WESSELL “WARMDADDY” ANDERSON

Alto saxophonistWessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson grew up in the tough Bedford Stuyvesent and Crown Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn, NY. By the time Anderson was 14 years old, he was deeply involved in the local jazz scene (thanks in part to his father, a drummer) and attending jam sessions at then-active Brooklyn and Queens jazz clubs like the Blue Coronet, Pumpkin’s, and the Turbo Village.

Anderson later studied at Harlem’s famed Jazzmobile workshops with the likes of Frank Wess, Charles Davis, and Frank Foster. Here, Anderson also met Wynton and Branford Marsalis, who were both playing with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers at the time. At Branford’s urging, Anderson soon departed New York to study with famed clarinetist Alvin Batiste at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA.

It wasn’t long before Anderson got his first big break, when Wynton Marsalis asked Anderson to tour with the Wynton Marsalis Septet. Soon, Anderson was off to the studio and the road with Marsalis, helping make some of the most defining music of the late-’80s and early-’90s jazz revival. Although Marsalis disbanded the group in 1995, Anderson is still the first string alto saxist with Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

It was during his time with Marsalis’ group that Anderson began to develop his own sound: a mix of traditional New Orleans jazz  and a sweeping blues style similar to that of Cannonball Adderley, and Wynton thus dubbed him “Warmdaddy” soul.

The Quintet
Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson – saxophone
Ed Perkins – vocals
Victor Atkins – piano
Robin Sherman – bass
Jason Marsalis – drums