Year of the Tiger

by Fred Ho, The Green Monster Big Band

Overview

To approximate the first half of Fred Ho's album Year of the Tiger, it's necessary to imagine the sound that might be created if the members of Duke Ellington & His Orchestra were mixed with the players from Parliament/Funkadelic and set loose on the Michael Jackson and Jimi Hendrix catalogs. That's right, songs like "Thriller" and "Purple Haze" get severely retrofitted into an aggressive, irreverent jazz-funk style, with harsh, massed horn parts. Sometimes, the sound resembles a couple of high-school marching bands fighting it out on the same football field. In the second part of the album, Ho takes a more conventional jazz approach, that is, if "conventional" can be taken to mean a post-bop big-band style in which a horn ensemble is employed for avant-garde purposes. And then there's the children's chorus that pipes up on the Oriental-styled "Hero Among Heroes." This is ambitious, challenging jazz, occasionally made somewhat more accessible by the leader's evident zany sense of humor. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	01/25/2011
Label:	INNOVA RECORDS
UPC:	0726708678920

Tracks

1. The Johnny Quest Theme
2. Very, Very Baaad! Tribute Medley to Michael Jackson: This Place Hotel
3. Very, Very Baaad! Tribute Medley to Michael Jackson: Bad (Very, Very Baaad!)
4. Very, Very Baaad! Tribute Medley to Michael Jackson: Thriller (Super-Thriller)
5. Fire
6. Purple Haze
7. Take the Zen Train: Prelude to a Kiss Off: No Baggage, Please!
8. Take the Zen Train: The Violence of Virtuosity
9. Take the Zen Train: Quick of My Being
10. Take the Zen Train: Optometry for the Vision-less
11. Take the Zen Train: Quarantine for the Aggressor
12. Take the Zen Train: Beyond the Beyond
13. Hero Among Heroes
14. Blazing on the Turquoise Sea

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Fred Ho   Primary Artist,Sax (Baritone)
The Green Monster Big Band   Primary Artist
Jimi Hendrix   Primary Artist
Ruth Margraff   Primary Artist
Shannon Dawson   Choir/Chorus
Victoria Ortiz   Choir/Chorus
Stanton Davis, Jr.   Trumpet
Bob Pilkington   Soloist,Trombone
Amir ElSaffar   Trumpet
Nabate Isles   Soloist,Trumpet
David Harris   Soloist,Trombone (Bass)
Leena Conquest   Vocals
Jamie Richards   Choir/Chorus
Salim Washington   Flute,Soloist,Sax (Tenor)
Marty Wehner   Trombone
Mary Halvorson   Guitar
Hafez Modirzadeh   Soloist,Sax (Tenor)
Jim Hobbs   Sax (Alto)
Art Hirahara   Piano,Soloist,Keyboards
Philip Blackburn   Director
Hyun-Jae Park   Choir/Chorus
Christina Nuki   Choir/Chorus,Soprano (Vocal)
Sam Fox   Choir/Chorus
Aaron Sherraden   Bass (Electric)
Sean Yancer   Horn
Akane Gauntt   Choir/Chorus
Janet Ortiz   Choir/Chorus
Kelsey Barbosa   Choir/Chorus
Tyra Booker   Choir/Chorus
Adin Levy   Choir/Chorus
Najha Zigbi-Johnson   Choir/Chorus
Jamie-Leigh Savage-Backmon   Choir/Chorus
Christopher Kelly   Choir/Chorus
Alex Neiman-Zych   Choir/Chorus
Justy Kosek   Choir/Chorus
Jennifer Kidwell   Choir/Chorus,Alto (Vocals)
Lynn Randolph Brown   Choir/Chorus,Tenor (Vocal)
Dax Valdes   Choir/Chorus,Baritone (Vocal)
Del Fionn Sykes   Choir/Chorus,Soprano (Vocal)
Haleh Abghari   Choir/Chorus,Soprano (Vocal)
Michael Douglas Jones   Bass (Vocal),Choir/Chorus,Baritone (Vocal)
David Bindman   Sax (Tenor)
Bobby Zankel   Sax (Alto)
Earl McIntyre   Trombone (Bass)
Fred Ho & The Afro-Asian Music Ensemble   Featured Artist
Royal Hartigan   Drums,Percussion
Richard Harper   Piano,Soloist,Trombone,Keyboards
Abraham Gomez-Delgado   Vocals
Wes Brown   Bass
Riyo Saji   Choir/Chorus
Ken Kojima   Choir/Chorus
Alyssa Freeman   Choir/Chorus
Cabrielle Green   Choir/Chorus
Urara Muramatsu   Choir/Chorus
Skylar Yesair   Choir/Chorus
Sienna Kemp   Choir/Chorus
Amanda Bogacz   Choir/Chorus
Will Havercroft   Choir/Chorus
Damiyr Davis   Choir/Chorus
Brandon Johnson   Choir/Chorus
Taylor Ho Bynum   Cornet,Soloist

Technical Credits

Jon Rosenberg   Engineer
Hoyt Axton   Composer
Rod Temperton   Composer
Jimi Hendrix   Composer
Michael Jackson   Composer
Clinton Ingram   Leader
Joseph Barbera   Composer
William Hanna   Composer
Ruth Margraff   Composer
Joseph Yoon   Producer
Aaron Sherraden   Arranger
Magdalena Gomez   Composer
Fred Ho   Leader,Arranger,Composer,Producer,Liner Notes,Instrumentation
Fred Ho & The Afro-Asian Music Ensemble   Instrumentation