Jazz Articles about Fred Anderson

Fred Anderson: Back at the Velvet Lounge

by Rex Butters
January 8, 2004

At 74, Fred Anderson reasserts his royalty on the tenor saxophone with Back at the Velvet Lounge recorded live at Anderson's club. If anyone plays free-bop, it's Anderson. With Anderson, an athletic technique marries a fountain of melody. While Fred's more closely associated with the avant-garde, Johnny Griffin and Gene Ammons look over his shoulder now and then. His reluctance to tour may blunt his name brand recognition, but his influence over the last 40 years in Chicago reaches through ...

Fred Anderson: Back at the Velvet Lounge

by Derek Taylor
December 18, 2003

Certain musicians are dependable. Their very names on an album cover suggest an immediate indication of what's in store for the listener with near certainty. Sometimes, though, dependability can be detrimental. Occasionally a musician can fall into a rut of repetition, treading the same trails until once fertile soil becomes trampled and stale. Fred Anderson, one of the Windy City's most venerable and consistent jazz fixtures, isn't in this fix yet, but I fear he might be heading in that ...

Fred Anderson Finally Gets His Due: And His Records Back In Print

by Todd R. Brown
January 13, 2003

Next door to the Velvet Lounge in Chicago's Near South Side neighborhood is Fitzee's Bar-B-Que, a chicken joint whose counter sports a bullet-proof window separating the kitchen and dining room. Across the street is a recently constructed LaSalle Bank branch, complete with ritzy landscaping. Walking down the street on a recent Saturday night, you might not even notice that the club, which in 2002 celebrates its 20th anniversary, is open.

But inside the Velvet, about 70 patrons pay ...

Fred Anderson: On the Run: Live at the Velvet Lounge

by Derek Taylor
November 1, 2001

Delmark has some explaining to do. Why it’s taken them nearly four decades to record and release Fred Anderson’s debut for the label is a mystery crying out for clarification. Fred, also affectionately known as The Lone Prophet of the Prairie, was a dynamic cog in the bands the comprised Joseph Jarman’s dual efforts for the Delmark at the close of the Sixties. Both Song For and As If It Were the Seasons stand as early classics of the then ...

Fred Anderson: Dark Day + Live in Verona

by Derek Taylor
November 1, 2001

An absence of availability has long hounded Fred Anderson’s discography of the 1960s and 70s. Compared to the boon of discs that’s been a steady blessing since the early 90s, manna from the Chicago sax doyen’s early years has been frustratingly hard to come by. And up until recently The Missing Link on the Nessa label was the lone available entry as leader from this period of his career. Thankfully John Corbett’s Unheard Music Series pledged at its inception to ...

Fred Anderson/Robert Barry: Duets 2001

by Mark Corroto
July 1, 2001

The Fred Anderson love-fest continues, and I, for one, am pleased to be onboard. The seventy-something tenor saxophonist seems to get better and better with each release. A veteran of the Chicago jazz scene, and a founding member of the AACM, Anderson has played with everyone from Charlie Parker to Ken Vandermark. While early inspiration may have been Lester Young, he has taken the freedom principles of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane into his blues-inflected Chicago sound.

Anderson teams up ...

Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake, "Kidd" Jordan, and William Parker: 2 Days in April

by Micah Holmquist
August 1, 2000

2 Days in April is full of so many moments of joy and beauty that it is hard to know where to begin. As the title partially suggests, the quartet recorded this two disc set on April 1 and 2 of last year in concerts in Amherst and Cambridge, Massachusetts respectively. The two nights have slightly different tones with the Amherst show being a bit more chaotic than its groove oriented Cambridge counterpart. Eremite deserves props for releasing both shows ...