Cristall and Harry Aoki last week at Nikkei Place. Gary is writing a book on the history of folk music in Canada and had been wanting to talk to Harry for quite some time. When I invited him along, he jumped at the chance. We covered a lot of ground in the course of our conversation and the following is just a portion of what we talked about.

JEG I You were involved in a redress movement in Alberta right after the war, something I’d never heard of before.
Yeah, that was . . . that was a tough one, you know. There was this Justice Bird. Lot of brain. You know, photographic mind and photographic reading, and the attorneys were arguing, you know, arguing their cases, and he’s looking at this evidence, you know, he’s going like this, slowly (mimes turning pages), and he’s reading the darn thing. It’s in his brain.

JEG I  This was like a mini redress movement, then?
Yeah. This is when people were allowed to leave and to move around, and it got some people like the Ohamas started. They moved to, what it’s called, Rainier. And others did about the same sort of thing. They were very successful as farmers, they were good farmers. So, yeah, that was the first redress. It was just a handful, you know, able to do something about it. They had to have a few bucks themselves too, you know.

read more at:
http://jccabulletin-geppo.ca/featured/interview-harry-aoki/

Harry Aoki is one of Vancouver's musical treasures. 

A Celebration of Harry Aoki

Harry was already high on the harmonica when he fell in love with the double bass in the early 1940s, and the rest is history in the making. For the past half-century he has been actively, sometimes hyperactively, using classical, jazz, popular and ethnic music and dialogue to promote the theme of harmonious diversity in culture and identity. Join co-hosts Margaret Gallagher, Sherry Tanaka and Jan Walls, together with Harry's old and new friends and fellow musicians for an afternoon of musical, verbal and gustatory celebration of Harry and his noble "work in progress."
Musician/Composer/Ethno-musicologist Harry Aoki is truly a pioneer of world music. Come join us to commemorate Harry's achievements with an afternoon of multi-cultural music, storytelling and more! Join his many friends in the creation of a Legacy to continue Harry's Dream!

Food and Beverages will be Served
Tickets: $26.00
Limited Tickets Available

July 20th
2pm
Firehall Arts Centre
280 Cordova Street



Todd Wong performing with Jessica Cheung, Masaki Watanabe & Harry Aoki, at the September 2005 Open House event at Historic Joy Kogawa House - photo D. Martin

I first met Harry Aoki through Asian Heritage Month events around 2002.  Margaret Gallagher (CBC Radio) raved about Harry, as he sometimes performed with her.

Soon after, Harry came and performed at Todd's Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner events, including the inaugural Gung Haggis Fat Choy Seattle dinner in 2007.  A friendship was formed and Todd soon played at Harry's First Friday Forum.  Harry has been a big supporter of the Save Joy  Kogawa House campaign which Todd was one of the organizers of, subsequently Todd has joyfully invited Harry to perform at a number of events including the 2006 Canadian Club Vancouver "Order of Canada" luncheon where Dal Richards introduced himself to Harry, and the first open house event at  Historical Joy Kogawa House in 2006, captured on film for the CBC documentary Generations: The Chan Legacy.  Songs they have played together included "A Highland Lad", "Hungarian Dance #5", and "Chinatown My Chinatown", "Until We Meet Again".

Harry Aoki performing on harmonica with musical friends, cellis Kira and percussionist Themba, at his First Friday Forum at the Nikkei Centre in Burnaby - photo Todd Wong

Here's a letter invitation from Wayne Soon to come to the Harry Aoki Celebration Concert.