Trombonist Clifton Anderson: Family Affair Posted by independent j

Clifton Anderson - P.G. (From Whom All Blessings Flow) from the album Landmarks on Milestone (1995). Sonny Rollins - Where or When from the album Without A Song: The 9/11 Concert on Milestone (2005). There are few absolutes in life, rules that have no gray area or wavering. One of mine is no matter what whenever Sonny Rollins is performing within 100 miles of me, I'll go see it. Rollins has provided me with the single greatest concert experience of my life (SF Jazz Festival 2004) and a few others in the top ten. He is immediately arrestingly different live than in studio recordings (NOTE: he is wonderful in both), which is a relatively unique and amazing thing. Typically Rollins is way out in front of his wonderful band, blowing everyone off stage, but the last time I followed my rule (a few months ago in Berkeley) he was definitely matched by trombonist Clifton Anderson. Anderson has been playing with Rollins for years, and I've heard him many times and always been impressed. But this night he went to a different level and matched Sonny (an amazing accomplishment). The Rollins band has played numerous Anderson compositions, so it was surprising to me to find that Clifton only had one album as a leader - from back in 1995. It is a very nice album and Anderson has one of the richest trombone's I've ever heard. The album features 5 Anderson originals, 2 standards, and a calypso penned by his mother. Today I've put up one of Anderson's compositions "P.G. (From Whom All Blessings Flow)" a God praising religious interpretation of the old hymn. Mainly I chose it because of the variation in tone you get to hear from Anderson's trombone as he moves between somber classical phrases and the more bop-oriented sections. Monty Alexander on piano and Bob Cranshaw on bass work beautifully with Anderson, as can be expected since they were also playing with Sonny around this time. I've also included a track off the live album the Rollins group did 4 days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This was in Boston and just days after Rollins had to be evacuated from his lower Manhattan apartment carrying only his sax. Obviously the background story is amazing, but the concert (like all of Rollins's) stands on its own merits outside of any non-musical context. Again I chose a track that exemplifies Anderson's virtuosity with his opening solo. However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Stephen Scott's brilliant, Keith-Jarrett-esque extended solo from the middle of the piece. Of course, Sonny kills it to with extended, reference filled sax runs both before and Scott. Maybe you'll considering making my rule one of your own. ________________________________________________________________________________ In a totally unrelated item...I wrote something for this great new website JamsBio (full disclosure: one of my best friends works there, but regardless it is great). It is one of those web 2.1 community interfacing sites like facebook or the like, but is entirely built around music and the shared memories of music. Anyways, here's an article I wrote about hip hop album cover sampling that I think Ear Fuzz folks might like.