Earl Anderza - Outa Sight (1962, Pacific Jazz PJ-65 24-bit reissue)

Earl Anderza (as), Jack Wilson (p, e-hrpschd), George Morrow or Jimmy Bond (b), Donald Dean (d);
Recorded in March, 1962 at Pacific Jazz Studios, Hollywood, CA

01. All the Things You Are (Kern, Hammerstein)
02. Blues Baroque (Anderza)
03. You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To (Porter)
04. Freeway (Anderza)
05. Outa Sight (Anderza or Wilson ???)
06. What's New (Haggart-Bruke)
07. Benign (Anderza)
09. I'll Be Around [#] (Wilder)
10. Freeway [alternate take#] (Anderza)
11. Benign [alternate take#] (Anderza)


I also have incuded two tracks from Onzy Matthews Box Set, Mosaic Select #29:

Dupree Bolton -tp; Earl Anderza -as; Hadley Caliman -ts;
Roosevelt Wardell -p; Clarence Jones -b; Chuck Carter -d;
Recorded June 30, 1963 in Capitol Studios, LA

JOE AND I 3.56
MIDNITE LAMENT 5.20

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Review by Scott Yanow.
It is a pity that this 1998 CD reissue (which includes the original liner notes) says nothing about what ever happened to Earl Anderza. The date (which has its original eight selections augmented by I'll Be Around and two previously unheard alternate takes) was the altoist's only one as a leader, and he has been little heard from since. Anderza's style, while influenced to an extent by Charlie Parker and Jackie McLean, was also touched a little by Eric Dolphy. Standards mix with originals; the oddest aspect of the set is that pianist Jack Wilson switches to harpsichord (not a good move!) on a couple of the numbers. The support by either George Morrow or Jimmy Bond on bass, plus drummer Donald Dean, is subtle and swinging. Earl Anderza clearly deserved better than the total obscurity he found.
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Comments by unknow (to me) person.
Earl Anderza is known to have recorded only one album. He was a West Coast jazz altoist from the late '50s to the early '60s. There really is not much to be found on the Web about him, but this native Angelino grew up in a rich jazz environment that included Carmell Jones, Gerald Wilson and the Central Avenue influences. If this set truly qualifies as a treasure, as one reviewer put it, remains to be seen. Earl Anderza's modal atonality playing does vaguely remind me of what I recently heard in an Albert Ayler Slug's set – but do not misunderstand me, this is still along straight-ahead jazz lines.

AMG's answer to the birth control pill, Mr. Y, again demonstrates just how little he knows or cares about jazz when he wrote that Anderza was influenced by Charlie Parker and Jackie McLean, was also touched a little by Eric Dolphy. Indeed, in the original liner notes Anderza unequivocally states, Lee Konitz was the biggest influence on my playing style because I dig not only Lee's tonality but his technical ability and ideas.

Anderza knows a bit about tonality and soul, judging from the slightly off-kilter rhythms in 'You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To', where the rhythm gives way to something more tender, before the thing cracks open into something that Konitz, McLean or any other saxist could have easily engineered.

The liner notes clearly quote ''Earl, Eric Dolphy and I shared the same teacher, Lloyd Reese''... I guess that Yanow feels that sharing the same teacher is equivalent to, touched a little. I also disagree with his claim it was a mistake to switch between the piano and electric harpsichord. This may have been a unique way of approaching jazz, a new way of hearing harmonics but it somehow suits the off-coloured approach of this LP. Anyhow, according to urban legends, Jack Wilson simply saw the harpsichord sitting in a corner of the studio, and thought, what the heck I'll give that baby a test drive. . .

The majority of these tracks are Anderza's originals. He also re-arranged the standards. Despite the short-'ish' length of the set, there is plenty of individual brilliance in this swinger ~ enjoy!