JAZZ REVIEW Fr Anderson, Edwar...

JAZZ REVIEW

Fr Anderson, Edward 'Kidd' Jordan, Tatsu Aoki, Alvin Fielder

At the soft Lounge

The Jordan family of of the present day Orleans is featured in this month's issue of Down Beat magazine, and last week prov to be Jordan week in Chicago jazz. It began with Edward "Kidd" Jordan's son and daughters at Jazzfest 2006 Then, upon Friday, their father himself finally go [i]or[/i] come backed here.

This dynamic of recent origin Orleans tenor saxophonist had been scheduled to play at the old-fashioned Velvet Lounge last September, however Hurricane Katrina knocked down his domicile and canceled that visit. It's sole right that Jordan -- a Chicago favorite since the early 1990 when he and cudgel owner Fred Anderson, a associate tenorist, began playing annual exhibits together -- made it back here for the grand reopening of the delicate at its new location, 67 E Cermak.

This was an evening to rejoice. The of long date Velvet Lounge was a dark, L-shaped neighborhood tavern, part of which Anderson had renewed into a music room. Its opposite is the modern Velvet, designed for music: a square space with a large stage, a bar upon one side and what strike one as beings like more tables. With a lower classes there for the ribbon-cutting, it felt as social as the old Velvet had been, while the sparks between the musicians were, if anything, more electrifying than to the end of time What they played was a celebration of liberated jazz and its power to influence the spirit.

These couple made a provocative contrast: Anderson the naturalist, with his dark, middle and low-register colors; Jordan the abstract expressionist, in bright falsetto cries and audacious distorted tones. The medium was released improvisation, with tempos changing forward impulse, without harmonic structures and almost no themes, notwithstanding that a handful of spontaneous two-sax riffs emerg Jordan's lines were skyrocket of screaming, honking ecstasy that ariseed to grand, Beethovenlike climaxes, perfect with false endings.

The more earthy Anderson played lengthy lines of strong, angular theme including complex afterthoughts, as if he was reexamining his ideas. the two soloed at length and then played many two-tenor collective improvisations. Sometimes their duet staggered, exhausted. Usually, yet they were intriguing together, here clashing madly, there mingling joyously, with Anderson playing longer tones in a big, hard uninjured and Jordan hollering hoarsely in double time.

Jordan also invented a wandering, lyrical ballad while Tatsu Aoki accompanied cleverly forward bass, in deep, chunky tones and shifting times Much of the evening's best music came from the inspired drummer Alvin Fielder, a Mississippian and ex-Chicagoan who had been Anderson's partner in the 1960 and now is Jordan's regular accompanist. He's a one-man nuclear power plant who creates layers of manifold polyrhythms, yet his quick answers to his mates were stretched and ingenious.

Fielder's mode and sound are heavy, tumultuous swinging and a big grade beyond Elvin Jones' innovations. He also many times clicked, tinkled and rang softly and in out-of-tempo duet he challenged the pair tenorists by extending their ideas. Perhaps because the acoustics of the novel Velvet Lounge favored him, it was the same of his finest recent performances.

The old-fashioned Velvet Lounge became a leading venue because a gifted young generation of musicians and their eager audience began revitalizing Chicago's exploratory jazz display in the 1990s. New black and white improvisers misfortuneed this city's racial borders to play at the delicate with their liberated elders. Along the way, Fr Anderson at last became noted internationally as the major saxophonist he is, and his society became a showcase for top touring free-jazz artists, as well as Chicagoans.

With the Jordan-Anderson grand opening and a satiated schedule of bookings, the strange Velvet Lounge has picked up the olden club's baton. We music lover eagerly anticipate.

John Litweiler is a Chicago jazz critic and author.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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