American jazz trumpeter (1916–1981)

Cat Anderson

4 min read
In 12 languages
2 images

Key facts

date of birthSeptember 12, 1916

date of deathApril 29, 1981

occupationtrumpeter, jazz musician, bandleader

place of birthGreenville

place of deathNorwalk

genrejazz

All data from the card 8

Also known as: Cat Anderson
Born: William Alonzo AndersonSeptember 12, 1916Greenville, South Carolina, U.S.
Died: April 29, 1981 (aged 64)Norwalk, California, U.S.
Genre: Jazz
Occupation: Musician
Instrument: Trumpet
Years active: 1930s–1970s
Labels: Columbia Inner City Mercury EMI Apollo Strand Philips All Life Parker

William Alonzo "Cat" Anderson (September 12, 1916 – April 29, 1981) was an American jazz trumpeter known for his long period as a member of Duke Ellington's orchestra and for his wide range, especially his ability to play in the altissimo register.

Biography

Early life

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Anderson lost both parents when he was four years old, and was sent to live at the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, where he learned to play trumpet. Classmates gave him the nickname "Cat" (which he used all his life) based on his fighting style.

Career

He toured and made his first recording with the Carolina Cotton Pickers, a small group based at the orphanage. After leaving the Cotton Pickers, Anderson played with guitarist Hartley Toots, Claude Hopkins' big band, Doc Wheeler's Sunset Orchestra (1938–1942), with whom he also recorded, Lucky Millinder, the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, Sabby Lewis's Orchestra, and Lionel Hampton, with whom he recorded the classic "Flying Home No. 2".

Anderson's career took off, however, in 1944, when he joined Duke Ellington's orchestra, at the Earle Theater in Philadelphia. He quickly became a central part of Ellington's sound. Although Anderson was a very versatile musician, capable of playing in a number of jazz styles (Leonard Feather described his style as "somewhere between Louis Armstrong and Harry James), he is most renowned for his abilities in the extreme high or "altissimo" range. He had a big sound in all registers, but could play up to a "triple C" (the highest Bb note on a piano keyboard) with great power (he was able to perform his high-note solos without a microphone, while other members of a big band were usually amplified for their solos). Wynton Marsalis called him "one of the best" high-note trumpeters.

But Anderson was much more than just a high-note trumpeter—he was also a master of half valve and plunger mute playing. Author and jazz critic Dan Morgenstern said of Cat that "he was...the [Ellington] band's Number One utility trumpeter, capable of filling in for anyone else who was not there." He played with Ellington's band from 1944 to 1947, from 1950 to 1959, and from 1961 to 1971, with each break corresponding to a brief hiatus to lead and front his own big band. In addition to his work on trumpet, he was a very skilled arranger and composer—he performed his own compositions "El Gato" and "Bluejean Beguine" with Ellington, and others of his compositions and arrangements with his own band, for example on his 1959 record album for Mercury, Cat on a Hot Tin Horn.

Personal life and death

After 1971, Anderson settled in the Los Angeles area, where he continued to play studio sessions, to perform with local bands (including Louie Bellson's and Bill Berry's big bands), and to tour Europe. He died of brain cancer in 1981.

Discography

Cat Anderson Plays at 4 AM (Columbia [France, EMI], 1958)
Cat on a Hot Tin Horn (Mercury, 1958)
A Chat with Cat Anderson (Columbia [France, EMI], 1963)
Cat Speaks (Black & Blue, 1977)
Plays W.C. Handy (Black & Blue, 1978)
Americans Swinging in Paris (EMI, 2002; CD reissue of the two French Columbia albums)
Cat Speaks: The Definitive Black and Blue Sessions (Black & Blue, 2002)