Jazz Giant’s Modest Ambition
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Anderson, who was born in Monroe, Louisiana, and at 12 moved to Chicago, began playing music seriously in the 50s, but spent most of the time developing his sound. He would see legends like Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, and Ornette Coleman and attend endless jam sessions, but he would only listen. “I respected them cats too much to play back then,” he says. “I would go listen to them and then I’d go home and practice. I didn’t play until I thought I was ready.” A cofounder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, he played the organization’s first concert in the early 60s, and he led a legendary band with Joseph Jarman, who went on to play in the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
But as groups like the AEC ascended, Anderson stayed home. “I never thought about being a star,” he says. “I just worked on making a living.” Anderson worked a series of day jobs–delivering room service, cleaning carpets–until 1979, when he left for a rare extended tour of Europe with trumpeter Billy Brimfield. Upon returning, he started working for a cousin who ran Tip’s Lounge on the south side. When Tip died in 1981 Anderson took over, and in January 1982 he reopened the bar as the Velvet Lounge.
After a year MIA, WBEZ will again broadcast the Chicago Jazz Festival, but longtime station DJ (and Reader contributor) Neil Tesser won’t be your host–a role he’s filled for the broadcasts since they first began 15 years ago. Tesser says his absence is involuntary, and that he has yet to receive an explanation from music director Chris Heim. He was asked to contribute prerecorded performer-biography segments to be scattered throughout the presentation, but he’d planned to spend the month of August working on a book project and had to turn down the request. Heim didn’t provide me with any genuine explanation either, apart from insisting that the broadcast has employed a number of different hosts over the years. She stressed the inclusion of a greater number of pretaped elements this year, and said, “Anchor positions are increasingly acting like a welcoming committee.” Of course, with the variety of cohosts, Tesser, who in essence designed the format of the broadcast, has always been the anchor. In his place this year we’ll hear Richard Steele, a commentator who isn’t part of the station’s music staff and tends to put his foot in his mouth when discussing jazz. Tesser can certainly match Steele in broadcasting ability, and he also knows the music inside and out. Tesser says he’s taking at least two months’ leave of absence from WBEZ, at the end of which he’ll reassess his future at the station.
