Re: andy summers show...

[pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Michael Pycraft Hughes, PhD)]

Andre:
>if ANDY Summers is coming to your town on his short (20-25 date) tour of 
>US
>east & west coasts - do go see him - i just saw the (moderately attended)
>wetlands NYC show - first of the tour, and it rocked - or actually, it
>jazzed - Andy's playing a ton of standards, and standards-ish material - 
>his
>new CD with Tony Levin, Gregg Bissonette is awesome, if you like jazz 
>guitar
>with balls and modern tones.... the cd also features on one cut, Bernie
>Dresel(dr) and Jerry Watts (bs) who are his fine touring band.... 

It's funny, but the most recent Andy Summers material fails to excite me
the way his Police / XYZ stuff did.  It's as if he's become _too_ competent
- his older playing always sounded as if he was fighting to find the next
note, a sense of tension and playing on the edge of his ability (Steve Howe
gives the same impression to me) where no-one knows how anything will turn
out.  His more recent stuff seems so slick it's heading towards more
generic fusion.  His "new age" release "Mysterious Barricades" is still a
big influence on my playing (probably more than Fripp, whost style he seems
to imitate on this album)...

Comments anyone?

Michael