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The album Solo? is my first solo venture. It took over a year to write and record because of my hectic schedule of gigging, teaching, sleeping and eating, and It was all recorded in my little home studio. Everything on the cd is played using my modified Ibanez RG550 (see the gear bit) including the drums, bass, seashore and the whole orchestra in the concerto. The only exception was “The Cherub Fairy Dance where I used my Patrick Eggle Berlin Pro through the acoustic simulator in my boss GT-5. I wanted to make a CD that brought together my love of classical, jazz and rock music. Over the years I have developed an interest in mixing these styles in many different ways. The first thing I ever did was my mixture of “Spring” from the Four seasons by Vivaldi and In the Mood by Glen Miller. Big Band Baroque with guitar instead of violin as the solo instrument. Mmmm nice! After one performance an a cracking review, I was sold. This CD is a result of my studies in classical/jazz composition and also as a result of the interest shown by my audience. It wasn't really my intention to release a CD of these eclectic sonic sculptures. I really only recorded them as pieces for my own pleasure and amusement, but after having performed some of these pieces live I was always being asked if I would ever make a CD of my work. So I did. Nick Andrew comes from Scotland, but then moved to London. He was taught by a guitarist Eddie Stewart and a jazz pianist Dave Latchaw. It prepared him for playing in many various musical styles - from pop music to death metal. Nick played along with Mains Jam (jazz/fusion), The Guilty Party and Curfew (jazz/fusion). "Solo?" is his debut neoclassical album, on which he handled the whole instrumentation. From Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Flight of the Bumblebee" he produced a paraphrase titled "The Flight of the Bumble Blues". It is the neoclassical masterpiece with a bit bluesy touches. Here he plays ferocious and blistering on one hand, and also is able to perform in a subdued way. His interpretation is lush in comparison to the original and inimitable in a sense. The opening track convinced me he is shockingly gifted and ingenious artist. Playing Niccolo Paganini's "24th Caprice", Nick "struts" through the guitar neck striking the strings nobly and producing a solemn echo effect. His first full-original composition on the album is "Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra" that is characterized by a fabulous mood, lofty atmosphere, great arrangements, magic tones, fantastic guitar tricks and it sounds like a movie soundtrack divided into three movements: Allegro, Adagio and very Allegro (I think Nick actually meant "Allegretto"). Nick's guitar manner is exciting and powerful. His virtuosity and mastery of the guitar is exquisite, so the concerto is also bounty and awesome. A nice accent for me is "Nocturne" that was written by my homegrown great composer - Frederic Chopin. Its merit is unorthodox approach to the original version, yet with romantic elements preserved. Last but one "Cherubs Fairy Dance" is vivid and consisted of some jazz/fusion ingredients what makes me think of Al Di Meola's works a little bit. The crowning "L'amour d'hier" could have been included in "Concerto", since it is marked by an outstanding finger dexterity and a great sense of melody and mood. Nick is an ace who proves it with his versatility and the guitar command. A benchmark of this release's evaluation is an artistic level, and it is really high indeed. Nick Andrew doesn't replicate classical works thoughtlessly, but digs them out to perform in his unique style. They are neither rigid, nor played in accordance with any templates, however strongly embedded in the classical music tradition. If you like the music of Kevin Ferguson, Uli Jon Roth and James Byrd, you shouldn't be disappointed with "Solo?". MUSICIAN MAGAZINE Illustrating the advantages of having studied Classical/Jazz composition and learnt the trade as a session player and function band member, Nick presents a debut album that shifts from Rimsky-Korsakov via Paganini, to his own Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra. Unique and imaginative, his mastery of the solo guitar shines throughout.
CONCERTO FOR ELECTRIC GUITAR AND ORCHESTRA When I was about 15, not long after I started playing the guitar, my dad bought me a tape called popular violin classics. At that time I only really listened to Heavy Metal so the tape received a lukewarm reception. There was how ever three tracks which stood out to me. Zegunerwiessen by Sarasate, 3rd movement of the violin concerto in Dm by Sibelius and 3rd Movement of violin concerto by Mendelssohn. These pieces changed my musical life completely. I immediately set about learning them from the tape and dreamed about one day writing my own concerto to show off the electric guitar. So I did. THE CHERUB FAIRY DANCE This started life as a cheesy ballad which I was writing for my girlfriend at the time. I was getting frustrated at my attempts to write something deep and meaning full when I went off on a tangent and came up with the intro to the piece. I thought that this captured her spirit more that some cheesy ballad and from there it kind of wrote itself. The instrumentation reflects my two biggest influences, Chick Corea and Paco De Lucia. It also has a hint of Scottish folk music to it. I have no idea where I get that from. There is also a little slap bass style riff played on the guitar. My slap guitar started when I was at college and somebody bet me that I couldn't play slap bass on the electric guitar. So I did.
NOCTURNE IN E FLAT I have always loved classical guitar, but due to the fact that I have the memory of a ……………, no it’s gone, I find it difficult to remember a whole classical guitar tune. I also have a great love of piano music Chopin in particular. The nocturne was the first Chopin piece that I tackled. Rather than learn it note for note and then try to apply it onto the guitar,I started to learn the chord progression within the piece so that when I got lost or forgot what came next I could improvise my way out of trouble. So I did. L'AMOUR D'HIER There is a bit of a long story attached to this tune. I basically wrote it for a guitar playing competition I started writing it on a thurs evening and didn't stop until the sunday more or less non stop apart from eating, drinking and falling asleep at the computer. I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I even forgot to go to work on Saturday! I finished the original version at 8pm Sunday evening and whilst reading the address to send my entry I read the rules properly and noticed that the deadline was the following morning. Having complete faith in my masterpiece I decided to drive from London to Bath and deliver the package of my impending triumph in person. As it happens I chose the stormiest night of the year to drive in and to cut a long story short there was traffic jams, roadworks, a flat tyre and many , many wrong paths chosen. I eventually arrived at the offices of the offending publication (after wandering the streets getting thoroughly soaked, nearly getting into a fight and banging into a street map of Bath city centre nearly knocking myself out!) and pushed a super padded envelope, with my entry cd safely inside, into the letterbox. It just fell to the ground and into a puddle. The letterbox was nailed shut!!!!! After all that there was no letterbox that I could see, so I slid it under the door and went home in a hugh huff. Anyway, typically it didn't win. I did hear the piece that did win and I was disgusted! Not by the playing or the music, but by the fact that that the winner probably just used a stamp! The piece itself could be about my entire competition experience and subsequent journey, but it was written about another particular incident involving tequila, a phone number, a beautiful girl, a misunderstanding, an infallible entity, farting and age. Somebody had to tackle these issues using the medium of instrumental electric guitar and chamber orchestra sonic sculptureism. So I did.
FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLE BLUES When I was at college I read somewhere that Rimskykorsikovs Flight of the Bumble Bee was the ultimate virtuoso show stopper, so I dug out my 100 popular classics record and learned it that night. It took me ages to perfect and I didn’t perform it until years later, but everywhere I perform people always ask me to play it. The blues part of the tune came about at a jam night in north London where everyone was playing very bad blues and after a few liquid inspirations and a little coaxing from my mate I took it upon myself to embarrass myself by playing very bad blues. After about the second chorus of a 12 bar I decided to quote flight of the bumble bee,then proceeded to play the most egotistical widdly nonsense and then recapitulate my newfound bumble bee theme. The audience went nuts! They hated it because it wasn’t proper blues and I played too fast. It was then that I realized that I had something. The rest of the tune came about because I had to give another performance in Scotland and I wanted to pad it out a little. Again due to my love for fine ales I decided that it would be a great idea for the middle bit if I were to rewrite bumble bee in the style of JS Bach. So I did. 24th CAPRICE As a special bonus I have recorded Paganinis 24th Caprice at one of my students request. I don't have any intention to put this on the album, but many people have commented that I should. So I did.
FREE TRACK NAGOYA (Nagoya Marimbas©Steve Reich -Nonesuch Records) This is actually a Steve Reich tune which was originally written for 2 marimbas called Nagoya Marimbas from the album Proverbs. Reich has a way of creating musical textures that hypnotise the senses and take you to another place for a wee while. I transcribed it from the cd which was pretty hard, but thankfully it is panned a bit left and right which helped. Another Steve Reich piece that is well worth checking out for guitarists (not that his other work should be ingnored. Oh no!) is the fantastic Electric Counterpoint. I have a version with Pat Metheny playing all 17 or 18 guitar parts and it is fantastic. I would love to do that one day! Anyway, I rearranged Nagoya a little, changed the key, added a bit of midi sparkle and atmosphere. I used my 2 ibanezes, ibanezez, ibanenezez, ibanie, Ibani.......er.........my yellow and pink guitars and had them both hooked up to my midi rig. I added the seashore sample later, but it was still played using one of my ibanezezerezes. I really wanted it to appear on my CD as it was one of the first tracks I recorded, but after a legal delay I very reluctantly had to leave it off the album. It's free, so enjoy and try not to picture 2 Samurai practicing on a beach at sunset! I did!
(Full Track)  PURCHASE MY MUSIC
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