The Eco-Music Big Band is proud to present the release of our second album, REBEL SPIRITS. REBEL SPIRITS is a posthumous reimagining of the music of three of the most underrated and influential jazz composers of the 20th century: the band’s founder, Fred Ho; late composer/trumpeter and influence to John Coltrane, Cal Massey; and multigenre composer/arranger Romulus Franceschini.

The Eco-Music Big Band’s second album, REBEL SPIRITS creates a living practice of the music of the deceased; rather than preserving the music of these late composers, this album imagines their voices in the present world. As the Eco-Music Big Band is committed to fusing genres, creating new sounds, and exploring the outer limits of what is possible with a big band, REBEL SPIRITS creates a new sonic world for composer Cal Massey and arranger Romulus Franceschini’s magnum opus, The Black Liberation Movement Suite, and for Fred Ho’s final and unreleased works, Grace of the Guerrilla, My Love, and Soul Science Stomp. The Eco-Music Big Band is committed to commissioning new works for big band that propel a new jazz tradition through the 21st century; REBEL SPIRITS exhibits a deep root in the tradition of avant-garde jazz in addition to our vision for the future. This album is an aural timeline that includes classic straight-ahead jazz, 1970s funk-fusion, heavy metal, extended technique virtuosity, old-school hip hop rhythms, East Asian tonalities, and odd-meter blues grooves. This performance will also feature the world premiere of a new work by composer Jessica DiMari, entitled American Rose.