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While Andy Summers is best known as the
guitarist of the Police, he has since forged a successful and
acclaimed solo career with new age-influenced contemporary instrumental
music that, like his work with Sting and company, draws on his
love for jazz and his fascination with creating instrumental textures.
Born Andrew James Somers in Poulton-Fylde, Lancashire, England,
on December 31, 1942, the young Somers (who later changed his
surname to the more easily spelled Summers) moved to Bournemouth
as a child and, upon taking up the guitar at 14, immersed himself
in the local jazz scene. By 16, he was playing in local clubs
and coffeehouses, where he was noticed by Zoot Money. Somers was
invited to join Money's Big Roll Band, with whom he appeared on
the live album The All Happening Zoot Money's Big Roll Band at
Klook's Kleek. Money eventually changed the band into a psychedelic
outfit called Dantalian's Chariot, and when that project dissolved
in early 1968, Somers briefly signed on with the Soft Machine
before rejoining Money in a revamped Animals lineup for the LP
Love Is. When that imploded in 1969, Somers studied classical
guitar and composition at UCLA for four years, in the meantime
giving guitar lessons, gigging with a local Latin-rock band, and
acting with various theater troupes. Upon his return to England
in 1973, Summers became something of a journeyman, touring in
the backing bands of Neil Sedaka, Kevin Coyne, Kevin Ayers, and
David Essex.
Summers met Sting and Stewart Copeland in 1977 while playing with
a band called Strontium 90. The two asked Summers to join their
full-time project, the Police; together, the trio gradually developed
a style centered around jazz- and reggae-influenced pop/rock,
and Sting's strong bass lines allowed Summers to supply subtle
sonic textures and colors on his guitar, and to experiment with
various effects. Summers first stepped out on his own in 1982,
teaming with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp on the jazz-
and Eastern-tinged I Advance Masked. It was followed in 1984 with
Bewitched, another Summers/Fripp collaboration, around the same
time the Police officially disbanded.
Eager to establish himself in musical realms outside of rock &
roll, Summers did a bit of movie soundtrack work (Down and Out
in Beverly Hills, 2010, etc.) before returning to recording, this
time on his own. His first solo effort, 1987's harmonically intricate
yet pop-oriented XYZ, met with poor critical response. Its follow-up,
1988's Mysterious Barricades, was more successful, emphasizing
Summers' textural sensibilities on its jazzy, new age-influenced
compositions. A string of albums in this style followed through
the '90s, notably The Golden Wire (1989), Charming Snakes (1991),
World Gone Strange (1991), Invisible Thread (1993), and The Last
Dance of Mr. X (1997). For 1998's Strings of Desire, he teamed
with South American guitar virtuoso Victor Biglione; 1999's Green
Chimneys: Music of Thelonious Monk found Summers working with
a larger ensemble than usual for him, as well as his first collaboration
with Sting since the Police (on a version of "'Round Midnight").
Following the success of his Monk-themed album, the guitarist
put together an album of interpretations of compositions by Charles
Mingus called Peggy's Blue Skylight, released in late 2000. Earth
+ Sky appeared four years later.
This bio courtesy www.allmusic.com
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