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). 

New Stuff on Jazz Note

I have deleted a lot of numbers with very low ratings.  I can see no sense in some of the deletions, but what other guide do I have?  I am adding some more music to challenge my listeners. 

Rebus, by Ken Vandermark (sax), Joe Morris (guitar), and Luther Gray (drums) is one of those albums that caught my ear and wouldn’t let go.  It’s both raw and abstract‑all the cuts are labeled Rebus 1, Rebus 2, etc. 

I also nailed a couple of recordings by Oliver Lake.  Dedicated to Dolphy is a superb tribute to a jazz genius frequently celebrated on this blog.  Here is the Quintet:

• Bass – Belden Bullock
• Drums – Cecil Brooks*
• Piano – Charles Eubanks
• Saxophone – Oliver Lake
• Trumpet – Russel Gunn*

I am playing ‘245’, a Dolphy composition.  It is a hearty blues with a surprisingly old timey feeling. 

Also by the Oliver Lake Quintet is Talkin’ Stick.  This is a must have for your collection.  I am playing ‘Hard Blues,’ a Julius Hemphill composition.  Everything is here.  Ringing swing, avant garde digressions, hard bop energy, and amazing sax. 

• Acoustic Bass – Belden Bullock
• Alto Saxophone – Oliver Lake
• Drums – Cecil Brooks III
• Piano – Geri Allen
• Vibraphone – Jay Hoggard

I note Geri Allen on piano.  I really like her style.  I also note Jay Hoggard’s vibes.  He lends the number a soft, magic touch. 

I also have a rocking good melody by Wayne Shorter from Wayning Moments. 

• Bass – Jymie Merritt
• Drums – Marshall Thompson
• Piano – Eddie Higgins
• Tenor Saxophone – Wayne Shorter
• Trumpet – Freddie Hubbard

Trust me.  Finally I have a lyrical piece of such beauty that one can only point to it.  William Parker’s Raining on the Moon will water the driest heart.  ‘Old Tears’ is exquisite. 

• Bass – William Parker
• Drums – Hamid Drake
• Saxophone [Alto] – Rob Brown (4)
• Trumpet – Louis Barnes*

Vandermark 5

Somehow Ken Vandermark manages to produce a steady stream of recordings despite the uncompromising character of his music.  Not only is he unwilling to compromise in any commercial sense, he is unwilling compromise with ordinary jazz sensibilities.  Any given Vandermark 5 album will have a range of compositions each of which challenges the mood and taste that might have been satisfied by the previous piece.  

Still, much of his work is firmly rooted in the common soil of blues-based jazz.  A good case in point are the Free Jazz Classics, vol 1-4.  Even the title of that series of live recordings is challenging.  Free jazz conjures up a picture of musicians spontaneously conversing without the encumbrance of either a plan or a melody.  What exactly could a "free jazz classic" possibly mean?  The answer, of course, is that just because the original piece (say, by Ornette Coleman or Anthony Braxton) was free doesn't mean that it didn't produce both a plan and a melody that could be executed again.  So is the repeat version really free itself?  That is a bit beyond my grasp of musical metaphysics.  

I will only say that the Free Jazz Classics is a smashing collection of jazz performances.  I am playing 'The Earth/Jerry/The Moon' and 'C.M.E./G Song' from vol. 2.  The former is a Frank Wright composition, from Wright's album The Earth.  The latter is a Julius Hemphill piece.  Here is the lineup:

• Bass – Kent Kessler
• Drums – Tim Mulvenna
• Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone – Dave Rempis
• Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet [B♭], Bass Clarinet – Ken Vandermark
• Trombone – Jeb Bishop

I am also playing 'The Earth' from the Frank Wright Trio album of that name.  Here is the trio:

• Frank Wright (ts)
• Henry Grimes (b)
• Tom Price (d)

Wright's horn here sounds a lot like Albert Ayler (though it is rather more coherent than was Ayler's style).   It is an interesting study to compare the Vandermark version with Wright's original.  Both are well worth your dime. 
 

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. 

The Energy & Ecstasy of Tim Berne

Tim Berne's great double album, The Sublime and Science Fiction Live, is one of those pieces of music that sat on my iPod for a long time before I managed to listen to all of it.  I just couldn't quite hear it.  Mr. Berne ought not to consider that an insult.  The same thing happened when I first listened to Brahms' First Piano Concerto, a piece of music I later came to deeply love. 

I am not calling Berne Brahms just yet, but there is definitely a modern classical element to his compositions.  A lot of his music earns the Science Friction title, as if a bebop box set had been captured and dissected by an extra-terrestrial quartet.  Okay, but there's power in that there saucer. 

I have been playing 'The Shell Game' from the above named recording, and right now it is sporting a five star approval.  Here is the lineup from Discogs:

• Drums – Tom Rainey
• Guitar [Electric] – Marc Ducret
• Piano [Rhodes], Computer [Laptop], Organ [Virtual] – Craig Taborn
• Saxophone [Alto] – Tim Berne

I shelled out for another Berne Album, The Shell Game. Amazon is only charging about four bucks for it.  I note that Matthew Ship is listed as a producer.  Here is the trio:

• Berne on alto, 
• Craig Taborn on keyboards and sci-fi, and 
• Tom Rainey on drums.  

Wow do I like that number.  Like a lot of Berne's music, it reminds me of Ken Vandermark and especially of the DKV Trio recordings.  It is avant garde in structure, a linear melody line that never quite closes.  But it builds in emotional intensity the way the best DKV compositions do: contradicting the commonplace that what goes up must come down.  This album is superb.  Buy it.  I did. 

Jason Crane has an interview with Tim Berne on his marvelous podcast show The Jazz Session.  I haven't listened to it yet, but that's on the agenda for this weekend.  I find myself enjoying an embarrassment of riches where jazz is concerned.  Check out Jason's page.  Tell'im Blanchard sent ya.