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, World Gone Strange, Synaesthesia,
Fundamental
(with
Fernanda Takai), Circus
Hero (with
his rock band Circa Zero), and
Metal
Dog.
--Raj
Manoharan
