Fred Ho and the Afro Asian Music Ensemble "Turn Pain Into Power" (1997 OO Discs OO #30)

Turn Pain Into Power by composer/baritone saxophonist, writer, political activist Fred Ho is an amalgamation of Caribbean, African American and Korean influences performed by his ensemble along with text and narration by African American writer/poet Esther Iverem, Puerto Rican playwright/writer Alma Villegas, and Fred Ho. This word and music is strong with sounds of liberation and power. The superb ensemble consists of three saxophonists (Ho, Sam Fumace, Allen Won); piano and electronic keyboard (Peter Madsen); bass (Kiyoto Fujiwara); and drum set with timbales (Royal Hartigan).

The disc features the forty minute, bi-lingual suite "Turn Pain Into Power!" This seven movement suite was originally developed as a counter-quincentennial performance work, opposing the glorification of Columbus's 'discovery' of what is now the Americas. More significantly, the work is a musical celebration of the resistance waged by indigenous peoples, peoples of African and Asian descent, the cultural and social hybridity that has been manifested in the repopulation of Western hemisphere.

For more information on Fred Ho see http://www.goddard.edu/wgdr/kalvos/hofred.html

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