Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge
April 25, 2005 1:38 PM Subscribe
The Velvet is moving! Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge, one of the best places in Chicago to see avant garde jazz, has to move. To help fund the construction of a new club, they're having a couple of fundraisers (pdf) at the Hot House and at the Velvet in late May. If you don't know Fred, you should get to know him. If you find yourself in Chicago in May, check him out at the 40th anniversary of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, which he helped found. If you find yourself far from Chicago, a lot of his music is available on CD, including my favorite, the 2003 disc Back at the Velvet Lounge.
At least it's not the Green Mill. You can get away with moving the Velvet Lounge space and not lose anything (as long as the music is the same). The Green Mill might not have the sound, but it's got a history.
Where the Velvet Lounge is now you can blow right past it. Maybe it'll get a better front ?(hope).
posted by Smedleyman at 2:29 PM on April 25, 2005
Where the Velvet Lounge is now you can blow right past it. Maybe it'll get a better front ?(hope).
posted by Smedleyman at 2:29 PM on April 25, 2005
If I'd lived in Chicago instead of NYC all those years, I'd have spent a lot of time in the Velvet Lounge, and if I had any income at all right now I'd send them some money. Fred and the musicians he plays with are fantastic; I tried to catch them when they came to the city, and I urge everyone to try the music -- it's some of the alive-est stuff being made. And thanks for the post!
posted by languagehat at 3:12 PM on April 25, 2005
posted by languagehat at 3:12 PM on April 25, 2005
Good for the Velvet Lounge to move instead of just shutting down when conditions in their neighborhood changed. I've been hearing too much about CBGB threatening to close instead of just moving further south (or, God forbid, off Manhattan) as Houston and the LES have changed from rough to uber-trendy.
posted by thedevildancedlightly at 3:27 PM on April 25, 2005
posted by thedevildancedlightly at 3:27 PM on April 25, 2005
First the Checkerboard Lounge, now this?
I hope this works. The Velvet Lounge is seriously one of a kind. When I saw they'd closed for a while earlier this year (busted pipes?), I got really nervous. Bronzeville rents must be shooting through the roof and the neighborhood has completely changed in the past few years.
After this, what's left on the South Side except the New Apartment Lounge down on 75th?
posted by felix betachat at 3:39 PM on April 25, 2005
I hope this works. The Velvet Lounge is seriously one of a kind. When I saw they'd closed for a while earlier this year (busted pipes?), I got really nervous. Bronzeville rents must be shooting through the roof and the neighborhood has completely changed in the past few years.
After this, what's left on the South Side except the New Apartment Lounge down on 75th?
posted by felix betachat at 3:39 PM on April 25, 2005
Let's hope Fred Anderson doesn't have the same real estate agent, lawyer, or accountant as Sue Miller and Julia Adams. The Lounge Ax has been looking for a new home in Chicago for more than eleven years now. Why did we buy all bought those defense and relocation discs, again? Perhaps it's for the best that Sue and Julia have moved onto other projects.
posted by tew at 5:07 PM on April 25, 2005
posted by tew at 5:07 PM on April 25, 2005
And all this while I thought jazz was going nowhere.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 6:08 PM on April 25, 2005
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 6:08 PM on April 25, 2005
from the allaboutjazz bio:
In the late 1970s Anderson ran a nonprofit North Side club at 4512 N. Lincoln Ave. called the Birdhouse, named in honor of Charlie “Bird” Parker. But after harassment by the city and random vandalism — “somebody didn't want us there,” Anderson explained — he closed it down and went to Europe, where he cut “Another Place.”
Here's more backstory on the BirdHouse
In 1974 and 1975, Fred Anderson and the band (at the time, Hamid, Billy Brimfield, Doug Ewart, Felix Blackmon and the occaisonal appearance by George Lewis) played Friday night sets at a place in Old Town called J's Place, run by a new-agey group called the Foundation Faith. The FF would hold optional meditations from about 11:30 pm, and then at midnight Fred's band would light up this hippie coffee shop.
They would play a long set, til almost two, two thirty. Break for half an hour, then open things up for a jam session. I can remember seeing/hearing Thurman Barker, Ajaramu, Kalaparusha, Wallace MacMillian, Terry Dickerson, Joseph Bowie (and other B.A.G. members) sitting in from 3 until 5 am--often longer, until the sun rose. They would invite people from the audience to join in , and several times another wannabe percussionist and I would pass out claves and bells and such to the crowd and get a mess of sound going.
The Foundation Faith ran into the IRS man and left in th emiddle of the night, figuartively and literally. Some of us who had been riding 60 miles from DeKalb (workers, not students) to see Fred every Friday night at J's place were devastated. Fred found a place on North Lincoln? North Milwaukee? (It was about two blocks away from Zum Deutschen Eck restaurant) that had been a kitchen cabinet & fixture store, owned by an old guy in Lincolnwood. Only hitch was, the guy wasn't too keen on renting to a "jazz man."
Fred was working his day job laying carpets, living in Evanston, and being the outstandingly generous man he has always been. No place to play. I had moved from DeKalb to the northwest 'burbs. Fred was at my apartment and pitched me on the renting the storefront--a white face on the contract to appease the owner--and I was happy to do what I could. We all pitched in to turn that little storefront into a club. The cops kept checking our progress. Weekends and afterwork hours were spent buiding the stage and installing lights and seating.
Fred & I went to the City Licensing Bureau where we got the runaround on getting a license. Fred wasn't trying to get a liquor license--none of us had that kind of scratch--just something that would let him charge admission. The license wasn't all that much, $300 or $500 or so for a year. The catch was that without greasing somebody's palm, we would have to wait a looooong time for that permit to be processed. We went with the slow route and in the meantime opened up as a "donations" club.
Opening night, undercover cops came in with bottles of booze in brown bags. We were smart enough to take those at the door and put 'em on ice. Teh cops took their booze and left. Didn't tell the uniforms, though, because the uniforms came about two minutes later, trying to shut us down for open-container violations. Nyaah Nyaah.
Anyway, we kept limping along week to week, and Fred was putting everything he could into the place. The rest of us contributed sweat equity and whatever else we could spare. I tried to keep the authorities (including the landlord and the neighbors) happy.
The music was always the thing. Rich, deep Delta-loamed jazz through the low-low-low horn of Fred, and the almost-scary symbiotic timing of Hamid Drake. Amazing people came through those doors and played sheerly for the love of music. We all had day jobs and there wasn't dime one coming in from the BirdHouse (nor was money ever what it was about). The club was too far north for the Downtown elite to come patronize this genius--and our club had no glitz, no cache'.
In May of 1977, I got married (my wife was one of the dedicated Friday night crowd from the J's place days) and Hamid played at my wedding and Fred was an honored guest. I moved to Milwaukee later that year, and the BirdHouse made it about another year.
There are few people on this planet nicer, deeper, or more "in" the music than Fred Anderson and for that matter Hamid Drake.
I was so happy for Fred when he bought the Velvet. I've lived too far away (and been to damn poor) to go and see him. I've seen Hamid a few times when he's come through my town with Vandermark or with William Parker. I hope I can get to one of the benefits to put whatever I can into Fred getting a new home for the music he has done so much to keep alive.
If you love jazz and can do anything to help Fred, please do. You will be gaining karma that will go toward a better universe for us all.
posted by beelzbubba at 12:03 PM on April 28, 2005 [1 favorite]
In the late 1970s Anderson ran a nonprofit North Side club at 4512 N. Lincoln Ave. called the Birdhouse, named in honor of Charlie “Bird” Parker. But after harassment by the city and random vandalism — “somebody didn't want us there,” Anderson explained — he closed it down and went to Europe, where he cut “Another Place.”
Here's more backstory on the BirdHouse
In 1974 and 1975, Fred Anderson and the band (at the time, Hamid, Billy Brimfield, Doug Ewart, Felix Blackmon and the occaisonal appearance by George Lewis) played Friday night sets at a place in Old Town called J's Place, run by a new-agey group called the Foundation Faith. The FF would hold optional meditations from about 11:30 pm, and then at midnight Fred's band would light up this hippie coffee shop.
They would play a long set, til almost two, two thirty. Break for half an hour, then open things up for a jam session. I can remember seeing/hearing Thurman Barker, Ajaramu, Kalaparusha, Wallace MacMillian, Terry Dickerson, Joseph Bowie (and other B.A.G. members) sitting in from 3 until 5 am--often longer, until the sun rose. They would invite people from the audience to join in , and several times another wannabe percussionist and I would pass out claves and bells and such to the crowd and get a mess of sound going.
The Foundation Faith ran into the IRS man and left in th emiddle of the night, figuartively and literally. Some of us who had been riding 60 miles from DeKalb (workers, not students) to see Fred every Friday night at J's place were devastated. Fred found a place on North Lincoln? North Milwaukee? (It was about two blocks away from Zum Deutschen Eck restaurant) that had been a kitchen cabinet & fixture store, owned by an old guy in Lincolnwood. Only hitch was, the guy wasn't too keen on renting to a "jazz man."
Fred was working his day job laying carpets, living in Evanston, and being the outstandingly generous man he has always been. No place to play. I had moved from DeKalb to the northwest 'burbs. Fred was at my apartment and pitched me on the renting the storefront--a white face on the contract to appease the owner--and I was happy to do what I could. We all pitched in to turn that little storefront into a club. The cops kept checking our progress. Weekends and afterwork hours were spent buiding the stage and installing lights and seating.
Fred & I went to the City Licensing Bureau where we got the runaround on getting a license. Fred wasn't trying to get a liquor license--none of us had that kind of scratch--just something that would let him charge admission. The license wasn't all that much, $300 or $500 or so for a year. The catch was that without greasing somebody's palm, we would have to wait a looooong time for that permit to be processed. We went with the slow route and in the meantime opened up as a "donations" club.
Opening night, undercover cops came in with bottles of booze in brown bags. We were smart enough to take those at the door and put 'em on ice. Teh cops took their booze and left. Didn't tell the uniforms, though, because the uniforms came about two minutes later, trying to shut us down for open-container violations. Nyaah Nyaah.
Anyway, we kept limping along week to week, and Fred was putting everything he could into the place. The rest of us contributed sweat equity and whatever else we could spare. I tried to keep the authorities (including the landlord and the neighbors) happy.
The music was always the thing. Rich, deep Delta-loamed jazz through the low-low-low horn of Fred, and the almost-scary symbiotic timing of Hamid Drake. Amazing people came through those doors and played sheerly for the love of music. We all had day jobs and there wasn't dime one coming in from the BirdHouse (nor was money ever what it was about). The club was too far north for the Downtown elite to come patronize this genius--and our club had no glitz, no cache'.
In May of 1977, I got married (my wife was one of the dedicated Friday night crowd from the J's place days) and Hamid played at my wedding and Fred was an honored guest. I moved to Milwaukee later that year, and the BirdHouse made it about another year.
There are few people on this planet nicer, deeper, or more "in" the music than Fred Anderson and for that matter Hamid Drake.
I was so happy for Fred when he bought the Velvet. I've lived too far away (and been to damn poor) to go and see him. I've seen Hamid a few times when he's come through my town with Vandermark or with William Parker. I hope I can get to one of the benefits to put whatever I can into Fred getting a new home for the music he has done so much to keep alive.
If you love jazz and can do anything to help Fred, please do. You will be gaining karma that will go toward a better universe for us all.
posted by beelzbubba at 12:03 PM on April 28, 2005 [1 favorite]
sorry. my bad.
posted by beelzbubba at 2:31 PM on April 29, 2005
posted by beelzbubba at 2:31 PM on April 29, 2005
beelzbubba, I think you misunderstand. kenko was suggesting that your really excellent comment deserved a mention on the front page.
I guess I've taken having the Velvet 30 blocks N of me for granted. It really is an amazing place and it's always a thrill when Fred hands over the cashbox and joins a set onstage. Thanks for the backstory.
posted by felix betachat at 6:29 AM on May 1, 2005
I guess I've taken having the Velvet 30 blocks N of me for granted. It really is an amazing place and it's always a thrill when Fred hands over the cashbox and joins a set onstage. Thanks for the backstory.
posted by felix betachat at 6:29 AM on May 1, 2005
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There's a free AACM concert at the Chicago Cultural Center on May 2nd.
posted by kenko at 1:52 PM on April 25, 2005