The Heavy Metal Duo, Bob Stewart and Ray Anderson, explodes brass playing to another dimension...

The Heavy Metal Duo, Bob Stewart and Ray Anderson, explodes brass playing to another dimension. Product of a 30 year musical friendship, the Duo weaves blues, jazz, folksongs, spirituals and originals into a wondrous tapestry. Deeply versed in the essence of swing and occasionally sounding like an entire brass band, Stewart and Anderson cover the entire history of the music, from earliest parade ground marches to latest sonic sculptures.

“The two synchronized their prodigious talents on “East St. Louis Toodle-oo”, “Wade In the Water”, “John Henry” and even The Four Tops' “Sugar Pie Honeybunch”, retelling every tale in ebullient and hauntingly personal fashion.” - David Adler, All About Jazz, NY.

Described by critic Gary Giddins as “one of the most compellingly original trombonists,” and declared “the most exciting slide brass player of his generation” by the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, Anderson is by turns a supremely lyrical player and bold texturalist, a warmly natural-sounding soloist and footloose innovator. He has led or co-led a daunting assortment of tradition-minded and experimental groups, big bands, blues and funk projects and even a trombone quartet.

He is recognized as an original and compelling composer and has recorded more than 80 of his own compositions with these groups. He has also demonstrated his special supportive skills on a remarkably wide assortment of albums by Anthony Braxton, David Murray, Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, Dr. John, the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, Luther Allison, Bennie Wallace, Henry Threadgill, Barbara Dennerlein, John Scofield, Roscoe Mitchell, the New York Composers Orchestra, Sam Rivers' Rivbea Orchestra and others.

Bob Stewart has toured and recorded with such artists as Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, David Murray, Taj Mahal, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Arthur Blythe, Freddie Hubbard, Don Cherry, Nicholas Payton, Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Haden, Lester Bowie and many others both in the United States, Europe and the Far East. "The Tuba, as you know, was phased out of most ensembles around 1923 with the introduction of the "walking" upright bass. Since then it has only been in the last 20 years that composers and arrangers have begun hearing the instrument. As a result, there are more instances in which the Tuba appears in ensemble work."

Bob Stewart is bridging the gap between 1923 and the present by bringing the Tuba back into the modern ensemble as the bass in the rhythm section and as a horn available for melodic lines and soloing.
http://www.rayanderson.org/

The mark of a great artist has always been to go beyond technical excellence

The mark of a great artist has always been to go beyond technical excellence and impart a personal vision - a sense of style and self-expression that is indelibly his own. Among modern jazz musicians, no one rises to that standard more than trombonist Ray Anderson, whose sublime mastery of the tricks of his trade is equalled by the bountiful spirit he pours into his one-of-a-kind sound.

The man who wrote If I Ever Had a Home It Was a Slide Trombone, one of his many original compositions, has inhabited every nook and cranny of his horn. Described by critic Gary Giddins as “one of the most compellingly original trombonists,” he is by turns a supremely lyrical player and bold texturalist, a warmly natural-sounding soloist and footloose innovator. Broadening the trombone's sonic scope with his extended techniques, brilliantly unconventional use of the plunger mute and demonstrative vocal-like tones, he played a major role in reawakening interest in the instrument in the '80s.

Named five straight years as best trombonist in the Down Beat Critics Poll and declared “the most exciting slide brass player of his generation” by the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, Anderson has shown remarkable range. He has led or co-led a daunting assortment of tradition-minded and experimental groups, big bands, blues and funk projects and even a trombone quartet.

He is recognized as an original and compelling composer and has recorded more than 70 of his own compositions with these groups. In the tradition of Louis Armstrong, he is a colorful and exuberant performer and a spirited vocalist who induces smiles with his unusual split tones and screech effects.