ALL THE COLORS OF LIFE: A CELEBRATION OF FRED HO
April 23, 2014 at 7:30 and 9:30 PM
Ginny’s Supper Club at Red Rooster Harlem
310 Lenox Ave – Harlem, NY
Tickets $25 – Reservations strongly encouraged (212-421-3821)
Join the Eco-Music Big Band in a tribute to its founder, Fred Ho (August 10, 1957 – April 12, 2014)
– one of a kind revolutionary composer, writer, producer, political activist, and the “best baritone saxophonist of all time” (The New Yorker) whose awards and distinctions include becoming the youngest person to receive the Duke Ellington Distinguished Artist Lifetime Achievement Award, a Harvard Arts Medal, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among others. Fred Ho is in hospice, in the final time of his seven-year battle with stage 4B metastatic cancer. This tribute program will honor Fred’s legacy, including his last big band work, The Grace of the Guerilla, My Love, the music of Cal Massey, and new works by Fred Ho’s students, Ben Barson and Marie Incontrera.
The Eco-Music Big Band is a 16-piece professional free jazz political big band that spans many generations and includes some of the nation’s most acclaimed jazz musicians. Hailed as “talented… inspiring” (The Vermont Standard), The Eco-Music Big Band is committed to presenting the music of the legendary jazz composers of the 20th century that were overlooked(such as Cal Massey), to continuing the legacy of the prodigious composer Fred Ho, and to providing a platform for the next generation of big band composers.
Fred Ho passed away on the morning of Saturday, April 12, 2014 in his home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, ending an eight year battle with stage 4B metastatic colorectal cancer. He is survived by his mother and two sisters, Florence Houn and Flora Hoffman. He leaves behind a legendary body of musical work; a revolutionary political movement, Scientific Soul Sessions; two big bands; and a distinct Afro-Asian aesthetic.
There will be no funeral; Fred will be cremated and his ashes will be spread over the sea of Kauai, where he will swim forever with the coral reefs. A memorial is being organized for a later date.
Jay Rodriguez, alto saxophone
Marty Ehrlich, tenor saxophone
Livio Almeida, tenor saxophone
Ben Barson, baritone saxophone
Winston Byrd, trumpet
Mark McGowan, trumpet
Nabaté Isles, trumpet
Adam O’Farrill, trumpet
Richard Harper, trombone
David Taylor, bass trombone
Ernesto Villalobos, violin
Andrew Janss, cello
Amanda Ruzza, bass
Albert Marquès, piano
Zack O’Farrill, drums
Marie Incontrera, conductor