Watch
See Dave’s music projects in action…
Watch the In Lieu of Flowers album EPK (2025)
See the Melting Pot promo video:
Watch the Blue Innuendo band play "Urban Dilemma"
Listen
Listen to Dave's Recordings and find/steam/purchase them online here.
Blue Innuendo
This modern groove album pits a sweeping set of original music vs. a familiar group format of tenor/soprano sax (Dave), guitar (Tom Guarna), organ (Pat Bianchi) & drums (Matt Wilson). The result is fresh, spontaneous and “in-the-pocket.” Listen on Spotify.
CLARITY
This debut recording proves that jazz can be harmonically interesting, melodically intricate, and rhythmically hip – and still be totally accessible. These are fresh, new sounds – composed, arranged, and performed with clarity and directness. With Dave (soprano/alto saxes), John Hansen (piano), Chuck Kistler (bass), Adam Kessler (drums) and special guest Thomas Marriott (flugelhorn).
MELTING POT
This world-jazz project provides a joyous musical response to the immigration climate, blending Latin American, Indian classical, and mainstream jazz sounds in a vibrant melting pot.
Featuring:
Dave Anderson – soprano (1,2) & alto (3-5) saxes
Dave Restivo – piano (1-3,5) & Rhodes (4)
Hans Glawischnig – bass
Memo Acevedo – drums
Roberto Quintero – percussion
Neel Murgai – sitar (3,5) & voice (5)
Ehren Hanson – tabla (3,5)
Deep Singh – tabla (4)
Bryan Davis – trumpet (1,3)
Itai Kriss – flute (3,5)
Press
Reviews for “Melting Pot”
“How best to celebrate the multiculturalism that has long nourished the heart and soul
of America? ...a celebratory melding of musical cultures in a jazz context.”
“Editor’s Picks”
“ ...in the conversation for jazz album of the
year.”
Reviews for "Blue Innuendo"
“4 1/2 stars””
“A blazer, a hip disk is this! Hear it.”
“A saxophonist to reckon with... consistently fluid and adventurous. Put this crew together with Anderson’s excellent compositions and arrangements and you get an album that cooks from start to finish.”
“Anderson’s tenor playing is rich and synthesizes the influences of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Bob Mintzer, Michael Brecker, and Chris Potter in one neat package...A very strong candidate early on for one of the best organ dates of the year.”
“Unquestionably, one of the most remarkable saxophone voices on the jazz scene today.””
"Best Albums of 2016" Lists:
"Notes on Jazz" -- Huffington Post
Jazz Views
DOWNBEAT
Reviews For "Clarity"
“A master class in...how jazz-oriented writers develop their material. Mission accomplished.”
Bio
photo by Gulnara Khamatova
New York-based composer, saxophonist and instructor Dave Anderson brings a significant voice to the global jazz scene.
Anderson has performed as a saxophonist around North America with notable musicians including Matt Wilson, Pat Bianchi, Chico Pinheiro, Nicholas Payton and Mel Torme, playing New York City venues including Birdland and Zinc Bar. Although he plays in a modern style, Anderson has received accolades from jazz legends including Ray Brown and Rufus Reid.
Increasingly Anderson has focused on composing original music for his conceptually themed recording projects such as Melting Pot, Blue Innuendo and the soon-to-be released In Lieu of Flowers. He has recorded over 40 of his original compositions while developing a highly personal compositional/instrumental sound – one that is harmonically complex, melodically compelling and rhythmically exciting, yet accessible and appealing to lay listeners.
Born and raised in Cloquet, Minnesota, Dave Anderson started playing saxophone in his school band at age 11 and eventually won awards as an outstanding high school soloist at area jazz festivals. He wrote his first original songs while still in high school. Attending the University of Minnesota’s Duluth and Minneapolis campuses, Anderson won a full scholarship to the Aspen Music Festival, performing in a student ensemble that also included Clarence Penn, Ryan Kisor, Scott Whitfield, and Laurence Hobgood.
In the 1990s, after a brief time in Toronto, Anderson moved to New York, first working as a jack-of-all-trades for the legendary producer Creed Taylor at CTI Records, and regularly rubbing elbows with musicians such as Freddie Hubbard, Donald Harrison and Larry Coryell. In 2005, he relocated to Seattle and was active on the music scene there. He released the quartet session Clarity, which All About Jazz called “a clear and convincing modern jazz masterpiece of a debut,” enjoying top-15 nationwide jazz radio airplay. Anderson explored the funky and edgy aspects of a chord-less trio with songs by Anderson, Dave Holland and Coldplay on 2011’s Trio Real, before moving back that year to New York to reestablish himself and initiate new projects.
Anderson’s 2016 release Blue Innuendo, explored the rich jazz organ quartet format, with Anderson original compositions featuring Pat Bianchi, guitarist Tom Guarna, and drummer Matt Wilson and earning a rare 4½-star review from Down Beat from Bill Milkowski, who praised its “great chemistry, great playing and good vibes.” In 2018, Anderson released Melting Pot, an immigration-themed world-music EP calling upon colleagues in New York’s Latin Jazz and Indian classical music scenes such as Memo Acevedo, Roberto Quintero and Neel Murgai, that Jazz Times called “a celebratory melding of musical cultures in a jazz context.”
With In Lieu of Flowers, Anderson explores a rich new conceptual theme – the ways people honor those who shape our lives – with another set of original compositions while returning primarily to the malleable acoustic jazz quartet format.
He remains focused on writing new music, performing as a saxophonist and teaching group jazz performance through JazzLabNY.
Performances
April 29 - adult student jazz combo performances for JazzLabNY 8-10:30 p.m. at Haswell Green’s 240 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, NY
June 4 7 pm ALBUM RELEASE SHOW - celebrating the release of In Lieu of Flowers at Shapeshifter Labs, 837 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY with Dave Anderson - saxophones, Grant Richards - piano, Lorin Cohen - bass and Jimmy Macbride -drums. $23 get tickets here.
Dave Anderson Quartet at Boxley’s Jazz Club, courtesy of Jazz Clubs NW
Appearing at Birdland Jazz Club with Memo Acevedo’s Manhattan Bridges Orchestra
