By Kate Youngdahl-Stauss
“Beginning with the story of Cain and Abel, brothers have had difficulties getting along,” wrote Will Anderson in his book “Songbook Summit: Fifteen Pioneers of American Sound.” But for twins Will and Peter Anderson, sibling rivalry has only enhanced their musical career.
“We started playing clarinet on the same day in the fourth grade,” Will noted recently. “It’s an asset to have someone learning alongside you. There’s a little rivalry. You push each other. You can hear the guy next door practicing the scales, and it inspires you.”
The Anderson Brothers have headlined at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Now they’re bringing their storytelling and musical virtuosity back to Warren’s Edgcomb Barn when Phantom Theater presents The Anderson Brothers Play Richard Rodgers on Sunday, July 13, at 8 p.m.
The Andersons’ Uncle John lives in the Mad River Valley, making the annual trek to Warren an eagerly anticipated reunion. The love of music runs deep in the clan: “The first recording my mom bought us was the soundtrack to “The Benny Goodman Story,” Will recalled. “I was 10 years old. She turned us onto it.” A family tradition it turns out. “Her father was a complete jazz addict.”
That may explain the Andersons’ enduring regard for the Great American Songbook. In previous Valley shows they’ve featured artists from Ellington to Gershwin. The July 13 performance of Richard Rodgers is another link. Rodgers, the composer of melodies like “My Funny Valentine,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” and “My Favorite Things,” partnered with lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein in a musical theater career lasting more than 40 years.
While Hammerstein collaborations on “The Sound of Music” and “Oklahoma” may be more familiar to the general public than Hart shows like “Babes in Arms,” according to Will “among jazz musicians, it’s not even close. Hart was witty, a sarcastic New Yorker. Jazz is like that too, it’s dark, it’s sarcastic.” “A lot of jazz musicians gravitate to Hart because of the improvisational nature of the melodies in those tunes,” Will said.
The Anderson Brothers are joined at Phantom by jazz guitarist Adam Moezinia, whom they first met at Juilliard in 2010. It is, according to Will, “a natural fit. He is extremely passionate about the American Songbook and these composers. We don’t have to tell him anything. He just does it. He knows the aesthetic that we love.”
Phantom Theater presents The Anderson Brothers Play Richard Rodgers, Sunda, July 13, 8 p.m. For more information and advance tickets, visit phantomtheater.org.
