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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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