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Europe Jazz Network
MUSICIANS
guitar
Official website: www.andysummer.com
Throughout his diverse and brilliant career, Andy Summers has innovated
styles and sounds, bridging instrumental ingenuity with genre-breaking
originality. Of course, Summers is renown for his tenure with perhaps the
world's last truly great pop band, The Police, but in the years following
their chart-topping apex, Summers has continued to evolve. Not content
to simply lead a life of nostalgic reunions or to live off the fat of his
multi-platinum success, he has consistently returned to the inspiration
that led him to that original innovation. Andy Summers is first and foremost
a musician, with a wellspring of creative energy and a need for self exploration.
His albums have covered a wide palette of musical tastes, all the while honing his unique conception and focus. His most recent, The Last Dance Of Mr X, found him in potent jazz trio mode, reworking such masters as Charles Minus and Wayne Shorter. Going back to the mid-80's Summers recorded two experimental albums with King Crimson guitar legend Robert Fripp, followed by XYZ an album of moods both ridiculous and sublime. In fact, Summers has always had a penchant for the unusual, the unexpected, some might even say the obscene, buffered by his provocative honey'n'salt guitar sound which remains one of the most recognizable musical stamps of the past 30 years. 1989's The Golden Wire was both organic and ethereal while 1993's Invisible Threads took on Django Reinhardt. If you sense a fitting synchronicity between our outlandish guitar troubadour and the complex genius of 1960's jazz, read on. "I've loved Monk since I was a teenager," says Summers. "When somebody gave me 'Monk At Town Hall', it really turned me around, incredible record! When I saw Monk play Fairfield Hall in Croydon when I was 16, it was absolutely the essence of jazz. It penetrated all the jazz of the time, it went to a much deeper place. Monk transcends any obvious generic descriptions. It's Monk. It's on it's own. You can say it's jazz, but the best of Monk is Monk. It always remains very fresh." On Green Chimneys, Andy Summers takes the music of Thelonious Monk in new directions. This is no solemn tribute album or classicist bop recitation, but a playful, joyous, rambunctious exploration of the many moods of Monk. "I've always had an ear for his music," explains Summers. "I've made a lot of records mostly on my own, and musician's often take on somebody else's music kind of as a mental discipline. I've always loved Monk, and I thought this was the time to do it. Why? 'Cause I love the music." "For Green Chimneys," he continues, "I stopped listening to everything but Monk. I'd been familiar with the pieces but I hadn't played them all. I got deeply into the music, studying all his different periods. I got an overall picture of who Monk was and then what I naturally liked. I thought, 'Wouldn't be nice to play some of the less obvious Monk hits, the obscure pieces, and see if I can unearth a few gems?" While Summers has covered Monk on previous records, Green Chimneys is not only an all Monk affair (including an exquisite Sting vocal on "Round Midnight"), but the guitarist's most exhilarating jazz outing to date. Reworking both Monk classics (Think Of One, Evidence, Brilliant Corners, Ruby My Dear, Rhythm-a-ning) and untouched treasures (Boo Boo's Birthday, Shuffle Boil, Green Chimneys), Summers takes a cue from the bop sage, putting a personal stamp on the jazz master's peculiar genius. "The way Monk does it is one thing, but I had to find a way to own it, find something different rather than just hammer it out like so many people do. We added some slinky reggae kind of weirdness and other things. I totally immersed myself in Monk. I enjoyed it. It was fun, though a rigorous mental discipline." The cast for Green Chimneys is impressive: Dave Carpenter, bass; Peter Erskine and Bernie Dresel, drums; Sting, vocal on 'Round Midnight; Hank Roberts, cello; Joey de Francesco, Hammond B3 organ; Steve Tavaglione, clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophones; and Walt Fowler, trumpet. With this ambitious lineup and a fresh infusion of the Monk canon, Green Chimneys shows Summers still stretching the envelope of innovation. Instead of a hackneyed blowing approach, Summers finds new rhythmic routes and new harmonic directions. Besides changing the key of several tracks to accommodate his multi-hued guitar work, Summers, with Peter Erskine, devised new grooves for Monks' classic changes. "Bemsha Swing" sports a calypso gait, "Brilliant Corners" an avuncular reggae lilt, "Light Blue" a Weather Report-tinged assault, "Shuffle Boil" is a slippery rock rumble, and "Think of One" oozes a thick groove like a slow motion inchworm. "I thought a lot of this through," recalls Summers. "Let's try this New Orleans shuffle here or a hip hop beat there. One thing I said to Peter early on was what I want to avoid is doing everything in a medium tempo swing. I want to take it somewhere and really put a fresh spin on this. The music is timeless. It is amazing how many of them will fall very easily into a hip hop groove, I think the music can take it and shows the strength of Monk. I don't want to do just a straight ahead jazz blow, let's make a painting here." Summers' guitar is an endless revelation on Green Chimneys, from the lovely acoustic ballads of "Ruby My Dear" and "Ugly Beauty" to the warped sonic collages of "Light Blue" and "Shuffle Boil." Summers pushes the parameters on "'Round Midnight," resulting in one of Green Chimneys' high points and one of former partner Stings finest vocal performances. "I thought he'd be great on this, I called him up and he called back immediately. He was completely into it. I got the track together with Peter and Dave, then I took it to Sting who was in Italy at the time. He sang it and it was great. He sang with a lot of feeling. I think he was pretty comfortable doing this." For booking, contact: EMMECI |