Kevin Johnson
Delmark Records
From Kurt Gottschalk, All About Jazz
Fred Anderson: 1929-2010
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 variety of instruments. But a mastery like Anderson's is harder to quantify.
From Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
It may be impossible to fully measure saxophonist Fred Anderson's impact on music in Chicago--and around the world.As tenor saxophonist, he invented a rugged, craggy musical language that influenced generations of “free jazz" improvisers.
As clubowner, he helped launch the careers of hundreds of players, among them the brilliant flutist Nicole Mitchell, the explosive percussionist Hamid Drake, the ascending trumpeters Corey Wilkes and Maurice Brown, the leonine saxophonist Edward Wilkerson, Jr. and the magisterial bassist Tatsu Aoki.
And as jazz advocate, Anderson co-founded an organization the revolutionized jazz in the 1960s, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). As such, Anderson long ago emerged as a fire-breathing symbol of everything new, progressive and daring in Chicago jazz. He had suffered a heart attack on June 14.
Anderson, a virtuoso tenorist who owned and operated the Velvet Lounge at 67 E. Cermak Rd., died Thursday, June 24, at age 81, said his sons Eugene and Michael Anderson.
