Jon Anderson gets ‘Close to The Edge’ in tour with young talent – The Times

Surrounded on stage by two dozen young musicians, Jon Anderson feels a special kind of energy.

Fans will reap the benefits when Anderson, singer/lyricist with art-rock legends Yes, performs locally with The Paul Green Rock Academy.

They'll perform Yes songs, including the entire "Close to The Edge" album, plus hits by a few other classic artists, resuming a tradition started in 2005, whenAndersontoured with Paul Green's original School of Rock All Stars.

"It's been wonderful chaos, on and off for 20 years," Anderson said. "They're brilliant musicians and amazing kids. The hardest thing for me is getting to learn the names because there's 22 of them. I'm always like, 'Now what's your name again?'

Upcoming concerts: July 14, Wellmont Theater, Montclair, N.J.; July 16, Ridgefield Playhouse, Ridgefield, Conn.; July 17, Sugarloaf Performing Arts Center, Sugar Loaf, N.Y.; July 20, Keswick Theater, Glenside, Pa.; July 22, The Kent Stage, Kent, Ohio; July 27, The Palace Theatre, Greensburg, Pa.; Aug. 3, The State Theatre, State College, Pa.

In the press release touting the tour, Anderson said, "I sang and toured with the Paul Green School of Rock many years ago. It was a miracle for me to join in with their young energy. And learn from them."

In a follow-up phone interview July 12, Anderson elaborated on what lessons the youths from Green's Philadelphia- and Connecticut-based schools of rock have taught him.

"About the joy of life. And the joy of making music," Anderson said. "They've all got a hopefulness of the future. A lot go straight from touring to Berklee School of Music and places like that."

Learning the Yes catalog is a daunting challenge for high school students. We're talking about one of rock's most virtuosic bands, with some of the greatest musicians at their particular instrument, such as the late Chris Squire on bass, Rick Wakeman on keyboards, and Steve Howe, named Guitar Player Magazine's "Best Overall Guitarist" from19771981.

"Paul Green is the impresario and he does that so well," Anderson said of the students' musical training. "And there's such a love for the music."

Though Anderson admits he was skeptical about collaborating when Green first pitched the idea of his students performing concerts with the longtime Yes man.

"The first time I met him, and he invited me I thought, 'I don't think so.'" he said. "But then he sent me a recording of his students playing (Yes') 'Heart of The Sunrise.' It was on a cassette tape."

Anderson was blown away by what he heard, and agreed to join what would become a fruitful partnership.

It was Anderson who first suggested this current tour feature 1972's "Close to The Edge," an iconic masterstroke that's made many top albums lists, including Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums in 2020. The 37-minute album features just three songs, including the side one spanning title track, and mixes classical music-inspired passages with Anderson's prettily sung, often impressionistic lyrics.

"Sort of miraculously, it works," he said of his and the Rock Academy's treatment of the album. "The way they play it, with so much excitement."

Anderson recalls being on tour with Yes supporting 1971's "Fragile" album (with the band's classic-rock staple "Roundabout") when ideas for "Close to The Edge" began to hatch.

"Fragile" featured two eight-minute songs, and the 11-minute epic "Heart of The Sunrise," but Anderson suggested to Howe they kick things up a notch.

"I said I think we should go for a long-form piece. And you could only put 20 minutes on one side of a record at that time."

They would co-write the 18-minute "Close to The Edge" title track, inspired by Herman Hesse's "Siddhartha," a novel about self-discovery. Though ultimately, the song's length bothered radio stations.

"When it was time to go back out on tour, we would go to radio stations but they were still playing (earlier songs) 'Starship Trooper' and 'Heart of the Sunrise.' We couldn't get anyone to play our new record. And in The States, by then, FM radio was falling apart and AM was better known, and so we didn't get that album played on any station in any shape or form," Anderson said. "But from the first night we played that album live, audiences loved it, so there was that."

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The side two track, And You And I," includes a lyric "there'll be no mutant enemy we shall certify/Political ends, as sad remains, will die" Anderson believes is timely enough to have been written last month.

"You're experiencing that in America now. The inconsistencies. I explain it better on stage when I perform a more recent song I wrote, 'Screw," where I say you can't trust politicians, they're only out to screw you," he said.

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The tour also includes "Close to The Edge's" side two track "Siberian Khatru," a multi-layered romp Anderson acknowledges has a tricky ending to nail, but he and the Paul Green students always succeed.

The setlist will include songs from other Yes albums. Expect "Roundabout," the hypnotically escalating "Starship Trooper" and Yes' 1983 chart-topper, "Owner of a Lonely Heart."

"But I also wanted to do something different. It's all Yes, Yes, Yes, so I said why not add a Led Zeppelin song? I've always dug 'Kashmir,' so we do that. And we do Lenny Kravitz and Eminem."

Wait a minute ... Anderson rapping Eminem's "Lose Yourself"?

"We've got a guy who does it perfectly. I'm not rapping," Anderson said.

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Any philosophical banter from Anderson could include his long-held pro-environmental stance.

"I think part of our purpose is being guardians of Mother Earth. And we're not looking after her very well right now, are we? What's wrong with us suckers?"

Swinging back through Pennsylvania makes Anderson recall memories like playing for 130,000 people in a Bicentennial concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.

"When we first came to Pittsburgh, it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere as we landed at the airport there on top of a mountain, mind you, we were probably stoned then. But every show there was really special and always such a pleasure," Anderson said.

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This tour's July 27 show in Westmoreland County is in a 96-year-old vaudeville theater.

"I love those kinds of buildings," Anderson said. "The ghosts. There's an energy from another time."

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When the tour wraps, he plans to finish a solo album for release this year.

In the meantime, "Come see the show and enjoy these young and talented musicians," Anderson said. "I know you will have a wonderful evening spending time with the future of rock 'n' roll."Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Beaver County Times and easy to reach at stady@gannett.com.

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Jon Anderson gets 'Close to The Edge' in tour with young talent - The Times