Dec 28 2008
Some Fred Anderson for your Sunday
As you may know by now, I am a big fan of the Velvet Lounge jazz club here in Chicago. My brother is the first person to mention it to me. There’s this very non-descript jazz club, he told me, that you would probably drive right past if you weren’t aware of it or looking for it. When you get inside, he said, it’s small and smoky and there’s a stage at one end of the club and that’s where the band plays. It’s just what you imagine when you think of jazz clubs.
The cool thing about it, beyond the fact that it’s just set up in a cool way that you might think a jazz club would be set up, is that it’s proprietor is a jazz legend. His name is Fred Anderson and he plays the tenor sax. He was born in 1929 in the state of Louisiana but now resides in Chicago and has been in Chicago for a very long time. He is now a staple in the jazz music scene here in Chicago since his early years. His family actually moved to the northern suburb of Evanston in the 1940s and he’s been here ever since.
Maybe his name isn’t as well known as other famous saxophonists like Charlie Parker or John Coltrane, but perhaps it should. Maybe it has to do with the fact that he stayed and settled here in Chicago. That would be too bad. He deserves his recognition.
The Velvet Lounge was actually already in existence when Fred took over ownership in 1983. He has been running it ever since and it’s still the best place to catch him and the musicians who like to play with him. If you look at the schedule for the Velvet Lounge on their website, you can see times whe he and his trio or some other band will be playing.
So, just to give you a bit of Fred and his playing, I dug around on YouTube and found this performace of the Fred Anderson Trio. Enjoy.
