Based in Chicago but originally from Japan, Tatsu Aoki is an acoustic bassist who recorded mostly avant-garde jazz in the '90s but can also handle straight-ahead post bop and traditional Japanese music. At times, he has combined jazz with elements of Asian music. Aoki was born and raised in Tokyo but moved to Chicago in 1978, when he was 19. Much of Aoki's music owes a strong debt to the AACM school of "outside" improvisation; often favoring space and silence over density, the bassist has more in common with Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, and Muhal Richard Abrams than with Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Charles Gayle, or late-period John Coltrane. In the '90s, Aoki recorded six albums as an unaccompanied solo bassist, and over 12 albums leading or co-leading duos and small groups. One of the best examples of Aoki playing "inside" is his 1997 Southport date, Windy Christmas, which found him offering mostly post bop interpretations of Christmas songs. ~ Alex Henderson