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FEBRUARY 2005

Wess Anderson

The Jazz of Wess Anderson

By Joan Baum, Ph.D

Nicknames are telling. In the case of the well known saxophonist Wess[el] Anderson, “Warmdaddy” was bestowed after a drummer in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra commented on Wess’s willingness to extend his hand to give autographs, especially to young people. With a laughing modesty, Mr. Alto Sax notes that people like to have autographs and he’s only too happy to comply because he’s appreciative of their interest. It’s still an uphill battle to interest youngsters and young adults in this unique American music, but it’s a mission he and his friend and colleague Wynton Marsalis, whom he met when they were playing with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, pursue with joyous devotion. When PBS came out with the History of Jazz last year, Wess saw the series as a “national anthem.”  It saddens though it does not surprise him that young people today shy away from what they’ve never been exposed to—“jazz is hard music”—just the opposite of his own life.

Repeatedly, he speaks glowingly of his father, his great mentor, who was always home by 3:00 p.m. from his late-shift job as a subway conductor on the Carnarsie Line. The family lived then in Crown Heights. And though his mother was always there to ensure that he did his homework, his father by mid-afternoon would be setting up jam sessions. His school friends, Wess recalls, would not know what he was talking about when he’d tell them that when he’d come home, he would see a Blue Note label spinning on the turntable. For Wess the record was as much a part of the household as his father’s drums and the personnel who showed up to rehearse—they were “like family.” He was a kid but he was already soaking up the environment.  Most youngsters today don’t have that advantage, that prompt, that appreciation—which may be the main reason Wess Anderson cares so much about education.

Under Wynton Marsalis’s direction (Wess is the lead alto sax), musicians from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra go out to public schools (K-12) all over the country. Jazz is a night move, so it’s important to talk to youngsters and perform for them on their time, during the day. When he was an adolescent he used to think that all jazz musicians were at least 30 – 40 years old. His own experience, because of his father’s example and encouragement, was unusual. But there is no reason why youngsters should not be exposed to a jazz early on, including its history, and there is every reason to hope that they will know it’s important to study, to be educated about the history of jazz, which is in many ways, the history of The United States. Sure, jazz involves improvisation, but improvisation turns on long experience and informed knowledge. He thinks that the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra’s focus on education is incredibly important. “To teach well,” he says, is to “relate to young people” who have no awareness, most of them, of performing or practice. To that end, he begins most education sessions playing “Happy Birthday”—a tune everyone knows. He does it straight and then . . . just . . .bops! He tells them, think basketball: you want to get the ball in the net, but you want to do it with style. In other words, improvisation is not random. And teaching well is never condescension.

Like most serious musicians, Wess Anderson plays many instruments. He started out on piano, studied clarinet under Alvin Batiste at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA , then moved big time to the sax—“they say, you don’t pick the instrument, it picks you,” but who knows, he says with a chuckle, children never select what their parents play. His 14 year-old son loves the trombone. But why the Alto Sax? Well, he loves the tenor sax  but the alto, it’s got a special “singing quality,” a beautiful soprano, a sound that just blew him away. It’s not just love, it’s study. Though he has a new CD coming out later this year, fans and those who should be, can hear Wess Anderson at The Village Vanguard on Tuesday, March 1st. And his father will be there.# 

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