HubArts.com: Harvard takes the Zen train with a big green Ho

We get lots of press releases here at HubArts and almost all of them are worthy to one degree or another. Good art helps. We might have gone with this item anyway, but I think you'll agree that the picture sells it. Credit photographer Robert Adam Mayer for this showstopping portrait of saxophonist and composer Fred Ho, who's being honored by his alma mater, Harvard, this month.

Ho, Class of '79, will receive the Harvard Arts Medal on Nov. 13 and the next day will perform the world premiere of his new work, "Take The Zen Train," at a tribute concert with the Harvard Jazz Bands. And both events are open to the public.

"The Harvard Arts Medal honors a distinguished Harvard or Radcliffe graduate or faculty member who has achieved excellence in the arts and has made a contribution through the arts to education or the public good," according to the school. Previous honorees include Joshua Redman ’91, Christopher Durang ’71, John Ashbery ’49, John Updike ’54, Bonnie Raitt ’72, Pete Seeger ’40, and Jack Lemmon ’47.

Ho blends free jazz and traditional Chinese music in distinctly individual works like the music/theater project “Deadly She-Wolf Assassin at Armageddon!” (a martial arts sword epic bowing to manga and samurai flicks). Now living in Brooklyn, Ho founded the Afro Asian Music Ensemble and co-founded the Brooklyn Sax Quartet, among other groups. His latest book is the collection “Wicked Theory, Naked Practice.”

His web site is here. It includes a sampling of his work, and right now I am completely digging a fairly traditional piece called "Tomorrow Is Now." But poke around and you'll get a feel for just how radical some of his stuff is. You might also want to read this Harvard Crimson piece, which explains, among other things, that the "pussy patch" on his forehead is a sign of his support for matriarchal politics.

The Fall 2009 Harvard Arts Medal ceremony will be held Nov. 13 at 5 p.m. at New College Theater, 10-12 Holyoke St., Cambridge. Callie Crossley moderates the presentation and discussion with Ho and Harvard Dean Evelyn Hammonds. Admission is free, but tickets are required; available through the Harvard Box Office (limit two per person).

"The World of Fred Ho," a tribute concert with the Harvard Jazz Bands, takes place Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. at Lowell Hall, 11 Kirkland St. (at Oxford St.). It features the world premiere of “Take the Zen Train,” a piece in six movements for big band and dancers commissioned by the Harvard Jazz Bands and Learning From Performers (Office for the Arts at Harvard), with choreography by Daniel Jáquez. General admission tickets $10; students and seniors, $8.

Info on both events: 617-496-2222 or www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/boxoffice.