Andy Summers - Green Chimneys: The Music of Thelonius Monk

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 1999
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:04
Size: 161,1 MB
Art: Front

(5:57)  1. Green Chimneys
(4:36)  2. Hackensack
(3:29)  3. Brilliant Corners
(3:55)  4. Monk's Dream
(5:41)  5. 'Round Midnight
(4:56)  6. Bemsha Swing
(5:31)  7. Shuffle Boil
(3:16)  8. Boo Boo's Birthday
(4:14)  9. Evidence
(5:15) 10. Ugly Beauty
(4:08) 11. Think of One
(3:17) 12. Light Blue
(2:50) 13. Ruby My Dear
(2:30) 14. Crepescule with Nellie
(4:36) 15. Locomotive
(3:10) 16. Off Minor
(2:37) 17. Ruby (Electric Version)

What an albatross to have the Police hanging round your neck. So when it's all over, the singer gets even more famous and corners the market in sophisticated JazzRock, the drummer gets on with spending the money and stretching into movies and session fun, and the guitarist gets to play whatever he wants. Which has varied from turn it up Progressive Rock to echo Summers' days in the Soft Machine to delicate Blues and Folk experiments. But Green Chimneys is another matter: it's a fine, accessible homage to the immortal Thelonius Monk from a British club jazzer who got very lucky in pop. Monk's mastery of compositional architecture - from the blues to the birth of bop - lifts good players toward the stars. On Green Chimneys, Summers even gets Sting in to schmooze his way through one classic, 'Round Midnight. Except that Sting gives an affecting, genuine performance, while Summers' bigger band strip down to etched-naked chords and sinister brushes waiting for Andy's "do I not like that?" solo. Add cello, trumpet, saxophones and organ to a guitar trio, and you never know what colour comes next. Evidence leads with a fat, tight horn trio stating a fast funk theme against Summer's stinging blues leads, dissolves into big band call and return, segues into a blues rock chorus or two and dances out of the room heading for where Jeff Beck plays Mingus. Then there's the Pat Metheny-on-that-peyote-he-got-from-Tom Waits of Bemsha Swing, or the New Orleans funeral band - on Hackensack - plugging directly into a mobile 240AC outlet while Joey DeFrancesco's B3 vamps its way through the crowd on a flatbed truck right behind the hearse. Or the way the band rhythmically collapse Three Blind Mice into the angular, stop-time Jazzfunk of Monk's Dream, and the outrageous blend of Metal and Jimmy Smith on Shuffle Boil, where Summer's tone and phrasing deliver the impact usually carried by distortion. This is a guitar fan's album, but if the straighter moments of Zappa's methodical madness and subtly-caged playing ever tickled your sweet spots, Green Chimneys will make you happy too. And if you saw Peter Erskine drum with the Yellowjackets in London recently, his endlessly inventive accents and effortless leaps from supportive to lyrical to driving to painterly will be a joy revisited. ~ Ian Nicolson https://www.allaboutjazz.com/green-chimneys-andy-summers-rca-victor-review-by-ian-nicolson.php

Personnel:  Guitar, Banjo, Guitar [Dobro] – Andy Summers; Cello – Hank Roberts; Double Bass, Bass – Dave Carpenter; Drums – Bernie Dresel, Peter Erskine; Organ [Hammond B-3] – Joey De Francesco; Saxophone [Soprano, Tenor], Clarinet – Steve Tavaglione; Trumpet – Walt Fowler

Green Chimneys: The Music of Thelonius Monk

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Andy Summers - Retrospective

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 1998
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:34
Size: 119,0 MB
Art: Front

(6:37)  1. A Piece Of Time
(6:30)  2. World Gone Strange
(5:14)  3. Charming Snakes
(4:54)  4. Mickey Goes To Africa
(5:12)  5. Passion Of The Shadow
(2:46)  6. Innocence Falls Prey
(5:19)  7. Oudu Kanjaira
(4:48)  8. The Blues Prior To Richard
(4:57)  9. Blues For Snake
(5:11) 10. Somewhere In The West

While Andy Summers is best known as the guitarist in 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 coffee houses, where he was noticed by Zoot Money. Somers was invited to join Money's Big Roll Band 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 basslines 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. Summers continued to record, releasing First You Build a Cloud in 2007. He also participated in the Police reunion tour that same year. Following the reunion, Summers formed the band Circa Zero with Rob Giles of the Rescues; they released Circus Hero in 2014 before disbanding. After Circa Zero, Summers returned to his solo career, releasing Metal Dog in 2015 and Triboluminescence in 2017. ~ Steve Huey https://www.allmusic.com/artist/andy-summers-mn0000031173/biography

Retrospective

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