Andy Sheppard features in an impressive roster at Triskel for Cork Jazz Festival
The lineup at Triskel for Guinness Cork Jazz Festival includes Andy Sheppard, Amaro Freitas and Selene Saint Aime.
English saxophonist Andy Sheppard once played in a band led by legendary American double bassist Charlie Haden, a multi-sided musician whose experiences extended from folk to free jazz.
“I’m in the middle of a solo, and Charlie was playing right behind me, and I could hear him just keep saying, ‘Tell your story, man! ,” says Sheppard. “I guess that’s the thing with jazz: You can have all the technique and knowledge in the world, but if you’ve got no story to tell, you’re gonna sound flat.”
Sheppard believes you have to work hard and devote yourself entirely to the music — whatever it takes. “In my twenties I went to Paris, played on the street and in the Métro, and at one point lived in a room with 15 Polish refugees, who drank vodka, non-stop. But I survived off my music, and it helped build my story. As Charlie Parker famously said, ‘If you don’t live it, it won’t come out your horn.’”
The Andy Sheppard story has a lot more to draw upon than his down and out in Paris period. For one thing, he didn’t discover jazz or start playing the saxophone until the relatively late age of 19, when he was introduced to the music of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Keith Jarrett by pianist Geoff Williams.
“I was on my way to art college, but Geoff said, ‘You’re not an artist; you’re a natural musician,’” says Sheppard, 65, who was already playing some guitar and flute. “He said, ‘Sit down there. Smoke this. And listen to this.’ I’d never taken jazz seriously — I thought it was all Acker Bilk and bow ties. But this made sense to me. I immediately got it; I could feel the incredible energy coming off the music, especially Coltrane’s. Then I thought, ‘That’s it! I want to dedicate my life to making music like that!’”
The next day Sheppard sold everything he owned, bought a tenor saxophone, and started teaching himself and practising every hour he could. Within three weeks he had his first paid gig. He took up the soprano sax soon afterwards, and began to build a reputation, especially during the British jazz boom of the 1980s, as a player of rare lyricism, invention and expressiveness — qualities that seem to match his very engaging and easy-going personality. He has been in work and in demand, especially in Europe, ever since.
Describing and defining Sheppard’s wonderfully diverse music is no easy task. He has played in and written for settings that range from solo concerts to big bands, chamber orchestras, and a 200-strong Saxophone Massive. He has led bands of many stripes, sometimes integrating the colours and rhythms of Africa, Asia and South America; more recently he has released four captivatingly atmospheric albums on esteemed German label ECM.
Sometimes described as a “serial collaborator”, Sheppard has also worked with musicians as varied as folk-blues singer-songwriter John Martyn, contemporary classical pianist Joanna MacGregor, English piper and fiddle player Kathryn Tickell, and three of the most innovative and important composers in modern jazz — Carla Bley, George Russell and Gil Evans. The Catalan title of his 1994 album perhaps best encapsulates his career: Inclassificable.
This month Sheppard brings a new band to Ireland for the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. Called East Coast, and featuring John Parricelli on guitar, Dudley Phillips on bass and Mário Costa on drums, the quartet is somewhat different, Sheppard says, to his more contemplative ECM groups.
“It’s far more ‘get stuck in, play some tunes, and blow the shit out of it’,” he says, laughing. “It’s a kind of kicking band!”
Much of the new music for East Coast was written by Sheppard during, and as a response to, the pandemic — on the far west coast of Europe, near Ericeira in Portugal, where he now lives.
“My wife Sara is Portuguese and we moved here the day after the Brexit vote in 2016. I sold my flat in Bristol; didn’t feel I fitted in in the UK anymore. I’ve always strongly felt part of the European jazz family and music for me is a world without borders or restrictions. England was moving backwards; I wanted to maintain a feeling of freedom.”
While Sheppard continued to work as much as he could during Covid, that sense of personal liberty was severely threatened in June when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had “radical surgery” shortly after and remarkably, after just a few months of recovery, is now back on the road.
“I dodged the bullet and it’s great to be back playing again,” he says, stroking the long grey goatee that now accompanies his distinctive number-three buzzcut. “And because of that experience I’m sure that my music will have more weight and depth to it. There’s now more to my story, man!”
- Andy Sheppard East Coast plays Triskel Christchurch at 8pm on Sunday, October 30, guinnesscorkjazz.com)
- Irish double bill of agile six-piece contemporary trad ensemble NOTIFY, fronted by gifted concertina player Pádraig Rynne, and upcoming jazz and beyond vocalist Doyle.
- 31-year-old piano sensation whose complex rhythms and thrillingly percussive playing are “pioneering the new sound of Brazilian jazz”.
- rare solo show from the elder statesman of the acoustic guitar, a modern master whose worldview embraces jazz, classical, folk, Brazilian music and more.
- Every festival should have its utter surprise and unexpected discovery – compelling Afro-French jazz/global double bassist and vocalist Saint-Aimé might well be both.
