Though perhaps best (or at least better) known for his work with
the Police, guitarist
Andy Summers seems to be doing rather well for himself. He may not be filling arenas and attracting screaming teenage girls, but their mothers can scream pretty loud as well, and as it is to them that
Summers now appears to be playing, his maturity and ability to look forward work in his favor. Backed by bassist
Tony Levin and drummer
Gregg Bissonette (except on "Big Thing," which features the touring band of Jerry Watts on basses and Bernie Dresel on cymbal-laden drum set),
Summers works well as a frontman. In fact, the lack of single-named eco-conscious smoothies and relatives of famous composers allows
Summers to spread out and explore his music.
Summers puts his "Soul-O" amp to good use in the original tracks "Big Thing," "Strange Earth," "Mr. X," "Rumplestiltskin," and "The Somnambulist." However, through the predominance of covers of tunes such as
Horace Silver's cleanly swaying "Lonely Woman," the sprightly swing of
Thelonious Monk's "We See," the samba tinge of
Wayne Shorter's "Footprints," and an easy-going take on
Charles Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,"
Mr. X demonstrates a solid grasp not only of jazz (albeit 'smooth jazz"), but also of a number of other streams as well. This is especially evident on the title track, which repeatedly rolls in like an ambient Latin tide, then flashes sharply and smoothly to such diverse styles as polka and surf (Mr. X must be quite a dancer indeed!), in addition to a sampling of Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love." Whether
Summers was underappreciated in the '80s remains to be seen, but his solo work definitely deserves attention. ~ Matthew Robinson