UW-Madison Artist in Residence Fred Ho
Revolutionarily speaking
Revolutionarily speaking
this planet will be in focus with my mission, which is crystal clear in my mind. And that mission is to do the music and the politics that no one can or will do. I
don’t need to chase after gigs. I don’t need to have a recording contract. I don’t need any of those things. I can’t say that there is anything that I have left to be
done although I have a lot of ideas of new things I want to write and create. But as long as I have a breath in me, that will always be the situation for me.”
During his professional career, Ho has dabbled in many different artistic venues and formats. He produced a jazz DVD on the Black Panthers that combined the
music and images to create not a documentary, but an artistic expression of who the Black Panthers were and what they stood for.
But his mainstay has been what he refers to as “so-called” jazz because of the origin of the term. “Revolution is the essence of jazz’s tradition in the sense
that so-called jazz began as a music of an oppressed people, music that was denigrated and marginalized and excluded even from consideration as ‘serious
music,’” Ho said. “Even its name — why I say so-called jazz — is derogatory. I consider the word jazz a racial slur. It either comes from the word jizzum because it
was music associated with a house of prostitution in New Orleans. Or it comes from the French word jaser, which means to chatter nonsensically, to make
jibberish. So even the name was a pejorative. That’s what the music faced. And in the words of Archie Schepp, it is the lily in spite of the swamp that it became
truly a wondrous, fantastical liberating cultural force that extended far beyond the United States.”
While many jazz musicians have had to perform in Europe and Japan to make a living, Ho has been able to practice his craft and make a decent living in
the U.S. “I’m unique,” Ho said. “I am the exception to the rule. I’ve done quite well in the United States. But I have not limited myself to the stereotyped
presentation of so-called jazz and that is just to tour a band. I was very successful a few years back with creating a martial arts ‘jazz’ theater work called ‘Voice of
the Dragon: Once Upon a Time in Chinese America.’ There is a whole website devoted to that called www.voiceofthedragon.com. And the biggest agency in
the world took it, Columbia Artists Management, Inc. They put it on a 33 city U.S. tour and I made a small fortune on it. I have not looked overseas that much
because I think you have to play another kind of stereotype to get over there. And I am not willing to play any stereotypes. So I am an exception to that and I am
an enigma to most of the jazz industry.”
For most of his life, Ho has not felt like a minority because he hails from New York City. But walking the streets of Madison, he does feel like one, except
when he is teaching his class. “When I go to my class, it’s the first time that I don’t feel that way,” Ho reflected. “And that’s because not only of the numeric
demographics and diversity of the class, but it is also really about the energy they have. They don’t pretend to have race neutrality. ‘Oh gee, I don’t have to be
racist or don’t happen to look at people as different races.’ But in fact, they are very comfortable with White privilege and White supremacy. These students like
myself don’t accept that state of affairs. They want to celebrate different traditions and cultures and see how they can interact and become a dynamic new force
for realizing a better society.”
In fact, the criteria that Ho used to select the students for his class was not on the level of talent that they possess, but their state of mind. “When I required an
audition from my students, it was simply to see how open they are and what potential they might have,” Ho said. “I’m very fortunate to say that I might not have
the best dancer or the best musician or the nest actor or the best writer on campus, but I have the most imaginative.”
Ho is very excited about the upcoming performance. “It opens with a large choreographed piece by Peggy Choy called Desert Run featuring 30 dancers,”
Ho said. “I wrote the original musical score. The second part of the show features my students in a work called ‘Future Forward: The Revolution Is Personal,
Political and Cellular.’ It’s a 10 movement suite that features the creations of my students and their collaboration. Also my band will accompany them. Then we
have intermission and the second half features my band from New York, the Afro Asian Music Ensemble in a program that I call Revolutionary Earth Music:
People and the Planet before Profit.”
Ho has been very impressed with the work of his student including one who will perform a pansor’i based on the traditional Korean folk opera form and
another about John Brown, the abolitionist.
Fred Ho continues to be a free man able to create art in the way that he chooses to create art. The forces of conformity will never take him alive.
don’t need to chase after gigs. I don’t need to have a recording contract. I don’t need any of those things. I can’t say that there is anything that I have left to be
done although I have a lot of ideas of new things I want to write and create. But as long as I have a breath in me, that will always be the situation for me.”
During his professional career, Ho has dabbled in many different artistic venues and formats. He produced a jazz DVD on the Black Panthers that combined the
music and images to create not a documentary, but an artistic expression of who the Black Panthers were and what they stood for.
But his mainstay has been what he refers to as “so-called” jazz because of the origin of the term. “Revolution is the essence of jazz’s tradition in the sense
that so-called jazz began as a music of an oppressed people, music that was denigrated and marginalized and excluded even from consideration as ‘serious
music,’” Ho said. “Even its name — why I say so-called jazz — is derogatory. I consider the word jazz a racial slur. It either comes from the word jizzum because it
was music associated with a house of prostitution in New Orleans. Or it comes from the French word jaser, which means to chatter nonsensically, to make
jibberish. So even the name was a pejorative. That’s what the music faced. And in the words of Archie Schepp, it is the lily in spite of the swamp that it became
truly a wondrous, fantastical liberating cultural force that extended far beyond the United States.”
While many jazz musicians have had to perform in Europe and Japan to make a living, Ho has been able to practice his craft and make a decent living in
the U.S. “I’m unique,” Ho said. “I am the exception to the rule. I’ve done quite well in the United States. But I have not limited myself to the stereotyped
presentation of so-called jazz and that is just to tour a band. I was very successful a few years back with creating a martial arts ‘jazz’ theater work called ‘Voice of
the Dragon: Once Upon a Time in Chinese America.’ There is a whole website devoted to that called www.voiceofthedragon.com. And the biggest agency in
the world took it, Columbia Artists Management, Inc. They put it on a 33 city U.S. tour and I made a small fortune on it. I have not looked overseas that much
because I think you have to play another kind of stereotype to get over there. And I am not willing to play any stereotypes. So I am an exception to that and I am
an enigma to most of the jazz industry.”
For most of his life, Ho has not felt like a minority because he hails from New York City. But walking the streets of Madison, he does feel like one, except
when he is teaching his class. “When I go to my class, it’s the first time that I don’t feel that way,” Ho reflected. “And that’s because not only of the numeric
demographics and diversity of the class, but it is also really about the energy they have. They don’t pretend to have race neutrality. ‘Oh gee, I don’t have to be
racist or don’t happen to look at people as different races.’ But in fact, they are very comfortable with White privilege and White supremacy. These students like
myself don’t accept that state of affairs. They want to celebrate different traditions and cultures and see how they can interact and become a dynamic new force
for realizing a better society.”
In fact, the criteria that Ho used to select the students for his class was not on the level of talent that they possess, but their state of mind. “When I required an
audition from my students, it was simply to see how open they are and what potential they might have,” Ho said. “I’m very fortunate to say that I might not have
the best dancer or the best musician or the nest actor or the best writer on campus, but I have the most imaginative.”
Ho is very excited about the upcoming performance. “It opens with a large choreographed piece by Peggy Choy called Desert Run featuring 30 dancers,”
Ho said. “I wrote the original musical score. The second part of the show features my students in a work called ‘Future Forward: The Revolution Is Personal,
Political and Cellular.’ It’s a 10 movement suite that features the creations of my students and their collaboration. Also my band will accompany them. Then we
have intermission and the second half features my band from New York, the Afro Asian Music Ensemble in a program that I call Revolutionary Earth Music:
People and the Planet before Profit.”
Ho has been very impressed with the work of his student including one who will perform a pansor’i based on the traditional Korean folk opera form and
another about John Brown, the abolitionist.
Fred Ho continues to be a free man able to create art in the way that he chooses to create art. The forces of conformity will never take him alive.
By Jonathan Gramling
It wasn’t difficult spotting Fred Ho — a renaissance artist who is artist-in-residence at the UW-
Madison this fall — walking down an ill-lit street on a dreary fall evening. His bright orange suit is almost
like a beacon, a suit he looks right at home in. Ho is teaching a class this fall and will be collaborating
with his students, dance great Peggy Choy and his Afro Asian Music Ensemble for a performance in the
Wisconsin Union Theater on November 22.
Ho, a self-proclaimed revolutionary, is as comfortable in his own skin as he is in the orange suit. As
we sit in the Rainbow Bookstore on Gilman Street, Ho reflected on his life as an artist and what he has
achieved. “I haven’t made the revolution yet,” Ho said with a smile. “In my own personal life, I have. I’m
in no need for money or things anymore. The only things I want to accumulate are creativity, wisdom
and love. I had a vicious two-year battle against advanced colon-rectal cancer. I was only given a one
in four chance of living last year. I made it through the dark tunnel. I’m still very weak and tired. I went
through four surgeries, three chemo therapy sessions, radiation and suffered many physical losses that
might be permanent. But I have many philosophical canes. So I would say at this point in my life, if I
passed on tomorrow, I would be content. I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do. Whatever else I do on
It wasn’t difficult spotting Fred Ho — a renaissance artist who is artist-in-residence at the UW-
Madison this fall — walking down an ill-lit street on a dreary fall evening. His bright orange suit is almost
like a beacon, a suit he looks right at home in. Ho is teaching a class this fall and will be collaborating
with his students, dance great Peggy Choy and his Afro Asian Music Ensemble for a performance in the
Wisconsin Union Theater on November 22.
Ho, a self-proclaimed revolutionary, is as comfortable in his own skin as he is in the orange suit. As
we sit in the Rainbow Bookstore on Gilman Street, Ho reflected on his life as an artist and what he has
achieved. “I haven’t made the revolution yet,” Ho said with a smile. “In my own personal life, I have. I’m
in no need for money or things anymore. The only things I want to accumulate are creativity, wisdom
and love. I had a vicious two-year battle against advanced colon-rectal cancer. I was only given a one
in four chance of living last year. I made it through the dark tunnel. I’m still very weak and tired. I went
through four surgeries, three chemo therapy sessions, radiation and suffered many physical losses that
might be permanent. But I have many philosophical canes. So I would say at this point in my life, if I
passed on tomorrow, I would be content. I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do. Whatever else I do on
Fred Ho held a book signing for his book
“AFRO/ASIA: Revolutionary Political and Cultural
Connections between African and Asian Americans”
at the Rainbow Bookstore
“AFRO/ASIA: Revolutionary Political and Cultural
Connections between African and Asian Americans”
at the Rainbow Bookstore
