Chris Anderson From the Heart NaimCD035

From The Heart is aptly titled. Chris plays the piano as though his life depends on it; every note is laced with vulnerability. His improvisation with chords is a startlingly beautiful combination of delicacy and deliberation and his selections, though standards, become mysteriously eclectic and varied. Chris sings on “In Love In Vain”; it is a touching and heartfelt rendition.

Chris Anderson is a highly influential pianist, having worked with luminaries such as Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker and Dinah Washington among others. He is credited with teaching Herbie Hancock, who to this day remains a huge fan. Chris has recorded an album with Charlie Haden, “None But The Lonely Heart”, which is also available on The Naim Label.

Chris was born in Chicago, in 1926. His enduring fascination with harmony, which was sparked by film soundtracks, began well before the age of ten. He had already started to teach himself to play on the family piano, so well in fact that he never took lessons. This is a clue to the amazing originality and sheer talent of his harmonic ideas.

To this day, Chris Anderson remains legendary among musicians and essentially unknown to the jazz record buying public.

From The Heart was recorded by Ken Christianson at Cami Hall in New York, live and direct to a two track Nagra tape machine.

This wonderful and unique album combines the beautiful vocals of Sabina Sciubba and the supremely talented piano playing of Chris Anderson augmented by the incredible percussion and bass of Billy Higgins and David Williams.

This collection of timeless jazz standards is touched by the remarkable styles of all the players: Sabina's dynamic vocal structures, Chris Anderson's lithe fingerwork, and the intuitively seamless accompaniment of the rhythm section.

Charlie Haden & Chris Anderson None but the Lonely Heart NaimCD022

Great news! Charlie Haden is back in the catalogue with an UNLIMITED edition disc! Recorded in the superb acoustic of New York's Cami Hall, this disc sees one of the world's finest acoustic bass players collaborating with an internationally renowned pianist he has long admired, Chris Anderson (the man who taught Herbie Hancock to play piano).

As Charlie says in the liner notes: "Chris is risking his life with every chord, that's how much it means to him. He has such a reverence for beauty, he plays like an angel."