Andy Summers

Andy Summers Music videos

Andy Summers was born in 1942, first became internationally known in 1978, when The Police scored their first hit, 'So Lonely'. I remember that I watched them on TV, thinking this is the first band to actually get near The Beatles in terms of musical freshness and innovation. Andy Summers had been around for almost two decades as a guitarist. He was in London at the time that Eric Clapton became famous.

Andy Summers' guitar used to be a Gibson Les Paul, the same type as Clapton's. But it turns out that Clapton's guitar got stolen and he from then on kept trying to get Andy Summers' instrument. He succeeded in the end. Summers turned to his famous Telecaster.

The contribution of Andy Summers to the canon of electric guitar playing is first and foremost his work as the body of the Police's sound. To have a trio combination and still have a full rock sound, requires a broad knowledge of music, especially of voicings and sounds. A great example of this is the guitar part in 'Bring on the Night'.

After The Police era, Summers went back to his first passion: jazz. Of course, in a modern way, with his own sounds. And sounds are his specialty. With his duo with Ben Verdery, a classical guitarist, he explored many typical electric guitar sounds. In addition to his career as a guitarist and a composer, Andy Summers is a photographer, who published several books.