There’s a kind of time travel that happens when Peter and Will Anderson take the stage. You hear it in the glide of the clarinet, the crisp snap of the snare, the smoky elegance of a tenor sax tracing the shape of a memory. And yet, it’s never dusty. “You can’t help but make it your own,” said Peter. “That’s the nature of jazz.”
On Friday, August 1, the Juilliard-trained Anderson Twins will bring their Ellington tribute to the Oxford Community Center as part of OCC’s Jazz on the Stage Series. It’s not their first visit to the Eastern Shore—they played the Monty Alexander Jazz Festival a few years back and have performed at OCC before—but this time, they’re bringing Duke Ellington with them.
“To really spread the gospel of jazz,” Peter said, “you have to create an experience.” That means not just music, but storytelling. Expect some humor, a little history, and a whole lot of soul. “Ellington wasn’t just a composer,” said Will. “He was a poet, a bandleader, a voice. We like to give audiences a sense of that—who he was, what he said, how he thought.”
Ticket holders can count on a mix of Ellington standards and lesser-known gems—rendered with warmth, style, and a little improvisational snap. “There’s a lot of freedom in this music,” said Peter. “As long as you learn it well, it opens up to you.”
The twins grew up in D.C. and came to jazz through an unexpected portal: a Chips Ahoy commercial featuring Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing.” “We were glued to the screen,” Will said. “That’s what made us want to play clarinet.”
Their mother, a lifelong jazz lover, supplied them with records by Goodman, Artie Shaw, Ellington, and Basie. From there, it snowballed into a career that’s taken them from Carnegie Hall to international tours. They’ve appeared on soundtracks for *Boardwalk Empire*, *The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel*, and Martin Scorsese’s *Killers of the Flower Moon*. But the stage is still home.
“Live performance is where this music lives,” said Will. “It’s where you get to respond to the room, to the moment, to each other. Jazz is a conversation.”
Being twins helps. “We’ve been improvising together our whole lives,” Peter said. “We write our arrangements together, work out who plays melody, harmony, what octave. There’s a lot of nuance, and we know how to play to each other’s strengths.”
The show at OCC will include a full ensemble: the twins on reeds, joined by a pianist and a trumpet player they’ve performed with for years. “You can’t do Ellington without a great trumpet,” said Will.
There’s also a personal connection. Peter lives near a historic New York cemetery where Ellington, Miles Davis, and Lionel Hampton are buried. “I actually give tours there,” he said. “So this concert feels personal.”
For the Andersons, honoring jazz’s past isn’t about preservation—it’s about participation. “We think of ourselves as part of a lineage,” said Will. “You have to know where the music came from to say something meaningful today. That’s what we try to pass on to our students.”
The brothers teach extensively, private lessons, workshops, and educational concerts. They see it as part of the gig. “Jazz is hard to teach,” Peter said. “It takes intuition and self-discovery. But our job is to inspire—to spark something.”
At the Oxford show, that spark will likely catch fire. “Ellington wrote for the instruments,” Peter said. “He loved clarinets, saxophones, trumpets. He wasn’t writing for theater or singers—he was writing for the band.”
So whether you’re a longtime jazz lover or someone just dipping your toe into swing, expect a night that swings, sings, and teaches you something you didn’t know you already loved. And if Peter and Will Anderson have their way, you’ll leave feeling like you just stepped into a smoky, velvet-draped corner of 1930s Harlem—and you’ll be glad you did.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
Tickets are available now at www.oxfordcc.org/jazz. The show begins at 7:30 PM; doors open at 7:00 PM. Ticket options include:
General Admission Seating: $65
VIP Experience: $150, includes front cabaret seating, two complimentary drinks, a meet-and-greet with the artists, and an elegant post-show dessert and bubbly reception.
