Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake, Back Together Again

item info

category: music > cds

record label: Thrill Jockey

year: 2004

format: cd

catalog number: thrill 139

tracks: 1: Leap Forward 2: Black Women (For Beatrice Anderson and Amelia Drake) 3: Back Together Again 4: Losel Drolma 5: A Ray From THE ONE 6: Louisiana Strut 7: Know Your Advantage (The Great Tradition) 8: Lama Khyenno (Heart's Beloved)

tags: Fred Anderson Hamid Drake

item description

The aptly titled Back Together Again features two of Jazz music’s finest musicians making the record they had longed to make for years. Living legend Fred Anderson, who turns 75 one day before the release of this record, and the relatively young Hamid Drake have known each other most of their lives. They both hail from the same small town, Monroe, Louisiana and Hamid got his start in Jazz music by taking lessons with Fred’s son in his early teens. Throughout the years they have played together frequently and crossed paths on enough occasions that some would say they know each other better than their own wives.

In recent years the output of both has jumped exponentially, yet many of those releases are live "sets" captured in clubs, whether new or reissued. The two had spoke about working together the last few years, but hadn’t set aside the time. Specifically the desire was to work as a duet and in particular a studio was the desired setting. Then in December 2003 the goal was acheived when Fred and Hamid went into Soma Studios (Chicago) and over the course of a week layed down eight tracks. The result is Back Together Again and it’s a stunning display of two masters at work.

As a bonus the making of the record was captured by filmmaker Selina Trepp and it comes as a second cd-rom. Shot in documentary style the cd-rom features live studio footage of the two laying down their tracks and is interspersed with interviews of the two talking about their craft. They disect the recording process of how the songs evolve, along with the different styles and approaches the two use. Taken seperately or as a whole Back Together Again is a musical journey of a special kind.

Please note : The 2nd CD is a CD-ROM with video footage for play in your computer.