Fred Anderson

My list has been posted over at D:O, but to reiterate:

1 8 Bold Souls, Sideshow (Arabesque, 1992)
2 William Parker/In Order To Survive, The Peach Orchard (Aum Fidelity, 1998)
3 Greg Osby, Banned in New York (Blue Note, 1998)
4 Myra Melford Extended Ensemble, Even the Sounds Shine (hatHUT, 1995)
5 Douglas Ewart and Inventions Clarinet Choir, Angles of Entrance (Aarawak, 1990/1998)
6 Anderson/Crispell/Drake, Destiny (OkkaDisk, 1994)
7 Jon Jang, Two Flowers on a Stem (Soul Note, 1995)
8 Horace Tapscott, Thoughts of Dar Es Salaam (Arabesque, 1997)
9 Charles Gayle, Touchin’ on Trane (FMP, 1993)
10 Anderson/Kowald/Drake, Live at the Velvet Lounge (OkkaDisk, 1999)

FYI, these were not listed in any kind of order relating to quality. It was just how I happened to write them down.

Today I'm planning to write about two of the four of these discs that hail from the great windy city of Chicago. Namely the two Fred Anderson discs,  Anderson/Kowald/Drake, Live at the Velvet Lounge, and Anderson/Crispell/Drake, Destiny.

Yes, I gave 4 out of my top 10 albums to discs made in Chicago. I told you I was biased. However, it really does reflect my listening from the decade, because when I delved into the wealth of music coming out of this great city, I did so in depth, and as such my collection has a decidedly Midwestern slant.

The first record I want to touch on is the Fred Anderson, Marylin Crispell, Hamid Drake disc Destiny. This recording was initiated by Ms. Crispell, as she was scheduled to play a Women In Jazz festival here in Chicago and was asked who she might like to play with. She chose Fred Anderson, and Hamid Drake was the other logical co-conspirator given his long association with Mr. Anderson.

Fred Anderson is one of my favorite artists. To my ears, he is singular in the so-called avant-garde for his lack of extended technique. If you ask him about it, he'll tell you it's because he's actually a bit older than a lot of the other players associated with the genre, and he was really deep into Charlie Parker. So that's where he's coming from: he plays lines, melodies, wrapping them around and around, but never getting into the realm of squonks and squeals.

Fred has a huge sound. Enormous even. He's said that's due to his early practice regimen of playing outside in the parks, and learning to really project. It's a wonder he projects as well as he does, given his hunched over posture that would seem to constrict his diaphragm. Anyone who's felt the physicality of his sound in person can tell you that it doesn't seem to hamper him one bit.

I've listened to Fred mostly in settings without a guitar or piano to frame his improvisations harmonically, allowing for my imagination to fill in the blanks. Fred paints pictures with his lines and I would fill in some of the colors. I remember the first time I heard this recording, it was revelatory to hear a piano framing his improvisations. I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I liked it. Crispell obviously had enormous ears, figuratively of course, and was an empathetic improvisational partner to Fred. I've seen Fred perform with people for the first time before, and when he stops playing and allows Crispell and Drake to do their thing, I can see him standing off to the side of the stage, pensive, reflective, and with a grin on his face listening to her go.

This isn't the only recording of Fred Anderson with a harmonic instrument: Birdhouse features Jim Baker on piano, Chicago Chamber Music features Bradley Parker-Sparrow on a few tracks on piano, several recordings, including the recent From the River to the Ocean feature Jeff Parker on guitar, and with Irene Shweizer on one track on Portrait, as well as this year's trio recording, which I have yet to hear.

This CD has it all for my ears: energetic swirling improvisations, sensitive avant balladry, great solo, duo, and trio interactions, and a vitality that translates from the live performance to the disc.

The second of the two Fred Anderson discs that made their way onto my list is the 1998 Live At The Velvet Lounge, showcasing Fred in my favorite setting for his music: the trio. Here he's joined by Peter Kowald and Hamid Drake; elsewhere, he's had Tatsu Aoki, Harrison Bankhead, and William Parker as the link between him and Drake in the trio setting.

Fred, in a trio, at the Velvet Lounge is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of him. The two nights of music that became his recent Delmark disc Timeless were both incredible, and I count several of his performances in this format, at that venue, as my top listening concert experiences of my life.

This one consists of two long, 30 minute-ish improvisations that bookend a more restrained second track. Fred Anderson always manages to make music that captures my imagination, first and foremost. When I listen, I am transported, and he always brings me back down for a safe landing. His musical relationship with Hamid Drake can't be emphasized enough: they have an incredible level of comfort, while retaining the ability to challenge each other through their interplay.

I think both Destiny and the Live at the Velvet Lounge disc are out of print unfortunately. If you come across a used copy, grab it up.

More on the other two Chicago discs soon....

Apologies for the lack of activity around here lately. I've been quite busy with a number of projects, musical and scholarly, and there's been such great posts and reading amongst other blogs recently that I've been left with little left to say and plenty left to read. Throw in a little bout with some seasonal allergies and Soundslope's been left by the wayside.

Along with some fantastic reading, I've been taking the time to really listen to some music, as a primary active pursuit of sitting, absorbing, and reflecting. Most people understand that there is a difference between hearing and listening; hearing implies basic acknowledgment of auditory input, while listening connotes an active processing of the information encoded in that auditory signal. That there are degrees of listening is plainly obvious to anyone who has been ignored while speaking, or to any person who has tried to deeply listen to music or to another human being with a receptivity and stillness of mind that allows deep listening to occur. Thus, the degree of listening is more involved with the state of the mind of the listener than with the physical mechanisms of the ears, and one’s own disposition and mental framework determines the depth and extent to which one listens.  Listening intently is largely a matter of where attention is placed, and how well the individual is able to maintain that attention in a focused manner, allowing them to receive without distraction or mental interruption. In that spirit I've been trying to deepen my own listening practices, with improvised music as my source of study and inspiration.

I received a recording of the Art Ensemble of Chicago live in 1977in Germany with Fred Anderson sitting in. It's rare to hear Fred Anderson playing any music other than his own - his tone and style is so singular, and he really embodies the AACM ethos of playing original music. So its fun to hear Fred sit in with the venerable AEOC, his tone instantly identifiable amongst Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman's formidable contributions.

The only other recording I have of Fred playing someone else's music is a trio recording of him with Charlie Haden and Hamid Drake. I'm one of only two people who have the recording, as the person who gave it to me has the original tapes and isn't spreading it in hopes of it eventually finding its way to an official release. In any case, with Charlie's presence, Fred actually plays some Ornette tunes, which is really a treat, since Ornette and Ed Blackwell had such an influence on both Fred and Hamid Drake's playing.

Fred's such an interesting player amongst the so-called "avant-garde" because he doesn't do any overblowing or extended technique on his horn. He seems to draw from an endless well of musical ideas and flow, with the rhythmic element really playing a huge role in his approach and his sound. He has such a strong, powerful tone on his tenor, and I've read in an interview that he credits it to the fact that he used to practice outside in the park a lot, so he got used to projecting. It's even more amazing when you realize that Fred plays all hunched over - it's amazing that his diaphragm can still produce such a huge sound.

The AEOC show is a typical tour-de-force of musical exploration. Moye's drumming never fails to amaze me, and listening to the recording makes me wish Lester Bowie had collaborated with Fred Anderson in a more developed capacity during his all too brief life.

Other new listening has included a Charles Brackeen Quartet Silkheart recording from 1987 called Worshippers Come Nigh, featuring Mr. Brackeen on tenor, Olu Dara, on cornet, Fred Hopkins on bass, Andrew Cyrille on drums and percussion, and Dennis Gonzalez on "pao de chuva" on one track. It's already up on Behearer so I'll be adding some commentary there once I dig in a little bit further. Seeing this recording also makes me want to pick up this Dennis Gonzalez record.

I've also been delving back into the work of the overlooked Japanese-american pianist Glenn Horiuchi. My friend Tatsu Aoki first hipped me to Horiuchi and I've been hooked ever since. Horiuchi had an all too brief career, dying of cancer in 2000 at the age of 45. He was a good friend of Wadada Leo Smith's, who has a tribute page up for him. His playing incorporates so much and there's a lot to absorb listening to him.

In the housekeeping department, I'd like to welcome Harris Eisenstadt's Tie A Bow Not A Knot to the blogroll - he's in west Africa with Willow Williamson on a Meet the Composer Global Connections grant, and has some fantastic stories, and video footage about his travels there. Also recently added is the blog of trombonist Jeff Albert, a musician with Chicago ties who I haven't had the pleasure of checking out yet but will be sure to do in the future.