Fred Wei-han Ho: Case Study of a Chinese-American Creative Musician

Fred Wei-han Ho is only 35 but he has already gone through a long personal, political, and musical journey. Although he is regarded as one of the leading figures in the Asian-American jazz movement he considers himself more than a jazz musician. In this article I will discuss the sociopolitical and cultural background of Ho's work,
including the rise of Chinese-American identity consciousness and the
emergence of Chinese-American music within the broader scene of the Asian-American music which is the historical context of Ho's music. I will focus on Ho's personal experiences and analyze one his compositions to demonstrate what he means by the term "Afro-
Asian New American Multicultural Music"--his development of Asian-American musical content and form that is transformative of American music, and cannot simply be subsumed in one or another American musical genre such as jazz.