A.r. Summers

In a similar vein as his 1999 release Green Chimneys: The Music of Thelonious Monk, guitarist Summers now offers tribute to jazz pioneer Charles Mingus. The collection is a little cobbled together, with an ill-conceived rap from Q-Tip over "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" and a sparse, unfunky reading of "Cumbia Jazz Fusion," but the former Policeman's bright guitar work works hard at tying it all together. Making more admirable guest spots are Randy Brecker bringing his crossover jazz trumpet to "Boogie Stop Shuffle," Deborah Harry singing on "Weird Nightmare," and the genre-bending Kronos Quartet performing a string arrangement of the final track "Myself." While at times overproduced and slick, Summers must be commended for approaching Mingus' daunting music head on and adapting it as his own.

Guitarist Andy Summers long ago shed his Police-man's uniform to take a stab at being a jazz fusion guitarist, and this is his toughest test, tackling 13 of Thelonious Monk's most well known pieces. His backing band has some considerable talent; drummer Peter Erskine, organist Joey DeFrancesco, trumpeter Walt Fowler and cellist Hank Roberts are outstanding jazz musicians, and prove their mettle throughout. The CD overall is inconsistent, starting with an out-of-tune bass and an inaccurate reading of the title track. But it gets much better with horn charts, the precise Erskine and searing DeFrancesco saving grace on "Hackensack." Then they really get down with Monk's stealth Misterioso feel on "Brilliant Corners," and an economical Summers works effectively on "Monk's Dream"…

Although I Puritani was performed during the Metropolitan Opera's first season in 1883, it had not been seen there for decades until this production by Sandro Sequi was unveiled in 1976. It was one of the greatest triumphs for the partnership of Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti, and it is to the credit of all concerned in this recent revival that one soon forgets names from the past and enjoys what is a spirited attempt to evoke mid-19th-century style.

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.

Welcome to the bewitching world of Circus Dinogad in which Welsh contralto Hilary Summers, the Dutch theorbo & bass clarinet duo Mike Fentross & Maarten Ornstein and the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam converge in a fusion of musical traditions.

What begins like a fairy-tale turns into a whimsical fantasy halfway between magic farce and Masonic mysticism: The Magic Flute links a love story with the great questions of the Enlightenment, juxtaposes bird-catcher charm with queenly vengeance, and bewitches the listener with music that mixes cheerful melodies, lovers’ arias, show-stopping coloraturas and mysterious chorales.

Charming, lighthearted and fizzing with subversive wit, Neil Armfield's sparkling production of The Marriage of Figaro masterfully captures Mozart's most popular comedic opera. In this classic performance, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House, Patrick Summers conducts an energetic fresh-voiced cast, headed up by baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Taryn Feibig who make a vivacious, appealing pairing as Figaro and Susanna, while Peter Coleman-Wright triumphs as the lascivious Count Almaviva.

After two albums exploring the boundaries of jazz via the music of Thelonious Monk (Green Chimneys) and Charles Mingus (Peggy's Blue Skylight), ex-Police guitarist Andy Summers returns to original compositions with a new band that moves forward through a swarm of genres on Earth + Sky. Employing two keyboard players, John Novello and John Beasley, as well as drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, saxophonist Katisse Buckingham, and bassist Abraham Laboriel, Summers creates a body of work that looks through jazz, rock, and folk forms and is technology based while also using organic rhythms and atmospherics. While some might see this as retrenchment, Summers, unlike so many of the superchopper guitarists out there, is a melodist whose lyricism is inescapable in virtually everything he plays…

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!