Jon Anderson
Jon Anderson (* 25. October 1944 as John Roy Anderson in Accrington , Lancashire , England ) is an English rock musician and singer who primarily through its membership in 1968 he co-founded the progressive rock band Yes has become known. A characteristic feature of Anderson is his high-pitched, clear vocals.
Career
Little John's Skiffle Group and The Warriors (1954–1967)
Even as a boy, John Anderson (he deleted the h later, when he was in London) had to contribute to his family's income. Among other things, he worked as a milkman. His musical career began in 1954, when the ten year old was a washboard player and a member of the "Little John's Skiffle Group", which mainly played pieces by Lonnie Donegan . In 1962 he joined his brother Tony's band The Warriors as a singer, which at times also called itself The Electric Warriors.
The other band members were Michael Brereton ( lead guitar ), Rodney Hill ( rhythm guitar ), David Foster ( bass ) and the later King Crimson - drummer Ian Wallace. The band played mainly in the north of England and released two singles on Decca: "You Came Along" and "Don't Make Me Blue". During a concert tour to Germany, Anderson left the Warriors.
The second Yes album " Time and a Word " features two pieces that Anderson wrote with David Foster: "Sweet Dreams" and the title track "Time and a Word".
Hans Christian, Gun (1968)
Anderson released two singles under the stage name "Hans Christian": "Never My Love", a cover version of the then-current hit by The Association , and "The Autobiography Of Mississippi Hobo".
For a short time he was a member of the band Gun of the brothers Paul and Adrian Gurvitz . However, he only had one gig before he had to leave the band. The band then had a big hit with "Race With The Devil" in October 1968. The cover of their first album was designed by the fantasy artist Roger Dean , who would later be responsible for numerous Yes album covers. The Gurvitz brothers later became known primarily through their collaboration with Ginger Baker in the band "Baker Gurvitz Army".
Yes (since 1968)
In 1968 Anderson kept afloat with a job at the London club "La Chasse". Club manager Jack Barrie introduced him to bassist Chris Squire , who was out and about with his band Mabel Greer's Toyshop at the time. Anderson stepped in Squires band that after a few line-up changes in the summer of 1968, following a proposal by guitarist Peter Banks in Yes renamed. The original line-up was: Anderson, Squire, Banks, Bill Bruford (drums) and Tony Kaye (organ).
Anderson sang nine studio albums with the band by 1978. While working on the never released tenth album ( Paris Sessions ) in Paris, he left the band with Rick Wakeman for artistic, financial and personal reasons. Yes then discarded the material developed with Anderson, replaced Anderson and Wakeman with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes from the Buggles and wrote their tenth studio album " Drama ".
Anderson devoted himself more to his collaboration with Vangelis (albums "Short Stories", 1980 and "The Friends of Mr. Cairo", 1981) and began his solo career with the albums "Song", which began with the album "Olias of Sunhillow" (1976) Of Seven "(1980) and" Animation "(1982) again.
After the failed XYZ sessions , Chris Squire founded the project "Cinema" together with Yes drummer Alan White and the South African singer and guitarist Trevor Rabin (see " 90125 "). The record company, however, considered it necessary that the new band had a sole front man. When Squire approached Anderson, he was so enthusiastic about the new song material that he spontaneously agreed to sing on the new album. A renaming to "Yes" was obvious, if only for marketing reasons, as there was no need to establish a new band on the market.
While working on the two Yes albums "90125" and " Big Generator " that followed, Rabin increasingly took over the leadership of the band, which Anderson had been used to since the 1970s. Frustrated, he left the band for the second time in 1988 and founded the project Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe with three former Yes members
After only one album (titled Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe ) and a successful world tour of the new "Yes" project, Anderson merged the two bands into an eight-member Yes lineup that seemed to promise great commercial success. When this failed to materialize after an album composed of very heterogeneous material from the two bands ( Union , 1991) and another world tour, “Yes” was reduced to the 80s line-up of Anderson, Kaye, Rabin, Squire, White under pressure from the record company.
Anderson was again a full member of Yes.
From 2004 to 2008 Yes took the longest break in their band history. Some claim that this long abstinence was less due to the health problems of Anderson (and Wakeman), but rather was due to the fact that Anderson's spiritual guide, the 'Divine Mother' Audrey Kitagawa (who, as he himself says, was there helps to "see into the fourth dimension"), I strongly advised against performing live before 2008. In any case, this had been given by Anderson as a reason for the cancellation of a performance at the "PG School of Rock Music" in July 2007, and reasons of a spiritual nature had been heard from him before. In the meantime, due to the annoyance of some fans (and the other band members, especially Steve Howes , Squires and Whites), the management has refrained from this explanation and brought the health reasons back into play.
A yes comeback tour planned for summer 2008 was canceled on June 4, 2008 due to Anderson's health problems. A few weeks earlier, he had been hospitalized with an acute asthma attack that left him clinically dead for two minutes. Despite his quick recovery, his doctors advised him not to go on a concert tour. For Anderson first came Benoît David as singer, with whom the album Fly from Here was recorded, and from 2012 Jon Davison.
As part of a live tour for the 50th birthday of the band, a new formation called Yes featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman appeared. Lee Pomeroy and Lou Molino III acted as additional live musicians alongside Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman. The tour took the band through numerous cities in Europe, including the O2 Apollo Manchester .
Jon & Vangelis (1975-1991)
In the summer of 1975 Anderson recorded the song "So Long Ago, So Clear" for the album "Heaven and Hell" by Greek keyboardist Vangelis . It was the beginning of a long-term collaboration that began to be successful with the first Jon & Vangelis album "Short Stories" in 1980. The duo released three albums by 1983, a fourth, the last, was added in 1991.
In 1982 the Jon & Vangelis title I'll find my way home reached number 6 in the German single charts.
Olias of Sunhillow (1975/76)
In 1975, all Yes members at the time took time out to work on solo projects. Jon Anderson's album "Olias of Sunhillow" was the last to be released in 1976.
"Olias of Sunhillow" tells the background of a story that Yes illustrator Roger Dean depicts on the Yes album covers of " Fragile ", " Close to the Edge ", " Yessongs " and " Tales from Topographic Oceans ", the decay of one Planets and the journey of its fragments as "spurs" for new worlds and the escape of a spaceship from the shattering world: three mythical leaders - Olias, Ranyart and Qoquaq - unite the four warring tribes of the doomed planet Sunhillow, built through Olias' song the living ship "Moorglade Mover" and bring the population to the safety of their new home, the earth, before the impending catastrophe. This story is conveyed through the music, the cover design by artist Dave Roe and a narrative that is also translated into German on an early edition of the album enclosed sheet.
Anderson uses number symbolism: The four first letters of the tribal names stand for those of the tribes of our world, in Anderson's worldview "Negro, Asian, Oriental and Nordic". The earth circle Sunhillows stands for the 1 and the three leaders for the 3. Accordingly, the symbol Olias' on the back of the album cover is formed by a circle, a triangle and a square. The circle stands for the oneness of all and for Sunhillow, the triangle for the leaders Olias, Ranyart and Qoquaq (it also alludes to the trinity), the square in turn stands for the individuality of the tribes. The Olias symbol thus clearly resembles that of the Rosicrucians .
Anderson combines these motifs, which are mostly borrowed from classical mythologies ( Exodus , Noah and the Ark , the Trinity ) with contemporary esoteric themes (the album is from "The Initiation of Life" and "The Finding of the third Eye", two books by spiritual author Vera Stanley-Adler, inspired), which are also central elements of Yes mythology: a positive attitude towards the world and life, mysticism , prophecy , peace , respect for nature , hope for the future and last but not least power the music (Olias shapes the ship through his singing).
The music itself is shaped by the visionary power and wealth of musical experience that Anderson brings. He combines 23 themes into a closed album without conventional song structures, which he forms into a dense web of melodic and rhythmic figures by superimposing many sound tracks, which flow into one another. The design and sound of this album are therefore unique, it is considered a forerunner and prototype of the New Age music that emerged in the 1980s . "Olias of Sunhillow" is together with Chris Squire's "Fish out of Water" the most style-defining solo album by a Yes musician.
Anderson also contributed to the solo album "Ramshackled" by Yes drummer Alan White during this time.
Later solo work
Since 1979 Anderson published more or less regularly solo albums that document the development of the artist to an independent musical personality. To be emphasized are u. a. "Song of Seven" (1979), which contains a small masterpiece with the title track of the same name and on which with "Some are Born" and "Days" also material not used by Yes can be heard and "Change we Must" (1994), which is a successful release with classically inspired material, a bit of modern classical music and orchestrated classics like "State Of Independence" or "Hearts". The album "Toltec" (1994) is a "concept album", with its exotic, flowing sound, characterized by many percussion instruments, again reminiscent of the much-praised debut "Olias Of Sunhillow" (1976). The other albums also offer a wide range of different styles, from rock ("Animation"), Pop ("In The City Of Angels", "The More You Know") to Latin Pop ("Deseo"), Unplugged ("Earthmotherearth") ) to meditative music ("Angel's Embrace"), Irish folk ("The Promise Ring") and Christmas songs in modern pop garb ("3 Ships"). With the arrival of the new media in everyday life in the 21st century, Jon Anderson's production behavior has also changed. Since the last regular album "The More You Know", the artist has published a number of his works, mostly individual songs, collaborations with other musicians or producers, exclusively on the Internet, some songs even only on certain platforms such as B. 'Twitter'. His diverse solo activities, a clear signal of his vitality and busyness after a phase of illness and recovery and his various live activities are documented in detail on 'youtube'.
The Chagall musical
In the 80s and 1990s Anderson worked on a still unreleased musical about the painter Marc Chagall . Most of the pieces in this musical have so far only been demo versions. Only two songs have been released to date: Picasso , a song about the painter Pablo Picasso , as a bonus track on the Rhino version of the Yes album Tormato (in the video YesYears you can see Anderson briefly singing the piece and doing it on one Acoustic guitar accompanied) and Chagall Duet on Anderson's solo album Change we must .
Further cooperation
In addition to his solo activities, he has worked as a guest singer with many other artists and projects over the years, including a. King Crimson , album "Lizard", Kitarō , album "Dream", Vangelis , albums "See You Later" and "Opera Sauvage" (on the latter as harpist!), Mike Oldfield , album " Crises " and others. Single "Shine", Tangerine Dream , soundtrack "Legend", Dream Theater , album "Systematic Chaos", Peter Machajdík , album "Namah", Toto, album "The Seventh One", soundtrack "Metropolis", soundtrack "St Elmos' Fire ", Glass Hammer, album" Culture Of Ascent "a. a. m.
family
Jon Anderson is married to Jane Luttenberger for the second time. He has three children from his first marriage to Jennifer Baker: Deborah Anderson, who is touring with the French electro-pop band Télépopmusik (album Angel Milk , 2005), Jade Anderson, who is pursuing her own singing career, and Damion Anderson, also a musician.
Discography
With yes
With Vangelis (Jon & Vangelis)
- 1980: Short Stories
- 1981: The Friends of Mr. Cairo
- 1983: Private Collection
- 1991: Page of Life
With Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe
With Rick Wakeman
- 2010: Living Tree
Singles as Hans Christian Anderson
- 1968: Never My Love / All Of The Time
- 1968: Autobiography Of A Mississippi Hobo / Sonata Of Love
Solo albums as Jon Anderson
- 1976: Olias Of Sunhillow (UK:
silver) - 1979: Song Of Seven
- 1982: animation
- 1985: 3 ships
- 1988: In The City Of Angels
- 1992: Dream
- 1994: Change We Must
- 1994: Deseo
- 1995: The Deseo Remixes
- 1995: Angels Embrace
- 1996: Toltec
- 1997: The Promise Ring
- 1997: Earth Mother Earth
- 1998: The More You Know
- 2005: Tour Of The Universe (DVD)
- 2006: Live from La La Land at The Roxy Los Angeles (2 CD)
- 2011: Survival & Other Stories
- 2011: Open (download only)
- 2019: 1000 Hands: Chapter One
More solo activities
- 1984: Soundtrack - Metropolis
- Cage of Freedom
- 1985: Soundtrack - Scream For Help
- Silver Train
- Christie
- 1985: Soundtrack - St. Elmo's Fire
- This Time Was Really Right
- 1986 soundtrack - Biggles
- Do You Want To Be A Hero
- Chocks Away
- 1989: Various Artists - Requiem For The America / Songs From The Lost World
- Within The Lost World
- Far Far Cry
AndersonPonty Band
- 2015: Better Late Than Never
swell
- ↑ Yes recruit another new singer
- ↑ Live at the Apollo
- ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
Web links
- Official website
- Jon Anderson in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Jon Anderson on the baby blue pages
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Anderson, Jon |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Anderson, John Roy (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British rock musician and singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 25, 1944 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Accrington, Lancashire , England |