I DON’T PLAY THAT OLD SHIT ANYMORE
On Friday and Saturday 15th and 16th May we visited four gigs of the Andy Summers Trio at the Pizza Express in London. The Pizza Express is located in the heart of Soho and is a typical jazz club with a dark and smoothy atmosphere.
Our seats were perfectly located in handreach of Andy Summers. It was almost too close. We can almost say we played with the band, cause our feet were between Andy’s guitar pedals. The Andy Summers Trio had Dave Carpenter on 6-string bass, Joel Taylor on drums (both from LA) and Andy ofcourse on a red Gibson guitar. Andy was introduced to the stage as Britains Greatest Treasury or "Tres for friends" as Andy remarked. The trio has been playing in the Pizza Express the whole week as a promotion for his latest album Green Chimneys. An album which has already become a collector’s item. They started every gig with the title track of the album, which is a tribute to Thelonious Monk.
On the album Andy’s old mate Sting contributes his vocals to 'Round Midnight'. The rumour had been that Sting woul appear at one of the gigs, but unfortunately a reunion didn’t take place, since Sting had 'other things' (? no excusses) to do in Paris ?! Andy told he recorded the song at Sting’s new palace in Toscany, Italy, but he was kicked out after 2 weeks. I've just listened to the album and believe..........this track alone deserves buying the album. So no Sting, but the Police did turn up at the gig. One of the guests wasn’t quite happy with her seat or maybe she expected the REAL Police ?! She left with the Police in the end anyway.
Andy combines jazz and rock music perfectly. One moment the music really goes to the bone, then they accelerate to the limit and create a great wall of sound. All the musicans have the freedom to interper the songs in their own way and play extensive solos by turn.....Andy is there to keep it all together. From the joy on his face you can tell how excellent the drum and bass solos were done.
Apart from being one was the greatest guitarist, he’s also a very funny entertainer. Between the breaks he tells jokes and anecdotes. The reason he 'came out' so funny and stayed that small was because his mother drank Guiness during her pregnancy. But he can also get very annoyed when people disturb his music while playing. At one gig some people were conservating too loud all the time. After several death stares in their direction a look at his band members was enough....he put his foot on the pedal all the way down......and made such noise (Shuffle Boil) that talking become futile. It had a good effect, since these people never heard the end of they song. They left the venue and we got an excellent aggresively played piece of music.
After one song Andy asked the audience what to play next. A certain guy yelled 'Monk by Numbers' with was a good catch, but it was overruled by another who screemed 'Bring on the Night'. Andy replied brilliantly "It’s already night, it’s nine o’clock. I don’t play that old shit anymore. If you want to hear it, buy my video and you can even see me play it". So that’s clear ! I even talked to him after one gig and he even didn’t feel like playing some of his own material anymore since he was a bit bored of it.......so don’t annoy him by these request of even older “shit”. Despite this remark he played an encore on the last night’s gigs. The encore was "Murder by Number" on which the vocals were replaced by Dave’s bass playing. A great remake of the original Police song......."no shit like Puff Daddy".
The still unreleased cd was already available at the venue. After the shows everyone was able to get it signed backstage, get some photographs and make a chat with him. No star air around Andy. He told us he hoped to play more venues in Europe later this year, but probably will go to South America first. I recommend to check his website for the latest changes.
Review by LS and MN aka PP
Here are the setlists of the two concerts I attended as far as I can remember them (and read my notes I put down at the concerts):
Andy Summers - guitar
Joel Taylor - drums
Dave Carpenter - bass
CD launch party for "Green Chimneys" at the Pizza Express - London, England.
May 13, 1999 (Thursday)
=======================
1st set: 21:10-22:25
30 min. break
2nd set: 22:55-? (had to leave at 23:50 to catch the last underground train...)
May 15, 1999 (Saturday) 1st concert
=======================
19:40-21:20 (approx.)
You are visitor
since this page was designed on May 17, 1999.
Index 
The Web's Too Big Without You! Items For Sale Who
Am I? What's New?
Again, thanks for visiting my homepage. I hope you will come back and visit soon.
For questions, comments or information on this home page, please send e-mail to blueturtles01@hotmail.com.
This page hosted by 
. Get your own Free Home Page.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 , 2001 by blueturtles01@hotmail.com. All rights reserved.