FRED ANDERSON
(OKKA DISK)
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When he hit the scene in the early 60s, Anderson’s restless, probing creativity led him to forge long-running associations with musicians who would later form the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). An Anderson-led group consisting of saxophonist Joseph Jarman–best known for his work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago–trumpeter Billy Brimfield, the late bassist Curtis Clark, and New Orleans drummer Arthur Reed was ostensibly the first AACM group. Anderson’s earliest recording is on Jarman’s crucial album, 1967’s Song For (Delmark), which opens with Anderson’s composition “Little Fox Run,” a languid yet invigorating chunk of raucous free-ish blowing. As the Art Ensemble coalesced and other AACM groups pursued an increasingly holistic musical approach, voraciously bringing in all sorts of nonjazz sources, Anderson chose to streamline his playing. He delivered lengthy linear improvisations with his huge, sinewy, brawny tone, appropriating hard-bop vocabulary in a style that resembled the freest playing of Sonny Rollins. A chapter on Anderson in John Corbett’s book Extended Play describes the saxophonist soaking up hard-bop sounds and practicing throughout the 50s in thoughtful preparation: “I had a lot of respect for the music and I was determined to see what was going on, sit back, listen, and sort out the things that I thought were important to play.”
Throughout the 70s Anderson continued gigging around town, wisely expecting no remuneration from his music; again from Corbett’s book: “I’m so busy out here just tryin’ to survive, you know? Keep the bread coming, keep my health going, pay the rent. I never really think about the lights.” Anderson’s wealth of knowledge and experience attracted younger musicians like trombonist George Lewis, reedman Douglas Ewart, and drummer Hamid Drake, whose stints in Anderson’s group were more like an education than a steady gig. In the late 70s he opened a near-north bar called the Birdhouse; he replaced it in 1982 with a south-side haunt, the Velvet Lounge, where he still holds his legendary biweekly jam sessions.
