Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Clifton Anderson: Landmarks

204

Clifton Anderson: Landmarks

Clifton Anderson: Landmarks
After a dozen years playing in his uncle's band, 40-year-old trombonist Clifton Anderson steps out of the Sonny Rollins group for Landmarks , his Milestone debut. This is a nice, polished mainstream set which mixes some bop and ballads with a couple standards and (surprise, surprise) a fun calypso. Anderson has an all-star lineup, with Monty Alexander, who's excellent on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, Al Foster on drums and solid guest spots for Wallace Roney on trumpet ("Princess Neh Neh"), Victor See Yuen's percussion ("I Thought It Was Understood") and Kenny Garrett on alto ("Mommy"). If the presence of Roney, Garrett and Foster suggest a Miles Davis kind of thing, then we're clearly talking about the trumpet legend's Prestige dates from the mid-1950s (one of which even featured Rollins).

Anderson is an accomplished player who has the warm, swinging and flexible burnish of that other famous '50s bopper, Curtis Fuller. He's even willing to flirt with his own individuality occasionally, as he does in the beautiful and appropriately romantic "My One And Only Love," where he makes his trombone sound like a purring French horn.



He's also a writer of exceptionally well-crafted bop. "P. C. (From Whom All Blessings Flow)," "Mommy," "Landmarks Along the Way" and "Thanks" are all memorable, solid bop pieces that deserve additional interpretations elsewhere. Even on the slower songs, this group swings with earnest. It's not nearly as studied or reverential as is so much of what today's neo-bop young lions keep churning out. There are some genuinely nice musical moments throughout Landmarks that make it worthy of repeated listens. There's nothing groundbreaking about Landmarks. But it's highly recommended for lovers of trad-bop (the kind Prestige and Savoy made in the 1950s) and Sonny Rollins listeners familiar with Clifton Anderson's capabilities. A fine and promising debut.

Personnel

Album information

Title: Landmarks | Year Released: 1997 | Record Label: Fantasy Jazz

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.