In February, National Public Radio ran an interview with radical composer Fred Ho, then in the last stages of the battle with colorectal cancer that would eventually end his life on April 12, 2014. Even with just audio, it’s clear that Ho is dying; his voice is tired and frail. Nobody would have blamed him for slowing down after the cancer metastasized in 2012, but that was clearly the last thing on his mind.

“The metaphor for my life is to turn pain into power,” he told NPR. “It’s to never become a victim, [but to] become a revolutionary.”

Ho’s attempts to fuse art and revolution can be seen on the front of any of his albums. On the cover of Big Red!, his face peeks out over vibrant patterns of yellow, blue, red and green. Malcolm X is pictured on one side, Mao on the other, Mumia squarely in the center. The album’s trajectory veers from jazz to the musical traditions of the Ewe people in modern-day Ghana and Togo, to the vocal styles of Korean singer Rami Seo.