Blue Winter

Last updated
Blue Winter
Blue winter cover.jpeg
Live album by
Released2005
RecordedDecember 12, 2004
VenueDibden Center for Arts, Johnson State College, Johnson, Vermont
Genre Jazz
Length109:26
Label Eremite
Producer Michael Ehlers
Fred Anderson chronology
Back Together Again
(2004)
Blue Winter
(2005)
Timeless, Live at the Velvet Lounge
(2006)

Blue Winter is a double album by American jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson, which was recorded live at Vermont's Johnson State College in 2004 and released on Eremite, a label founded by producer Michael Ehlers. The set features four long improvisations by a trio with bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake. While the three have worked together before, in quartet with Kidd Jordan on the album 2 Days in April , this is their first trio recording. [1]

Contents

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]

The All About Jazz by Kurt Gottschalk states "Blue Winter is pure Anderson —with the best rhythm section in the land to be sure— and an indispensable selection of energy improv." [3]

In an article for the Chicago Tribune , Howard Reich ranked the album as number 2 jazz record of 2005 and notes that "Anderson rarely has been more faithfully recorded, the often leathery quality of his midrange, the acidity of his high notes and the barreling quality of his nethermost pitches captured more vividly than ever before." [4]

Track listing

All compositions by Anderson / Drake / Parker
  1. "I" - 44:16
  2. "II" - 37:59
  3. "III" - 13:08
  4. "IV" - 14:03

Personnel

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Parker (musician)</span> American jazz musician

William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist. Beginning in the 1980s, Parker played with Cecil Taylor for over a decade, and he has led the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra since 1981. The Village Voice named him "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time" and DownBeat has called him "one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz".

<i>Man in the Air</i> 2003 studio album by Kurt Elling

Man in the Air is the sixth album by jazz vocalist Kurt Elling, recorded and released in 2003 by Blue Note Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamid Drake</span> American jazz drummer and percussionist (born 1955)

Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist.

<i>Vintage Duets</i> 1994 studio album by Fred Anderson

Vintage Duets is an album by American jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson with drummer Steve McCall.

<i>Birdhouse</i> (album) 1996 studio album by Fred Anderson

Birdhouse is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson, released in 1996 on Okka Disk.

<i>Destiny</i> (Marilyn Crispell album) 1995 live album by Marilyn Crispell, Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake

Destiny is an album by American jazz pianist Marilyn Crispell with saxophonist Fred Anderson and drummer Hamid Drake recorded in the 1994 "Women of the New Jazz" festival at Chicago’s HotHouse and released on Okka Disk.

<i>Fred Anderson / DKV Trio</i> 1997 studio album by Fred Anderson

Fred Anderson / DKV Trio is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson with the DKV Trio, composed of drummer Hamid Drake, bassist Kent Kessler and reedist Ken Vandermark. The album was recorded in 1996 and released on Okka Disk. The DKV Trio formed in the summer of 1994 and started performing at Anderson's Velvet Lounge very early in their career. Those meetings led to the idea of doing a record with Fred. "Black Woman", a classic Anderson composition that appears on several of his other recordings, is a tenor sax duet.

<i>The Missing Link</i> (Fred Anderson album) 1984 studio album by Fred Anderson

The Missing Link is an album by American jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson, recorded in 1979 but not issued until 1984 by Nessa Records.

<i>Live in Wels & Chicago, 1998</i> 1999 live album by DKV Trio

Live in Wels & Chicago, 1998 is a double album by the DKV Trio, composed of drummer Hamid Drake, bassist Kent Kessler and reedist Ken Vandermark. The first CD was recorded live at the "Music Unlimited 98" Festival in Wels, while the second was recorded a few days later at the Velvet Lounge, the Chicago club owned by saxophonist Fred Anderson. The album was released on Okka Disk. All the music is improvised but the first disc is a six pieces suite based on Don Cherry's "Complete Communion'".

<i>Back Together Again</i> 2004 studio album by Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake

Back Together Again is an album by American jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson with drummer Hamid Drake, which was recorded in 2003 and released on the Thrill Jockey label. They played together for more than 30 years, but this was their first duo recording. A bonus CD-ROM includes footage of three of the tunes along with interviews in which Anderson and Drake dissect the process of how the songs evolve and the different styles and approaches the two use.

<i>2 Days in April</i> 2000 live album by Fred Anderson

2 Days in April is a double album by a free jazz quartet consisting of saxophonists Fred Anderson and Kidd Jordan, bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake, documenting two 1999 concerts at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge. It was released on Eremite, a label founded by producer Michael Ehlers. Anderson and Jordan first meeting was at a mid-80s AACM concert in Chicago, but this is their first recording together.

<i>New World Pygmies</i> 1999 live album by Jemeel Moondoc & William Parker

New World Pygmies is an album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc and bassist William Parker, which was recorded live at the Fire in the Valley Festival in 1998 and released on the Eremite label. It was Moondoc's first recorded encounter with Parker since Nostalgia in Times Square. "Another Angel Goes Home" is a tribute to drummer Denis Charles.

<i>Live at Glenn Miller Café Vol 1</i> 2002 live album by Jemeel Moondoc

Live at Glenn Miller Café Vol 1 is an album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, which was recorded in Stockholm and released on Ayler Records, a Swedish label founded by Jan Ström and Åke Bjurhamn. Moondoc leads a trio with bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake. The rhythm section had recorded the studio album ...and William Danced a few hours earlier with local saxophonist Anders Gahnold.

<i>New World Pygmies vol. 2</i> 2002 live album by Jemeel Moondoc & William Parker

New World Pygmies vol. 2 is a double album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc and bassist William Parker, which was recorded live in 2000 and released on the Eremite label. The first disc documents a duo performance from Madison, while the second includes guest drummer Hamid Drake from a Chicago set at the Velvet Lounge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eremite Records</span> Record label

Eremite Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1995 by Michael Ehlers, with early involvement from music writer Byron Coley. Ehlers was a student of Archie Shepp's at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After college, he began producing concerts in the Amherst area, and Eremite evolved from those events. The label name came from an alternate title to the Thelonious Monk tune "Reflections": "Portrait of an Eremite". The label's logo, designed by Savage Pencil, is an image of a robed Joe McPhee playing soprano saxophone. Eremite organized a concert series in Western Massachusetts that ran through 2008 and produced roughly 100 concerts, including five Fire in the Valley festivals. From 1998–2018, Eremite managed a touring organization that arranged hundreds of concerts across North America for its artists.

<i>Companions</i> (album) 2002 live album by Raphe Malik

Companions is an album by American jazz trumpeter Raphe Malik, which was recorded live at the 1998 Vision Festival during a Jimmy Lyons tribute and released on the Eremite label. Malik leads a quartet with the members of the Trio Hurricane: tenor saxophonist Glenn Spearman, bassist William Parker and drummer Paul Murphy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Abrams (musician)</span> Musical artist

Joshua Abrams is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist who plays the double bass and guimbri.

<i>Never Too Late But Always Too Early</i> 2003 live album by Peter Brötzmann, William Parker, and Hamid Drake

Never Too Late But Always Too Early is a two-CD live album by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, bassist William Parker, and drummer Hamid Drake. It was recorded in April 2001 at Casa del Popolo in Montréal, and was released in 2003 by Eremite Records. The album is dedicated to Peter Kowald.

<i>The All-Star Game</i> (album) 2003 live album by Marshall Allen, Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, William Parker, Alan Silva

The All-Star Game is a live album by saxophonists Marshall Allen and Kidd Jordan, bassists William Parker and Alan Silva, and drummer Hamid Drake. It was recorded in December 2000 at the ICA Theater in Boston, and was released in 2003 by Eremite Records.

<i>From Valley to Valley</i> 1999 live album by Peter Brötzmann, Roy Campbell Jr., William Parker, and Hamid Drake

From Valley to Valley is a live album by the Die Like a Dog Quartet: saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, trumpeter Roy Campbell Jr., bassist William Parker, and drummer Hamid Drake. It was recorded in July 1998 at the Fire in the Valley festival held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Bezanson recital hall in Amherst, Massachusetts, and was released in 1999 by Eremite Records.

References

  1. Blue Winter at Eremite Records
  2. Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (9th ed.). London: Penguin. p. 37. ISBN   978-0-14-103401-0.
  3. Gottschalk, Kurt. Blue Winter review at All About Jazz
  4. Reich, Howard. A productive, remarkably original year at Chicago Tribune