Current Members of the Afro-Asian Music Ensemble:
Fred Ho, baritone sax/leader
Bobby Zankel, alto sax
Salim Washington, tenor sax
Art Hirahara, piano
Wesley Brown, bass
Royal Hartigan, drums/percussion.
Management & Booking: Spectrum Music
spectrum [at] spectrummusic.net
Influences
Archie Shepp, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Thad Jones, Charles Mingus, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Cal Massey, Max Roach, Korean pansori, Chinese opera and folk music, Leo Parker, Serge Chaloff, Pepper Adams, Chinary Ung, Gerald Fried, Lalo Schiffrin, Earth, Wind and Fire, Azteca, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Mandrill, War, Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chase, Santana, The Beatles, Iron Butterfly, Yes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Minnie Riperton, The Pyramids, Natalie Cole, Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Kalamu ya Salaam, Isabelle Allende, Jayne Cortez, Sun Ra, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Aretha Franklin, Charles Tolliver, Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Poets, Raul Salinas, Magdalena Gomez, Chrystos, W.E.B. DuBois, Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, Mao Zedong, Jose Maria Sison, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, Richard Aoki, Carlos Bulosan, H.T. Tsiang, Lu Xun, Ho Chi Minh, Amilcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, Dudley Randall, Hoyt Fuller, the Black Arts Movement, the Asian American Movement, Herbert Apthekar, John Bellamy Foster, Albert Memmi, Bernice Johnson Reagon and Sweet Honey in the Rock, Sidney Finkelstein, Eddie Palmieri, Tadao Sawai, Ennio Morricone, Hideakira Sakurai, Kunnihiko Murai, Qiu Jin, Nana ya Asantawa, Lakshimi Bai the Rani of Jhansi, Buddy Rich, Henry Hampton, Paul Robeson, Queen Mother Audley Moore.
Fred Ho is a one-of-a-kind revolutionary Chinese American baritone saxophonist, composer, writer, producer, political activist and leader of the Afro Asian Music Ensemble and the Monkey Orchestra. For two decades, he has innovated an Afro Asian New American Multicultural Music imbedded in the swingest, most soulful and transgressive forms of African American music with the musical influences of Asia and the Pacific Rim. As Larry Birnbaum writes in Down Beat "Fred Ho's style is a genre onto 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."
Ho is a prodigious composer, having written over a half dozen critically acclaimed operas, music/theater epics, cutting edge multimedia performance works, martial arts ballet, oratorios and recording over a dozen albums as a leader. Recent commissions include: the nationally toured and celebrated Voice of the Dragon; Josephine Baker's Angels from the Rainbow for Imani Winds; Suite for Matriarchal Shaman Warriors for the unique Asian zither and percussion ensemble IIIZ+ and a Jazz Commissioning Award to compose Suite Sam Furnace (in honor of the late alto saxophonist and 20 year member of the Afro Asian Music Ensemble) from Chamber Music America. The work premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the fall of 2004.
Current blockbuster music/theater projects composed by Ho include: Deadly She-Wolf Assassin at Armageddon!, a martial arts sword epic paying homage to Japanese manga and samurai cult film classics; a new opera Mr. Mystery: The Return of Sun Ra to Save Planet Earth with libretto by Quincy Troupe; and for the Apollo Theater and the Brooklyn Academy of Music 2008 Next Wave Festival Dragon vs. Eagle.
As a musical leader, Fred Ho founded the Afro Asian Music Ensemble in 1982; the Monkey Orchestra in 1990; co-founded the Brooklyn Sax Quartet with David Bindmanin 1997; and recently started Caliente! Circle Around the Sun (featuring Ho's solo baritone saxophone with poets Magdalena Gomez and Raul Salinas).
Fred Ho currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
PLEASE NOTE: This is Fred Ho's Official Myspace Page, but not maintained by Fred himself.
hi fred ! just sending greetings out your way ! its so enjoyable to see your exhuberance in the arts ! im an artist ! and poet ! i would enjoy creating some art for you and your aquaintances ! my art is compared to basquiats , warhol , keith harings ! its no wonder because i had made friends with those talented men , early , as a kid ! ... when you and yours want to attain landmark ! cutting edge ! modern art masterpieces ! call me ! ... besides message me ! stop on my page more often ! if you message me a number we can talk by phone ! maybe we can colaborate on some avant guarde music , art , performance number ! peace and prosperity be yours always ! (((((((( your pal ! the artist , poet , ( m.a.) " saint " ( c . ) 2009 . )))))))) p.s. you know cuban and outsider art is going for record prices now ! write me , comment soon !
featuring dave hillyard - sax, simon chardiet - guitar
The Blue Greens – Jazz/Blues/RnB
April 2 – New York (Harlem), NY – Shrine
www.shrinenyc.com no cover – music starts at 9 p.m. sharp!
April 24 – Brooklyn, NY (red hook) – Sunnys
www.sunnysredhook.com no cover – music starts at 10 p.m.
David Hillyard & the Rocksteady 7 – Reggae/Jazz/Ska
April 11 – New York (Harlem), NY – Shrine
No cover. www.shrinenyc.com
Fred! You are an inspiration; a force to be reckoned with (as the demons of cancer are learning). Peace to you, my friend and my sincerest hopes for as speedy a recovery as you can muster. We all (all of us here, and all the planet) need you to keep us on the righteous path.
Check out the Blue Greens live in Brooklyn! Blues/Jazz/Bop/Bam/Bing/Boom Feb 28 – Brooklyn, NY – Two Boots 512 2nd st b/w 7th & 8 ave (park slope) www. twobootsbrooklyn. com - no cover – -2 sets starting after 9 p.m. Dave Hillyard (the slackers) – Saxophones Simon “Barsinister” Chardiet – Guitars Artie Baguer – Bass JJ Murphy - Drums
Fred i am a huge fan!!!! I really love what u do. I would love to get you to Erie sometime to play. ley me know if that is possiable. Harmony & Blessings:Steve
