The Wild Reed: Remembering an Artist and Vocalist Extraordinaire

Monday, February 08, 2021

Remembering an Artist and Vocalist Extraordinaire

As was the case last year and the year before, February this year at The Wild Reed is dedicated to singer and actor Carl Anderson, who was born on February 27, 1945 and died on February 23, 2004 at age 58.

As I’ve noted previously, I sometimes like to think that in a parallel universe Carl has the superstar status which in this universe was inexplicably denied him. This despite the fact that he possessed a vocal range, elasticity, and sensuality that matched, and often bettered, those of his contemporaries Freddie Jackson, El Debarge, Jeffrey Osborne, John Whitehead, Al Jarreau, and Luther Vandross.

As the Funky Town Grooves website notes, “Carl Anderson was a singer with great range, clarity of diction . . . [and] that rare ability to sing flawlessly from a technical standpoint [while] still communicating character and emotion.”

He was, in short, an artist and vocalist extraordinaire!

I dare say that for most people, Carl Anderson is best known for playing Judas Iscariot in the 1973 film adaptation (above and left) and numerous stage productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar. (For more about Carl’s groundbreaking portrayal of Judas, click here, here, and here.)

Jesus Christ Superstar, then, seems a good place to start with this year’s Wild Reed celebration of Carl, and I do so this evening by sharing an excerpt from Ken Anderson’s appreciation of Norman Jewison’s 1973 film adaptation of the rock opera in which he says the following of Carl.

In listening to three decades’ worth of covers, revivals, and re-recordings, I still find [Jewison’s] version of Jesus Christ Superstar to be the best sung of the lot. . . . [T]he arrangements, orchestrations, and vocal performances are just top notch. This is especially true of the late Carl Anderson, whose powerfully clear and expressive voice can still give me goosebumps.

Every singer in [the] role [of Judas] has had to live up to Anderson’s standard, and in my opinion, not a single one comes close. His Judas was more than just a great voice, he was a passionate actor as well. . . . [Anderson’s] show-stopping rendition of the propulsive title song is one of cinema’s great musical moments. And who can resist the envisioning of an angel’s wings as the fringe on a Vegas-era Elvis jumpsuit?