History and Mission

The Birdhouse Inc., an Illinois 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, was founded in 1977 by Fred Anderson. Born in Monroe, Louisiana, in 1929, Anderson moved to Evanston, Illinois, during the Great Migration. Inspired by the music of Charlie Parker, Anderson started playing saxophone and composing music, and in 1965, he became an original member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). In 1982, he opened the Velvet Lounge performance space in Chicago’s South Loop. Anderson operated the Velvet Lounge for the next 38 years, developing his music, mentoring hundreds of younger musicians, and transforming the South Loop neighborhood into an international destination for creative music. He also published two editions of Exercises for the Creative Musician, an improvisation textbook used by performers around the world.

Anderson passed away in 2010. Since then, The Birdhouse Inc. has sustained its founder’s legacy by presenting concerts of contemporary creative music and partnering with other organizations that share Anderson’s lifelong commitment to “patience, sincerity, and consistency.”

Collaborations

After the Velvet Lounge’s closing in 2010, The Birdhouse Inc. collaborated with the Chicago Park District to design a new park that would serve as a lasting home for creative music in the South Loop. Fred Anderson Park was dedicated in 2013 with a concert by Ari Brown and celebrated its grand opening two years later in 2015 with a concert by the AACM Great Black Music Ensemble. The Birdhouse Inc. has sponsored a summer concert series at the park every year since (except 2020).

The Birdhouse Inc. also presents an annual birthday concert in March, the month when Fred Anderson was born. Notable birthday concerts include a 2015 performance by Roscoe Mitchell, subsequently released by Nessa Records; a 2017 event commemorating the release of the book Message to Our Folks: The Art Ensemble of Chicago, presented in collaboration with the University of Chicago Press; and a 2024 concert of Fred Anderson’s compositions by Greg Ward, co-sponsored by the Experimental Sound Studio.

Additionally, The Birdhouse Inc. collaborated with Roscoe Mitchell, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Harvard University’s Fromm Music Foundation to commission the composition Last Trane to Clover Five, premiered at the 2021 Hyde Park Jazz Festival with saxophone soloist Ken Vandermark. The Birdhouse Inc. also worked with Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio to create a permanent archive of materials related to Fred Anderson, from rare audio and video recordings to historical documentation of the Velvet Lounge.

Endorsements

Fred Anderson was an exemplary Chicago artist and scene-founder, a tenor saxophonist of enormous integrity and lyrical grit. As a bandleader, mentor, and operator of independent performance spaces, Fred created a legacy that endures in the efforts of those who came up under his wing—and thanks to the Birdhouse organization, serves the whole city with the park established in his name, and audiences by enabling creative music to flourish.

—Howard Mandel, writer and president of the Jazz Journalists Association

I can speak firsthand of Fred Anderson’s significance to the Chicago and international music community, both as a listener and as a musician who was fortunate enough to work with him on many occasions….The contributions that Fred made as an artist and through his ongoing support of other musicians through the years of programming he organized at his venue, the Velvet Lounge, cannot be overestimated. The Birdhouse Inc. has continued Fred’s important work as a presenter by organizing significant concerts in Fred’s memory, by creating Fred Anderson Park which has regular outdoor performances, and by assisting with major commissions—such as that with Harvard’s Fromm Music Foundation, where both organizations funded a new composition by Roscoe Mitchell for the Dal Niente Ensemble. The work that The Birdhouse Inc. has done to continue Fred Anderson’s legacy make it a truly significant cultural institution, one that maintains the musical history of Chicago and projects it into the future.

—Ken Vandermark, MacArthur Fellow in Music

It would be impossible to overstate the significance of Fred Anderson’s work as a musician and bandleader—and as an organizer who provided a platform for so many creative musicians from around the world. The spokes that extend outwards from his former home in Chicago to various corners of the globe all come back to the Velvet Lounge at their hub, and to Fred’s hardworking, patient, and stubborn belief in bringing folks together through music. The Birdhouse continues the legacy of this patriarch of the Chicago jazz and improvised music scene with dedication and respect, to preserve and extend the enduring legacy that Fred left behind him.

—Dave Rempis, saxophonist, improviser, composer, and arts presenter

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