Kenny Anderson

Kenny Anderson emerged as a kind of King Curtis of the '90s, suiting his own special talents to the changing shape of contemporary pop music. He has recorded sessions on all ranges of saxophone except the extreme bass and sopranino, and also creates horn and string arrangements for some artists. Active since the early '90s, Anderson did not record any material as a leader in the first decade of his career. His most widely heard playing has been on tracks by singer Gloria Estefan and the superb rap and pop vocal group Destiny's Child, where the presence of Anderson and other flesh-and-blood musicians contradicts the genre's stereotypical machine-made tracks. Indeed, this saxophonist has been doing his bit to keep his instruments in the running against sampled or computer-generated horn sounds. While it is really no contest, his most creative playing comes out in more old-world contexts, particularly in the Latin jazz combos of Arturo Sandoval or Orquesta Impacto Nuevo. This latter group also utilizes Anderson's talents as a conductor and arranger, as have the soulful O'Jays, the genuinely lavish Gerald LaVert, and the genuinely lovely Jennifer Lopez. The old school multi-instrumentalist Kenneth Anderson, a classic jazz pianist, trumpeter, and saxophonist who basically retired from playing in the '50s, has been mixed up with this man, as has the exciting Chicago-based trumpeter with the same name. ~ Eugene Chadbourne