Change the People
A recent book on musician Fred Ho reveals some starting points for a modern radical avant-garde.
This article — which appears in our new print edition — was written and edited while the subject, revolutionary composer Fred Ho, was in the final stages of colorectal cancer. On the very day proofs was sent to the printers, Ho passed away. Though this review doesn’t reflect his passing, the author of has also written an obituary for Ho in Jacobin.
Fred Ho has been staring death in the face for almost a decade. In 2006, the prolific avant-garde saxophonist and composer was diagnosed with cancer. In late 2012, his doctors told him that the cancer had metastasized. A statement posted on his website in January of last year reads:
In 2012 we learned that the cancer had now reached stage 4b metastasis. A condition considered terminal.
But having optimized himself with a raw extreme food diet, spiritualizing himself with the elimination of ego, immersion in the love of so many friends, his family and supporters from around the planet, and coming to peace and carrying no baggage of any kind, Fred’s legacy is monumental and will be celebrated throughout 2013.
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