Multireedists Will and Peter Anderson are well known for their Songbook Summit series, which features jazz interpretations of Great American Songbook composers.
On Sunday, January 5, the twin brothers will be joined by guitarist Adam Moezinia to play an eclectic version of that series at the New Jersey Jazz Society’s Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert at the Madison (NJ) Community Arts Center. (Photo above: From left, Will Anderson, Adam Moezinia, Peter Anderson).
This time, according to Will Anderson, rather than focusing on one composer, the concert will be “a mix of a lot of composers. And, we will talk a little about how they differ.” Some of the writers, Anderson added, “had jazz in their heads — George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Hoagy Carmichael. Others, like Jerome Kern, did not.”
The Andersons met Moezinia when they were all students at Juilliard about 14 years ago. The sound of the trio, Anderson explained, will be “kind of like the chamber jazz aesthetic, softer, more intimate. But, when the rhythm gets going, we can swing out!”
Reviewing the Anderson Brothers’ 2019 Outside in Music album, Featuring Jimmy Cobb, Edward Bianco of AllAboutJazz praised the mellow treatments of Vernon Duke’s “Autumn in New York” and Van Heusen’s “Polka Dots & Moonbeams”, marking the latter as “one of the (album’s) finest.” But he also pointed out the Andersons’ ability to swing. “On (Frank Churchill’s) ‘Someday My Prince Will Come’ and the time-honored standard from Duke Pearson, ‘Jeanine’, the boys are wild with phenomenal call and response performances.” Featuring Jimmy Cobb was released in May 2020, the same month that the legendary drummer passed away (on May 24 at the age of 91). It was probably one of his last recordings.
The Anderson Brothers have performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, and they were part of the Grammy Award winning soundtrack of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. Moezinia was in vocalist Freddie Cole’s quartet and has shared the stage with such jazz giants as Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis.
Will Anderson has written a book, Songbook Summit: Fifteen Pioneers of American Sound (Reviewed by Joe Lang in the November 2024 issue of Jersey Jazz). He will have copies of the book available for purchase at Jersey Jazz LIVE!
The Anderson Brothers Trio will be preceded by a Rising Stars opening act featuring a trio led by alto saxophonist Anish Alur (photo below), a senior at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge. Alur was a member of this year’s New Jersey High School All-State Jazz Ensemble and was part of the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra led by Gerald Clayton at the Monterey Jazz Festival. A 2024 Young Arts Award recipient, Alur studied privately with educator/alto saxophonist Julius Tolentino (the December Jersey Jazz Magazine cover story).
The other members of the trio will be bassist Chris Maratea and drummer Ishan Alur, Anish’s brother. Maratea is a Ridge High School graduate, who now attends College of the Holy Cross. He is a past member of the New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble. Ishan Alur attends Newark Academy in Livingston where Tolentino directs the jazz program, which finished first in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2024 Essentially Ellington competition.
The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, NJ. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts begin at 3 p.m. Admission is $10 for NJJS members and $15 for non-members. Student admission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for purchase. To order tickets in advance, log onto artsintrinsic.ticketleap.com/njjs-anderson-brothers-01-05-25/
Funding for Jersey Jazz Live! has been made possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of The National Endowment for the Arts. This program is also proudly supported by a grant from The Summit Foundation. This event is generously sponsored by Rachel Domber/ARBORS Records
ANDERSON BROTHERS PHOTO BY LYNN REDMILE. ANISH ALUR PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
