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Andy Snitzer

Now more than a decade and a half into his world travels as soloist and horn section anchor with Paul Simon, Andy Snitzer had a blast cavorting with musical gods throughout 2014 and 2015, on the historic “On Stage Together Tour” featuring the legendary singer/songwriter and Sting. Adding more history to those frequent flier miles, the versatile saxophonist toured the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. Now, a few years after soulfully chronicling life on the road (on his groundbreaking 2011 album Traveler), Snitzer explores and celebrates intimate places closer to heart and home, with American Beauty.

The lush and melodic, sonically adventurous set artfully blends retro touches in groove and instrumentation with electronic-driven soundscapes and pattern-based motions. While keeping the rich, emotional thrust of his horn front and center, the creatively restless composer and artist continues to expand the textural palette he inaugurated on Traveler (and continued exploring on 2013’s The Rhythm). And after some years away from playing his alto sax, Snitzer happily rediscovers its impactful voice on five tracks of American Beauty – “On and On “She Loves Me,” “American Beauty,” “Willow” and “Montreal.”

To help him execute this exciting vision, Snitzer called on musical colleagues who have played key roles in his projects for years, including David Mann (additional production, keys/synths/MIDI, saxophones, flutes), pianist Alain Mallet, bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Karl Latham. He also works for the first time with drummers Clint de Ganon and Gary Novak, and the powerhouse horn section of Kent Smith (trumpet) and Michael Davis (trombone). On the hypnotic, liquid soul ballad “Next To You,” Snitzer complements his cool tenor vibe with Carl Fischer’s trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone and tenor sounds. American Beauty also features special guest performances by Fourplay guitarist Chuck Loeb, who rocks and jangles on the old school R&B jam “Mondays at Gert's”; and Rick Braun, whose flugelhorn adds a dreamy sensuality to the playful and sensual easy thumping Barry White/Earth, Wind & Fire influenced soul-jazz tune “She Loves Me.”

Collectively, the songs on the provocatively titled American Beauty create a thoughtful ideological response to Traveler. Snitzer celebrates wonderful memories of the past while sharing the joy of his life “here in the moment.” American Beauty is simultaneously an ode to a nascent American musical life, full of hope and dreams, and to that same life after three decades of work, travel, reflection, and return to home.

“On Traveler,” Snitzer says, “I wrote many of the songs in cities across the globe, responding to inspiration from some beautiful, exotic, foreign place; but a place that I was not from. American Beauty is a response to that process, a reflection on my home, and my life at home, experiences, people and places, during formative years in the late 70s and early 80s, but also on life as it is now."

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Album Review

Michael Davis - Hip-Bone Big Band: Open City

Read "Open City" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Michael Davis is an accomplished trombonist who has had a long career of live and studio work accompanying a varied roster of big-name jazz and rock talents such as The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bob Mintzer, Buddy Rich, Paul Simon, and Sarah Vaughan. He is also an established solo artist and composer who leads an imposing large ensemble, the Hip-Bone Big Band. The big band's second album is an exuberant affair which reflects the joy of getting back ...

25
Album Review

David Finck: BASSic Instinct

Read "BASSic Instinct" reviewed by Jack Bowers


There's so much variety on BASSic Instinct, bassist David Finck's sixth recording as leader, that it's almost like grooving on half a dozen or more albums for the price of one. Ensembles run the gamut from duo to octet, with vocals added on three of its thirteen engaging numbers. Besides governing the rhythm, composing three of the numbers and arranging all of them, Finck shoulders melodic duties on five tracks and solos effectively throughout. As suits his temperament, every number ...

5
Album Review

Mike Levine: Just Chillin

Read "Just Chillin" reviewed by Edward Blanco


A proponent of the more relaxing side of the jazz spectrum, pianist and keyboardist Mike Levine presents his fourth album as leader, offering thirteen primarily original pieces falling decidedly within the smooth jazz category. A talented composer, Levine's music seems to eschew the core jazz tenet of improvisation in favor of catchy melodies perfect for those chilling-out moments that overwhelm us all sooner or later. A first-call musician by anyone's count, Levine draws on his vast experience performing ...

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Album Review

Andy Snitzer: Traveler

Read "Traveler" reviewed by Jeff Winbush


Even without uttering a single word, music can convey many moods, and Traveler, Andy Snitzer's first album in a decade, finds the saxophonist in a reflective mood. The degree of restraint and reserve in Snitzer's playing runs counter to many of his contemporaries, where loud and long soloing is standard operating procedure.If overplaying can be excessive, underplaying is not always a virtue. Snitzer occasionally takes a few moments in the spotlight, but opts to be one of the ...

303
Album Review

Andy Snitzer: Some Quiet Place

Read "Some Quiet Place" reviewed by Jeff Winbush


The art of listening to music depends as much upon when you listen to it as what type of music you hear. Sitting in a church while the choir sings is probably not the best time to expect to hear Metallica's “Enter Sandman" or Gwen Stefani's “Hollaback Girl," to name two examples from popular music. However, Sunday morning is the perfect time to listen to saxophonist Andy Snitzer's Some Quiet Place. The album was originally released in 1999 but is ...

288
Album Review

G.Org: A New Kind of Blue

Read "A New Kind of Blue" reviewed by John Kelman


Paying homage can be risky business, especially when the source is as seminal as Miles Davis' classic Kind of Blue. Comparisons are not just begged, they're expected. And how can anyone hope to capture the same magic? Or the confluence of events that put Davis, Julian “Cannonball" Adderley, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb together to create one of the greatest jazz albums of all time, an album that changed the face of music and ...

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Performance / Tour

Joe Caro, Adam Holzman, Andy Snitzer, Anton Fig, Conrad Korsch, Lew Soloff And Randy Brecker Live At Drom, NYC June 6th Presented By Innsbruck Records

Joe Caro, Adam Holzman, Andy Snitzer, Anton Fig, Conrad Korsch, Lew Soloff And Randy Brecker Live At Drom, NYC June 6th Presented By Innsbruck Records

Source: Roman Klun

In the New York City underground scene, Joe Caro led an allstar band which included trumpeter Chris Botti, saxman Lenny Pickett, Late show drummer Anton Fig, bassist Will Lee, trumpeter Randy Brecker and saxman Andy Snitzer among several other notables performing every Tuesday night at the NYC club, The Metropolitan Café. What started out as a two week gig, continued for eight years and became the home base for many New York City session musicians at a time when New ...

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Recording

A New Kind of Blue with Randy Brecker, Andy Snitzer, David Finck, Victor Lewis and more!

A New Kind of Blue with Randy Brecker, Andy Snitzer, David Finck, Victor Lewis and more!

Source: All About Jazz

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the release of “Kind of Blue" and Gary Guthrie has plied his “what if" curiosity by producing one of the more intriguing jazz records of 2004 - A New Kind of Blue, a fresh version of Miles Davis' classic. Featuring recent Grammy winner Randy Brecker channeling the spirit of Davis, Guthrie's studio group - dubbed “g.org" (pronounced “g - dot - org") - stretches the “New Blue" well past the 45-minute limits of ...

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Recording

A440 Music Group To Release Saxophonist Andy Snitzer

A440 Music Group To Release Saxophonist Andy Snitzer

Source: All About Jazz


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Recording

A440 Musicgroup Set For Three Autumn Releases by Brian Bromberg, Andy Snitzer, and Gary Meek

A440 Musicgroup Set For Three Autumn Releases by Brian Bromberg, Andy Snitzer, and Gary Meek

Source: All About Jazz

A440 MusicGroup moves into a higher gear this fall with three excellent jazz releases by saxophonists Andy Snitzer and Gary Meek, Bassist Brian Bromberg.

Andy Snitzer, Sugar (September 3 release)

Tenor saxophonist Snitzer unveils his first straightahead jazz CD.

Much of the CD is a nod to tenor sax greats John Coltrane ("Blue Train," “You Don't Know What Love Is"), Sonny Rollins ("Blue Seven," “Moritat"), and Stanley Turrentine ("Sugar"). Snitzer, best known for his work the ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Open City

Self Produced
2023

buy

What is Hip?

Mango Eater MUSIC
2022

buy

Just Chillin

Self Produced
2021

buy

BASSic Instinct

Burton Avenue Music
2021

buy

Traveler

Native Language
2011

buy

Some Quiet Place

Native Language
2006

buy

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