Jeff Anderson - Part 1

I spent a week over in Kittitas for the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association (WOTFA) summer workshop, and while I was there Jeff Anderson graciously agreed to be filmed as part of a this video series. Along with being a great fiddler, Jeff is an articulate speaker and had some wonderful things to share.

In the beginning Jeff talks about what he thinks makes fiddle music FIDDLE music (he's gesturing at a row of music stands off camera when he says "don't play it from here") and the importance of driving the dancers. He demonstrates this danceablity in two tunes; Storviksætra Vals and Arkansas Traveler. In part two he discusses his unique approach with the bow and plays the Little Norwegian Boy's Fiddle Vals (which he wrote).

Jeff and I talked back and forth on email a bit as I was editing this together for Youtube, and he had this to say about "driving the dancers."

"When I say you need to drive the dancers, that means not forcing people into dancing but to play the music in such a way that they want to dance, and the thing that compels them want to stamp their foot on the floor when dancing, this, is what I call "to drive the dancers" accent the tune in the right place which in turn will then give them the "push" or "drive" at the point where they can put the foot down on the floor hard if they want with the time or beat of the music. I could show you easier then I can tell you. To learn that, I feel it is something that must be demonstrated. This I feel is passed down from one fiddler to another and the fiddler will need time to develop that. This is the difference between a dance fiddler and a fiddler who plays tunes for an audience."
-- Jeff Anderson

You can hear more of Jeff's wonderful music by looking up his two CDs through Voyager Records; Fiddling in the Family Tradition, and Nordic Spirit which includes his wife Jane Johnson on the accordion. www.voyagerrecords.com . He was also featured in the book and CD set, Roses In Winter: A Celebration of Washington's Old-Time Fiddlers, available at the WOTFA website www.wotfa.org under "publications." If you'd like to contact Jeff and Jane you can email them at thenordicspirit (at) hotmail.com

I plan to record more northwest fiddlers in this format so you can see the wide variety of styles and physical approaches to fiddling that are out there, but also the common thread that runs between them. However, I can't over-emphasize the importance of getting out and playing with these great old-time fiddlers. As well as just being wonderful people to get to spend time and play tunes with, they carry around a wealth of information in their heads, hands, and as Jeff pointed out, hearts. Watching a video is a poor substitute, so get off of youtube and out to a jam!

PS ~ My apologies for the somewhat choppy editing, between the camera dying and having to take a moment to tune and this was the best I could do!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jeff
• Anderson
• fiddle
• old
• time
• music
• old-time
• WOTFA

[ASCWENATCHEE]

Awwww! There's Jeff! I played with him when I was nine! He is such a great guy. I'll never forget when he brought a Hardinger in to my dad's store and let me play it!!