Blue Winter Fred Anderson

A pinnacle in his work & in its documentation

Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson has recorded with some regularity in recent years, but the two-CD "Blue Winter" represents a pinnacle in his work, and in its documentation. Performing with longtime collaborator Hamid Drake on drums and William Parker on bass, Anderson unfolds solos of uncommon majesty, duration, invention and intellectual heft. The first CD alone represents one extended piece, nearly 45 minutes of extraordinarily fluid jazz improvisation, Anderson's characteristically gnarly, complex yet free-flowing lines pushed forward by Drake's relentless rhythms and deepened by Parker's resonant bass. 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. In every regard, then, a tour de force. -Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune