Marc Dennis Anderson is an American born percussionist, composer, poet and Zen Buddhist priest. Best known for records and live performances with guitarist and composer Steve Tibbetts, 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.
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 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 Citiesmusic 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 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 drumming with Foday Bangoura in the Twin Cities.
Zen
Anderson began doing transcendental meditation in 1983. Eventually landing with a local Zen community he went on to study Zen with Dosho Mike Port and was a founding and long time member at Clouds In Water Zen Center. 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 – 1997 A - 1998 A Man About A Horse – 2002 Selwa – 2004 Natural Causes – 2010 Life Of - 2018
