Ben Kono Turned Family History into Chamber Jazz

Ben Kono discovered his family's American origin story in the pages of his grandfather's memoirs. Thirteen-year-old Juhei Caleb Kono sailed alone from Japan in 1911, worked Pacific Northwest farms, and attended fourth grade as a young adult to build a new life. These translated accounts sparked Kono's new album Voyages (Self Produced), an ambitious blend of jazz quintet and string quartet that tells his family's story across four generations.

"Reading his memoirs opened up this whole world," says Kono from his home studio in Nyack, New York. "He sent money back to Japan during a time of widespread poverty. The sounds came right off the page—temple bells from his childhood near Hiroshima, the rhythms of orchard work in America."

The music required musicians fluent in both classical and jazz languages. Violinists Sara Caswell and Meg Okura, violist Lois Martin, and cellist Jody Redhage Ferber form the classical backbone. Drummer Jared Schonig, pianist Mike Holober, guitarist Pete McCann, and bassist Matt Clohesy bring the jazz foundation.

"I studied Bartók's quartets and the Ravel quartet while writing this," Kono says. "The string quartet sound has this incredible range from nostalgia to modernism. And someone like Jared knows instinctively how to adjust his dynamics to complement the strings."

The album's "Generations Suite" maps Japanese American identity through the Issei (first), Nisei (second), Sansei (third) and Yonsei (fourth) generations using melodic material from traditional Japanese scales. Each movement transforms these elements while maintaining core musical DNA. For Kono, who grew up in Vermont as part of what he refers to as "the token Asian family," the music mirrors his own path to embracing his cultural background.

Recording during the pandemic added raw relevance to his grandfather's story of persistence through the Depression, two World Wars, and the internment of Japanese Americans. Kono's teenage son has found his own connection to Japanese culture through manga and anime, learning the language through apps—a very different path than his great-grandfather's forced assimilation.

"Belong," written for Kono's grandmother Hisako Narakono (Obachan), captures intimate family bonds. The piece recently expanded beyond its chamber music origins when cellist Redhage Ferber programmed it for a community concert, one of the EcoTones Concerts at River Hook Preserve, also in Nyack. Kono arranged it for full orchestra, conducting local high school musicians including his son on cello alongside professional players.

His next goal is performing Voyages in Seattle for the aunts who preserved the family history that inspired it. "Touring with nine musicians takes work," Kono says, "but this music needs to be heard by the people who lived these stories."

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