Not Trad, but Useful: Ian Anderson web resource

[jemtheflute]

Ahhh, the delights of web-browsing! A propos of something entirely different, I quite by chance today came across the Jethro Tull website. (I've never been a Tull fan, BTW - never listened to much, not liking the little I've heard casually plus reacting negatively to the way it is one of the cliches of being a fluter that non-fluters often rub your nose in, like Annie's Song....). A swift browse led to the discovery that Ian Anderson has written some quite extensive and very sage advice on flutes, technique and learning, amplification, gear and so forth, judiciously leavened with entertaining anecdote and wry humour. It's Boehm orientated, of course, but well worth a read.

http://www.j-tull.com/musicians/ianande ... pment.html

In particular, the bits about miking a flute would answer some frequent Qs on this forum....

[G1]

^Yeah, it's as much about the character of that old eel farmer as the music he's known for. Also, he brought flute to many who never considered the instrument 'popular' or interesting; and fused old world music with rock and folk to create his style.

I am a 'devout' JT fan and listen to cuts from 'Songs From The Wood' and his more acoustic oriented music every week at some point... but I never considered him on the level of the players that are admired here for their pure prowess. It's more about artistry and the spirit of the thing. I made a good living for years performing his music in traveling bands... so yes, he is well liked and respected by some cross-section of the music appreciating public here in the States.

~Oh yeah... while growing up studying and playing classical music and big band (clarinet, oboe, bassoon, saxophone, string bass, guitar), Ian Anderson is the reason I took interest in the flute as an instrument in the first place - or rock music for that matter.

[Gordon]

A devout fan, here, too -- I'm a verified rocker who probably wouldn't be playing ITM at all if it weren't for the cross-over nature of (bands like) Tull.
As for his level of play, not surprisingly, I don't agree - his prowess is on par with the best - just a different sort of music, on a different sort of flute. Looking down on the virtuoso rocker - flute, guitar or otherwise - is on par with classical folks looking down on ITM players. Of course, he became most famous early on, when he was less refined, and - like all of us - became a better player with age, and time. Still like the early stuff - in some ways more - but his abilities and prowess increased dramatically through the 70s, 80s, 90s, etc...
BTW - his Roots to Branches album (solo, if I remember right) - featured quite a bit of Olwell cane fluting - I saw him do a show (backing band not Tull) at the Beacon in NYC during the mid-90s, and he was every bit as smooth on a six holed flute as on the silver. Impressive stuff, all round.

[chas]

I'm a non-devout fan of Jethro Tull. I prefer the fluting on the first couple of albums, when Anderson was to a greater extent playing in the style of jazz guys, primarily Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Yusef Lateef.

I love this part of the page Jem linked to:

So, after fiddling around with the Irish tin whistle and the blues harmonica, I took the fateful plunge and part-exchanged my Fender Stratocaster (purchased a couple of years before from a certain hard-up Lemmy, later of Motorhead, but at the time with Reverend Black and the Rocking Vicars).

It's amazing how small the world is sometimes. Several months ago I found out Ry Cooder started out in The (Captain Beefheart's) Magic Band and today that Ian Anderson bought his first flute by selling a Strat to Lemmy. (Right after Robert Moog died, I found out a guy I've known for a couple of decades lived with him in graduate school at Cornell in the early sixties.)

[Cubitt]

Tull was the reason I started flute. Later-day Ian actually took the time to re-learn the flute, and if you've never heard "Divinities - Twelve Dances with God," you've missed something, even if it's not your taste, that is a testament to his prowess on the instrument. I've seen him play with a band (his own and pick-up bands) and with an orchestra, and I think he's as good as any that has ever breathed. The range of what he does exceeds most, if not all, classical and jazz players that I have ever heard.

[Gordon]

You're right, Cubitt - maybe it was Divinities, not Roots to Branches I was thinking of earlier, with the cane flutes and non-Tull backup... I followed Tull much more closely in their earlier days, when I was a lad, and Ian and I had much more hair - though I did continue to catch them (and him) as they played smaller and smaller venues..

Still, I don't think there are many flute players of any ilk more capable, versatile or as interesting as Anderson, all said and done. My main reason for going wooden, and Irish, was that - when I played silver flute - I kept trying to sound like a second-rate Anderson, and now, on wooden flute, I merely sound second-rate.