The 4 artists and genres Ian Anderson likes to listen to nowadays

Born in Scotland back in 1947, Ian Anderson helped to form Jethro Tull in the late 60s and since then the group has become one of the most influential Progressive Rock bands of all time. Active for almost six decades, the group has released 23 studio albums and have sold an estimated amount of more than 60 million records worldwide.

Their sound wouldn’t have been the same if Anderson didn’t have such a broad musical taste and he is always trying to discover new things. But of course, he has his favorite kinds of music and he even listed which are the artists he likes to listens to nowadays.

The 4 artists and music genres that Ian Anderson said he likes to listen nowadays

Muddy Waters

In Jethro Tull’s official website, Ian Anderson answers many questions frequently asked by fans and one of them is which is the kind of music he likes to listen to nowadays. The musician said that he receives many “unsolicited” demo tapes and he said that he listen to many new stuff like that. But one of the artists he said he likes to listen to nowadays is the late legendary Blues musician Muddy Waters.

Anderson always loved the Blues and even listed in an interview with Classic Rock in 2021, “Hoochie Coochie Man” released by Muddy Waters in 1954 as one of the records who changed his life.

“This is one of the first songs of Muddy Waters that had a big impact. Not only on me but on a whole generation of wannabe R&B and blues artists in Britain. It’s one of his best-ever pieces. Before his death, Muddy even re-recorded it with Johnny Winter and turned in another great version of the tune.”

He continued:

“This was my introduction to the genuine article – Chicago blues. I had heard stuff that was derived from the genre and had various shadings of it. Like some of the three-chord swing music I had listened to. But when you hear the real thing, you know it, and Muddy Waters’ Hoochie Coochie Man was inarguably the real thing.”

During the same conversation Anderson said that although the British listeners didn’t understand the background behind that kind of music. They saw it as a “heroic form of folk music”.

Muddy Waters started his career in 1941, 26 years before Jethro Tull was formed. His career lasted more than four decades and sadly came to an end with his death in 1983. He was only 70 and he recorded 13 studio albums, also releasing more than 60 singles.

Beethoven

Although Anderson curiously didn’t listen to classical music at all during the first years of Jethro Tull he developed a taste for it later. One of his favorite composers is Beethoven and he told The Jerusalem Post in 2012 that the German musician was good at not making his music too obvious.

“Beethoven was pretty good at choosing what he would slip in in the way of familiar-sounding motifs. But he was quite good at not making it too obvious. For those that recognize them though, it’s ‘ah! I remember that! He did that in the Third Symphony… as well as the 7th and the 9th’ (laughs),” Ian Anderson said.

He loves Beethoven so much that he even told Church Times back in 2015 that alongside Muddy Waters, the German composer was the one who influenced him the most. “As a musician, I’ve been most influenced by Beethoven and Muddy Waters. As a man, not sure. Several, perhaps: I have an eclectic sense of wonder, and a mind open to new ideas and practices. Shame I have to go soon. I would have loved to stick around for another thousand years. Actually, I would settle on a hundred. Make it ten,” Ian Anderson said.

Ludwig van Beethoven lived much less than Anderson, he passed away in 1827 in Vienna, Austria at the age of 56. But those almost six decades were enough for him to become one of the most important musicians of all time.

Indian Classical

Ian Anderson doesn’t love only Indian music, but also the food. He revealed that in an interview with Lisa Torem in 2010. Anderson first discovered the food and music from India with the help of Richie Darma. He was a drummer born in India who played in the John Even Band, a group that Ian Anderson was part before Jethro Tull was formed. Dharma lived in Manchester and frequently invited Anderson to “carry-out curry lunchtime”.

“I had an introduction to not only the fast-food Indian cuisine, but also the music of India. Because it was being played while you ate. So Indian music was something, by the age of 18 on, I heard regularly. But, there was also, back then, the beginnings of some fusion formed. One particular piece called:’ Indo-Jazz Fusions’ which was quite – I’m not sure how famous it was. But it seemed to be quite a well-known piece, written by John Mayer back in the mid 60s. It was indeed a long time ago,” Ian Anderson said.

Jethro Tull already had Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the famous musician Ravi Shankar, playing with them on stage. Anderson also wrote with her as he continued to recall in the conversation with Lisa Torem.

“For me, when I wrote some music for Anoushka Shankar, I was pushed to try to learn and understand as much as I could about sitar music. How the sitar physically was played, how it could deal with some of the nuances that we could actually sneak in to get some chordal progressions. (Also) some harmonic development to the music, without it providing too much anxiety for the Indian player. Hariprasad Chaurasia – he was very uneasy if you moved to another chord. Even if it was a related chord,” Ian Anderson said.

Pop Music

It’s really impossible not to listen current Pop music because is being played everywhere usually. At the mall, in the streets, at a party, in the cab, so that’s the way that Anderson said in Tull’s website that he usually listen to Pop music.

“The car radio and music television keep me as informed as I want to be. But I have never been a great listener of other people’s work. Even when I first started, I listened only to a few things which really caught my attention,” Ian Anderson said.