Read the Daily Record’s feature story on Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull, as well as their performance at MPAC Tuesday, March 12th!
Daily Record: “Jethro Tull 50th Anniversary Coming to Morristown”
by Bill Nutt
Jethro Tull has been classified as progressive rock, folk rock, and even heavy metal.
Its repertoire runs the gamut from the pounding “Locomotive Breath” to the lilting “Thick as a Brick” to a ballad that was composed by King Henry VIII.
The fact that the music of Jethro Tull has been so hard to pin down makes Ian Anderson a very happy man.
Anderson, whose classically trained flute-playing is as associated with Jethro Tull as his distinctive vocals are, recalled that the group was originally formed in late 1967 with a different goal in mind.
“Mick Abrahams (the group’s guitarist) was a big blues and rock ‘n’ roll fan,” recalled Anderson. “He wanted to play the music he grew up with. I thought we could be a little more eclectic.”
By the time Jethro Tull recorded its first two albums — “This Was” in 1968 and “Stand Up” in 1969 — that eclecticism was already apparent.
“When Martin Barre joined in 1969, I felt we had something I could work with,” Anderson said.
For the past year, Anderson has been celebrating 50 years of Jethro Tull’s music. He is playing only a handful of shows in the U.S. on the current leg of the tour. One of those stops will be the Mayo Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, March 12.
“We started this as the 50th anniversary of Jethro Tull,” Anderson said. “It’s not the band’s 51st year, but it’s actually the 50th anniversary of the first time we played in the United States.”
Audiences’ responses to the tour have been enthusiastic, but also surprising, according to Anderson.
For example, he noted that, at some European dates, he and the current lineup of the band performed “Pastime with Good Company.” This ballad by King Henry VIII that was included as a bonus track on the reissue of the 1979 album “Stormwatch.”
“That’s not a well-known Jethro Tull song,” said Anderson. “But the reaction was surprising. People instantly responded to it.”
The idea that the same band the won the first Grammy Award for heavy metal could also cover a Renaissance-era ballad has been one of Jethro Tull’s strengths, Anderson said.
“Things were never clear-cut with us,” Anderson said. He drew a comparison to the late David Bowie, another artist who delighted in changing styles from one album to the next.
That said, one of the mainstays of Jethro Tull has been Anderson’s flute.
However, he admitted that the combination of flute and vocals has not always been easy to maintain.
“The two things, flute and singing, aren’t really compatible,” he said. “You’re making the same muscles do two different things. Plus, I don’t just play the notes on the flute. I do things you’re really not supposed to do, like singing into the flute.”
For that reason, even after all these years, Anderson still needs to rehearse before concerts.
“I have to practice, to get myself into that physical space.”
Once the current tour ends, Anderson will concentrate on finish a book of the history of Jethro Tull, which he hopes will be released later in 2019.
“It will have lots of interviews, lots of visual material,” he said.
Also slated for publication is a book compiling the complete lyrics of the band’s catalog – more than 250 songs.
That book will be augmented with photographs taken by Anderson.
“One of my hobbies is photography,” he said. “A lot of my songs actually start out with an image.”
Anderson stressed that playing with Jethro Tull is not simply “living in the past” (to quote the title of one of the band’s best-known songs).
“Like the Rolling Stones and Robert Plant and members of the Who, we’re still out there,” he said. “It’s more than simple survival. You know you can still do things. There’s a magic about it. That’s quite special, to take that into old age.”
Anderson, who is 71, said that he is grateful to still have the stamina to perform.
“It’s quite special, to take that into a serious old age and knowing you still have some dignity,” he said. “You know it will go away, but for now, you can do it.”
Ian Anderson presents Jetrho Tull: 50th Anniversary Tour
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 12
Where: Mayo Performing Arts Center, 100 South St., Morristown
Tickets: $99 to $199
Info: 973-539-8008 or www.mayoarts.org
