In 2016, legendary avant-garde artist and musician Yoko Ono presented Chicago with a sculpture called Skylanding. It stands in Jackson Park on the same site where the Japanese Pavilion stood in the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Skylanding is also the name of the music by the Plastic Ono Band. Multi-instrumentalist Tatsu Aoki's MIYUMI Project interpreted Ono's soundtrack for Skylanding. Last weekend Aoki brought a group of musicians together at the Museum of Contemporary Art to perform Skylanding, a performance in conjunction with the Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind exhibit at the MCA.
Last year, Aoiki led Taiko in a performance with flutist Nicole Mitchell, percussionist Hamid Drake, and drummer Michael Zerang. Skylanding included the 2024 lineup, adding collaborators Tsukasa Taiko, GenRyu Arts, and Shubukai. Syrian American guitarist Rami Atassi, 3Arts artist Coco Elysses, cellist Jamie Kempkers, AACM artists Mwata Bowden on saxophone, and Edward Wilkerson Jr. on clarinet and saxophones. The vocals were by Chicago jazz legend Dee Alexander in a powerhouse performance.
Yoko Ono's art and music have consistently called for peace and love. Her profile was heightened by her marriage to John Lennon. Their honeymoon was a performance titled "Bed In for Peace," which took place in Montreal and Amsterdam. Her music is known for visceral exhortations and lyrics, especially in Season of Glass, after Lennon's murder in 1980. The lyrics from Skylanding are repetitions of the song titles "War Zone," "Rising," "Don't Worry," and "Skylanding." Alexander's emotional delivery reached the rafters of the Edlis Neeson Theater. The musicians and Taiko players moved in and out of the set, grooving to the beats.
Taiko drumming is a performance that combines movement, vocalizations, precise body positioning, and intense concentration. It's like watching a martial arts demonstration set to a scintillating, funky beat. One of the things that I love about watching live world music is how there is a connection, like an umbilical cord. This was music that Americanization did not adulterate. It would not seem that Japanese and African American music would have so much in common.
Taiko drumming has a code, as did the drums of Africa and, later, the coded messages in the drums of enslaved Americans. The rhythms and tonal qualities of both cultures have similarities as well. The atonal dissonance and breakneck rhythms of avant-garde jazz are heard today in music by Ono, Aiko, and the musicians who joined on stage for Skylanding. Several members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) were on the stage. Mitchell was the first woman to serve as chair of the AACM. Alexander, Bowden, Drake, Elysses, and Wilkerson Jr. all belong to or are alumni of AACM. Aiko is a superb jazz bassist and plays rock and jazz on the shamisen.
Aoki is also a part of the Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW), which stages the Chicago Asian America Jazz Festival. The Shubukai dancers, part of AIRMW, performed the beautiful Fujima-style classical Japanese dance. The dancers were Yoshinojo and Ikunojo Fujima—their interpretive piece features sweeping, flowing moves and skilled fan twirling. The program was a dazzling feast for the eyes and ears; a solid groove filled with colors that warmed the frigid winter evening.
The Taiko Legacy 22 performance took place on Friday, December 19, at the Edlis Neeson Theater at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The Yoko Ono exhibit runs through February 26, 2026. The MCA is located at 220 E. Chicago Ave., off the Magnificent Mile. Four Stars
I highly recommend that you check out the MCA exhibit, Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, and the Skylanding recording available at www.Skylanding.com. For more information about the museum and its exhibits, please visit mcachicago.org.
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