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Andy Sheppard

The man who has emerged as one of Britain's foremost tenor and soprano saxophonists was introduced to the music of John Coltrane at the age of 19 and immediately went out and bought his own saxophone. Three weeks later, he was playing with the Bristol based quartet Sphere, which gathered an impressive reputation through the late 70s, recording several albums, winning the occasional award and playing an astonishing number of live dates throughout Britain and Europe. These years established Sheppard as a saxophonist to watch, but instead of the obvious move to London he based himself in Paris, working with French bands Lumière and Urban Sax.

Returning to the UK in the mid-80s, Sheppard signed to Island's Antilles label and released his self-titled debut album in 1987. Star trumpeter Randy Brecker featured on several tracks, and the record was produced by the great American bassist Steve Swallow - the beginning of a musical relationship that continues to this day. The album was an immediate critical and popular success and was boosted by Andy winning the Best Newcomer at the British Jazz Awards, shortly followed by Best Instrumentalist Award in 1988, Best Album and Best Instrumentalist in 1989 and the Big Band Award in 1990.

The music on the first album was built around the nucleus of his acoustic quartet, augmented by a distinctive use of percussion and exploration into Latin and African grooves. The follow up album Introductions In The Dark featured a sophisticated mix of acoustic and electric sounds - just one week after release the album entered the British pop chart. A growing reputation was reflected by documentaries on both BBCTV and HTV and Andy was invited to present his choice of jazz archive footage to celebrate the 25th anniversary of BBC2.

At the same time, Sheppard was building an impressive reputation internationally. His band toured throughout Europe and to Canada - and pulled off a unique coup by being the first Western jazz group to play in Outer Mongolia.

During 1987, he joined George Russell's Living Time Orchestra as featured saxophone soloist and also toured with the legendary Gil Evans. Andy remains one of very few soloists to have played in the big bands of all three of the greatest post-war jazz composers - Evans, Russell and Carla Bley, and continues to tour and record with the latter two.

In 1990 Sheppard formed his Soft On The Inside Big Band, which was carefully assembled to include the diverse talents of Han Bennink and Ernst Reisjeger, Gary Valente, and several luminaries of the London scene Claude Deppa, Chris Biscoe and Orphy Robinson among them. The band produced an album and video, and toured extensively in the UK and Europe. The album was credited as one of the finest releases of the year in Q, The Daily Mail and The Guardian. The project confirmed Sheppard's growing status as a composer.

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14
Album Review

Espen Eriksen Trio with Andy Sheppard: As Good As It Gets

Read "As Good As It Gets" reviewed by John Eyles


The Espen Eriksen Trio--Eriksen on piano, Lars Tormod Jenset on bass, and Andreas Bye on drums-- was formed in 2007 and their debut album, You Had Me at Goodbye, was released in 2010 on Rune Grammofon where they have remained ever since. In 2016 British saxophonist Andy Sheppard was invited to guest with the trio when they played in London. Sheppard has since commented, “I knew from the first time I heard the trio play that I would fit right ...

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Album Review

Espen Eriksen Trio with Andy Sheppard: As Good As It Gets

Read "As Good As It Gets" reviewed by Chris May


Norway's Espen Eriksen Trio is the first Scandinavian piano trio to enjoy a measure of sustained international success since Sweden's Esbjörn Svensson Trio's high-profile run was cut short by Svensson's death in 2008. While some listeners thought that EST's style was becoming over-codifed during its final years, EET still sounds box fresh thirteen years and many thousands of road miles since its debut album, You Had Me At Goodbye (Rune Grammofon, 2010). What is also remarkable is ...

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Album Review

Carla Bley: Life Goes On

Read "Life Goes On" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


After decades of illuminating and revealing work, reveling in and breaking free of shadows, it is those same shadows that still inspire and inform Carla Bley. Which perhaps explains why the title track of Life Goes On rolls in on the 12-bar like a music obsessed, post-bop cigarette girl absorbing Count Basie at Birdland in the 1950s. So let's take a brief moment to be thankful for the odd, out of time quirks that have brought us to this same ...

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Album Review

Carla Bley / Andy Sheppard / Steve Swallow: Life Goes On

Read "Life Goes On" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Coming off a recent illness, the legendary composer-pianist Carla Bley has her sense of humor and political instincts intact on Life Goes On. The trio album with saxophonist Andy Sheppard and bassist Steve Swallow completes a trilogy which began with Trios in 2013 but the three have been recording together since 1994 with their first album Songs With Legs (WATT/ECM, 1995). In a 2019 interview with German magazine Kaput Bley spoke about the synergy that makes her trio work so ...

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Album Review

Carla Bley: Life Goes On

Read "Life Goes On" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Pianist / composer Carla Bley is an inspiring woman. Pianist Paul Bley was inspired to marry her, and record a full album of her compositions: Barrage (ESP-Disk, 1965), in addition to including four of her originals on Open, To Love (ECM Records, 1973). George Russell included her “Bent Eagle" on his Stratusfunk (Riverside Records, 1960). Jimmy Giuffre presented his version of her “Ictus" on his album Thesis (Verve, 1961). And if these examples date the influence of Carla Bley, consider ...

Album Review

Andy Sheppard: Romaria

Read "Romaria" reviewed by Luca Casarotti


ECM rappresenta quasi per antonomasia un'estetica della sottrazione, fatta di tempi dilatati, atmosfere rarefatte e poche, a volte pochissime, note: solo le note necessarie, come vuole la massima di João Gilberto da cui prende il titolo l'autobiografia di Enrico Rava, un artista che non a caso ha legato il suo nome a quello dell'etichetta di Manfred Eicher. A quest'estetica è fedele Andy Sheppard: lo conferma questo Romaria, secondo album del quartetto che il sassofonista inglese ha formato insieme al chitarrista ...

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Album Review

Andy Sheppard Quartet: Romaria

Read "Romaria" reviewed by Geno Thackara


Where so much music treats silence as an exception, Andy Sheppard's recordings find it serving more as the rule. He's never been one for weaving flashy speed runs or feeling pressure to fill space. Even when his sax lines speed up from time to time through Romaria, they serve the mood with tasteful restraint, smoothly evoking the soothing coolness of its cover. Sheppard uses the term “dream band" to describe this quartet, which is appropriate in more ways ...

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Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

As Good As It Gets

Rune Grammofon
2023

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Life Goes On

ECM Records
2020

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Romaria

ECM Records
2018

buy

Surrounded By Sea

ECM Records
2016

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Surrounded By Sea

ECM Records
2015

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La Notte

ECM Records
2013

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