From the River to the Ocean cover

From the River to the Ocean

Released

This 2007 album, co-billed with Hamid Drake, brings Anderson into the realm of spiritual trance jazz, and unsurprisingly he thrives there. The ensemble is heavy on strings: Jeff Parker plays guitar on two tracks, and throughout the album Harrison Bankhead and Josh Abrams switch among bass, cello, and guembri. On the nearly 14-minute title track, they congeal as an ensemble, the bassist taking a stunning cello-like bowed solo as Drake’s frame drum and Abrams’ guembri teleport the listener from Chicago’s South Side to the desert of North Africa, with Anderson’s intensely focused saxophone the through-line.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Dimensional Stardust cover

Dimensional Stardust

Exploding Star Orchestra, Rob Mazurek
On the Corner cover

On the Corner

Miles Davis
Ofamfa cover

Ofamfa

Children of the Sun
Body and Soul cover

Body and Soul

David Murray Quartet
Conversations cover

Conversations

Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, Archie Shepp
Live in Seattle cover

Live in Seattle

John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders
The Daily Biological cover

The Daily Biological

Chad Taylor Trio
Koksofen cover

Koksofen

Caspar Brötzmann Massaker