Fred Anderson

I have been neglecting both this blog and my Live365 station over the last couple of months.  Well, I’m back!  This holiday weekend I have been listening to tenor man Fred Anderson.  Anderson passedaway on June 24, 2010 at the age of 81.  Only in his last years, so far as I can tell, did he do much recording. 

Blessedly, he laid down quite a bit of signal from the 1990’s to his death.  This was largely because of his association with the Chicago avant garde culture, including especially Hamid Drake and Ken Vandermark.  I first became aware of Anderson because of his presence on a DKV Trio disc (Hamid Drake, Kent Kessler, and Ken Vandermark). 

Anderson was a consummate avant garde tenor player and improviser.  He did better than almost anyone what AG does best‑cut up human passion into its constituent elements and then reassemble them into new tapestries that leave you wondering whether you ever felt anything real before.  There is a pronounced spiritual dimension to most great avant garde jazz, which ought not to be surprising.  Anderson’s work is transcendent. 

I am playing ‘By Many Names’, from Timeless (2006), with Drake on drums and Harrison Bankhead on bass.  I confess a deep affection for this kind of number: a soft, heartfelt cry repeated over and over buoys up everything else in time and space. 

‘Dark Day’ goes back to 1979.  I got it from Dark Day + Live in Verona.  Drake is on drums, with Billy Brimfield on trumpet and Steven Palmore on bass.  It is structured set of solos riding on Drake’s marvelous thunder. 

Finally there is ‘Strut Time’, a twenty minute piece on Anderson and Drake’s splendid From the River to the Ocean (2007).  Joining are Bankhead on cello, Josh Abrams on bass, and Jeff Parker on guitar.  I have to say that the cello work with guitar reminds me of Jean Luc Ponty.  Anderson’s work here will appeal to any hard bop fan.  I could listen to this thing all day. 

Oh yeah…  I added a cut from Fred Anderson & DKV Trio (1996). 

A Visit to the Jazz Record Mart

I recently enjoyed a visit to Chicago and, of course, a trip to the Jazz Record Mart.  This little gem is at 27  East Illinois St., just a little North of the River and West of Michigan Ave.  Right next to it, I will mention before I forget, is a wonderful Thai restaurant, The Star of Siam.  

The JRM is a wonderful place to find just what you are looking for, especially if you are looking for jazz that has a Chicago connection.  I walked out with six recordings, a couple of which I couldn't find online. 

Ken Vandermark's Sound in Action Trio is something special: Vandermark on tenor sax and clarinet, with Robert Barry and Tim Mulvenna, both on drums.  The album is Design in Time (1999).  I am playing the first cut, Ornette Coleman's 'Law Years' and Albert Ayler's 'Angels'.  I also nailed Dual Pleasure, with Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums.  I am playing 'Anno 1240'.  Both albums are superb. Vandermark is one of the most brilliant horn players of the current age.  He is endlessly inventive, with that hard edge and reverence for musical history that defines Chicago avant garde. The trio album is more accessible, mostly because Vandermark is covering other composers.  

Trio 3 with Geri Allen, At This Time (2009), features: 

• Alto Saxophone, Cover – Oliver Lake
• Bass – Reggie Workman
• Drums – Andrew Cyrille
• Piano – Geri Allen

This is an easy album to warm up to.  I have a special fondness for Cyrille.  I am playing 'Swamini', an Allen composition in honor of Alice Coltrane.  


The late Fred Anderson is another Chicago AG stalwart.  I picked up his Blue Winter, a two disc CD with William Parker on bass and Hamid Drake on drums.  The first disc is a long rambling blues.  I am playing the last cut, 'IV', from the second disc.  There is power in that there trio!  


I also picked up The All-Star Game I, with 

• Alto Saxophone – Marshall Allen
• Bass– Alan Silva, William Parker
• Drums– Hamid Drake
• Tenor Saxophone– Kidd Jordan

This is avant garde.  

Finally, I purchased The Matthew Shipp Trio-The Multiplication Table (1998). 

• Double Bass – William Parker
• Drums – Susie Ibarra
• Piano – Matthew Shipp

This is also very avant garde, with a mix of easily accessible piano work and some very challenging deconstructions of 'Autumn Leaves' and 'Take the A Train'.  I am playing 'The New Fact'.

That was my trip to the record store.  Oh,  and the Thai food was excellent. 

William Parker Makes My Day

I just downloaded Evolving Silence Vol. 1, by Hamid Drake, Albert Beger, and William Parker.  Drake plays drums, Beger plays sax and flute.  Parker, of course, is the genius on bass.  The cut I am playing, 'The Naked Truth' will root out all the plaque from your gums if you let it. 

Parker might be the greatest jazz composer of our age, whatever our age is.  I also loaded a piece from his monumental album The Mayor of Punkville, with William Parker and The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra.  'Oglala Eclipse' is quite an adventure.  Enjoy. 

DKV Trio Live at Wels & Chicago

Holy smoking reeds, Batman!  I didn't get around to listening to the second half of the two disc set: DKV Trio Live at Wels & Chicago until tonight.  As mentioned in the previous post, DKV is Hamid Drake on percussion, Kent Kessler on bass, and Ken Vandermark on reeds.  I read somewhere that Vandermark is the greatest living jazz horn player.  After listening to "Blues for Tomorrow", I can no longer dismiss that as hyperbole.  The power of Vandermark's bluesy solo is simply breathtaking.  He got a hold on my heart and squeezing it for nearly twenty minutes.  Pretty much the same goes for the other two tracks on the second disc. 

I uploaded the cut to my Live365 station.  I think you can order the disc from Okkadisk.  It seems to me a crime that no DKV recordings are available from eMusic or Amazon.  I do not understand why.  You'll have to wait for it to come around on my station, and there is almost nine hours of music on it now.  Take my word for it and order the recording from Okkadisk.  They are only asking 15 bucks.  Meanwhile, here is a clip from YouTube