>> write // wong works: liner notes

Francis Wong:
tenor saxophone

Karl Evangelista:
guitar

Chris Trinidad:
bass guitar (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10)
synth bass (1, 3, 4, 5, 10)
bass ukulele (2, 6)

Jimmy Biala:
drum set
percussion

Produced and mixed by Chris Trinidad at Elemental MusicWorks, Pinole, CA.

Additional production assistance by Vernaculars.

Recorded by Jeremy Goody on 14 June 2025 at Megasonic Sound, Oakland, CA
and by Akiyoshi Ehara on 20 July 2025 at Sleepy Wizard Studios, El Cerrito, CA.

Layout and Design by Chris Stevenson.
Cover Artwork by PJ Martin.
Insert Sleeve Comic by Katie Quan.
Photos by Noah Rosen.

Francis WongÕs work spanning nearly five decades as a musician, activist, youth mentor, consultant, and academic lecturer in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond has lifted and inspired various Asian American collectives to build and work for a just and equitable society. As a student and community worker with roots in the Asian American consciousness movement, he participated in struggles for ethnic studies, culturally responsive campus services, divestment in apartheid South Africa, and community campaigns including Free Chol Soo Lee, Japanese American redress and reparations, Justice for Melvin Truss, immigrant worker rights, and Jesse Jackson for President.

As an extension of and parallel to this organizing work, he embarked on an artistic career influenced by his social justice activities. A critical vehicle for this work is Asian Improv aRts, an organization he co-founded in 1987 with Jon Jang, which has been widely recognized for its role in creating a distinctive Asian American intersectional and interdisciplinary art space in the United States.

As a musician, he specialized in the fusion of free jazz and Asian musics, working with the likes of Glenn Horiuchi, Jon Jang, Tatsu Aoki, Mwata Bowden, Ed Wilkerson Jr., John Tchicai, James Newton, Cecil Taylor, Elliot Humberto Kavee, Anthony Brown, Mark Izu, William Roper, Bobby Bradford, Joseph Jarman, Fred Anderson, and others. He is also known for his collaborations with San Francisco poet laureate Genny Lim, United States poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, choreographer Lenora Lee, taiko artist and culture bearer Melody Takata (Genryu Arts) and the traditional Chinese instrument ensemble Melody of China. Most recently he has pursued collaborations with Karl Evangelista, David Boyce, PC Mu–oz, Erika Oba, Scott Oshiro, and Chris Trinidad.

He has also received numerous commissions and awards including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the San Francisco Arts Commission, Meet The Composer (now New Music USA), the California Arts Council, Ford and Rockefeller foundations. He is an educator and scholar, currently serving as Lecturer Faculty at San Francisco State University in Asian American Studies.

This album continues the planned trilogy tribute (including Glenn Horiuchi and Jon Jang) to the first generation of Asian American improvisers associated with the legacy of Asian Improv aRts. The subtitle of this album refers to a description of FrancisÕs music (and also the South San Francisco Sky Cafe series that he co-curated with Chris Trinidad in 2024) which seeks to encapsulate and codify in music composition and improvisation his history and experiences.

Prayer for Melvin Truss
Francis wrote this tune as part of an effort to seek justice for Black teen Melvin Truss who tragically lost his life when a San Jose police officer discharged 5 bullets from his .357 magnum revolver into the young man. As part of a music ensemble called Potential, which grew out of the Black Student Union at Stanford University, Francis sought to counteract the dehumanization of Truss by the police in the press by bringing attention to TrussÕs story through music. Originally written in 1985 and released on the albums The Ballad or the Bullet? (Jon Jang, Asian Improv Records, 1987), Great Wall (Francis Wong, Asian Improv Records, 1995), The Infinitesimal Flash (John Tchicai, Buzz Records, 2000), The Pledge of Black Allegiance (Jon Jang, Asian Improv Records, 2018).

Great Wall (Liu XueÕan arr Francis Wong)
Written as a song of resistance against an imperialist Japan in World War II, this song is popular today in both Taiwan and China. This tune was also taught to young people in local Chinese language schools in San Francisco. Originally released on the album Great Wall (Francis Wong, Asian Improv Records, 1993), Gathering of Ancestors (Francis Wong, John-Carlos Perea, Elliot Humberto Kavee, Asian Improv Records, 1999).

Hai River
The Hai River, which runs through the city of Tianjin in China, was where FrancisÕs father spent his teen and young adult years. Francis took his father to visit some 52 years after his father had last seen this deep water port. At a hotel just above the river, FrancisÕs father would wake up at dawn to watch it flow. To his dad, that river represented his history alongside the history of China. Originally written in 2002.

Ghosts of Little Boy
To Francis, ghosts are unresolved souls just like the issue of nuclear weapons remains an unresolved question for our time. Written for the 60th anniversary commemoration of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the title of this tune references the name that had been given by the US military to the destructive weapon that killed untold numbers of people in Hiroshima. The bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki was named ÒFat Man.Ó Originally written in 2005.

Fire This Time
An homage to James Baldwin who wrote a book called The Fire Next Time in which he details in two essays the state of race relations in the US in the 1960s. Originally written in 2008 and released on the album Legends and Legacies II (Francis Wong, Asian Improv Records, 2022).

Wuxijing
Some 15 years ago, Francis was commissioned to write a piece for Melody of China which gave him an opportunity to explore and pursue some of his parents' stories. Named after a place called Wuxi in China, the melody for this song is based on a traditional folk melody hailing from the same area. Originally arranged in 2010.

Archaeology of Silence
The first part of this four song Remembrance Rising suite was composed to accompany an interdisciplinary work memorializing and paying tribute to the sexually enslaved comfort women of World War II by the Japanese military. Writer, dancer, and choreographer Lynn Huang titled each of the parts. Inspired by the Kehinde Wiley exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, Huang thought of this piece as a means to excavate the forced silence of the "comfort women."

Secrets That Speak
Huang describes how this work allows the often long denied secrets to have a voice.

A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies
A symbol of the memory, hope, and emancipation of the Òcomfort women,Ó kaleidoscope is a description of a group of butterflies flocked together.

Remembrance Rising
The last part of the suite calls forth a hopeful future through a movement realizing a just and compassionate accounting. Francis debuted this suite at the site of the comfort women memorial at Saint MaryÕs Square in San FranciscoÕs Chinatown. Originally written in 2023.