The legendary Velvet Lounge in Chicago is still kicking.
When the Velvet Lounge opened two-and-a-half years ago in a new location—on East Cermak Road—some listeners wondered whether the place would survive for very long.
Certainly the newly built, freshly painted room wouldn’t carry quite the mystique of the charmingly dilapidated old venue on South Indiana Avenue. Nor could Velvet owner and tenor saxophone master Fred Anderson be sure that audiences would follow him to the new spot, even if it was just a couple of blocks away from the old one.
Yet as 2009 begins, the rejuvenated Velvet Lounge remains integral to new music in Chicago, and not only when Anderson takes the stage to unfurl his characteristically magisterial lines. Several nights a week, jazz masters and emerging artists, Chicago icons and visiting virtuosos make the Velvet ground zero for avant-garde jazz in Chicago.
Fred Anderson is one of the most vivacious and steadfast players of the music today. I know that he does not play every night….but it is important to see him as much as possible. He is a Master of the Music.
His attention to younger players and giving them space and time to play is a tribute in itself to the music, because Fred is passing on the art. Just as a father would to his children.
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One response to “The Velvet Lounge is still a great place for jazz”
Fred Anderson is one of the most vivacious and steadfast players of the music today. I know that he does not play every night….but it is important to see him as much as possible. He is a Master of the Music.
His attention to younger players and giving them space and time to play is a tribute in itself to the music, because Fred is passing on the art. Just as a father would to his children.