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The Show Goes On
An Interview with Chris Anderson
by Michelle Paponetti

Almost two months after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Asbury Jukes trumpet player, Chris Anderson and I decided to meet at his recording studio in mid-town Manhattan. As I was waiting for him and his partner, John Isley, to finish up a project they had been working on, I took a seat in the back room. "You want to hear a new song I've been working on?" Chris began to play me a beautiful new piece that he wrote recently, after the September 11th terrorist attacks. He explained to me that he didn't write the song as any conscious reaction to the events.

"I started playing the song, and I sat back and thought, 'Wow, what is that about? What is that piece of music related to?' And I still am not quite sure. The song doesn't give me a specific image. But it definitely has to do with some kind of new morning. Pain and new morning. The dawn breaking. And I guess ultimately it's a hopeful song."

The song certainly struck a hopeful chord, and gave me something to reflect about as I waited to start the interview. Before we began, I asked Chris what his experience was with the recent attacks on New York City. A conversation that seems all too common amongst New Yorkers in the last two months. It seems everyone has a story, and Chris didn't mind sharing his.

"I was home, I live in the Bronx. And my brother-in-law was over doing work in my house, My wife called me up and said, 'Turn on the TV.' And we were transfixed on the television. And it was right after the second plane hit. And I remember thinking, 'Oh, God.' And then everything kinda got calm for few moments and then my brother-in-law went outside to do some work, and then he came running in and said, 'They fell! They fell!' My oldest brother saw the second plane hit the building from the plaza. And the bodies. He said it was all in a horrible kind of slow motion. When the first building fell, he was in shock. He was outside and this guy pulled him into a store. He couldn't believe it. He's watching the building come down, this guy yanked him and then all of a sudden all the debris went right by him.”

“It was weird to be in England in October because every morning I woke up and I thought, 'Is everything OK?' I've never had that feeling. I woke up, and the first thing I would do is put on the news."

As Chris was speaking, we were sitting in his studio, located in Times Square. And for a few hours, it was nice to escape whatever it is we New Yorkers have been dealing with lately, and get involved in good old conversations about music, our appreciation and respect for the band and some recent projects he's been working on.

Can you tell me a little bit about your background as a musician?
I've played a lot of different music types. I spent about ten years playing with some great latin bands. Ray Barretto, Hector Lavoe, who was a great singer, Eddie Palmieri, I've done some work with Marc Anthony. I pretty much toured the world with Ray Barretto. And after a while, I felt like I needed to do something different. I spent so much time just doing latin music that I needed to get away from it. I did an off-broadway show for a couple of years called 'Beehive.' And then I started doing a lot more rock and R B stuff. I did Blood, Sweat and Tears, Ben E. King. I did the New York Rock and Soul Review for a couple of years with Donald Fagen, and it was great because I got to work with Pheobe Snow, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs and Charles Brown playing a lot of different kinds of music. On more of a jazz side, I played lead trumpet for Illinois Jacquet's big band which was an incredible experience because he's an old master of the tenor saxophone. And then I got involved with the Jukes.

How did you join the Jukes?
I did a lot of work with Rusty Cloud. Rusty played in my band and then I played in his band, S'killit which had a lot of the same people in it. Rusty had been in the Jukes and he recommended me. It was right before Johnny took his two and a half years off. It was around 95 or 96. I did one gig in Massachusetts with Joey and Ed and one other corporate gig. And when Johnny started up again, I went to Europe with him and the horn section. We went and did a few shows with Bon Jovi. Then we came back and we started touring again.

I had heard these things about Johnny being difficult, ya know, but I don't see it. I liked him from the beginning and I loved the band from the beginning. I love the hard work. It's never cruise-control with the band. The thing about the Jukes that I love is that we put out a lot of energy. That's the first thing that people get from it, that it's an incredible amount of energy. And that is something that has always attracted me, whether it's latin music or big band swing. I love that thing where you feel that engine going. And the Jukes definitely have that and you get it back from the audience. It's a thrilling thing to be a part of.

What made you decide to get into music?
I never got into music because I wanted to be a soloist. I feel like it was never about my voice being heard. It was always about the excitement of playing music with other people. That to me is what is most attractive. And that's what's great about this band. You have to be on your toes all the time and there's a great feeling of this locomotive going down the tracks. There's very few bands that have that. Even some of the great bands that I've played with, once it gets to a certain level, they just keep doing the same thing over and over again. You go to three shows and they're gonna be the same three shows. And the people who love the Jukes know it's never like that. It's a thrilling thing because you're almost rewriting the music every night. Johnny demands that of himself every show. And when he does a show that's a great straight-ahead show, sometimes afterwards, he'll be practically banging his head against the wall because he didn't feel that he got to that point where it was truly a creative exercise. And I'll go through whatever he wants me to go through to try to find that. That's a great gift in music to be able to work for someone who wants that and who would rather have a few train wrecks because of the special moments that you get. That's what's great about him.

I think that's why the band has such a solid, dedicated audience. John has that ability to create something new each night. Or he can play the same song every night, and each time it's a little different.
Absolutely. Last summer, Johnny got to a point with 'I Don't Wanna Go Home' where every night we'd try something different. We did it accapella, we did it fast, we did it really slow like a Drifters song. Sometimes, he would stop the band in the middle, "Wait a minute, we're gonna try something else", in the middle of the tune ! and it was a great tune to do it on because on one hand the verse is simple, then it gets a little more complicated on the chorus. It was fun to change it around.

You grew up in Westchester County (NY), right?
Yea, I grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, not too far from Yonkers.

Did that play any specific role in your development as a young musician?
Yea, I came from a school that was small, maybe 100 kids in each grade. It was a very hip thing to be involved with the Music Department. The band director was a jazz saxophone player and there's a lineage of professional musicians who came out of that school. I remember being in the fifth grade and going with the class to hear the band, and we were going to choose our instruments. And I was sitting next to my teacher and the trumpet player, who became a professional trumpet player, came out and played a solo and I remember her sighing, being moved by it, and I thought that's what I want to do! (laughs) I want to be able to make women go "ahh." So in my school playing music was a cool thing to do. So I got involved with playing music, which led me to get very serious about classical music when I was in high school. Then I got to college, I went to Manhattan School of Music, and I knew I didn't want to be a classical musician. So I radically changed everything about my approach.

Also being in the New York area, I think was influential because I knew professional musicians. I never looked at myself or the job as a star thing. It was always about, 'How do you make a living as a musician?' That's how I always approached my career. I just wanted to play as much music as possible and make a living doing it without having to do something else. I look back now, and what my goal was, is kind of what I am.

What are some of the biggest highlights you've had with the band?
There's a lot of shows that I've walked off feeling, 'That was a really good night.' I would say almost every Hampton Beach show. That's always a great venue to play. And it was certainly great when Bruce played with us this summer, I'd never seen Bruce before. Europe this summer was special because the band hadn't been there for so long and it went so well.

What was it like doing the horn parts for "Messin' With The Blues" at Jon Bon Jovi's studio?
It was great. We walked into the studio and we had no idea what was going to happen. And Southside started singing parts to us and we just put them together. We had never heard any of the tracks and we kind of just did it on faith. The five of us work together really well, I think. I was proud of how, in those sessions, we just took Johnny's ideas and made them work. And then we came up with other ideas and we really got a lot done in a day. And working with Mark and Richie is a great experience. They have such a great thing together and their energy is incredible.

Your talent as a trumpet player is really brought forth specifically in the song, 'Tired Skin,' which Johnny seems to play live pretty regularly. Was that a song that you knew and brought to the table? I don't remember Johnny ever playing it prior to you joining the band.
No, around 2 summers ago, Johnny brought in four tunes he wanted to futz around with. I think the only two that we still do are 'Tired Skin' and 'You Don't Know Like I Know.' So we were rehearsing, and the other three tunes all have horn parts, or we wrote horn parts to them. But 'Tired Skin' was not going to have any horns on it. And he was playing it, and I was there and I just started playing Harmon Mute. Partially, it had been as a joke. I had said to Johnny on every tune, "Oh, this would be great for a trumpet solo." So he started playing it, and I started playing along and he kinda laughed about it, but then we left it in, and it developed from there. It's worked out nicely and people love it. And I like the way Johnny sings it.

How do you think the Jukes fit into the music industry today compared to some of the other acts out there? Why do you think they are so important?
Well, when I was a kid there were more bar bands. Certainly on the Jersey Shore. It seems like that's ending now. And there's a lot of reasons it's ending. The Jukes are important because we're really a live band. What's important is that it's not programmed music, there's a tremendous energy exchanged between the audience and the band that is not based upon volume or hype. It is really based on communication in a real way. And it's important because the history of R&B and Rock and Roll is really touched on in a Jukes show, all different aspects of it. It's not limited to one genre. You don't go to a Jukes show and know that you're gonna hear one kind of music all night. The rhythm section we have now can play all different kinds of stuff at a moment's notice.

And the other thing that I think is important about the Jukes is that it's very intelligent. Johnny's humor is a big part of what the Jukes are. Sometimes I listen back to tapes and I'm amazed at what comes out of his mouth in between songs! It's priceless! That goes through the whole music. There's an intelligence, a humor. And as he said at Jukestock, "It's nice to play for people who get it." And this band is not recreating music from the 50s or the 60s. This is not about that. I played with Blood, Sweat and Tears, and then I saw them years later and it was exactly the same show! Exactly! And though that band touches on many of the same veins that the Jukes do, they play it the same way all the time.

I think that's why you see some of the same people at many of the shows. Because it's a different show each night. Some nights Johnny will play a song and I can get through it and other nights it's just too emotional, or too affecting. It just buries itself right in your soul.
Well, it's like when we were at Martells in New Jersey this summer. As you remember, you and I were talking after the show about 'Renee' and and we both went, 'He just changed one word in the whole song,' and you and I looked at each other and just went, 'That was GREAT!' I got the shivers! (Chris was referring to Johnny's decision to change the last line of 'Walk Away Renee' from 'You're not to blame' to 'I'm not to blame' at the last moment.)

What are some of your other interests outside of playing with the Asbury Jukes?
The New York Horns, this studio that we're sitting in right now. John Isley and I formed New York Horns in '97-'98. Basically our idea was to get work as a horn section. We liked playing together and we wanted to do more work together, get more work during the week. And the best way to do that was to be recording. So we put together a four-tune CD, but we packaged it as a band. But really our aspiration was to get work as a horn section. And kind of on the spur of the moment, just as a whim, John posted all four tunes on mp3.com right when mp3.com was getting a lot of hits and was just becoming known to people. And they just went through the roof. And over the two and a half years that it's been up, we've had 350,000 downloads and have had worldwide internet interest in our music. We've had offers to play different places. We've turned down all of the live offers because we haven't had a full concert's worth of material and we don't want to do other people's material. We hadn't approached our first CD thinking about it as a live show. Now we're working on our second CD, a full length CD. We've got five rhythm section tracks that are finished and we're working on the horns on those and writing the rest of the CD. We really want to have it finished by the springtime. We're looking at it more as a band. And we hope next summer to start doing work, we'll see what happens with it. It's instrumental music, and we're trying not to label it. We'll let everybody else do that. We're not looking for record contracts, we're looking to sell it over the internet. And we have been writing and recording for other people, we have this studio and with the digital performer and file transferring we've done projects for people we've never met.

So I'm involved in that and my family. My wife and two little kids.

Is there a place where people can get the first CD?
Yea, we're almost sold out of it, but people can buy it on our website www.nyhorns.com You can find it there and you can also find it on www.mp3.com.

What CD do you have in your CD player right now?
I know that one of the CD players in my house has Paul Simon's new record because my daughter loves to sing along with it. My walkman has India Arie and my usual collection of Miles, Eddie Palmieri and Louis Armstrong for traveling. I have a lot of CDs that I want to buy. I want to buy Shelby Lynn's new CD, I loved her last one. When we were in Europe, we were listening to (Bob) Dylan's new one. I'd really like to get that.

Is there anything else you want to add about yourself?
Nope.

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