www.courierpostonline.com/article/20101001/LIFE06/10010309/A-flutist-like-no-otherA flutist like no otherBy NICOLE PENSIERO • For the Courier-Post • October 1, 2010
Mention the name Ian Anderson to any serious Jethro Tull fan and you may find he or she eager to imitate his famous one-footed playing stance -- such is the ongoing devotion for all things Tull. For more than 40 years, Anderson and his flute have mesmerized audiences with flamboyant stage presence and stellar musicianship. Later this month, the sharp-witted musician will perform for the faithful at Collingswood's Scottish Rite Auditorium.
While billed as a solo tour, several Tull band members -- including keyboardist John O'Hara and bassist David Goodier -- will be part of Anderson's backing band, and the 63-year-old musician says the show will include plenty of Jethro Tull favorites, both well-known and obscure.
When Jethro Tull was formed back in 1967, there was nothing to compare the flute-fronted rock group to. All these years later, Anderson notes, there still isn't.
"My playing the flute was an alternative to being a small fish in an increasingly bigger pool filled with many great guitar players," Anderson recalled. "I wasn't that great a guitarist, so I took up the flute in my late teens." Applying his knowledge of guitar to the flute, Anderson taught himself to play over a three-month period -- though it took quite a bit longer before he truly mastered the instrument.
"I used the flute as a surrogate guitar, and the way I structured songs was based on my guitar skills," he recalled. While Anderson acknowledges that the flute was "an unlikely instrument to bring into the forefront of a rock band," that was, he says, "the precise point of the exercise."
"It isn't an obvious, sexy instrument, but I took to it with the approach of a rock guitarist -- with real energy," he said. As Jethro Tull's vocal and sonic focal point, Anderson drew a passionate legion of fans, primarily male. With FM radio hits like "Aqualung," "Living In The Past" and "Bungle In The Jungle," Tull zoomed to superstardom, selling more than 60 million copies of its 30 studio and live albums. Anderson has also recorded four solo discs, one of which -- the flute instrumental "Divinities" -- reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Chart.
In 2006, Anderson -- a native of Scotland who moved to northern England as a child -- was awarded a Doctorate in Literature from Edinburgh's Heriot Watt University and, two years later, joined the ranks of the Beatles by being named an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for his "services to music."
"I'm a career musician," Anderson said. "I don't expect to ever stop."
Between his solo shows and performances with Jethro Tull, Anderson says he averages more than 100 performances each year.
"Jethro Tull has always been a live band more than a recording act," he said. "My solo shows appeal to people who have seen Tull, but they are always a bit different. I'm fond of changing things around a bit onstage."
Anderson said he also expects to perform some yet-unrecorded songs in Collingswood.
Being onstage "is something to be cherished and gives one the momentary feeling of being ageless," though, he jokes, "I'm not sure that applies the morning after."
Anderson lives on a farm in the Southwest of England, where he has a recording studio. But, as his bio points out, the tights and codpiece that were part of his colorful stage persona in the 1970s have "long been consigned to some forgotten bottom drawer."
