Love Notes

This album of ballads is the realization of a long held dream. For many years I have wanted to record something that would stay in a mellow place, while still encompassing the full range of emotion. Something you can play while making dinner...or...... About Ray Anderson: He 'has a fluency and range on the instrument that would have seemed impossible a few years ago...like a trombone version of John Coltrane's tenor saxophone sound.' (Robert Palmer, NY Times). 'The most prominent trombonist of his generation.' (Gene Seymour, NY Newsday) 'Anderson is a true and total original.' (Fred Bouchard, Jazz Times) 'Ray's chops are phenomenal - from swooping legato to breakneck staccato, from the nastiest growls to the sweetest whimpers - but it's evident that he's not about technique, that he'll sometimes altogether forget technique. It's the feeling he's playing,...' (Michael Bourne, Downbeat) 'Ray Anderson's trombone chops have the strength of tensile steel and the flexibility of latex, and his technique allows him to play whatever ideas enter his mind. What enters it has large components not only of beauty but of whimsy and nonsense. In addition to the range of Yma Sumac and tonal variety approximating that of a 16-piece band, Anderson has taste.' (Doug Ramsey, Jazz Times) 'In recent years, Ray Anderson has all but revolutionized trombone technique. He not only plays faster with more variations of tone and timbre than his contemporaries, but also injects extraordinary energy and feeling into his music, be it a basic blues, a tricksy original or a straightahead blowing vehicle.' (Chris Parker, BBC Music Magazine)