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Fred Anderson
In the early 1960's, Fred came in contact with more and more members of the soon-to-be-formed AACM. In 1964, he performed on what many to consider to be the first AACM concert which featured Fred, Billy Brimfield (trumpet), Joseph Jarman (woodwinds), Arth ur Reed (drums), Charles Clark (bass). The first formal meetings of the AACM occured in mid-year of 1965, and Fred was an early member. Fred recalls, "I was at one of the earlier meetings. I think it was the first or second meeting. We sat down and talked about it. They drew up this charter, a not-for-profit charter, a nonprofit chater. That's how it began. Muha l already had that Experimental Band. The idea was to be able to approach the music in a different way, to write your own music".
Through his years of performing, Fred has participated in, and lead many unique and creative ensembles. In the 1970's Fred Anderson's collective featured some of the stellar musicians working in music including: George Lewis (trombone), Douglas Ewart (woodwinds), Hamid Drake (percussion), Adegoke Steve Colson (piano), Felix Blackmon (bass), Iqua Colson (vocal). Thinking back on this period, Fred remembers, "-it wasn't like I was telling them. We were doing it together. They were inspiration to me and maybe I inspired them..... I just thought about us all playing together. I didn't think about me being a teacher..... Everyth ing was done on the bandstand."
Today, Fred Anderson continues to perform, compose and tour playing his individual style of music.
Anderson plays a powerful tenor saxophone, blowing quick scales in a distinctive, forward-bent posture. In 1983, Fred Anderson founded the Velvet Lounge in Chicago. This jazz and improvised music venue was a showcase for AACM musicians and improvised music enthusiasts for years until its recent closing. The club is being expanded and relocated in the summer of 2006, and will reopen a block from the original location in July of 2006.
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Ain't Nothin' in Chicago for a Monkey Bastard to Do
by Patrick Burnette
Mike is from the Chicago-land area, Pat spent his salad days in Hyde Park--maybe the bastards are a bit biased, but they love talking about the Windy City. It doesn't hurt that it has a long, noble, somewhat left-of-center history concerning jazz. Anyway, this time they explore the work of a couple of tenor titans, little-known outside of the Midwest, along with an out-jazz supergroup and a jazz vocalist who is very well-known indeed. Quick look-ins at Father John Misty's ...
read moreFred Anderson: On the Run
by Lazaro Vega
This interview was first published at All About Jazz in August 2002 and is part of our ongoing effort to archive pre-database material. The Roscoe Mitchell Quintet with special guest Fred Anderson played a successful benefit concert for Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp at the Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The quintet's performance, with Mitchell on sopranino and alto saxophones plus the C flute, Fred Anderson tenor saxophone, Craig Taborn, piano, Harrison Bankhead, bass, and Vincent Davis, ...
read moreThe Velvet Lounge: On Late Chicago Jazz
by David A. Orthmann
The Velvet Lounge: On Late Chicago Jazz Gerald Majer 224 pages ISBN: #023113682X Columbia University Press 2005 Three men sit around a table in a restaurant that--for one night a week--masquerades as a jazz club. The dinner plates have been cleared, and we're waiting to settle the check. On the other side of a divider, the musicians are getting ready for the night's opening set. The service is slow so there's time ...
read moreFred Anderson: In Loving Memory....
by Lloyd N. Peterson Jr.
I had the opportunity to interview with Fred Anderson on several occasions. In each instance I walked away with the feeling that I was a better person for the time I spent with him. It was his wisdom, his generosity of spirit, his knowingness that our time here on this planet was short at best, and his humble appreciation to have been able to play music during this lifetime.He had a gentle soul that was much larger than ...
read moreFred Anderson: 1929-2010
by Kurt Gottschalk
There aren't many artists with so singular a vision as that of late Fred Anderson, who died June 24 at the age of 81. There are fewer to be certain if the list is restricted to members of that exalted and nebulous class called “masters." It's a word that, in jazz, gets thrown around a little too casually. A master composer might excel at writing for string quartet as well as symphony. A master musician might be fluent in a ...
read moreFred Anderson: Black Horn Long Gone
by Francis Lo Kee
Fred Anderson is one of today's most powerful and singular saxophonists. Recorded in 1993, this trio (with bassist Malachi Favors and drummer Ajaramu--aka AJ Shelton--who have both since passed away) flies blissfully to new heights for piano-less sax trios. To call Anderson a member of the free jazz movement produces an incomplete picture. His technical facility and penchant for swinging is more influenced by Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Charlie Parker. Even an unaccompanied solo homage, “Ode To Clifford Jordan," ...
read moreFred Anderson: Birthday Live 2000 and 21st Century Chase
by Jeff Stockton
Fred Anderson Trio Birthday Live 2000 Asian Improv 2009 Fred Anderson 21st Century Chase Delmark 2009
Of all the players who have come through Fred Anderson's training ground in Chicago, none has been more closely identified with him than drummer Hamid Drake. But as demand for Drake's services has ...
read moreFarewell, Fred
Source:
Master of a Small House
A previous post harboring hope now has as a sobering finality to it... Fred Anderson is gone. Details are widely available regarding the particulars of his passing so I won't dwell on them here. Despite best laid plans, I wasn't able to immerse myself in Fred's recorded work to the degree that I had planned. That disparity between intent and outcome got me thinking about cause and effect relationships and more specifically the death of a musician signaling a flurry ...
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For Fred Anderson: A Remembrance of the Late Jazz Saxophonist
Source:
All About Jazz @ Spinner
Saxophonist Fred Anderson passed away Thursday, June 24, leaving a hole in the Chicago and international avant-garde jazz scenes that will never be truly filled. The cause of death has not been given, but Anderson had suffered a heart attack on June 14 while in the hospital with complaints of stomach pains. He was 81. I first came across Anderson's music in 1997 when saxophonist Ken Vandermark hipped me to his stuff. One of the first things ...
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Fred Anderson Funeral / Wake / Memorial / Going Home Services Info - Velvet Lounge Founder and Chicago "Free Jazz" Tenorist Will Be Missed
Source:
JAZZzology by Richard Watters
A great Jazzman and founder of The Velvet Lounge jazz club located in Chicago, Illinois, Fred Anderson, passed away Thursday June 24th, 2010... according to his sons Eugene and Michael Anderson... Fred had suffered a massive heart attack on June 14th... checkout Howard Reich's Chicago Tribune article here on Fred Anderson and his legacy and impact on the world of Jazz. Also, refer to the latest article on Fred authored by The New York Times, here. The Kurt Gottshalk article ...
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Fred Anderson, 1929-2010
Source:
Something Else!
By PicoFred Anderson, a forward thinking tenor saxophonist for more than six decades and a major force in Chicago's vital jazz scene, died Thursday following a heart attack. He was 81 years old. What I've found so remarkable about Anderson isn't so much that he lived so long, but that he lived so fully right up to the end of his life. At his age he was regularly playing gigs, like at his now-legendary Velvet Lounge, ...
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Fred Anderson, Saxophonist and Club Owner, Dies at 81
Source:
Michael Ricci
Fred Anderson, a tenor saxophonist who tied the bebop innovations of Charlie Parker to the explorations of later avant-garde musicians and who owned the Velvet Lounge, a South Side Chicago club known for fostering the careers of emerging players, died on Thursday. He was 81. The Associated Press and The Chicago Tribune reported that Mr. Anderson's sons, Michael and Eugene, confirmed the death but declined to give a cause. Mr. Anderson was admitted to a hospital in Evanston, Ill., on ...
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Fred Anderson Dies Age 81: Velvet Lounge Founder and Chicago "Free Jazz" Tenorist Will Be Missed
Source:
JAZZzology by Richard Watters
A great Jazzman and founder of The Velvet Lounge jazz club located in Chicago, Illinois, Fred Anderson, passed away Thursday June 24th, 2010...according to his sons Eugene and Michael Anderson... Fred had suffered a massive heart attack on June 14th...checkout Howard Reich's Chicago Tribune article here on Fred Anderson and his legacy and impact on the world of Jazz . Fred's Wikipedia profile is also available here. If you so desire, You can leave comments here at the on-line obituary ...
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Fred Anderson, R.I.P.
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Fred Anderson, who exemplified the Chicago avant garde as a tenor saxophonist and as a club owner gave it work, has died at 81. The Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich followed Anderson's career. He writes in the newspaper:
His was a rigorous, demanding brand of jazz improvisation that bridged the bebop idiom of Charlie Parker (an Anderson hero) with the “free jazz" experiments of the 1960s and thereafter. The fast-flying phrases and blues-driven energy of bebop converged with the non-chordal, anything-goes ...read more
RIP Fred Anderson
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
Howard Reich has the details on the passing of Fred Anderson following a heart attack earlier in the month. I'm not particularly familiar with Mr. Anderson's work but I understand his leadership role in Chicago, a city that is laudably proud of its contributions. One thing I noticed in the article was the role of Dan Melnick as a volunteer at Mr. Anderson's home, the Velvet Lounge.I wondered where Dan went after he suspended posting at Soundslope and ...
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We Will Miss You Dearly, Mr. Fred Anderson
Source:
Michael Ricci
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Chicago's beloved Fred Anderson. Words cannot express what he meant to the music world, and specifically the Chicago creative jazz community. Please go out and support Chicago's Velvet Lounge--Fred Anderson's home for Chicago Jazz! Thank you for your kindness and generosity.
Kevin Johnson Delmark Records From Kurt Gottschalk, All About Jazz Fred Anderson: 1929-2010
There aren't many artists with so singular a ...
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Fred Anderson - 21st Century Chase (2009) (CD/DVD)
Source:
Something Else!
By Pico Birthday parties are almost always such fun events and nowadays, they all get captured on video. When someone marks their eightieth birthday, that's a real cause for celebration. And when the birthday boy celebrates it by ripping it up making some great music, that's just icing on the birthday cake. Delmark Records, a Chicago institution as the town's leading documenter of its pride and joy jazz and blues artists, shot some footage of Fred Anderson's 80th ...
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Fred Anderson
Instrument: Saxophone
Born: March 22, 1929
Died: June 24, 2010
