Fred Anderson, professional jazz musician and owner of famed Chicago jazz club the Velvet Lounge, is packing up nearly a quarter of a century of jamming good times in his old beloved space – and working diligently to continue its legacy in the new.
“I’ve been here since 1982,” Anderson says. “Really, who wants to move? But when the time comes, you just gotta do what you gotta do.”
Currently located at 2128 1/2 S. Indiana Ave., the Lounge will reopen around the corner at 67 E. Cermak Rd., between Michigan Ave. and Wabash Ave., pending city inspection.
According to Anderson, the original Velvet is to be replaced by a condominium tower development.
The Lounge is known to music aficionados worldwide as one of the cradles of contemporary jazz.
“It’s been a Mecca to modern Jazz musicians,” says Tatsu Aoki, one of the world’s leading jazz bassists, in an interview with the Associated Press. “You can’t talk about (Jazz) without talking about the Velvet Lounge.”
“This place used to be a regular tavern when I first bought it,”Anderson says. “And it stayed a tavern, except people would come and play music periodically. Then in 1993 we started having people, both professional and amateur, play on a regular basis.”
The goal of the club, Anderson says, was to foster the talents of aspiring musicians by giving them a place to experiment with harder-edged, free-wheeling jazz that posh, commercially-minded clubs tended to shun.
Anderson’s Lounge has attracted and developed the talents of many local and international artists including trumpeters Corey Wilkes and Maurice Brown, and flutists Nicole Mitchell and Aoki.
Anderson himself has loved jazz music for as long as he can remember.
“I’ve been playing jazz music since I was nine,” says Anderson, a native of Monroe, Louisiana. “But I didn’t start playing the sax until 1945 or 1946. In the ’60s I turned professional, got married and had kids.”
Anderson was also one of the founders of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a groundbreaking group dedicated to the faltering 1960s jazz scene in Chicago.
When some of his recordings were released to music companies in the ’90s, Anderson experienced a great amount of success and related to a whole new generation. He is now a regular on the jazz festival circuit in the U.S. and Europe.
In addition to being home to an impressive list of talented musicians, the Velvet has also been the recording site of dozens of acclaimed albums, including last year’s Blue Winter, which featured Anderson, drummer Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker.
Friends, fans and Anderson himself have been working continuously for more than a year to raise at least $100,000 in funds for the new venue. Private donations and benefit concerts have contributed to the monetary goal, including a sale of the club’s few remaining items this past Sunday.
“We sold tables, chairs, CDs, a lot of my CDs and performance DVDs, old Velvet posters, T-shirts, and whatever else people wanted to buy,” Anderson says.
After settling into his new surroundings, Anderson will continue performing. He says his next gig will be at an annual outdoor courtyard performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 2020 E. Chicago Ave., with Tatsu Aoki on bass and Isaiah Spencer on drums. Anderson says the trio will also perform on June 13, Aug. 1 and Sept. 5.
“A lot of the musicians I knew wanted fame and fortune but I wanted something different,” Anderson says about opening the Lounge. “I made the choice to stay in Chicago to help the younger generation. And so far we’ve had many generations come through here.”
In its new setting, things should be no different.
Medill freshman Taren Fujimoto is a PLAY writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
