Tokyo’s loss, Chicago’s gain. Tatsu Aoki left his native Japan in 1977, at the age of 20, to study experimental filmmaking at the Art Institute of Chicago (and he currently teaches film production and history at the school). But along the way, this indefatigable musician and arts organizer has established himself among the city’s most fluent and adventurous jazz bassists.

The prime vehicle for Aoki’s connection with his heritage remains his Miyumi Big Band. Aoki formed this continually evolving ensemble in 2001 to perform the symphonic-length Rooted: Origins Of Now, which premiered at that year’s Chicago Jazz Festival. Five years later, he revisited that composition’s themes of cultural inheritance, alienation, and synthesis inRe:ROOTED, which debuted as part of the “Made In Chicago” series at Millennium Park. Now the Jazz Festival presents the third installment of this series, Trans-Rooted, in its debut performance, featuring saxophonists Mwata Bowden, Jeff Chan, Ed Wilkerson, and Francis Wong; violinists Jonathan Chen and Renee Baker; drummer Dushun Mosley; and taikodrummers Kioto Aoki, Amy Homma, and Noriko Sugiyama, all members of Tsukasa Taiko, the Chicago-based Japanese drumming ensemble.