With a multinational upbringing and local grassroots activist connections, Josh Hou brings the burden of releasing a record to Theatre Off Jackson

Seattle based musician and composer Josh Hou released his first album Bilingualism in 2019, and his second album Feeling of home, followed shortly after in 2020. Now Hou is back with his third album, Diaspora, and will give a record release concert at Theater Off Jackson on August 18th.

All three albums touch on aspects of Hou’s experience of growing up in three countries: the US, China and Malaysia. “My first record,Bilingualismexplored bicultural identity and the tension between an immigrant’s heritage culture and the dominant culture that surrounds them,” he said. “My second,Feeling of homeplayed with the concept of home, and how that can be difficult to define for someone who has roots in multiple places, especially with a dominant culture that treats immigrants as foreigners, regardless of how long they’ve lived here.”

Since 2020, Hou has felt more connected to a community of Chinese and Malaysian/Singaporean diaspora in Seattle, hence the current album title Diaspora.Wren’s Lucky Dayis written for my godchild,Mostly from a distance is a piece inspired by a poem by Jenny Xie, andEight is in memory of the eight people who were murdered in Atlanta in 2021 in a racist massacre,” Hou explained. “The other pieces are arrangements of songs I grew up with and fondly remembered listening to with Chinese friends here, such asButterfly Lovers Themean instantly recognizable melody in the Chinese speaking world andBlue and white porcelain, a pop ballad by Taiwanese pop superstar Jay Chou.”

Hou is joined on this album by four musicians with whom he has a long history. “I’ve been making music with Ray Larsen, the trumpet player on my album, for years,” Hou recalls. “We met as freshmen at UW!”

Hou is proud to continue this musical collaboration with Larsen. “He has a deep lyrical sensibility in his playing that brings out melodies in such a spectacular way,” Hou said. “He played on my first two records and this project wouldn’t have been the same without him.”

In 2019, Hou played for the first time with bassist Kelsey Mines and drummer Tai Taitano on his remotely recorded album,Feeling of home. “They both had such beautiful sounds that I knew I had to work with them again,” Hou enthused. “Tai Taitano creates such fantastic grooves and he is able to respond to each soloist and make them sound even better.”

Meanwhile, Hou appreciates Mines’ compositional skills as much as her performance. “I love the richness of sound that Kelsey gets with every note she plays,” he said. “She has a way of predicting exactly the bass line that’s right for the situation, and much better than any I could write.”

More recently, Hou began playing with cellist Alex Chuang, who uses the pronouns they/them, about a year and a half ago. “We met outside of music, when we were working with the Massage Parlor Outreach Project, and it was actually a while before I heard they played cello!” Hou recalled. “We played together at an Asian American Jazz Showcase at the Royal Room last May, and it was such a spectacular experience working with them that I had to record with them! Being from Taiwan, Alex also has a deep connection to Chinese music on this record, and their playing really shows that.”

Chuang delved further into the Massage Parlor Outreach Project, a grassroots collective that supports and organizes Asian massage parlor workers in the Seattle area to advocate for their rights, safety, and livelihoods as migrant workers and migrant women. “One day, Josh asked me if I wanted to jam, me on cello and him on accordion,” Chuang recalled. “Since then, he started writing cello parts into his music and I’ve played in a few of his shows!”

But participating in Hou’s project Diaspora is about more than just the cello for Chuang. “The Asian diaspora is inextricably linked to the experience of imperialism, war, occupation, militarism and economic domination,” Chuang said. “It is a story of forced migration and labor exploitation of the majority, often obscured by upper-class narratives about a select few.”

Diaspora brings to mind so many historical events for Chuang. “I think of the brutality of the Vietnam War, nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, and the US imperial grip on the Philippines, which forces thousands of Filipino migrants to leave the country every day to join the working class in first-world countries,” they said. “I think of the increasing rivalry between the US and China and the resulting military consolidation, environmental destruction, and sexual violence in the Philippines, Taiwan, the Pacific Islands, and South Asia.”

Even as diaspora continues to grow through conflict, for Chuang it also represents survival and resistance. “I hope diasporic people remember the true stories of their homelands, what made their families leave, their history of resistance from people back home, and the difficult circumstances they experienced even after they arrived at their destination,” Chuang said. “I hope they see and join the Asian diasporic organizing that is happening today against militarism, fascism, and imperialism around the world.”

Hou feels a connection to his bandmates’ multi-ethnic backgrounds, particularly because of his own multicultural upbringing. “I was born in the U.S., but I lived in China for a few years, and then in Malaysia until a few years before I graduated high school in Washington,” he said. “It was hard to constantly change schools and leave friends behind, but because we’d been doing it every few years since I was born, I got used to it.”

He sees these experiences as formative in a positive way. “I really appreciate growing up with the cultures where my family comes from, being surrounded by and speaking Mandarin in Beijing, and then the myriad dialects of Chinese and English in Malaysia,” he said. “And of course, food! I grew up eating at Malaysian kopi tiam, hawker centers, and walking to the local mamak stall near my house for a snack.”

At age 4, Hou began classical piano lessons. “I knew I enjoyed playing music and being a part of creating something that sounded beautiful,” he said.

He discovered jazz as a teenager. “When I was 15, I went to a Mongo Santamaria tribute concert that just blew me away,” he mused. “The music felt really good and I wanted to make music like that.”

While still playing piano, Hou picked up the accordion about a decade ago. “I really like the instrument for its expressive ability to sustain and grow notes beyond the initial stroke, much like a wind instrument,” he said. “I also love that it’s much more portable, without the need for electricity!”

And now, Hou is excited to bring all of his efforts to Theatre Off Jackson. “Given how much Chinese music is in my work, I’ve wanted to perform in Chinatown-International District for a long time,” he said. “I reached out to Theatre Off Jackson a few months ago to pitch playing an album release show there, and I’m so grateful for the support they’ve given this project.”

Following that concert, Hou anticipates a busy second half of 2024. “I’ll be playing this repertoire regularly as a duo and trio in Seattle, including every other Monday night at Zig Zag Cafe at Pike Place,” he said. “I’d love to take this band anywhere up and down the West Coast if the opportunity arises!”

And that’s not all: Hou is working on a duo project with trumpeter Larsen called Josh and Ray“A few years ago we released an album,The horn bellows“, Hou said, “and we are currently working on a second one that will be released later this fall.”

Josh Hou performs August 18 at Theatre Off Jackson, 409 Seventh Avenue South, Seattle.