Fred Anderson

[sal]

I am very surprised in not having found a thread about this new release, considering how well liked and respected Fred is on this board. This new release is a double disc live set of 4 extended improvisations from a show on the East Coast. The rhythm section of William Parker and Hamid Drake is agruably the best around right now, and they sound great behind Fred.

It is a VERY heady listen, and it requires alot of attention to details in order to fully appreciate it, but after only two listens its become one of my favorite releases of the year. Fred is my favorite living tenor sax player, and his endless reservior of creativity really shines in this music. For those of you unfortunate souls who have never had your brains blown by Fred Anderson in person, this is as good as it gets!

Anyone else have any thoughts?

[jazzbo]

I've been listening to this on and off for a month or so, never really being able to give it full attention all the times it's spinning unfortunately.

I like it a lot. I'm NOT a Drake fan for some reason, he really just doesn't appeal to me, and this date hasn't converted me, but I really like what Anderson does here and to an extent Parker's contributions. Quite nice sound too. I don't have much Anderson in my collection, this is the one I've liked the most of what I've heard.

[sal]

Still no love for this excellent release??

[John B]

This disc has been discussed in the Funny Rat thread and in the Fred Anderson thread.

I love this album. Hamid Drake is phenomenal and really works well with Fred, having played with him for 30 years or so.

I was at this concert (at Johnson State College in VT) and, while the album does not quite live up to my memory of the show, it is still one of my favorite new releases in recent memory.