The Japanese-American bassist and composer was 70 years old
The jazz double bassist Mark Izu died on 12 January 2025 from colon cancer.
Izu was born in 1954 in Vallejo, California, and studied music at San Francisco State University. He also trained for 26 years with Togi Suenobu, the gagaku master of Japanese Imperial Household’s Court Music Department.
An influential composer, Izu blended Asian musical traditions and instruments with jazz, particularly post-bop jazz. In addition to playing jazz double bass, he also played the Japanese shō and Chinese sheng mouth organs.
He composed for film, dance, theatre, poetry, and multimedia projects, and frequently collaborated with his wife Brenda Wong Aoki, an American playwright, actor and storyteller.
Izu curated the first Asian American Jazz Festival in 1981 and served as its artistic director from 1985–2000. In 2009, his score for the documentary Bolinao 52 received a Northern California Regional Emmy Award the best Musical Composition/Arrangement.
Izu is survived by his wife Brenda, son and granddaughter. ’Mark had been sick with cancer for more than 2 years, but he kept making music, he kept performing - with me, for us,’ wrote his wife in a tribute.
She continued: ’You were my bass player quietly holding it down - rock steady. I used to tell you that sometimes I felt like a helium balloon soaring away into the sky, but when I got scared, I could count on you to hold onto my string.’
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