“I didn’t set out to have a band with two basses. It was funny that it didn’t occur to me until a while in, that I’d run the Andrea Keller Quartet for 13 years as a bass-less ensemble and now my next major ongoing adventure as a bandleader involves an ensemble with two bass players!”
“If we didn’t sound and swing like The Count Basie Orchestra has since 1935 and continues to do to this very day in 2018, then I would feel the term ‘ghost band’ would be warranted, but this orchestra has not lost one beat since Basie passed in 1984. In many respects, it may even be stronger.”
– Which song reminds you of your most important rite of passage?
Ingrid James: One of the many rites of passage was Spain – both Chick Coreas and Al Jarreaus version. In my twenties, I hopped up on stage with a jazz band in West Berlin and sang it cold with them. That was a brave moment for me.’ Spain ‘wasnt just a normal standard at the time.
Sam Anning in his compositions pulls great emotion out of these disparate experiences and satori. ‘Across a Field as Vast as One’ is an album of great beauty that avoids the trap of complexity to focus on the emotional.
