As a part of the ongoing work of The Creative Audio Archive at ESS, we present Archive Dive - a regular newsletter featuring unheard recordings and ephemera related to the collections housed in the CAA. Items shared here are In Copyright: Education Use Permitted. By clicking the private links below, you agree that you will not make public, copy, distribute, or otherwise put to use any of the recordings featured here without the written consent of ESS and/or the rights holder(s), except for educational purposes. For more information on the recordings and/or collections included below, please contact matt@ess.org or visit: http://www.creativeaudioarchive.org.

///

Fred Anderson, photo courtesy Andy Pierce

On what would have been his 93rd birthday, the Creative Audio Archive is ecstatic to announce the Fred Anderson Collection. Thanks to generous donations by longtime friend and Velvet Lounge associate Andy Pierce; Sharon Friedman, Fred's partner in his first club Birdhouse; and including a forthcoming donation of photographs from Lauren Deutsch - as well as, we hope, future donations from the experimental and jazz music communities of Chicago - the Fred Anderson Collection features rare unheard recordings going back to the 1970s, live performance videos from the '80s until well into the 2000s, hard to find documentaries on Fred, his collaborators, peers, and inspirations, and photographs and ephemera from throughout his extraordinary life in music.

In addition to their long history with Fred and his venues, Andy and Sharon are actively involved with Fred Anderson Park, the South Loop Chicago Parks District park named in Fred's honor, and the associated non-profit which programs concerts there each summer. At the park is a bronze marker that offers a succinct biography, for anyone here unfamiliar with Fred:

Saxophonist and composer Fred Anderson (1929 – 2010) was one of Chicago’s most creative, acclaimed, and beloved musicians. Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Anderson moved to Evanston, Illinois, as a child during the Great Migration. Later, he lived and worked in Chicago’s South Loop for three decades. Inspired by Charlie Parker’s music, Anderson developed his own unique method of playing jazz. As an original member of Chicago’s world-renowned Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, he performed in the first AACM concert in 1965. In 1979, he opened the Velvet Lounge, revered for its innovative music and diverse, loyal patronage. Generations of musicians and fans benefited from the inclusive spirit of his stage. While working other jobs to support his family and his art, Anderson released more than 30 recordings, performed for audiences around the world, and mentored countless young musicians. Fred Anderson always followed his motto of “patience, sincerity, and consistency.”

Bronze plaque at Fred Anderson Park, photo courtesy Andy Pierce

When first approached via email by Andy, who reached out initially with a small box of cassette recordings of Sharon's that they hoped to have digitized, I quickly began asking about the potential for a Fred Anderson Collection within the Creative Audio Archive. As a fan of both Fred's music and his legacy as a community minded musical force, whose Velvet Lounge represented the kind of home and space for exploration I consider incredibly important and uniquely Chicago - I thought this was an opportunity to find a long term home for Fred's work and legacy for researchers and the public interested in Chicago jazz and experimental music into the future.

Andy Pierce writes, about the collection:

Friends and fans of Fred have been talking since his transition in 2010 about finding a home for the recordings and ephemera we knew about in the hopes of attracting and finding all of the things we don't know about. The seeds of this collection are audio cassette tapes that Sharon Friedman, Fred's partner in his first club, Birdhouse, and VHS tapes of concerts that we found from a variety of years and venues. Luckily, some of those VHS tapes are excellent recordings made by Malachi Ritscher, and represent the first of his extensive video work that has been found and brought to ESS. Without the support of ESS, it is likely that these tapes would have stayed unheard in boxes in the bottom of closets and lost their viability to be played, digitized and archived. Fred cultivated great friendships across the planet and people were as generous in sharing with him photographs and recordings as he was with his time and his art. It is our hope that many, many recordings of Fred Anderson music from his six decades of playing will find their way back home here to Chicago. Additionally, we need flyers, handbills, photographs and art that he inspired to help tell the full, contextual story of Fred Anderson and his Velvet Lounge in Chicago.

The Velvet Lounge, photo courtesy of Andy Pierce

Fred and the Velvet loom heavy in the Chicago music community. Notably, a portrait of Fred sits atop the bar at Mike Reed's venue Constellation, and I reached out to Mike to ask what Fred meant to the scene:

If anyone epitomized the phrase, “walk softly and carry a big stick” it was Fred Anderson. As a man of quiet generosity, he roared as a powerful and adventurous musician onstage. Offstage he did the hard work of keeping the flame burning at his club the Velvet Lounge; the place that incubated so many of us.

Fred Anderson and Von Freeman at the Velvet Lounge, photo by Lauren Deutsch

Lauren Deutsch, photographer and cultural worker who for over 20 years was the Executive Director of the Jazz Institute of Chicago, expanded on Fred's legacy:

One of the original founders of the internationally acclaimed Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, saxophonist Fred Anderson mentored many who went on to international fame. He was one of Chicago’s most important musical and spiritual fathers. He never followed the easy path—breaking from the hegemony of bebop in the fifties to send his improvisations snaking along uncharted paths. He never followed anyone’s lead, creating his musical persona from a whole cloth. No compromising, no embroidery. Just pure fire. That’s why so many musicians and listeners flocked to hear him or play with him at his Velvet Lounge, a divey tavern with a tiny stage that offered a singular experience for emerging and established musicians to hone new concepts and build ensemble cohesion. He kept that stage open to everyone who wanted to prove their mettle--including those who played more standard fare--because he knew what the value of that tiny piece of real estate was to musicians following their own fire. The highly anticipated payoff for anyone stepping off that stage was a gruff word of encouragement and an invitation to return. Under Fred’s stewardship the Velvet Lounge was a haven and a laboratory and a spaceship; it provided a needed foundation of support and sustenance for Chicago’s jazz ecosystem, creating a whole legacy of musicians and other creatives who labor for the love of the music and the internal combustion it provides in nurturing their souls.

VHS Tape from the Fred Anderson Collection

We can't wait to share these materials, and look forward to your interests, questions, and requests - and today, we are sharing just a few introductory items.

VHS Tape, City of Winds by Gilles Corre - from the Fred Anderson Collection

In our last Archive Dive, I featured a playlist of films from across our collections, which included a few from this newly acquired collection and today we are sharing another documentary film that has been digitized in the weeks since our last email, titled The City of Winds, directed by Gilles Corre and hosted by singer Ellen Christi. The film had its US premiere in Chicago in 2003, receiving a harsh review from the Chicago Reader's Fred Camper (he writes, "Although it contains some wonderful music and interesting historical information, Gilles Corre’s documentary about the Chicago jazz scene is an undigested mess that bowdlerizes the gritty essence of the music"), but from 20 years later it's a pretty interesting time capsule, featuring a great, sadly brief, interview with Fred.

Fred describes an ideology that matches his dedication to the work of running the Velvet Lounge - and the freedom of his music - describing how he has always had a day job, or the club, so that he could "...be independent... live is very short, so I just want to be spending my time, you know, doing what I want to do..."

Andy Pierce's signed copy of Fred Anderson LP "Another Place"

And while it's available elsewhere - and apparently still in print - we're also happy to share Fred's debut LP, "Another Place", released in 1978 by Moers Music, imprint of the fantastic and still ongoing Moers Festival. The copy loaned to us by Andy, is of course, autographed (see above).

Thrill Jockey, the Chicago imprint that has championed Fred and the experimental music scene in the city for decades, is producing a reissue of Fred & Hamid Drake's LP "From the River to the Ocean", and in celebration of the release, Andy wrote:

Invariably, the best night at Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge, 2128 ½ S. Indiana Ave., was the one night you missed. “Aw, man. You missed it. The spirit was in the house,” Fred or another musician would say. Now, with Fred having made his transition more than a decade ago, we have all missed it and him for quite a while. And we talk about the opportunity to both play and hear creative music in Chicago in terms of the time we had with him and the time after him.

However, whether or not you heard him in real life, you may become just as fascinated with his music as he was with the records of Charlie Parker. By listening to any of the more than 30 recordings he released in his lifetime, you can hear the missing link between the early traditions of jazz and the unlocking of endless possibilities creative musicians continue to explore.

ESS is honored and to have Fred Anderson in the house, for anyone who missed or misses him. As always be in touch with any questions, requests, comments, remembrances - and contact us if you have any materials that you might be willing to donate to this new and growing collection. All the best,

-Matt Mehlan, Archives and Media Manager

About the Creative Audio Archive at ESS:

The Creative Audio Archive (CAA) at Experimental Sound Studio is a Chicago based center for the preservation and investigation of innovative and experimental sonic arts and music. With collections from Sun Ra / El Saturn, Links Hall, Malachi Ritscher, Studio Henry, and Experimental Sound Studio (its parent organization), among others - CAA was formed for the historical preservation of recordings, print, and visual ephemera related to avant-garde and exploratory sound and music.

The CAA's public programming works to fulfill its mission of stewardship, preservation, and accessibility through live events, artist commissions and residencies, and research fellowships.

Archive Dive: Announcing the Fred Anderson Collection