Brain surgery left TOKiMONSTA unable to understand music. Now every song is precious

TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley. This past summer electronic music producer and DJ Jennifer Lee, better known as TOKiMONSTA, released one of her latest collaborations.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EATS THE TALE")

ROCHELLE JORDAN: (Singing, inaudible).

MOSLEY: The song is entitled "Eats The Tale" with vocalist Rochelle Jordan, and it's a pun on the word tail. Instead of a serpent eating its own tail, in TOKiMONSTA's version, the tail is the false stories we often consume about ourselves. TOKiMONSTA came into her own story through a near-death experience. In 2016, she was diagnosed with a rare brain disease that required two surgeries, leaving her temporarily unable to understand sound or speak. This was devastating for TOKiMONSTA, who had, before this diagnosis, become a well-known and respected artist in the electronic music world, having released six albums and numerous collaborations with artists like Anderson .Paak and Selah Sue and producing remixes by works from pop stars like Beck and David Bowie.

But after just two months of recovery from brain surgery, TOKiMONSTA pushed herself to make music again, creating one of her most personal albums, "Lune Rouge," which garnered a 2019 Grammy nomination for best dance electronic album, making TOKiMONSTA the first female Asian American producer to receive a nomination in this category. TOKiMONSTA creates music with electronic tools as well as a piano, field recordings and vocals. And in live performances, it's like watching a DJ on steroids with TOKiMONSTA creating sounds and melodies with synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines. She's currently touring with the electronic music duo ODESZA on their latest tour, which is titled Last Goodbye Tour. TOKiMONSTA, welcome to FRESH AIR.

TOKIMONSTA: Hi. Thanks for having me.

MOSLEY: You have to tell us the origins, Jennifer, of the name TOKiMONSTA.

TOKIMONSTA: OK. So the origin - in short, it was a screen name. It was a chat screen name. We all had one back in the day. So tokki means rabbit in Korean. And monsta was a way - I guess I thought it was a cool way to write monster when I was 16. But I can't take it back 'cause this has been my name now for many years.

MOSLEY: Would you change it if you could?

TOKIMONSTA: I mean, there are moments where I feel like when people see my name, it doesn't fit the kind of music I make. You know, in the very beginning, maybe when you see TOKiMONSTA, you assume that I make really aggressive music. And I think I've been around long enough and people know that, oh, TOKiMONSTA makes, like, cool, chill, fun stuff that I've redefined what it means to be TOKiMONSTA. And in many ways, that name represents me because of the juxtaposition of tokki, which is cute, and then monsta, which is this scary being. And that's - it shows very much in the music that I make. There are moments where my music is very quiet, and then I have music where - moments where my music is loud or beautiful and disturbing or light or heavy. And now, more than ever, I do feel like I identify with my name, and I'm proud to have it be a part of my life.

MOSLEY: You grew up in Torrance, Calif., which is essentially a suburb of LA. What kind of music did you grow up listening to?

TOKIMONSTA: I guess it's definitely phases. So when I was very young, it was classical music because that was all I was exposed to. As I got older, I remember the first CD I ever bought - oh, no, not even CD. I think I bought a cassette tape. There were two pieces of music. One was "Chasing Waterfalls" (ph) by TLC, and the other one was "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio. And that really set the tone for the rest of my life, I think. If you can imagine, just, like, an elementary school kid just pulling out a Walkman, listening to that, even though I very well could have bought a CD. I'm not really sure why I bought a tape. I think there was some aesthetic in my mind where I thought it was cooler. But my roots very much were in West Coast or just hip-hop and R&B. It was something that spoke to me more than anything else in the past. It's something I hold on to because it's very present in the music I make today.

MOSLEY: You know, Jennifer, one of the things about electronic music that's fascinating to me is you need to be a musician who understands music in the traditional sense, but you also need to understand technology. We know that girls still aren't often socialized to understand technology. What was your first exposure to that part of it, to you, the actual components of making the music with electronic devices?

TOKIMONSTA: My first delve into being creative with music would probably be the piano. I think when I downloaded software in high school, that was the first attempt at trying to make music. I downloaded a program. I opened it. It looked so intimidating that I just uninstalled it 'cause at that time, computers didn't have a lot of space, so it had to go. And I put that on ice for a bit 'cause I felt that urge and that want in me to create, and that was going to be the easiest way to create something very complete is through my computer. But I put it to rest. And then fast-forward to my first year in college, I download a different production software. A friend of mine shows me very, very basic - like, a very basic way to use it, and I became obsessed. You know, I went on, I was watching YouTube tutorials, I was going on the website, reading their tutorials, which who ever reads the actual manual from any kind of software, you know?

MOSLEY: Yeah.

TOKIMONSTA: But it just became something that became my whole world, my whole focus. It was the hobby of all hobbies. I finally figured out a way to express all these ideas that I had swirling inside me.

MOSLEY: Can you describe, for those who aren't familiar with electronic music, the tools that you love the most to create your sound?

TOKIMONSTA: So for me, as an electronic artist, I mostly work within my computer. I like the efficiency of working on a computer, but it's really important for me to also work with outboard gear. So like synthesizers. I use a piano heavily in my music, I think, to touch back on my own roots in classical music.

MOSLEY: A big part of your sound is also the integration of other sounds in addition to those melodies. You actually carry a recorder with you, and the sounds that you record when you're out in the world - just about everything - car doors slamming, the sounds of birds chirping, wind blowing - and you integrate that in your music.

TOKIMONSTA: Yes. I feel like there's something about field recordings, which is what we call this, that gives your music a specific sonic signature that no one else will have. Because if I record the waves crashing or an airplane flying overhead, that particular moment will only happen once in time. You'll never be able to recreate that same wave or that same airplane or that same car door shutting. And in that way, that song that I use it on will also remain completely unique.

MOSLEY: An example of some interesting ways you integrate sounds is from your first album, "Midnight Menu," which came out in 2010. The song is "Sa Mo Jung." Let's listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOKIMONSTA'S "SA MO JUNG")

MOSLEY: That was "Sa Mo Jung" from TOKiMONSTA's first album, "Midnight Menu." The sounds within that song - they're pretty industrial-sounding.

TOKIMONSTA: I think there's a toughness to it and a grittiness, but a lot of that has to come from it sounding very traditional in a way that marries kind of my Western influences and my Eastern influences. All the drums - the gayageum, which is that kind of plucking stringed instrument in there - are very traditional.

MOSLEY: There's a story behind the sound. It was inspired by Korean cultural music. Can you tell us more about it?

TOKIMONSTA: Yeah, the whole song is kind of a tribute to my heritage. I'm Korean - born in LA, but it's something that has been an integral part of my identity growing up, is being a Korean American person in this country. And in many ways, this - you'll hear this amongst other second-generation Asian Americans or immigrants is - you don't fully feel like you belong in either. If I go back to Korea, they know I'm not from there. While I live here in America, I don't look like I belong. And with a song like "Sa Mo Jung," it was a deep tribute to my family and my ancestors. I named that song after a park my uncle built in the hometown that my mom grew up in. It's tiny, little surf town called Gangneung. And he basically created this park as a tribute to their mother, my grandmother.

MOSLEY: Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is electronic music producer and DJ Jennifer Lee, aka TOKiMONSTA, a pioneer in the electronic music genre. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOKIMONSTA'S "DREAM CHORUS")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. And today we're talking to Grammy-nominated music producer Jennifer Lee, better known by her stage name as TOKiMONSTA. She's a pioneer in the electronic music genre. In 2019, her album "Lune Rouge" garnered a Grammy nomination, making her the first Asian American woman to receive a nomination under the category of best dance electronic album. She's currently on tour with the electronic music duo ODESZA.

I'd like to talk with you about a pretty pivotal part of your life. In 2015, you were on tour. You came home to LA. You were getting back in the groove of living, and you started experiencing these weird symptoms - something you called ghost foot.

TOKIMONSTA: Yes. I guess if I were to explain that very simply, I was hanging out at home in my living room when, suddenly, I couldn't feel my left foot.

MOSLEY: And you already had an appointment with the doctor, so you decided, I'm going to go to the doctor. I'm going to bring this up. And they immediately said, OK, this is not normal. There had been already something you were dealing with, and that was migraine headaches. And so, long story short, you were diagnosed with a brain condition called Moyamoya disease, which is a progressive disorder caused by blocked arteries at the base of the brain. That is such a big diagnosis, and you were told that you had a choice to make. You could either do surgery or not, but with that came a pretty grim outcome if you decided not to take that surgery.

TOKIMONSTA: Yeah. Essentially, I was a ticking time bomb. I could be living for the next several years, or I could essentially have some kind of aneurysm or stroke and die within a month. It was very unpredictable. But by the time that we caught my illness, it was very - it had progressed to a very scary point, to say the least.

MOSLEY: Right because those with Moyamoya disease - if it's not treated, many don't live past 40. So you had two brain surgeries. And for a time, you could cognitively understand what was happening to you after the surgeries, but then there came a point where you couldn't speak.

TOKIMONSTA: Yes, it was a complicated situation to be in because there were many risks associated with the treatment to negate my illness. So I either had to choose potentially dying at any given moment from the illness that I was diagnosed with or being left - or also possibly dying from the treatment itself. It does not have a low mortality rate, the kind of bypass surgery I had to do, and obviously, I had to do it on two sides, so it's twice the risk. Though the surgery was successful, I was left with some pretty alarming side effects, the main one being aphasia - acute aphasia, meaning I couldn't communicate anymore. At that point, English, which was essentially my first language, became a foreign language. Any time someone talked to me, anytime I watched TV, anytime there was a spoken word, it just sounded like a foreign language. It was not a good time, necessarily.

MOSLEY: It sounds very scary. Right.

TOKIMONSTA: Yeah. I think more than being scared, it's also very panic inducing and anxious 'cause you're so confused. And while I'm in my brain, I'm able to think and have thoughts and have feelings, but my thoughts are also incomplete in many ways. There were simple motor functions on top of the aphasia that I couldn't do, so I was overwhelmed with quite a lot of different emotions at that time.

MOSLEY: Had doctors told you that it was a possibility that something like this would be a side effect?

TOKIMONSTA: They did. So aphasia is actually one of the most common side effects of, I think, almost any brain surgery. Once you're tinkering in there, you know, a lot of things might go wrong. Some of the motor skills, I think, I was also aware of as being as possible side effects. And the only thing I was not made aware of was the fact that I wasn't going to be able to understand music. And I'm sure for most people in this kind of dire situation, that's not very important, but for me, it was.

MOSLEY: Of course, of course.

TOKIMONSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: This is your livelihood. It's what you do. Can you tell us the story of when you realized you didn't understand music, or you couldn't hear it? You were watching a show, "Portlandia."

TOKIMONSTA: Yeah. I was recovering at, like, an Airbnb or, like, a rental me and my sister were staying at after my surgery. And "Portlandia" was on, a show I have seen many, many times. When the intro came on, which is, you know, a very well-known song, I couldn't understand what I was listening to. I was watching the show, I could see what was happening, and the music was no longer music to me. It just became noise. At that point, I realized something was wrong.

MOSLEY: Was there ever a moment where you felt afraid that you might never get the ability back to hear and understand music?

TOKIMONSTA: This is actually very interesting. I never considered myself an especially resilient or strong person. Historically, I always felt as though I wasn't a huge risk-taker. There weren't a lot of heroic moments for me at any point in my life. But with this particular situation, I found that I didn't allow myself to wallow in this moment of hardship. I was so focused on recovering that something in my mind really switched. And when I had the acute aphasia, I would notice day by day or depending on the kind of medication I was on, I was able to speak a tiny bit more. And those moments, they set an end goal for me. They showed me that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Where if one day I could say a few more things and communicate a tiny bit more, I held onto that and used that as fuel for me to get through the next few days and see if I could talk a little bit more than the previous days.

MOSLEY: How long was that process for you?

TOKIMONSTA: I had those surgeries, like, the first week of January, 2016. By the end of the month, when I was discharged, I was probably talking at about 70%. And by 70%, it means I could communicate. Maybe people wouldn't notice that there was something wrong with my speech. But I would commonly end up, like, at blank moments where I couldn't think of words - essentially a brain fart, but many, many brain fart. But by the end of February, I was probably speaking at about 90%, where it was pretty imperceptible what I had gone through.

MOSLEY: There came this moment when you had a breakthrough. Once your speech came back, once you were able to understand bits of music, you had this breakthrough and you wrote the song "I Wish I Could," which is one of the tracks on your album "Lune Rouge." Let's listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WISH I COULD")

SELAH SUE: (Singing) In the cold of night, stay at the heart of it. I feel the love, so I was holding on. Pray. I was scared of me, you. But the time is right, 'cause in my heart I'll do the same for you. If the night is for the day, you won't see the last of me. Stay warm 'cause the rain will come through.

MOSLEY: That was "I Wish I Could" by TOKiMONSTA featuring vocalist Selah Sue, which is on the album "Lune Rouge," in which you were nominated for Grammy. This song is very meaningful for you, of course, because it was the first song that was the breakthrough for you. It felt like such an accomplishment.

TOKIMONSTA: A hundred percent, yeah. There was - the week before I made this song was the first time I tried opening up my computer and seeing if I can make any music. The first time I opened up my laptop, I had already been able to speak again. So I was OK speaking and listening to people and TV. All that stuff had come back, so I thought this was an excellent time for me to consider trying to create again. But when I had opened my laptop to make music, I realized that whatever part of my brain that could do that was not there yet. It - I tried, and it was an attempt, but it was not good at all. And it was not up to par with how I had been making music. So instead of mulling over it or being depressed, I decided just to shut my laptop and give it a break, give myself some more time to heal. I was just, like, a month and a half out of brain surgery. How am I going to make a song?

MOSLEY: Right, right.

TOKIMONSTA: So I gave myself the time. And really, it was - I'm pretty sure it was about a week later that I just started making this song, and it came together. And the feeling inside that you have when anyone makes an amazing song is incredible. There's nothing better than that feeling. But with this particular song, it meant so much more than just making a good song to me, it meant that I was OK. With this song, when I listen to it, it still brings me back to that moment and how hard it was, and shows me that I can still be here to this day feeling those feelings but knowing I've made it this far.

MOSLEY: Our guest today is electronic music producer and DJ Jennifer Lee, better known as TOKiMONSTA, considered a pioneer in the electronic music industry. We'll have more after a short break. I'm Tonya Mosley and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOKIMONSTA SONG, "PHASES (FEAT. SUNNI COLON)")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley. And if you're just joining us, my guest is electronic music producer and DJ Jennifer Lee, known as TOKiMONSTA. She's currently on tour with the electronic music duo Odesza. Over the course of her career, she's produced six albums and dozens of collaborations and remixes for artists like Beck, Duran Duran, Sia and others. In 2019, her album "Lune Rouge" earned a Grammy nomination, making her the first Asian American woman to receive a nomination under the category of best dance electronic album. When we left off, we were talking about how a rare brain disease required that she undergo two surgeries, which left her temporarily unable to understand sound or speak. She recovered and was soon making music and performing on stage again.

You know, Jennifer, after your brain surgeries and recovery, I was reading that something happened to your frame of mind. You basically said this album isn't going to satisfy the needs of an industry or trends. I'm talking about "Lune Rouge," which you garnered a Grammy nomination for. You said to yourself it's going to satisfy you. Can you describe that feeling that changed within you? I mean, even after getting your speech and hearing back, you were in this space where you were thinking, I'm now making music for me.

TOKIMONSTA: Nothing is more sobering and life-affirming than knowing you're going to die. And as a young person, we are not faced with death. It's not on our doorstep. We don't think about it. We live without worry in many ways. In my situation, it was just in an instant where suddenly that became a reality for me. In one month, I had to write a will. I had to decide who my cat was going to go to, what would happen to my discography if I were to die a month later. And it was stressful. It was not fun. It was sad.

I also didn't tell anyone that I was going through this. I didn't want to make a spectacle out of the situation. So, really, it was, like, less than eight people who knew that I was going through this, possibly even less than that. But I realized that if I were to die tomorrow, would I be happy with how I live my life today? And if I were to die tomorrow, would I be happy with the art that I shared with the world today? - 'cause the art that I make through my music will outlive me. And I want to make sure that I'm happy with what - with the mark I left on this world.

MOSLEY: Once you turn your attention back to music, you started performing - I want to make sure I get this right - you went to perform at SXSW and then Coachella, which is in front of 15,000 people. I mean, that really is a test of strength and endurance, right? It's such a brave thing, it feels like, to do that after what you had just been through.

TOKIMONSTA: Honestly, I don't know how I did it, but then I felt as though I was capable. SXSW was something I did. I took it pretty easy. It wasn't anything too, too crazy, but that was two months out of surgery that, you know, I decided to go to Austin and keep these gigs that were booked well in advance. You know, Coachella's booked a year or more in advance, and I didn't want to miss it. I really felt as though I could do it. And by the time it rolled around, I was like, this is me. I'm going for it.

MOSLEY: What did that feel like? 'Cause, you know, I know there's an energy that comes from the crowd.

TOKIMONSTA: I mean, when you look at a group of people like that, they almost become one organism. And in this shared experience, we all become this one living, breathing thing. And their energy is a reflection of my energy and back and forth. We're just, you know, drops of water undulating in this massive sea. And I guess, for me, it was another sign that I had passed the worst part.

MOSLEY: So many electronic music producers are anonymous, but you're not, of course. You're in most of your music videos, and people are pretty familiar with your face. How did that come about? It - was it intentional?

TOKIMONSTA: Oh, I'm still super-shy. I mean, especially, you know, let's say 10 or 13 years ago when I was just making beats in LA with my peers, I didn't want anyone to know that I was a girl. I didn't want anyone to know what I looked like. So if we think about that MySpace era when, you know, everyone had their songs listed, you had your top eight or whatever, I never posted my photo on my accounts. I wanted it to be a mystery because I didn't think it was necessary to show my identity, as it could be used as a means to judge my music unfairly. And that was the reality at that time. It's probably still the reality to some degree now, though I think it's improved quite a lot.

And I just wanted to be music only. Like, doesn't matter what I look like or who I am. If the songs hit you in the right way, that's the most important. But eventually, you know, I started getting booked for shows. It wasn't - you know, people started knowing what I look like. I was posting photos and making it more apparent that, obviously, I am a girl and an Asian American female at that. So I'm really a true minority in the world of electronic music.

MOSLEY: Yeah. We can't overstate - it's a heavily male-dominated genre of music. Critics wouldn't even attribute your sound to you when you first started out. They thought, OK, a man had to be in your life to help you put this music together.

TOKIMONSTA: Yes. And I feel like that left an undue - like, I don't know how to describe this. It left a complex in me where now, at times - I'm trying to break out of this - I am very conscientious about collaborating with other male producers. And if you notice, I don't really collaborate with a lot of other male producers, mostly just male vocal - vocalists, very common rappers, etc. And it does go back to that time where people were attributing my own talents to people - like, men I had dated, or they assumed that there was no way it could have been coming from me and must have been someone else making it for her. And because of that kind of environment that I was in, it made it so important for me to show everyone that I make the music that I make. It became very important for me to also mix down and engineer all the music I make so people knew that this person was doing all of it.

MOSLEY: What is it about the electronic music genre that makes this environment a reality? Why is it - why do men heavily take up so much space within that - the genre?

TOKIMONSTA: I mean, I would say this is not - that statement can be blanketed over many different things, whether it's this genre, whether it's the music industry as a whole, whether it's just music technology or just even technology, you know? It's something that's changing now. You had also mentioned this earlier - that women aren't socialized to be tech-savvy. It doesn't mean that they don't have that ability, but when you're putting an Easy-Bake Oven in front of a little girl and you put a science kit in front of a little boy, you're creating an environment where that woman isn't going to grow up to think that that's possible for her.

And that's kind of the generation I grew up in, in the '80s where - yeah, it was an Easy-Bake Oven, a Barbie and a baby doll, not all the fun stuff that the boys got to play with. And I grew up in a household with a single mother, so she relegated anything tech-related to me. If the DVD player broke, I had to fix it. If the garage broke, I had to fix it. If something was wrong with her car, I had to fix it. Teaching her how to use her cellphone is traumatizing, but I had to teach her how to do that. So I think...

MOSLEY: Did she see something in you, a tech-savviness, or because you were an immigrant's daughter?

TOKIMONSTA: My mom definitely knows my sister is not tech-savvy, so maybe she did see something in me where she knew I could figure that stuff out. I mean, being 7 years old and fixing a broken VHS player - you know, I think that's already a pretty promising sign.

MOSLEY: Yeah. Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is electronic music producer and DJ Jennifer Lee, aka TOKiMONSTA, a pioneer in the electronic music genre. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOKIMONSTA'S "SMOKE AND MIRRORS")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. And today we're talking to Grammy-nominated music producer Jennifer Lee, better known by her stage name as TOKiMONSTA. She's a pioneer in the electronic music genre. In 2019, her album "Lune Rouge" garnered a Grammy nomination, making her the first Asian American woman to receive a nomination under the category of best dance electronic album. She's currently on tour with the electronic music duo ODESZA.

I was just wondering, how much pressure do you feel in this world of TikTok where artists are basically churning out so much music in order to get noticed? It's really interesting because there's so many, meaning someone can participate in this genre by just putting out one song or one album and then they're done with it. So in this really crowded space, you're really kind of up against a lot of other folks.

TOKIMONSTA: That's the blessing and the curse of technology. We're democratizing music right now in a way where everyone can be a musician, and that's really lovely. There are not a lot of blockades for you to try to take a stab at it. At the same time, then, you enter a world where there are so many musicians. Everyone's a DJ. You know, everyone could be in a band. It's - how are you going to pick who's good or not? Why are you going to like an artist over another artist when all the music also is starting to sound very similar? - because we're entering a phase where trend-driven music is taking over. And I would say that's partially due to social media and the way that they're utilizing music in this short format. So I'll be in a car, and I'll hear a song and realize that - oh, it's a TikTok song, but I only know the first 30 seconds.

MOSLEY: Right.

TOKIMONSTA: I had no idea the rest of the song sounded like that. And another thing that's very interesting is, even for platforms like Spotify, many artists are now doing radio edits where the songs are two minutes and 30 seconds or under - at least under three minutes. And that's because of things like TikTok and shrinking attention spans. I'm used to a song being, you know, like - even a pop song - anywhere from three minutes, three minutes and 15 seconds. But to have songs be specifically edited so there's a version of it that's extra short - that's new.

MOSLEY: I want to ask you really quickly about "Squid Game." Last year Casablanca Records released a "Squid Game (Let's Play)" EP inspired by the Netflix series, and you contributed to a song entitled "The Flower Blooms." You really captured the eeriness of the series in this song. Let's listen to a little.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE FLOWER BLOOMS")

TOKIMONSTA: (Singing in Korean).

MOSLEY: That was TOKiMONSTA's "The Flower Blooms," which was on the EP "Squid Game (Let's Play)" by Casablanca Records, and it was inspired by the Netflix series. What was the process for you finding that core?

TOKIMONSTA: I think that musicians are inspired in many different ways. It's never just this urge to make music, and sometimes it's a TV show. So after watching "Squid Game," I decided I wanted to make a song. And I felt inspired, essentially, by the Koreanness (ph) of it all. It's a part of my identity, like I alluded to earlier. And with this, I felt like I just wanted to participate in some way. And I made this song not knowing where it would go. Those vocals are actually mine, and for those who don't know, that song that they use that I'm singing and that's in the show - it's a very common children's song. So it's a Creative Commons thing. I decided to make this fun song using that as the core and decided to contact Netflix, share the song with them, make sure I have their blessing if they're cool with me putting it out 'cause initially I was going to put the song out on my own.

And they checked with their legal. It was all good. They were saying, yeah, they would support if I wanted to release it on my own 'cause it doesn't use any of their proprietary, you know, vocal samples, media, etc. But then they told me to hold on. So right when I was deciding I was going to put it out there - like, wait a minute, I think we might have something interesting. And fast-forward a few months. They decided to make a whole EP inspired by this TV show, and I got to be a part of that. And in many ways, I think I prompted that.

MOSLEY: Delving a little bit deeper into how your experience with brain surgeries and Moyamoya disease impacted you, how has rehearing music and recovering affected your music afterwards?

TOKIMONSTA: I would say from a technical or scientific or medical standpoint, nothing really changed. I listened to music to the same degree as before. I feel like a lot of people want to think I became superhuman. Like, I have incredible hearing now...

MOSLEY: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

TOKIMONSTA: My talents have exceeded. But in my mind, I think that there is this bridge between your thinking mind and the music. And that bridge was broken down during my surgery. And now that bridge has been recreated, I'm able to access that part of my brain that was kind of held away during that recovery process. So in that way, nothing has changed very much. I'm just glad I can hear and appreciate music to the same degree. But I guess philosophically, everything has changed because now I know how precious music is. It's like being starved and having your first bite to eat. Every song has a level of excitement to me that is precious and more precious because I know that it can be taken away.

MOSLEY: Jennifer Lee, thank you so much for this conversation.

TOKIMONSTA: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

MOSLEY: Electronic music producer and DJ Jennifer Lee, aka TOKiMONSTA. She's currently on tour with the electronic music duo ODESZA. Coming up, jazz critic Kevin Whitehead shares an appreciation of tenor saxophonist Von Freeman. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF ANTIBALAS' "HYPOCRITE")

TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. Tenor saxophonist Von Freeman was born October 3, 1923, in Chicago, where he's revered. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says Freeman isn't just the patron saint of Chicago jazz musicians, but also of late bloomers and of all great jazz musicians who resist moving to New York. Kevin has this appreciation.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "99 GUYS (FEAT. VON FREEMAN COMBO)")

THE MAPLES: (Singing) Ninety-nine guys with flips for floozy but floozy just flips for me. She likes my hooing (ph), wooing, a-skibblyabadooing (ph) just as simple as ABC.

KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Von Freeman's band in 1954 backing The Maples, Freeman already giving young musicians a hand. Von got much of his early training on jam sessions. And to pay it forward, he hosted them in Chicago every week for decades, educating scores of musicians. He had studied with legendary high school music teacher Captain Walter Dyett. For a spell, Von had a band with his brothers, drummer Bruz and guitarist George Freeman, who's still active and putting out records at 96. Von played in an early Sun Ra band, jammed with Charlie Parker and did countless blues gigs. He next recorded alongside pianist and sometime organist Andrew Hill on Von's 1956 rarity "After Dark."

(SOUNDBITE OF VON FREEMAN'S "AFTER DARK")

WHITEHEAD: That's getting closer to the mature Von Freeman, the lagging behind the beats sense of relaxation, the expressive uses of deviant pitch, the dyspeptic outbursts and clean articulation at high speed. But it'd be another 16 years before he made an album of his own at age 48, produced by longtime fan Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Now we hear Von Freeman in all his full-throated glory - confident, a little eccentric and bursting with energy and ideas.

(SOUNDBITE OF VON FREEMAN'S "PORTRAIT OF JOHN YOUNG")

WHITEHEAD: Von Freeman's 1972 "Portrait Of John Young," his pianist of choice. Von could burn, but he'd also linger over a slow ballad. It gave him time to plot his next surprise move. Here he is on the bridge to "Polka Dots And Moonbeams," ostensibly playing the melody.

(SOUNDBITE OF VON FREEMAN'S "POLKA DOTS AND MOONBEAMS")

WHITEHEAD: Von Freeman did a few unaccompanied ballads, a nod to the Chicago avant-garde solo horn recitals. Von stayed loyal to the swing and bebop aesthetics of his younger years. But with his knowledge and keen ears, he could make any weird rhythm or wrong note fit anywhere. And his solos could be intense to the point of ecstasy, barely bridled and a little wild.

(SOUNDBITE OF VON FREEMAN'S "MR. LUCKY")

WHITEHEAD: That's "Mr. Lucky," 1975. As soon as Von Freeman's records reached Europe, bookers started coaxing him over, if less often than they'd like. In Holland especially, he'd spar with other tenor players, including his son, Chico Freeman, who emerged in the late '70s and is doing a bunch of gigs to honor his dad the centennial year.

Von Freeman didn't even visit New York much, where musicians are supposed to go to get noticed. But there was a 1990 Lincoln Center gig when he bested the fiery Johnny Griffin in a tenor battle. And in '94, he had a week at the Village Vanguard, where he sported with his New York rhythm trio calling old tunes they didn't know and counting off insane tempos. But he did not like to travel. If you wanted to hear Von, it was just easier to go to Chicago, which is how South Side neighborhood bar the New Apartment Lounge became an international pilgrimage site Tuesday nights, when Von played a long set to kick off his weekly jam session.

(SOUNDBITE OF VON FREEMAN'S "SKI-WEE")

WHITEHEAD: Von Freeman with his regular guitarist Mike Allemana, who, since the saxophonist's death in 2012 at age 88, has become a serious Freeman scholar. He has an album called "Vonology." He played with Von at the 2002 Berlin Jazz Festival. The following night, Freeman was home playing a West Chicago bar gig. That's quintessential Von Freeman. Chicago was where his work was, educating the youngins and playing for his fans in his element. Beloved as he was locally, he had all the gigs he could wish for without ever leaving town.

(SOUNDBITE OF VON FREEMAN'S "SCRAPPLE FROM THE APPLE")

MOSLEY: Kevin Whitehead is the author of the books "Play The Way You Feel: The Essential Guide To Jazz Stories On Film," "Why Jazz?" and "New Dutch Swing." On tomorrow's show, Cat Bohannon, author of the new book "Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years Of Human Evolution." It traces the evolution of women's bodies, taking us through the Jurassic era to modern day, exploring everything from why we menstruate, are more likely to get Alzheimer's disease and why we live longer. I hope you can join us. To keep up with what's on the show and to get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair.

FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Ann Marie Baldonado, Therese Madden, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelley and Susan Nyakundi. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. For Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.

(SOUNDBITE OF VON FREEMAN'S "SCRAPPLE FROM THE APPLE")

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