{"id":24661,"date":"2023-03-23T05:30:42","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T09:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24661"},"modified":"2023-02-16T11:55:06","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T16:55:06","slug":"take-five-andy-summers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/23\/take-five-andy-summers\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Andy Summers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Andy Summers is best known as guitarist in The Police, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1980s. That band\u2019s reggae-influenced take on new wave was a breath of musical fresh air. But Summers \u2013 who\u2019s nearly a decade older than his former Police bandmate Sting \u2013 had a long list of impressive credits years before getting a spiky haircut. As early as 1965, he was lending his guitar skills to recordings, and the music didn\u2019t sound even a little bit like the Police.<\/p>\n<p>Summers (born Andrew Somers) got his start playing jazz; his storied career would find him playing live and in the studio with acts in a wide variety of styles, from Soft Machine to Carly Simon to Robert Fripp. Here are five pre-Police tracks featuring the guitar work of Andy Summers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Zoot Money&#8217;s Big Roll Band \u2013 \u201cThe Cat\u201d (1965) from <em>It Should&#8217;ve Been Me<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nAmerican soul jazz organist Jimmy Smith hit the #67 spot on <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Hot 100 singles chart with \u201cThe Cat,\u201d an upbeat instrumental raver. A few months later, London-based Zoot Money released his own version of the song; his band featured young guitarist Andy Summers.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fV64tLNYHTw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dantalion&#8217;s Chariot \u2013 \u201cMadman Running Through the Fields\u201d (1967) single<\/strong><br \/>\nBy 1967 Zoot Money and his band had changed their music to keep pace with the prevailing styles. This single has earned its place as one of the finest examples of British psychedelia, with chiming guitar work from Summers alongside backward drum fills, hypnotic bass lines and trilling flutes.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QY-LXqkKyhk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Animals \u2013 \u201cColoured Rain\u201d (1968) from <em>Love Is<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nThe Animals built their reputation on their gritty, soulful take on the blues. But by 1968, lead singer Eric Burdon had a new backing group (still called The Animals) that left the blues behind. With a lineup that included Andy Summers; the group was very much a part of the acid-drenched peace-and-love scene of the era. This cover of the Traffic song features a very, <em>very<\/em> long Summers guitar solo.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mvVvaEz2e4s\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kevin Coyne \u2013 \u201cSunday Morning Sunrise\u201d (1975) from <em>Matching Head and Feet<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nAn embodiment of the outsider artist, late poet\/musician Kevin Coyne has been hailed as \u201cthe great lost English singer-songwriter.\u201d Stunningly prolific, Coyne released many albums, most all with an ambitious bent. His 1975 album ranks among his most accessible, and features Summers on electric lead guitar.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dKTYbA_vfdA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Eberhard Schoener and the Secret Society \u2013 \u201cFalling in Trance\u201d (1977) from <em>Trance-Formation<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nGerman composer Eberhard Schoener\u2019s work is often classified as modern classical, avant garde and\/or experimental. Schoener has worked extensively with the Moog synthesizer, earning him the krautrock label as well. Andy Summers\u2019 guitar work is quite subtle and restrained on <em>Trance-Formation<\/em>, but he is indeed present.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xz7AbqB2dPc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andy Summers is best known as guitarist in The Police, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1980s. That band\u2019s reggae-influenced take on new wave [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5047],"class_list":["post-24661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-andy-summers","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24663,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24661\/revisions\/24663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}