Andy Summers Mysterious Barricades (1988) {private Music Japan}

On his second consecutive solo album of predominantly instrumental music, former Police guitarist Andy Summers paints a richly textured musical portrait that mixes fusion jazz, Latin and various World Beat elements into an engaging whole.
The onetime guitar-slinger for the New Animals and the Kevin Coyne Band is accompanied by a crack group that includes Alan Holdsworth Band drummer Chad Wackerman, ex-King Crimson bassist Tony Levin and short-lived Mahavishnu Orchestra keyboardist Mitchell Forman. They in turn are joined on various tracks by percussionists Manola Badrena and Mino Cinelu, former Steps Ahead malletman Mike Manieri and Miles Davis Band bass veteran Victor Bailey…

It is not often that a Rock musician decides to cross over into much more advanced musical environment, such as Jazz or World Music and does so completely and seriously. Police guitarist Andy Summers, obviously known to most Rock listeners on this planet, is one of those musicians, who changed their path and successfully developed a "new" career. This album, which is the second guitar duo recording with the Brazilian (born in Argentina) virtuoso guitarist Victor Biglione, presents Summers as a monster acoustic guitar player and a most sensitive performer. The duo performs material ranging from Jazz standards to World Music pieces, all of which were composed by great Brazilian musicians (Hermeto Pascoal, Tom Jobim and others) and all of which is absolutely brilliant. This is guitar heaven!

Toto XX: 1977-1997 is hardly the definitive collection that its title suggests. Essentially, this is a Toto reunion album, featuring nine new studio cuts and four live tracks, including a version of "Africa."…

A compilation from these three albums: The Golden Wire 1989, Charming Snakes 1990, World Gone Strange 1991.
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.

Leo Kottke - Regards From Chuck Pink (1988) {Private Music 259 641}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 195 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 108 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 46 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1988 Private Music | 259 641
Contemporary Folk / Finger-Picked Guitar / Progressive Folk / New Acoustic

This 13-song set of instrumentals purports to explore, in Kottke's words, "lifetimes or moments…that have not only endured but prevailed against the test of Pink." Chuck Pink, that is – a personified force of self-censorship and blame. Kottke's always been good at tagging his songs with quirky titles, and Chuck Pink is no exception, with tunes like "I Yell at Traffic," "Dog Quiver," and "Theme From Doodles."

Though perhaps best (or at least better) known for his work with the Police, guitarist Andy Summers seems to be doing rather well for himself. He may not be filling arenas and attracting screaming teenage girls, but their mothers can scream pretty loud as well, and as it is to them that Summers now appears to be playing, his maturity and ability to look forward work in his favor. Backed by bassist Tony Levin and drummer Gregg Bissonette (except on "Big Thing," which features the touring band of Jerry Watts on basses and Bernie Dresel on cymbal-laden drum set), Summers works well as a frontman. In fact, the lack of single-named eco-conscious smoothies and relatives of famous composers allows Summers to spread out and explore his music…

During his post-Police musical career, guitarist Andy Summers has compiled a series of altogether distinctive, fusion-based solo outings marked by his shrewd compositional pen and laudable technical acumen. Moreover, Summers displays a somewhat lyrically driven guitar sound, teeming with animated lines, a rubato-like methodology, and bone-crushing crunch chords, as evidenced on this 1995 release. Here, the artist garners strong support from ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker, along with notable session musicians Mitchell Forman (keyboards), Jerry Watts (bass), and Greg Bissonette (drums). More importantly, the guitarist integrates strings (the Trouserfly String Quartet) into this rather vibrant mix, consisting of Afro-Cuban rhythms, wailing lead soloing, East Indian modalities, and more…

On Andy Summers and Robert Fripp's second album, Bewitched, the duo offered a new batch of their instrumental songs, which turned out to be much more rock-oriented than their texturized 1982 debut, I Advance Masked. The album was originally going to be a more musically varied affair – at the time, Summers talked about recording calypso and Tex-Mex/Ry Cooder-like tunes with Fripp, but they never saw the light of day. Like its predecessor, it contains plenty of great guitar work, with songwriting being stressed over instrumental virtuosity. For example, Summers and Fripp know how to subtly insert challenging sections into their songs (such as the 7/4 time signature in "Maquillage"), without making them seem like an obvious attempt to impress fellow musicians. Although '80s-sounding electronic drums are primarily used for backbeats (such as the track "Train"), it doesn't take away from the album's charm. Whereas their last album featured a few compositions that were quite King Crimson-like, their sophomore effort contains a few that sound like Police instrumentals (the title track). Unfortunately, Bewitched would prove to be Summers and Fripp's last collaboration together.

If you're looking for soothing acoustic jazz guitar, this is the jackpot. Andy Summers (of The Police) and John Etheridge (who played with Soft Machine) both have virtuoso level skill on guitar and they play together fantastically. Make no mistake, this CD is almost all guitar duets. There's no drums or keyboards, and very little bass. It's very mellow stuff. Every tune on this CD consistently shows how great acoustic guitar can sound.

Perhaps Summers fame as the guitarist for"The police" harms him here as the expectations from his first solo project must have been immense. His singing abilities are very limited and his abilities as a guitarist are not shown enough here. But this is nonetheless a good pop album with fine production and a bunch of potential hits,the best of which are "eyes of a stranger" and 'nowhere'. This is actually the only 'Pop' album from him as his later work is purely instrumental.