---------------------------------------------------- AUGUST 21, 2000  ----------------------------------------------------- Source: New Gibralter Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock http://www.gepr.net/am.html Jon Anderson By Fred Trafton  What can I say about Jon Anderson? He has one of the most immediately recognizable and frequently imitated voices in progressive rock, or any genre for that matter. He has been one of the most constant members of the legendary Yes in almost all of its incarnations. He has made a number of albums teaming with greats like Vangelis and Kitaro. He has lent his vocal talents as a guest vocalist for King Crimson (Lizard), and Tangerine Dream (Legend soundtrack). As a soloist, he has made one of the most beautiful, inspiring and innovative recordings ever created (Olias of Sunhillow) and has made some of the most boring, insipid recordings ever created (pick your favorite example). You may love him or hate him, but if you're a progressive rock fan, you can't ignore him. Jon Anderson was born on October 25th, 1944 in Accrington, UK. Legend has it that he worked on a farm and drove a taxi before creating his first band, The Warriors, with his brother Tony. The Warriors recorded a 45 entitled "You Came Along" in 1964 which met with less than spectacular popularity. Jon's next move was to do some recording as a solo act under the name of Hans Christian Anderson in 1967. He did a cover of of The Association's "Never My Love", which also failed to attract much attention. Then in 1968, he met up with Chris Squire who was playing in a band called Mabel Greer's Toyshop. This band had previously included Peter Banks, and Bill Bruford sat in on drums for their last concert. All these folks teamed up and performed their first gig as Yes on August 4, 1968 at East Mersey Youth Camp in Essex, England. They played mostly covers of other bands songs. Jon sang and toured with Yes for all of their first 5 years, encompassing Yes (69), Time and a Word (70), The Yes Album (71), Fragile (72), Close to the Edge (72), Yessongs (73), Tales from Topographic Oceans (74) and Relayer (74). At this point, the band agreed to take a hiatus to allow each of its members to explore some music they wanted to do which did not fit into the Yes style. Jon's album was Olias of Sunhillow, an incredibly georgeous album of epic adventure in mythical times and places. This album's instrumentation is mostly (analog) synthesizers, acoustic guitar and harp, with lots of interesting "world" percussion and Jon's vocals, frequently multitracked to create large chorales. Vangelis is thanked in the liner notes, and the suspicion is sometimes voiced that he had more than a little to do with the composition, orchestration and playing on this album. It also has a fantastic set of paintings to go with the story line, which fall sadly flat when reduced to CD dimensions. If you can find a copy of this album on the original vinyl, it's worth owning for the artwork alone. Jon went on to sing with most of the remaining Yes albums (plus "almost-Yes", namely Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe), the only one I'm aware of his missing was Drama. Interspersed with these incarnations, revivals and mergings of Yes, Jon continued to put out solo albums, and a series of more commercially-oriented collaborative albums with Vangelis. Jon's solo albums are wide-ranging in their styles. They could mostly be placed in the "new age" or "world" categories without much trouble, but except for Olias they are not terribly progressive in nature. Some have said that Toltec "doesn't suck", but that's about as high as the praise goes in the prog community for all of his solo efforts outside of Olias. Jon has always been a "spiritual seeker" as one can tell from his lyrics in both Yes and Olias. To hear him tell it, he had tried several spiritual paths, but none seemed to satisfy him. But in 1987, he met an old Hawaiian lady who was called Divine Mother by her followers, and Jon became an ardent follower of her and her teachings, and remains so today. This spiritual mindset is easily heard to influence his music and lyrics. He would love for you to know more about it, and you can if you visit his web site. As of this writing, Jon is collaborating with Igor Khoroshev, the newest keyboard player of Yes, to make a new album called "True You True Me". This is due out by the end of 2000, and it's anybody's guess what it will sound like. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com