Kenneth Anderson

While having both one's parents be musicians might sometimes be a guarantee that talent will be passed on to the next generation, it could also mean there will be parental arguments about just what instrument the children are going to play. This could have been the case with Kenneth Anderson, who began piano at the age of 10 and added both trumpet and saxophone shortly thereafter. He also became known as a skilled arranger. This craft can only be bettered by the type of technical knowledge of instrument families acquired from actually mastering the instruments. And that is much more than most musician can do. It is somewhat rare for jazz musicians to play both saxophone and trumpet, for example, although there are a few that do. Anderson covered both horns in Clarence Miller's Owl Theatre Orchestra, a hoot of a job that began in 1923. The following year he bounced around in the horn sections of Charles Cook and Walter Duett's Orchestra. Keyboards were an important part of the next stage of his career. He held down a regular job as solo organist in a Chicago theater while gigging on piano with groups such as Cookie's Ginger Snaps. This delicious sounding band recorded for the Okeh label in 1926 and featured players such as trumpeter Freddie Keppard and clarinetist Jimmie Noone. "Here Comes the Hot Tamale Man" was a highlight of this band's discography, although the juxtaposition of hot tamales with ginger snap cookies was a bit of strain from the digestive point of view. This was the morning of his relationship with Noone, who would continue hiring Anderson through the '30s. He also played piano with leaders such as Dave Payton, Sammy Stewart and Frankie Jaxon. Anderson may have had an even higher profile as an arranger, jotting out scores for Earl Hines and...