Dark Day (Fred Anderson album)

{{Infobox album|

| name = Dark Day

| type = live

| artist = Fred Anderson

| cover = Dark_Day_Fred_Anderson_Cover.jpeg|border=yes

| alt =

| released = 1979

| recorded = May 15, 1979

| venue = Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

| studio =

| genre = Jazz

| length = 59:14

| label = Message

| producer = Robert Kai Jon Kasseckert

| chronology = Fred Anderson

| prev_title = Another Place

| prev_year = 1978

| next_title = The Missing Link

| next_year = 1984

}}

Dark Day is an album by American jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson recorded live in 1979 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and released in a small batch on the tiny Austrian Message label. The performance was part of a series of AACM concerts presented by the museum. Anderson's Quartet features long-time partner trumpeter Billy Brimfield, bassist Steven Palmore and young drummer Hamid Drake, who contributes the piece "The Prayer", later retitled "Bombay (Children of Cambodia)".[http://www.atavistic.com/albums.php?id=171 Dark Day / Live in Verona] at Atavistic Records

The album was reissued on CD by Atavistic in 2001 as part of their Unheard Music Series with a bonus CD including an unreleased master recorded at Verona Jazz 1979, only four days after the Chicago concert.

Reception

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{rating|4.5|5}}

| rev2 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz

| rev2Score = {{rating|3|4}}

}}

In his review for AllMusic, Thom Jurek states about the Atavistic reissue "these two dates on a pair of very reasonably prices CDs, with great sound, are gifts rescued from the islands of obscurity, and should be listened to with the awe and wonder they inspire."{{allmusic|last=Jurek|first=Thom|class=album|id=mw0000012550|title=Fred Anderson – Dark Day + Live In Verona: Review|accessdate=February 24, 2014}}

The Penguin Guide to Jazz says that "Dark Day is the definitive Anderson performance, sombre and cutting by turns, packed with muscular phrases but also strangely tender and vulnerable."{{cite book|last = Cook|first = Richard|author-link = Richard Cook (journalist)|author2=Brian Morton |author-link2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title = The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD|edition = 6th|series = The Penguin Guide to Jazz|year = 2002|publisher = Penguin|location = London|isbn = 0-14-051521-6|pages = 43}}

Track listing

:All compositions by Fred Anderson except as indicated

  1. "Dark Day" - 18:40
  2. "Saxoon" - 11:32
  3. "Three On Two" - 18:07
  4. "The Prayer" (Hamid Drake) - 10:55

;Atavistic reissue CD 2 Live in Verona

Recorded live May 19, 1979 at Palazzo Della Gran Guardia, Verona, Italy.

  1. "The Bull" - 16:32
  2. "Three On Two" - 31:46
  3. "Dark Day" - 25:12

Personnel

References