Fred Ho

Fred Ho matched his exceptional talents as a jazz composer with an equally strong commitment to advancing social reform. Political convictions rooted in leftist thought shaped nearly all of his output, frequently through awkwardly crafted lyrics that promoted activism. Such material sometimes proved witty or affecting yet more typically registered as ponderous. Setting aside the overt didacticism reveals a composer of sensitivity and invention who absorbed Duke Ellington’s principles and extended them into post-Coltrane jazz. Ho earned a B.A. in Sociology from Harvard in 1979. Two years later, under the name Fred Houn before adopting his later spelling, he established the Afro-Asian Music Ensemble and documented its work on the 1986 Soul Note release Tomorrow Is Now!. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he also directed and recorded with the Asian-American Art Ensemble and the Monkey Orchestra. On April 12, 2014, Ho died of cancer at his Brooklyn residence, his career distinguished by numerous grants, fellowships, residencies, and awards in addition to extensive community activism.