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| Honoring Fred Ho: Join the Afro Yaqui Music Collective on August 13th "Fred Ho's style is a genre unto itself, a pioneering fusion of free-jazz and traditional Chinese music that manages to combine truculence and delicacy with such natural ease that it sounds positively organic." —DownBeat Fred Ho—called the "greatest baritone saxophonist of all time" by The New Yorker—would be celebrating his 59th birthday this August. Despite a life cut short by a relentless cancer, Ho's output remains massive, with over 15 albums as a bandleader, several full length Manga Operas which fused jazz and marital arts choreography, and a distinctive Afro Asian style he can call his own. By combining revolutionary politics with African and Asian musical traditions, Ho pioneered a vibrant new form of jazz deployed in service of eco-socialist ideals. Comprising leading jazz luminaries who have performed with the likes of Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman, and Gil Evans, graced Ho's bands and his recorded output. The Afro Yaqui Music Collective is a 9-piece outfit which descends from Ho's Afro Asian revolutionary ensembles and musical concepts. Led by Ben Barson, Ho's Baritone protege who "he felt has the heft and sound to represent [Ho's] assertive approach (The New York Times), " the band will include alumni of Ho's groups such as trumpet maestro Mark McGowan. trombonist Aaron Johnson, and vocalist Youn Joun Kim with a new generation of innovators, such as violin sensation Ernesto Villalobos, Alto saxpohonist Yoko Suzuk, clarinetist Quincy Saul, and Metropolitan Opera Soprano Gizelxanath Rodriguez. The band will also be joined by theatre artist Marina Calender, freedom singer and activist spiritchild, and martial arts duo Yoshi Amao and Koji Nishiyama, all of whom have worked with Ho in numerous productions. Ginny's Supper Club was a special location for Mr. Ho. Despite refusing to perform in clubs or bars since the late 1980s, Ho felt Ginny's was an exceptional venue, and organized a special series of concerts towards the end of his life. He unofficially inaugurated the downstairs Supper Club with his tribute to Black Power activist and under-recognized composer Cal Massey's Black Liberation Movement Suite, of which jazz critic Will Friedwald wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "Fred's Ho's interpretation was well worth the 40 year wait that it took to be heard." Massey, who performed at the original Red Rooster with Charlie Parker in the 1930's, would have celebrated Ho as a fellow visionary iconoclast. Afro Yaqui Music Collective: Ben Barson Aaron Johnson Youn Joun Kim Mark McGowan Gizelxanath Rodriguez Quincy Saul Yoko Suzuki Mimi Jong Ernesto Villalobos Kento Iwasaki Julz Powell Ben Rossman Colter Harper with guest artists: Yoshi Amao Marina Celander Koji Nishiyama spiritchild write your comments about the article :: © 2016 Jazz News :: home page |