In the early 1980s, Jang began releasing recordings as a bandleader that included
Are you Chinese or Charlie Chan? (1983, RPM) and
The Ballad or the Bullet? (1988, Asian Improv), the latter referencing
Malcolm X's famous speech "
The Ballot or the Bullet." Jang has said his music during much of the 1980s paralleled the Asian American movement, in which he was also engaged as a political activist. Young Asian Americans were also inspired by the artistic-political synergy of the
Black Arts Movement, and as an organization, AIR drew inspiration directly from earlier Black artist collectives such as the
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) of Chicago, the
Black Artist Group (BAG) of St. Louis, as well as the
Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA) of Los Angeles.
Reparations Now! Concerto for Jazz Ensemble and Taiko was one of Jang's first major works of this period, referencing the Redress and Reparations movement. Inspired by
Horace Tapscott and his Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Jang named the performing ensemble the Pan Asian Arkestra. Tapscott taught Jang about “passin’ the magic” onto future generations through the Ark and the music. Additionally, Jang learned from Black mentors such as
Max Roach,
Amiri Baraka,
Horace Tapscott, and Wendell Logan that, as James Baldwin noted, "this music begins on the auction block." As Jang and
Francis Wong have described, 1988 marked a turning point both for the Asian American movement and their own work as artists and activists:"The Redress and Reparations movement was a civil rights victory for the 1980s. One of the first major works after
Are You Chinese or Charlie Chan? was
Reparations Now! Concerto for Jazz Ensemble and Taiko. From 1980 to 1988 we were informed by the movement. After that, the Asian American movement was re-defined." Though often written about by critics as primarily a jazz musician, Jang has also composed notated works for classical performers, and in addition to numerous jazz influences, has cited composers such as
William Grant Still as models for his approach to memorializing history and exploring political struggles through musical composition. Jang's 2007 Chinese American Symphony, premiered in 2007 by the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, is a symphonic composition addressing the history of Chinese immigrant railroad workers in the late 19th century. As a public intellectual, Jang has given a number of presentations at universities and colleges throughout the U.S. such as
Columbia University,
Stanford University,
Brown University, and
UCLA on topics such as "Traditions in Transformation: The Musical Language of Jon Jang," "Sounds of Struggle: Music from the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s to the Asian American Movement of the 1980s," and "One Day American, One Day Alien: Black and Brown Artists Who Made the National Anthem Their Own." In 2012, Jang was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr./Césár Chavez/Rosa Parks Visiting Professorship at the University of Michigan. == Discography ==