Featuring
- Fred Anderson - tenor saxophone
- Maurice Brown - trumpet
- Jeff Parker - guitar
- Harrison Bankhead - acoustic guitar, bass
- Tatsu Aoki - bass
- Chad Taylor - drums
Tracklisting
The Wire
"Grooves are swinging rather than free, and the saxophonist's rich, long-seasoned, woody tone is surprisingly reminiscent of Sonny Rollins."
JazzTimes
"Anderson still has a tenor saxophone sound of Old Testament proportions."
- Fougeux
- Olivia
- Job Market Blues
- Syene
- King Fish
Recorded live at the Velvet Lounge, Chicago, Illinois on November 18, 2002.
2003
DELMARK DG|549 /ASIN: B0000TO0FW
Buy from Asian Improv aRts Midwest / aStore
Album Description, Editorial Review
Scott Hreha, One Final Note
It's not much of a secret anymore that Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge is one of the premier venues in the Windy City (and quite possibly the world) for live performances of forward-thinking jazz. Whether offering up the stage for rare engagements from local heroes, even rarer collaborations that result from the Europe-Chicago connection fomented by John Corbett and Ken Vandermark, or weekly come-as-you-are jam sessions, Anderson can pretty safely guarantee that any time passed within the club's retro-papered walls is well spent. But it's also served Anderson well on a personal level; thanks to the persistent efforts of his right-hand man and sound documentarian Clarence Bright, several sets of the saxophonist's music have been made available for public consumption.
Back At The Velvet Lounge is the second of such releases on
the Delmark label (others have preceded on Asian Improv and Okka Disk),
capturing yet another typical evening of gritty freebop at the Velvet.
Anderson's pick-up band largely consists of the usual suspects—drummer
Chad Taylor, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassists Tatsu Aoki and Harrison
Bankhead—with the exception of young trumpeter Maurice Brown.
Brown's presence proves to be the wildcard that brings this session
a notch below Anderson's customarily high standards, as he often appears
to struggle with the saxophonist's harmonic concepts and improvised
transitions. That's not to say that he doesn't have his share of bright
moments on the three tracks that feature his playing (especially his
torrential runs on "Fougeux", which had me initially thinking he could
be a foil for Anderson on the level of Bill Brimfield), but his frequently
fumbled handoffs and discrepant harmonies account for some definitely
awkward moments over the course of the disc.
The rest of the group performs admirably despite these difficulties,
although there are several moments when they seem to have trouble
gelling as well. Figuratively speaking, the stage doesn't seem to
be large enough for Bankhead and Aoki on the one piece that features
them together on bass ("Olivia"), but that could be a consequence
of a mix that heavily favors Aoki. They fare far better in tandem
when Bankhead switches to acoustic guitar for the disc's high point,
"Job Market Blues"—a moody vamp-oriented blues that finds Bankhead
and Parker hanging layers of filigreed chords over Anderson's viscous
tenor ruminations. Of everyone though, it's Taylor that proves to
be the most sensitive to the band's efforts, as evidenced on the final
track "King Fish"; he pulls the quartet out of (or, better said, into)
its preliminary funk, then (presumably having noticed the trumpeter's
difficulty with the previous piece's less frenetic pace) abruptly
switches to a swinging jaunt when Brown steps to the forefront.
Anderson is quoted in the liner notes as not ruminating over his performances
after the fact—and even a session as inconsistent as this one
shows he has no reason to, considering that his own playing is as
rock-solid as ever. But taking into account the loose, jam-session
feel that prevails throughout, Back At The Velvet Lounge is
one probably best left for the completists—particularly when
weighed in comparison to the saxophonist's other recorded masterworks.
Similar Albums
You may also be interested in the following albums:
FRED
Chicago Chamber Music (97)
On The Run
Fred Anderson (01)
Fred Anderson Quartet Vol 2 (00)
Fred Anderson Quartet Vol 1 (99)
Back to Tatsu's Discography
