Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ANDERSON, Fred

(b 22 March 1929, Monroe LA; d 24 June 2010, Chicago) Tenor saxophone. He played with the piano as a small child; to Evanston IL age ten, he then took up saxophone influenced by Lester Young, Gene Ammons, and especially Charlie Parker, but went his own way, developing a 'metallic cocaine bebop' (J. B. Figi), but his tenor could sing with a majestic, rapt intensity. Encouraged by Von Freeman, another Chicagoan with a unique tone who never left town to seek his fortune, Anderson in turn employed young Chico Freeman in one of his groups. Then he heard Ornette Coleman: 'I didn't feel like I was alone, 'cause they were laughin' at him.'

Anderson was a founder member of the AACM '64, but it wasn't until the 1960s that he felt ready to make his own voice heard. He played on Joseph Jarman's Song For '67; made LP Accents '77 with Austrian pianist Dieter Glawischnigg on EMI; his own albums included the quintet Another Place '78 on Moers Music, with trombonist George Lewis, made live at Moers; quartet sets Dark Day '79 on the Australian Message label, made at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Missing Link '79 on Nessa (on CD '97). The first two included long-time Chicago collaborator Bill Brimfield on trumpet (d 9 October 2012, aged 74); all except Accents feature drummer Hamid Hank Drake (b 3 August 1955 in Monroe).

Meanwhile Anderson ran a tavern, practicing in the back room when business was slow; finally he emerged as a godfather of a thriving Chicago 'free' scene, with albums on Chicago's new Okka label: Vintage Duets '80 features percussionist Steve McCall; Destiny '94 was a live trio set from the Women of the New Music Festival in Chicago, with Drake and Marilyn Crispell; Birdhouse was a quartet with Drake, Harrison Bankhead on bass, Jim Baker on piano (and Drake played in a duo with Peter Brötzmann on The Dried Rat-Dog '94); Fred Anderson/DKV Trio '96 has Drake, Kent Kessler on bass, Ken Vandermark on second tenor sax (and bass clarinet on one track), Anderson's roots and Vandermark's more metallic sound complementing each other nicely. The rewarding two-CD Fred -- Chicago Chamber Music '96 on Southport has one trio disc with Tatsu Aoki on bass, Afifi Phillard on drums, the other mostly duo with Aoki, drummer Bradley Parker-Sparrow on two tracks.

The recordings continued as Anderson became a Chicago legend, his club the Velvet Lounge moving around the corner to East Cermak in 2006: by then it had become one of the headquarters of Chicago music, and countless benefits had rescued it from urban renewal. In 2012 it seemed to have suffered from the loss of the boss and from the Great Recession; on its website it looks like some sort of girly joint.