Historical Dictionary of Jazz. John S. Davis
Probably the most famous Norwegian bassist in the international jazz scene, Andersen started playing bass in 1964 and quickly became part of the jazz music scene in Oslo. He was a member of the Roy Hellvin Trio, he was elected Best Bassist by Jazznytt in 1967, and he was the bass player in the Jan Garbarek Quartet from 1967 to 1973. He collaborated with many musicians in Norway and from the United States, including George Russell, Don Cherry, Phil Woods, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, and Chick Corea. Since 1974, he has led his own groups and has recorded more than a dozen albums for the ECM label as a bandleader.
ANDERSON, IVIE MARIE (1905–1949)
Anderson began her professional career at the age of 16, performing in Los Angeles and touring the United States and Cuba in 1922–1923. Performing regularly in the mid-1920s, Anderson developed a strong connection with bandleader Sonny Clay who took her with his band on his infamous trip to Australia. Anderson’s big break occurred when she was invited to perform with Duke Ellington in 1931. The two worked together extensively during the 1930s, including tours of England and collaborating on film and recording projects together. The two can be seen together in a soundie made of Ellington’s composition “I Got It Bad (and That Ain’t Good).” Anderson was also the first vocalist to record Ellington’s composition “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” Some of these songs are captured on a compilation made of their collaborations, With Duke Ellington (1942, EPM Musique). In the early 1940s, Anderson retired because of asthma and became a restaurateur. She made one final record in 1946 with future jazz icon Charles Mingus before her death in 1949.
ANDERSON, RAY (1952–)
Born in Hyde Park, Chicago, Anderson took up the trombone in the fourth grade, inspired by sounds he had heard from jazz records his father played, including trombonists such as Vic Dickenson and Trummy Young. Anderson grew up with fellow trombonist George Lewis, and the two have worked together ever since. Anderson bounced around cities in the early 1970s, playing in a variety of bands in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and San Francisco before relocating in New York in 1972. In New York, Anderson’s career took off. He worked with Bennie Wallace and Barry Altschul, and he took over his friend George Lewis’s chair in Anthony Braxton’s quartet.
Anderson became an important bandleader in the early 1980s with his group BassDrumBone, made up of fellow cutting-edge musicians Mark Helias and Gerry Hemingway. The group made several records over the next two decades and helped usher in new ways of approaching trombone. Right Down Your Alley (1984, Soul Alley) and You Be (1985, Minor Music) were two of the first BassDrumBone albums that ushered in this style.
Anderson was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy in the early 1980s and responded by taking up singing while allowing his chops ample time to recover from stress from the disease. After recovering, he continued to sing in several groups, including another group he led called the Slickaphonics. Throughout the remainder of the 1980s up to today, Anderson remains an in-demand sideman and soloist and has performed with Charlie Haden, Tim Berne, John Scofield, Bobby Previte, Henry Threadgill, the New York Jazz Composers Orchestra, Lew Soloff, David Murray, Craig Harris, and Gary Valente. He was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2001. In 2003, Anderson was hired as director of jazz studies for the Music Department at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He continues to record and perform.
ANDERSON, WILLIAM ALONZO “CAT” (1916–1981)
Born William Alonzo Anderson, “Cat” got his nickname while living at the Jenkins Orphanage in South Carolina. At the age of 13, Anderson got his first professional experience playing the trumpet in a band created at the orphanage called the Carolina Cotton Pickers. After leaving the group in 1935, Anderson quickly caught on with several groups over the next eight years, in part due to his incredible upper-register playing. Groups Anderson performed with include the big bands and orchestras of Claude Hopkins, Lucky Millinder, Erskine Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, and Sabby Lewis.
In 1944, Anderson was recruited to join Duke Ellington’s orchestra, a band he would continue to play with for the next three decades. From 1951 to 1959, Anderson was featured on many of Ellington’s classic Columbia dates and played regularly with the band until taking a two-year hiatus from 1959 to 1961. Some of his playing is captured on Ellington’s album Ellington at Newport (1956, Columbia). In addition to playing with Ellington, Anderson freelanced with many big bands over the next two decades, including groups led by Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, Louie Bellson, and Bill Berry. Anderson moved to Los Angeles in 1971 and lived there until his passing in 1981. Anderson is remembered for his high-note playing, but among musicians he was well respected for his general musicality.
ANDERSON’S ANNEX
A nightclub in New Orleans owned by Tom Anderson and managed by Billie Struve at 201 North Basin Street. The club was open from 1901 to 1925, and performers included Bill Johnson, Tom Brown, and allegedly Louis Armstrong, although later it was determined that he performed at a different club also owned by Anderson.
ANDRE, WAYNE (1931–2003)
Andre began his professional career as a trombonist at 19, performing and recording with Charlie Spivak, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, and Woody Herman’s orchestra. In 1956, Kai Winding recruited Andre to be part of a four-trombone septet, of which Andre was a member until he moved to New York in 1958 to pursue work as a studio musician. In between big band recording sessions with artists like Art Farmer, Sarah Vaughan, and Wes Montgomery, Andre completed a B.A. degree at the Manhattan School of Music. He further developed his reputation as a top-flight performer working with bands led by Chick Corea, Gerry Mulligan, Jaco Pastorius, Thad Jones, and Clark Terry. In the 1980s, he worked more frequently in smaller groups, playing in a quintet with trumpet player Marvin Stamm and starting another four-trombone septet that was similar to the group he performed in with Winding several decades prior. Andre continued to be a frequent session player through the 1990s until his death in 2003.
ANTHONY, RAYMOND “RAY” (1922–)
Anthony began his professional career as a trumpet player in the bands of his childhood home in Cleveland before being recruited to join the Glenn Miller band in 1940. In 1942, Anthony joined the U.S. Navy and led a service orchestra until 1946 when he was honorably discharged. In the late 1940s, he formed the Ray Anthony Orchestra and would see great success over the next decade. Among his hits were the “Bunny Hop,” the “Hokey Pokey,” and theme music for the television shows Dragnet and Peter Gunn. Anthony briefly explored acting in film during the 1950s and starred as trombonist Tommy Dorsey in the movie Five Pennies. After briefly reducing his orchestra down to a sextet in 1960, he revived his orchestra in the mid-1960s and continued to lead big bands. He remains active, continuing to make live appearances and releasing albums on his own label, Aero Space Records.
ANTIBES-JUAN-LES-PINS JAZZ FESTIVAL
A jazz festival founded in the New Orleans sister city of Juan-les-Pins located in southeastern France. The festival, which is usually held in July, began in 1960 and has featured many top jazz talents like Keith Jarrett and Wynton Marsalis, in addition to crossover and pop artists.
ANTILLEAN JAZZ
A swing-era term that describes a style of jazz that incorporates musical elements from Caribbean countries including Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti. Between