Skiptowne And The Greyhounds, Chicago Blues Band, Blues Band, Chicago Blues, Blues

The Mid-West’s Trumpet Titan and Veteran first call player Ken Anderson currently plays with the Ohio players and has played with many greats including the world-famous Chicago Storm/Ohio Players Horns (Kenny Anderson: trumpet; JoWestly Boston: saxophone; Johnny Cotton: trombone), Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns, Rico McFarland, Taft Jazz Band, as well as bluesmen Jodie Williams, Willie Kent, Dave Hole, and Big James and The Chicago Playboys. A fluent, octave-stretching trumpet ace with playing brilliance with a dazzling performance soaring trumpeter not only plays with Bill McFarland in his Chicago Horns and in Malachi Thompson & Africa Brass, but is one of the city's leading salsa performers.
http://www.wfnk.com/ohioplayers/

The Ohio Players started life as a generic-sounding backup band for various 60s soul singers, including Wilson Pickett. They made a couple of records in the late 60s that didn't make much of a splash. Then Junie Morrison came on the scene, leading them through several bizarre, darkly humorous albums before he continued on his inevitable trajectory towards George Clinton's Funk Mob. The rest of the Players regrouped, and promptly headed to the top of the charts. Their trademarks were their uncluttered, doom-laden sound, the naked women on their album covers, and their no-star approach: all the tunes were listed as written and produced by the whole band. Sugarfoot's yowling vocal delivery is also instantly recognizable. As disco supplanted funk towards the end of the 70s, the Players tried to adapt once again, with limited success. Nowadays they're back on the road, and occasionally release a reunion record.

A pair of horn players named Ken Anderson have been racking up impressive credits since the early '90s, and have more in common than just their names. The Chicago trumpeter most often credited as Kenny Anderson and the busy session saxophonist Kenneth Anderson, sometimes just plain Ken Anderson, have both been strongly associated with funky music styles--the former with Chicago blues, the latter with the soul side of the pop music toast. But both are also heavily involved with Latin music. Kenny Anderson, in fact, has pulled off a transition from being known as a blues and rhythm and blues section man to grabbing the first chair in salsa bands, a musical transition that means it is he, and not some electric guitar string bender, who has to hit all the high notes.

In this and many of his other activities, Anderson suits the profile of a Chicago musician that has been established since the early '20s. This city's players have always found their way into at least a few different styles of music, all depending on how busy they want to be. Thus, Anderson has played behind intense bluesmen such as Luther Allison and Mighty Joe Young as well as participating in the modern jazz explorations of fellow trumpeter Malachi Thompson. A member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Thompson utilized Anderson as part of his group entitled Malachi Thompson's Africa Brass, named after the important John Coltrane big band recording. Anderson has also worked with Bill McFarland in that leader's Chicago Horns, and tours regularly with funksters the Ohio Players, a group that specializes in a style that Anderson came up with in one of his first professional gigs. Another funk band based out of Ohio called Slave was first formed in 1975, and Anderson worked with them in the following decade including a 1983 recording session, one of the trumpeter's earliest.

His salsa and Latin connections include the Orchestra Isla, Hector Silveira Orchestra and Chuchito Valdés. Anderson also performs and records with the interesting Ensemble Kalinda and a host of Chicago bandleaders such as Jimmy Johnson, Shirley Johnson, Willie Kent and Tad Robinson. Besides the previously mentioned saxophonist Kenneth Anderson, Chicago itself was the home of yet another player by this name who retired from music in the early '50s. Both younger men could have been happy about this development, since the senior Kenneth Anderson actually handled both trumpet and saxophone, as well as piano, which means he could have whipped any and all players named Ken Anderson with one horn tied behind his back." ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide

by Marsha Noble

Chicago's Kenny Anderson Developed a Unique Trumpet Voice

And, as promised, I am beginning this article by continuing the discussion of the sound of jazz to celebrate the sound of another Chicago jazz trumpeter, Kenny Anderson, who happens to be my first cousin, and, who like me, was born into a family of jazz lovers, waking up and going to bed with the sound of jazz music, the aroma of good soul food and the promise of another day connected to the sound of music, whether it be jazz, gospel, blues, or rhythm and blues. It was also the sound of the neighborhood.

Growing up in the Chicago Housing Authority housing development of Ida B. Wells was a young man, the baby boy of four siblings, who began to nurture his love for jazz by watching his jazz father, David Anderson, a jazz saxophonist. Like my father, Daniel Anderson, David would play his horn from sun up to sundown. He took breaks to give his children and those of the neighbors lectures on the importance of the awesome sound of jazz music and how it differed from all other sounds, and most importantly, how we kids would never hear another sound quite like the sound of jazz.

Every evening this young man, Kenny Anderson, a phenomenal jazz trumpeter today who plays with the Chicago Fire Horns, would come home from school to hear his father practice before going to evening gigs. At first, Kenny would shun the sound. But he could not escape it, as his dad would sometimes insist that he sit still long enough to hear what he had to play, or say via the sax.

Being an obedient and attentive son who adored, admired and revered his dad, Kenny would oblige, not letting on that his curiosity was building as time went on. He watched his father's jazz routine, with love and respect, secretly desiring to play an instrument.

So, young Kenny took up the drums but it didn't last long. Then, after talking with his father about his growing interest to play, his dad enrolled him in a music class. The drums were quickly history and the trumpet became his joy. The sound of Kenny's horn, blending with the memories of the sound of his father's sax, encouraged him to play and play and play. He began to develop such a unique sound that other jazzmen began to seek his style for their groups. They wanted him to lend his sound to theirs-blending and mixing in what is now an original sound.

When you see Kenny, watch his horn. When his horn is relaxed in his hand, you will see him take in the sounds of the other band members as he flows with the mix. Kenny Anderson has played with some of the top bands in the country, including a brief stint with the Soul and R&B group Slave. However, Kenny always returns to his love of jazz and is one of the most requested trumpeters in and around Chicago. He even lends his trumpet style to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, further attesting to his multi-talented style of playing.

Kenny Anderson, a Chicago trumpeter who deserves to be seen and heard, my cousin and my friend, is a Chicago jazz trumpeter who makes you standup and take notice. He can be seen and heard all over Chicago. And, if you look closely, you'll see our family resemblance: It's called jazz.


BIOS	PRESS	STORE	PICS	CONTACT

*Name*
*Title*
*Company*
*Address*
*E-mail*
*Phone*