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News Thu Jun 24 2010
R.I.P. - Fred Anderson
Transmission wishes to extend its sympathies and condolences to the family of Fred Anderson, who died today at age 81.
Anderson, a founding member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), owner and operator of the South-side Chicago jazz club the Velvet Lounge, and a thoroughly revered and respected tenor saxophonist and bandleader. Anderson, by all accounts, was the proverbial guy about whom no one had a bad word to say, a respected pillar of the Chicago free jazz scene who acted as a mentor for many people now considered legends in their own right, including Douglas Ewart, Hamid Drake, and George Lewis, all of whom came through his ensembles.
Today's Sun-Times has an obituary for Mr. Anderson, while the Sun-Times' Jazz critic Howard Reich posted an article earlier this week about the possible fate of the Velvet Lounge. One thing everyone agrees on is that the only way to save the Velvet Lounge is to keep patronizing the Velvet Lounge. Take a page from our early Chicago forebears: vote early and often.
R.I.P.