Andy Anderson, New Orleans trumpeter

[jeffcrom]

Listening to George Lewis's Verve album Dr. Jazz earlier today got me thinking about Andy Anderson.

Trumpeter Andy Anderson (1905-1982) was one of those accomplished New Orleans musicians, respected by his peers, who has kind of fallen through the cracks; he has largely been forgotten since his death. But he sure sounded good on that George Lewis album.

Anderson was born in Mandeville, just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. He played with Oscar "Papa" Celestin's popular band during the second half of the 1930s- a period during which the Celestin band unfortunately didn't record. But in the late 1930s the New Orleans guitarist Frank Murray, who had a portable disc recorder, recorded casual sessions with friends as well as established bands. Thirteen of Murray's sides appeared on the American Music CD Prelude to the Revival Vol. 1. The CD has Kid Howard's first known recordings (from 1937), three duo sides of Anderson jamming with Murray, and more importantly, two sides by Anderson's regular group, the Pelican State Jazz Band. The Pelicans, as immortalized here, were a six-piece combo that played in a solid swing style. (There's no bassist listed on the CD, but there's definitely one present, although he's not well served by the recording.) One of the tunes is Anderson's "Chant of the Tuxedos," which is reprised on the Lewis Dr. Jazz album. Anderson's playing sounds very much like it does twenty years later with Lewis.

Brass band work was presumably important to Anderson; he's part of the trumpet section on the 1958 Atlantic album by the Young Tuxedo Brass Band. This is the "modern" trumpet section that upset the purists, although the second-liners seemed to have no problem with it. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he was a regular with the Olympia Brass Band, and recorded with them several times. And on least on occasion he replaced Lionel Ferbos in the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra for a recording session.

George Lewis's Dr. Jazz album and Blues From the Bayou from the same sessions, along with the Frank Murray acetates (amounting to sixteen minutes of music), are among the handful of sessions on which Anderson is prominently featured. There was another Verve George Lewis album, Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight, that was withdrawn for legal reasons after a few weeks. And Anderson played on an album by German trombonist Frank Naundorf which I haven't heard.

Andy Anderson's style reminds me of a little of Kid Howard's, but Anderson's playing is "cooler" and more lyrical. It's an extremely attractive New Orleans lead trumpet style. Anderson's playing won't change anyone's life, but it's a personal style; he doesn't sound quite like anyone else. Andy Anderson wasn't a genius, but he deserves to be remembered.

 

[jeffcrom]

Alex Bigard (drums), Ernest Robleau (banjo), Andy Anderson; 1963.