Hearing the Unheard Music

by Bob Pomeroy

I met Fred Anderson the last time I was in Chicago. My friend took me to the Velvet Lounge on the city’s rapidly gentrifying near South side. The Velvet Lounge sits across the street from where Geraldo Rivera once searched for recyclables in what he through was Al Capone’s vault. Al Capone’s vault and the hotel that housed it are gone (replaced by a bank parking lot) but the Velvet Lounge remains.

Fred Anderson runs the Velvet Lounge. When I met him, he was taking money at the door. Only later did I learn that Fred Anderson is one of the best kept secrets of the Chicago jazz scene. Anderson has been playing since the mid-60’s. He was a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM), which was one of the most important institutions in creative jazz in the 60’s and 70’s. His first recording was on Joseph Jarman’s “Song For” album in 1966 and he didn’t record as a leader until the 70’s. While other AACM members like the Arts Ensemble of Chicago and Muhall Richard

Abrams left Chicago and found fame (relatively speaking), Anderson remained virtually unknown outside of Chicago. He recorded very few records, but he never stopped creating.

Atavistic is helping fill in Fred Anderson’s back catalog with the release of “The Milwaukee Tapes.” The CD is the first installment from a cache of live recordings Anderson made over the years. This disc comes from a 1980 gig in Milwaukee, and features a young Hamid Drake. “A Ballad for Rita” opens the set with what really sounds like a duet between the older reed player and the then-teenage drummer. Larry Hayrod’s bass is in the mix, but the dynamics are between Anderson’s long melodic lines and Drake’s sharp accents. Hearing the chemistry between these players, it’s not surprising that the collaboration continues to this day. The strong melodic sense of “The Bull” and “Black Woman” (along with Drake’s Ed Blackwell inspired drumming) makes me think of Ornette Coleman’s quartet with Don Cherry. Anderson and company take things in a much different direction, with more emphasis on individual soloing. Trumpeter Billy Brimfield makes a good foil for Anderson.

Hamid Drake’s composition, Bombay (Children of Cambodia) almost sounds like an early sketch of “Aziz” which appeared on the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Octet/Tenetet disc eighteen years later. When I actually checked the discs, I realized that “Aziz” is actually a Michael Zerang composition. The similarity lies in a melodic bass riff which provides a foundation for the soloists. Maybe there was some influence, since Hamid plays on both records. The only reason I point this out is because I really like both songs.

In recent years, Fred Anderson’s music has begun to be heard by a wider audience. In recent months he has released discs on Erimite (also with Hamid Drake) and Asian Improv. It’s been a long time coming, but Fred Anderson is finally getting his due.

“The Milwaukee Tapes” is only one of the gems unearthed by Atavistic’s Unheard Music series. Musician and scholar John Corbett oversees the Unheard Music releases, searching out great recordings that should have been heard long ago (like Fred Anderson) and gems that have gone out of print. In the latter category is a monumental work by Peter Brotzmann: Nipples.

“Nipples” is one of those landmark releases that been heard about more than heard. In 1969, For years this record was extremely hard to find, and if you did find it, you’d pay a premium price. “Nipples” was Peter Brotzmann’s third album which shows compositional complexity taking precedence over the bone pulverizing intensity of his debut: Machine Gun. For the title track, Brotzmann assembled a sextet that featured Englishmen Evan Parker on sax and Derek Bailey on guitar along with Han Bennink on drums, Fred Van Hove on piano and Buschi Niebergal on bass. It’s fascinating to listen to “Nipples,” knowing what each of these players would go on to do. The range of dynamics in this 17 minute piece is astounding. The group works through an array of textures from howling sax barrages, to splintery electric guitar figures to pianistic plate tectonics. It’s almost a preview of the next thirty years of free improvised music.

A week after the “Nipples” session, the same players (without Parker and Bailey) got together to record “Tell A Green Man.” What’s wonderful about this piece is the spaciousness of the sound. The parts are intense, but each player can be clearly heard and appreciated. Like Fred Anderson, Peter Brotzmann remains active with his powers undiminished. His latest project with the Tentet is Stone/Water which recently came out on Okka Disk.

Check out <a href=http://www.atavistic.com>www.atavistic.com</a> to learn about other reissues in the Unheard Music series (not to mention the label’s new releases).