2005 · Album
Blue Winter
Recorded 2004, live at Johnson State College, Vermont · Eremite · Produced by Michael Ehlers
Four Improvisations in the Vermont Cold
Anderson rarely has been more faithfully recorded, the often leathery quality of his midrange captured vividly.
Blue Winter documents a live session at Johnson State College in Vermont where Fred Anderson, William Parker, and Hamid Drake spent an evening exploring pure improvisation as a trio. This was their first time working as a three-piece, though Anderson and Drake had played together before in a quartet with Kidd Jordan on 2 Days in April. The immediacy of the live setting gave the session its shape — no overdubs, no second takes, just four long improvisations that let each player respond directly to what the others were doing in real time.
Anderson's tenor saxophone dominates the record without overwhelming it. Howard Reich, writing in the Chicago Tribune, noted that the recording captured Anderson's sound with unusual clarity — the leathery midrange, the acidic high notes, the deep, barreling low end all present at once. That fidelity matters because it lets you hear exactly how Parker and Drake anchor and push back against Anderson's soloing. Parker's bass doesn't just mark time; it moves through harmonic space and rhythmic textures, while Drake's drumming remains restless and conversational throughout.
The album came out on Eremite, the label founded by producer Michael Ehlers, and AllMusic reviewer Kurt Gottschalk called it "pure Anderson — with the best rhythm section in the land to be sure — and an indispensable selection of energy improv." This is a record for listeners who want to hear skilled improvisers working without a net, in a room together, making decisions on the fly. It's not a peak in Anderson's catalog so much as a clear-eyed documentation of what this particular trio could do on a single night.
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