Today is the 70th birthday of my favorite guitarist and musician
of all time – Andy Summers.
I first became acquainted with the music of Summers in 1983 at
the age of 10 in a Catholic elementary school classroom when I heard a hypnotic
and futuristic-sounding pop/rock song emanating from the radio of Candy, my
substitute teacher. When I asked what the song was and who recorded it, I was
promptly informed that it was “Spirits in the Material World” by The Police. I
was instantly hooked, so much so that that Christmas, my parents got me a vinyl
copy of Synchronicity, The Police’s fifth and final studio album and one
of the biggest hits of the year. The Police have since remained my favorite
rock band of all time.
Summers was the guitarist for the mega-popular group, who were
active in the late 1970s and early 1980s and reunited for a 30th anniversary
tour in 2007 and 2008. Being a good decade older than his bandmates Sting and
Stewart Copeland, Summers began his professional recording career in the early
1960s, playing for Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band (which later became the
psychedelic but short-lived Dantalian’s Chariot), Eric Burdon’s New Animals,
and Soft Machine. After formally studying guitar at Northridge University in
California from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Summers returned to England
and plied his trade as a session guitarist for Joan Armatrading, Neil Sedaka,
Kevin Coyne, and Deep Purple’s Jon Lord before achieving monumental success and
international stardom with The Police.
After the dissolution of The Police in the early 1980s, Summers
scored some Hollywood films (Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Weekend at
Bernie’s) and recorded one rock vocal album before establishing himself as
an acclaimed and accomplished contemporary instrumental guitarist across a
variety of styles, including jazz, fusion, New Age, and world music.
I was privileged to interview Summers by telephone in Fall 2000
for the January 2001 issue of DirecTV: The Guide. I was pleasantly
surprised when I discovered that Summers posted a notice of the interview in
the news section of his Web site. Later, I met Summers in person during his
book tour in Fall 2006, just a few months before The Police reunited for a 30th
anniversary reunion tour, which I was fortunate to attend twice in August of
2007 and 2008.
For a good overview of Summers’ solo work, I highly recommend
the following albums: Mysterious Barricades, A Windham Hill Retrospective,
Synaesthesia, and The X Tracks. My personal favorite Summers albums
are Mysterious Barricades, The Golden Wire, Charming Snakes, World Gone
Strange, Synaesthesia, Earth and Sky, and First You Build a Cloud.
--Raj Manoharan
