Marc Dennis Anderson
(born December 10, 1955) is an American born percussionist, composer, poet and
Zen Buddhist priest. Best known for records and live performances with guitarist and composer
Steve Tibbetts
Steve Tibbetts (born 1954) is an American guitarist and composer. He views the recording studio as a tool for creating sounds. Most of his albums include percussionist Marc Anderson.
Style
Tibbetts plays acoustic and electric guitar and exoti ...
, he has recorded and performed with dozens of notable artists. His interests and studies in non-western instruments and musical traditions are a signature of his sound and technical style.
Early life and education
Anderson was born in
Austin, Minnesota, the son of Truman Anderson and Mary Lou Regner. He is the oldest of 5 children. He attended Austin Central High School and holds a degree in Cultural Anthropology from the
University of Minnesota.
Career
In 1977 Anderson met and began working with Steve Tibbetts who had just started working his second record. That record, titled ''
YR'', led to their first recording with the prestigious German record company
ECM
ECM may refer to:
Economics and commerce
* Engineering change management
* Equity capital markets
* Error correction model, an econometric model
* European Common Market
Mathematics
* Elliptic curve method
* European Congress of Mathematics
...
and legendary producer
Manfred Eicher. In the fall of 1982 the two flew to Oslo, Norway and recorded ''Northern Song'', the first of many recordings the pair would make over the next several decades.
Through the 1980s and 1990s Anderson became a stalwart in the
Twin Cities music community as a sideman and bandleader performing and recording in a wide range of musical and artistic environments including; free improvisation, traditional Irish, Ghanaian, Finnish and Americana folk music, experimental, avant-garde, jazz and pop. He also produced a number of records including two recordings as leader and composer: ''Time Fish'' and ''Ruby''. He has toured extensively in the US, Europe and Asia. He was the founder of two Twin Cities musical groups: Eight head and Speaking In Tongues. His most recent musical project in called Music and Words.
In the early 1980s he met Sowah Mensah, a musician and teacher from Ghana, launching a friendship and new musical direction. Anderson went on to study
Ghanaian music
There are many styles of traditional and modern music of Ghana, due to Ghana's worldwide geographic position on the African continent.
The best known modern genre originating in Ghana is Highlife. So many years, Highlife was the preferred mus ...
with Mensah and with teachers in Ghana for many years. He has also studied Haitian ritual drumming with John Amira in New York, spent time with the great
frame drum master
Glen Velez, took study abroad trips to China and Brazil and spent several years studying
tabla with Marcus Wise and
djembe
A djembe or jembe ( ; from Maninka language, Malinke ''jembe'' , N'Ko script, N'Ko: ) is a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands, originally from West Africa.
According to the Bambara people in Mali, the name of the djembe ...
drumming with Foday Bangoura in the Twin Cities.
Zen
Anderson began doing
transcendental meditation in 1983. He was ordained in 2007 by Togen Robin Moss. Anderson runs a community based project called The Urban Monk Project – facilitating meditation sessions, retreats and developmental training programs.
Partial discography
As leader/composer/producer
Time Fish - 1993
Ruby -2002
Festival Africa - 2001
World Music - 2002
With Steve Tibbetts
Yr – 1980
Northern Song – 1981
Safe Journey – 1984
Exploded View - 1986
Big Map Idea – 1988
The Fall Of Us All – 1994
Cho (with Choying Drolma) – 1997
A (with Knute Hamre) - 1998
A Man About A Horse – 2002
Selwa (with Choying Drolma) – 2004
Natural Causes – 2010
Life Of - 2018
As a sideman with
David Sylvian and Robert Fripp
The First Day -1993
Peter Ostroushko
Heart of the Heartland – 1995
Pilgrims On The Heart Road - 1997
Coming Down From Red Lodge – 2003
Sacred Heart - 2000
Minnesota A History Of The Land – 2005
Heartland Holiday - 2005
Postcards - 2006
Greg Brown
One More Goodnight Kiss – 1988
Peter Mayer
Million Year Mind (artist and producer) - 1999
Bountiful (artist and producer) – 2000
Elements (artist and producer) -2001
Earth Town Square (artist and producer) -2003
Midwinter – 2005
Novelties - 2007
Claudia Schmidt
It Looks Fine From here – 1994
Ruth Mackenzie
Kalevala: Dream Of The Salmon Maiden - 1998
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Marc
1955 births
Living people
American male poets
Zen Buddhist priests
People from Austin, Minnesota
University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni
American percussionists
American composers