Fred Ho

Who is Fred Ho?

Fred Ho is an American jazz baritone saxophonist, composer, bandleader, playwright, writer, and social activist.

While he is sometimes associated with the Asian American jazz or avant-garde jazz movements, Ho himself is opposed to the use of term "jazz" to describe traditional African American music because the word "jazz" was used pejoratively by white Americans to denigrate the music of African Americans. Also an activist, many of his works fuse the melodies of indigenous and traditional Asian and African musics, which as Ho would say is the music of the majority of the world's people. He has also co-edited two books: Legacy to Liberation: Politics and Culture of Revolutionary Asian Pacific America and Sounding Off! Music as Subversion/ Resistance/ Revolution. He has a third book in progress about African Americans and Asians working together in civil rights, which he is co-writing with Purdue University professor of African American studies Bill Mullen. Ho's contributions to the Asian American empowerment movement are varied and many. He is credited with co-founding several Asian American civic groups such as the East Coast Asian Students Union while a student at Harvard, The Asian American Arts Alliance in New York City, The Asian American Resource Center in Boston, and the Asian Improv record label.