Andy Sheppard

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Andy Sheppard, Moers Festival 2012
Andy Sheppard at a concert with Carla Bley, Treibhaus Innsbruck , 2009

Andy Sheppard (born January 20, 1957 in Warminster / Wiltshire ) is an English jazz saxophonist.

Live and act

Sheppard only came to jazz at the age of nineteen under the influence of the music of John Coltrane . In the late 1970s he worked with the Sphere quartet from Bristol and then went to Paris, where he a. a. performed with the bands Lumière and Urban Sax .

In the mid-1980s he returned to England, where he was signed to the Antilles label in 1986 after winning a jazz competition . Here his debut album appeared in 1987 as band leader Andy Sheppard , on which Randy Brecker participated and which was produced by Steve Swallow . With the album he won the British Jazz Award for Best Newcomer , the Best Instrumentalist Award (1988), the Best Album and Best Instrumentalist Award (1989) and (1990) the Big Band Award .

Sheppard performed with Keith Tippett and with the bands of George Russell , Gil Evans and Carla Bley in the late 1980s . In 1990 he founded the Soft On The Inside Big Band , who u. a. Han Bennink , Ernst Reijseger , Gary Valente , Claude Deppa , Chris Biscoe and Orphy Robinson and with whom he toured Europe and recorded an album.

Shortly afterwards he founded the band In Co-Motion with Claude Deppa , Steve Lodder , Dave Adams and Sylvan Richardson , and later on with more wind instruments and musicians . a. Gary Valente - extended. With the band he toured Europe, North and Latin America and Africa and recorded several albums.

With Steve Lodder and Naná Vasconcelos he formed the Trio Inclassificable , he also worked in a quartet with Lodder, Dudley Philips and Mark Mondesir . He was also one of the Jazz Jamaica Allstars and was the sideman of Barbara Dennerlein , Maj-Britt Kramer , Michel Benita , Alexander Bălănescu , Michael Mantler , Ravi Shankar and other musicians from India, but also from Malaysia and Singapore.

In 1998, Sheppard founded a new sextet, which, in addition to his long-time partner Steve Lodder and Steve Swallow, includes guitarist John Parricelli , bassist Chris Laurence , percussionist Paul Clarvis and tabla player Kuljit Bhamra .

In 2001 he was commissioned to write and record the music for the Gateshead Millennium Bridge Project . For this project he worked with the Northumbrian musician Kathryn Tickell . In addition, he has recently appeared in a duo with Stephane San Juan or Mark Mondesir, with the pianist Rita Marcotulli and the guitarist John Parricelli. In 2008 he played in a trio with Carla Bley and Steve Swallow.

Discographic notes

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sheppard, Andy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English jazz saxophonist
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Warminster , Wiltshire