Vintage Duets is an album by American jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson with drummer Steve McCall.

Vintage Duets
Studio album by
Released1994
RecordedJanuary 11, 1980
StudioSoto, Chicago
GenreJazz
Length44:28
LabelOkka Disk
ProducerFred Anderson
Fred Anderson chronology
The Missing Link
(1984)
Vintage Duets
(1994)
Destiny
(1995)

Background

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Before joining Henry Threadgill's Air trio, McCall worked with Anderson at various points from early in his career, playing together in 1966 on Joseph Jarman's Song For, a seminal document of the AACM. Vintage Duets was recorded in 1980 at the request of the tiny Austrian Message label, but the company went out of business before the album was released and finally the tapes were the primary instigation that started Bruno Johnson's Okka Disk label in 1994. The album was Anderson's first recording released in a decade.[1]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz    [3]

In her review for AllMusic, Joslyn Layne states "is not only energetic and masterful, but somehow so full, warm, and grounded that (to free-jazz ears) it is also soothing."[2]

Howard Reich, writing for the Chicago Tribune, called the album "revelatory," and wrote: "the lucid structure, logical development, impeccable phrasing, accomplished technique and melodic sensitivity of his solos... run counter to almost everything 'free jazz' has come to mean today."[4]

The authors of the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings stated that the duets "are as laid back and unhurried as could ever be, sometimes to the point where the listener feels excluded."[3]

Track listing

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  1. "Within" - 21:17
  2. "Wandering" - 23:11

Personnel

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References

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  1. ^ Vintage Duets at Okka Disk
  2. ^ a b Layne, Joslyn. Fred Anderson – Vintage Duets: Review at AllMusic. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  3. ^ a b Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2002). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (6th ed.). London: Penguin. p. 43. ISBN 0-14-051521-6.
  4. ^ Reich, Howard (August 7, 1994). "Fred Anderson, Steve McCall: Vintage Duets". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 29, 2022.