Jazz saxophonist and composer who identified with the civil rights struggles in America
The American multi-instrumentalist and composer Fred Ho, who has died aged 56 of cancer, rejected the word "jazz" as a patronising European label for his style of music. Yet jazz traditions and energies clearly fuelled this single-minded maverick's playing and composing life.
At his most accessibly productive in the 1980s under the name of Fred Houn, he formed the first of his Afro Asian Music Ensembles in 1982 and began productive relationships with Asian jazz musicians such as the pianist Jon Jang and the saxophonist Francis Wong creating albums such as Tomorrow Is Now! (1985) and We Refuse to Be Used and Abused (1988) as vehicles for his sumptuous, Harry Carney-inspired baritone sax sound.
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