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Tuck Andress

After 20 years of making music together as husband-and-wife jazz duo Tuck & Patti, Tuck Andress's guitar and Patti Cathcart's vocals blend smoothly into a honed sound all their own. They perform both their own compositions, such as "High Heel Blues," and standards like "One Hand, One Heart" from West Side Story and Stevie Wonder's "I Wish." Each concert ends with their signature closer, "You Take My Breath Away."

Andress was raised in Oklahoma. He studied piano and took up guitar as a young teenager, when he was eager to play in a neighborhood garage band. He studied for a few months with Tommy Crook, but was primarily a self-taught artist who learned by playing with other musicians, listening to records, and experimenting. He enrolled in Stanford University in 1970, but dropped out after the first quarter to join members of his high school band in Los Angeles. Andress found a session gig on his first day in town, and was later offered work on the popular Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Soon, however, he found Los Angeles too commercial, and he went back to Stanford, where he majored in music, studying classical guitar and playing with the Gap Band, Chaka Kahn, and Leon Russell.

Meanwhile, Cathcart, who was born and raised in San Francisco, spent eleven years studying the violin. She also sang in and directed choirs, but learned about phrasing and scatting by listening to Sammy Davis, Jr. She studied opera in college, then began singing with rock 'n' rollers in her twenties, including Bob Weir's Kingfish band, Shaky Ground, and Occam's Razor.

Immediate Musical and Personal Connection

Tuck & Patti, who met in San Francisco in 1978 while auditioning for a Las Vegas-style show band, had an immediate connection, claiming in the December 7, 1988, edition of the Boston Globe that theirs was love at first sight: "'Each of us had an idea for a special, distinctive sound after absorbing all those influences,' said Tuck. Patti chimed in, 'And I've been quoted before, accurately, that I am a product of everything I've ever heard, although I'd put Mahalia Jackson and Ella Fitzgerald first and foremost. But the point is when we met, we each knew we'd found the perfect musical partner to explore with.'" Before long they began working as a duo, playing in small Bay Area clubs. They were married in 1981, after a trip to India, where Tuck, a follower of Maher Baba, made a pilgrimage to the guru's grave. On the way back, he proposed in Paris.

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Album Review

Sam Fazio: Let's Go

Read "Let's Go" reviewed by Geannine Reid


Vocalist Sam Fazio has been honing his craft in Chicago for numerous years, with residences at leading hotels including a six-year run at the Drake. Fazio is no stranger to festivals either, with appearances at the Chicago Jazz Festival and Taste of Chicago. On his 2020 outing, Fazio teams with guitarist Tuck Andress and vocalist Patti Cathcart, who produced the album and play on some tracks. Together the team have created a lighthearted album ranging from classic standards ...

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Probably best known as half of the guitar/vocal duo, Tuck And Patti, Andress's music is a blend of jazz, funk, R&B, and blues. His incredible technique enables him to sound like three guitarists playing simultaneously.
~ Paul Kohler, Rovi

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Let's Go

Self Produced
2020

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Reckless Precision

Canyon International
1990

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Everything's Gonna Be...

Canyon International
1988

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