Andy Sugg
ANDY SUGG is a leading Australian saxophonist whose broad stylistic interests come together under the heading of Contemporary Jazz. He performs regularly throughout Australia, is heard frequently on radio, has appeared on ABC TV and has had his music used in hit TV dramas. He plays frequently throughout the region and beyond.
Andy has led numerous projects, the most enduring being The Andy Sugg Group. The Group’s music fuses an eclectic range of compositional influences, which include contemporary jazz, funk, R&B and avant-pop. It’s Andy’s “blowing band”; a vehicle for extended improvisation in the best tradition of contemporary jazz. The Group’s current album, Grand & Union, recorded in Brooklyn (N.Y.) in 2019 and released in 2020, features Brett Williams (piano/keys), Alex Claffy (bass) and Jonathan Barber (drums).
Two previous albums, Tenorness and Wednesdays at M’s—also recorded in Brooklyn—feature Sean Wayland (piano/keys), Matt Clohesy (bass), Mark Whitfield Jnr and Nate Wood (drums). An earlier album, The Berlin Session, was recorded in Germany in 2011. It explores a more avant-garde setting and features New York-based Kate Kelsey-Sugg (piano), and Berliners Jan Leipnitz (drums) and Sean Pentland (bass).
Sugg’s other albums include, Brunswick Nights, recorded live in Melbourne (Australia), and After Utopia, featuring US saxophone legend David Liebman in his first ever recording with an Australian band over his thirty-odd year association with this country.
What the critics say:
“Brilliant, sparkling, strongly surging… Sugg is a high order musician.” Sydney Morning Herald
“Andy Sugg has a rich tone, a rock solid technique and a sure attack that makes him one of the hottest tenor players in the country. Sugg is an outstanding soloist.” Rhythms Magazine
“Sugg is a dedicated warrior” David Liebman “Andy Sugg, Afro-American rhythms from Australia: Is this Australian jazz’s moment to shine?” Corriere della Sera (Milan, Italy) “A thoroughly engrossing new album by Andy, highlighting his brilliant musicianship and the consummate players with him at every turn” Gerry Koster (Dizzy Atmosphere PBD FM) “Andy Sugg’s Wednesdays at M’s is a first class, wide ranging mélange of music created by an ensemble whose members are some of the genre’s leading players” Barry O’Sullivan (Fine Music FM)
Pedagogy
Andy is also a respected musicologist and educator who has had long associations both with the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, and the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University. He has written on jazz for The Times Literary Supplement (London) and the International Society for Jazz Research (Graz) and has been a regular contributor to Music Forum, the journal of the Music Council of Australia. He has lectured at the Manhattan School of Music (New York), the World Saxophone Congress (Strasbourg, France). His book on modern jazz, The Influence of John Coltrane on Improvising Saxophonists (Edwin Mellen Press: New York and Wales), has been praised by leading US jazz scholars, Professors Lewis Porter and David Demsey, the latter describing it as “an analytical masterpiece.” He was a consultant for Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary, the first feature length film of its kind, directed by John Scheinfeld and his “Crew Neck Productions” (Los Angeles).