Jon Anderson is quite pleased to know people are finally getting a chance to hear "1000 Hands: Chapter One," a solo album he sees as "the next step in my sort of musical adventure." And to say it's been a long time coming would be something of an understatement, having started when he unearthed tapes of songs he'd written nearly 30 years ago.

At least two-thirds of these songs, he says, began with the recordings on those tapes.

Returning to them after all this time "was kind of natural," he says. "I had the tapes in my garage, just sitting there forever. So we sort of baked them and printed them onto the computer in Orlando, which is where Michael Franklin, the producer, lives. And everything sounded good, even all my vocals. I was more than happy because I didn’t have to re-sing them."

At that point, he and Franklin started reaching out to other players to help flesh out those old recordings.

"Of course, when you could bring in seasoned, talented people, the tracks open up," he says. "And they give life to the music as well, with these twists and turns."

Although most of the players they ended up bringing in were at Franklin's suggestion, the idea of recruiting an assortment of musicians was in many ways an outgrowth of what Anderson was doing when he started working on these songs in 1990.

"When I was doing the album initially," he says, "I had lined up a lot of people I had bumped into along the way. Then, I thought Chris and Alan are down in LA. Get them on the album, which we did."

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Chris and Alan are bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White, with whom the singer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes in 2017.

Squire, who died in 2015, appears on three songs, "First Born Leaders," "Activate" and "Come Up." White appears on two, with jazz great Billy Cobham stepping in on drums on "Come Up."

"We were recording at Big Bear, up in the mountains," Anderson recalls. "I was in touch with Alan White and said, 'I’m gonna book a studio. Can you and Chris come in and do a couple tracks?' It was so cool that Chris played on it. I turned around and said, 'You’re so good.' He looked at me and said, 'That’s what I do, Jon.'"

Those initial sessions were recorded with Anderson's friend Brian Chatton.

"The reason why we never got the album finished," he says, "is I was always on tour with Yes and my friend Brian, he was doing tours with B.B. King and other people, so it just never got around to being finished."

Other collaborators include Chick Corea, Carmine Appice, Pat Travers, Steve Morse, Rick Derringer, Larry Coryell and the Tower of Power horn section

"I started thinking of Jean-Luc Ponty, who I toured with in 2015," Anderson recalls. "And Jean-Luc said 'I’d love to perform on it.' We sent him the tracks because these days, you know, you send MP3s to each other. He sent it back and it was like magic. Everything was magically happening."

Not every magical idea came to pass.

As Anderson recalls, "I started thinking about the Beach Boys and I bumped into Brian Wilson and kept thinking it would be great to have them."

Steve Howe is his 'musical brother'

He did work with another of his "favorite vocalizing bands," though, bringing in Zap Mama on two tracks. And Yes guitarist Steve Howe, who still tours (as does White) in the latest edition of Yes, plays on the final track, "Now and Again."

"I suggested maybe using 'Now' at the beginning, the middle and end of the record," Anderson recalls. "The middle became an orchestral version and the last version of 'Now,' we got Steve Howe to play on it. I decided, here’s Steve, I know we’re on the same planet. He’s in London, I’m in LA. That was the arc of the album. A lot of people go in to make an album, do two or three songs that are all over the radio and then the rest are just album songs. But I always like making an album full of musical experiences or adventures and that’s what this turned out to be."

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Working with Howe on creating new music was "actually lovely," Anderson says. "I just asked him would he mind playing on this track. He said, 'No problem.' Two weeks later, he played some guitar on this track. And I just felt like I wanted to sing. So I sang sort of memories of working together as musical brothers, you know? And it turned out great."

It's a beautiful conclusion to the album, Anderson singing, "Never forget that we are friends / Never forget, here I am singing as you play."

So things are good between the two of them, despite touring in two separate factions of Yes?

"Musicians are like family, musical brothers," he says. "You go through experiences together, through highs and lows. And me and Steve went through so many highs and a couple of lows here and there. But you never forget what you’ve done together and there’s always that chance you might work together down the line. Never say never."

There's no real awkwardness, he says, between the camps.

"I know this is corny," he says. "But I just say there’s a lot of bands out there playing Yes music. They just happen to be one version of Yes and I’m on tour doing Yes music. You know, as long as people play Yes music, I don’t mind at all. It’s an ongoing experience in life."

'1000 Hands' is all about collaboration

Another song, "I Found Myself," was written for and features vocals by his wife, Jane.

"She woke me up when we first met," he says. "I found myself when I found her."

Two other newer songs grew out of vocalizing exercises.

"When I wake up in the morning, I go to my studio and I do vocalizing exercises," Anderson explains. "I sent a couple to Michael and he sort of made them into dance music for some reason. He actually did them on a plane to China. He found these recordings I had done, 'Where Does Music Come From' and 'Ramalama,' and did these arrangements on his computer, as one can do on a plane. He said, ‘What do you think?” I thought, 'Wow. This is so cool. It’ll sound great on stage.'"

The singer clearly loves collaboration.

"I did something for Battles," he says. "I emailed them and said 'I’ll sing on your next album.' You know, just for fun. And they asked me to do that. They sent me a track and I sang on it just a couple months ago. So I’m doing this with a lot of different people. My modus operandi is to work with as many people as I can over the next 20 years, you know? On different levels. That’s the challenge of adventurous music."

'1000 Hands' is a breathtaking journey

He definitely rises to that challenge on "1000 Hands."

It's a breathtaking journey that eases you into his latest adventure with "Now," an acoustic-guitar-driven ballad that features a beautiful, achingly vulnerable vocal from Anderson, following through with the brilliantly constructed "Ramalama," the first of the tracks built on Anderson's vocalizations.

Ian Anderson adds flute to the shape-shifting "Activate," a nearly nine-minute suite. And "Make Me Happy" makes its entrance with a human beatbox and the strumming of a ukulele before adding horns, a choir and an island-flavored bassline.

As Anderson says, "There’s a lot going on." But it all holds together, as intended, as an album, the title of which was inspired by a Facebook post the singer did a couple years ago.

Inspirations: From Picasso to a record made in Phoenix

"I just wrote out all the people that inspired me," he says. "There was a lot of them, from Picasso to Stravinsky, Naginski, Steve Martin, all these people. There was about 200 or 300 of them and I said to people 'That’s what you should do. Just write out all the people who have influenced you throughout your life.' So when '1000 Hands' came, I just thought of all the musical people – Elvis, of course, and the Beatles, of course. Tons of people have inspired me."

The first set of hands that inspired him, Anderson says, were Duane Eddy's.

"I used to love all the old Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals as a kid in the ‘50s," he says. "But the first thing I bought was a single. 'Rebel Rouser' by Duane Eddy."

Then, with a laugh, he recalls, "My brother went out and bought Elvis’ album and that changed everything."

Told "Rebel Rouser" was recorded here in Phoenix with Lee Hazlewood, Anderson replies, "Oh wow! And they’re incredible recordings. Very much like Ricky Nelson’s recordings. So damn good. So clean."

He's coming to Phoenix this month on a tour in support of "1000 Hands" with a nine-piece band.

"I always wanted to do a set of ensemble performances with more instruments and sounds," he says. "I have a violin player, a flute player, a saxophone guy, extra keyboard sounds, a percussionist. These are things I always wanted when I was out touring with versions of Yes.I just always wanted extra to make it into what it is in this show. We’re doing some Yes songs. We’re doing some Jon and Vangelis things. We’re doing an acoustic set. I push myself musically and everybody’s following in a happy way."

Jon Anderson

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 30.

Where: The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix.

Admission: $37-$127.

Details: 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter, @EdMasley.

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