by Stuart Harris
LONDON (Reuters) – From humble jazz beginnings to superstardom with rock trio The Police, English-born guitarist Andy Summers' career has come full circle.
Summers, whose arching guitar featured on classic Police tracks “Every Breath You Take” and “Roxanne,” is touring Europe with a new bass player and drummer to promote his latest album “Peggy's Blue Skylight.”
The disc features innovative interpretations of tunes by
jazz great Charles Mingus and includes guest vocal appearances by Blondie's Debbie Harry and rapper Q-Tip.
“I never thought I'd make a recording of Mingus' music,” Summers told Reuters.
“The creative challenge is to respect the composer and make a nice homage but at the same time I want to make sure that my voice is on there and make it sound contemporary.”
Mingus had a huge output of over 300 tracks, so deciding which to record was an arduous task.
“You have to saturate yourself in the music — I got everything I could on Mingus, I read his autobiography, played all the music, put it all into different categories, did different recordings of the tunes and played it all on guitar until I was immersed in it and I could make a selection.”
Summers is playing small clubs in front of about 100 fans on his current tour, a far cry from his time with The Police, who at the height of their success played New York's massive Shea Stadium in front of 70,000 fans.
But Summers is happy, knowing the intimate venues suit his
current musical style.
“The history of jazz has always been in these basement rooms … dark little rooms in New York — that's where the music was formed.”
THE POLICE
Summers joined vocalist and bassist Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland in 1977, after years of playing jazz, drifting between bands and working as a session musician.
“By the time I joined The Police, although we were playing rock, I was actually a pretty well-schooled musician,” Summers said.
“Sting was a very good musician and we had a parallel musical interest that was not rock but classical guitar, South American music, jazz, blues — and obviously we'd grown up with the Beatles and The Stones. So we had a really good vocabulary between us but at the same time we had to make a rock band.”
Though he enjoyed the fame and success, the band restricted Summers' playing style and the years of constant touring took their toll.
“The Police were such a great band and we all liked playing together, but I suppose toward the end I was getting frustrated,” Summers said.
“We had to go out and play the hits every night. Creatively you start getting into a cul-de-sac. I think my playing and creativity has been much better exercised post-Police.”
After five million-selling albums and sold-out concert tours, the heady days of The Police came to an abrupt end in 1986 when Sting left to pursue a successful solo career.
“It was psychologically shattering,” Summers told Reuters.
“I had to re-group and find my way forward again. I decided to return to my absolute roots. I wanted to play deep improvisation and the only place you can really do that is jazz.”
Summers was recently joined on stage by Sting for a couple of numbers during the guitarist's week-long residency at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in London, prompting calls for a Police
re-union.
“I would be very surprised if we did (re-form),” Summers said. “That's totally Sting's call. If it was up to me or Stewart I'm sure we would have done it 10 years ago.”
JAZZ LOVE AFFAIR
Summers' life-long love affair with jazz began at a tender age.
“As a kid I was totally into jazz. They'd let me play during the intervals in the Blue Note Jazz Club (in the southern English resort of Bournemouth),” he recalled.
“I probably got most of it wrong but the spirit was there. But I remember once playing a tune called 'Between the devil and the deep blue sea,' and I really pulled it off. I almost fainted! That was the taste that never leaves and you spend the rest of your life looking for it again.”
The immediate future will see Summers continuing his European tour in the Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Italy before returning to his adopted hometown of Los Angeles to begin work on his 11th solo album.
After two albums of interpretations (Thelonius Monk was the
subject of 1999's “Green Chimneys”) he is eager to begin a “very serious writing process.”
But inspiration is not likely to come from today's music scene.
“It's a totally different world from the one I grew up in. The pop scene is very much about sampling. It's becoming so processed, so cynical and manipulated. It's like, what happened to music?”
And as for long-term plans:
“More albums, more tours and more of the good life I'd say.”
© 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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