Music


Recording Hoagy II in 2023

In the early 1980s I studied double-bass at Colchester Institute with Tony Hougham, Principal Double Bass at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Since then I've worked as a jazz and rock double and electric bassist playing and recording, most notably, with The Flanagan Ingham Quartet, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, Chris Ingham and Jazz at the Movies (see below). I've played and/or recorded with, amongst others, Tal Farlow, Peter Erskine, Alan Clare, Tommy Whittle, Respectable Groove, Benny Green, Pete King, Alan Barnes, John Etheridge, Peter Oxley, Roger Beaujolais, Toni Kofi, Chris Garrick, Tina May, Trudy Kerr, Eddie Prevost, Lol Coxhill, Don Lusher and Jim Scott. Over the years I’ve spent a fair bit of time in France working as a session player with a variety of pop and jazz groups.

Stan Britt (Author of The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Frank Sinatra - A Tribute) kindly wrote of my playing:

Andy Brown's full toned bass is a linchpin of the [Flanagan Ingham] Quartet's musical activities. For this listener, he has the pivotal role similar to that occupied for forty years by Percy Heath of the MJQ. Indeed Brown's playing, whether as rhythm section anchor or occasional soloist, has much in common with the veteran American. Little higher praise can I offer than that . . . (Liner notes to the Flanagan Ingham Quartet's album Zanzibar).

Playing with Tal Farlow (guitar) in 1985

And Jack Massarik, the Jazz critic for the London Evening Standard, once described me as “a committedly soulful player.”

I don’t play as much as I used to but on the odd, rare occasion, you can find me playing bass in the house trio (with Chris Ingham, piano and George Double, drums) at the Hunter Club, Bury St Edmunds. Here’s what some folk have said about us:

“Like being driven around in a Rolls Royce”—Art Themen

“It doesn’t get any better than this”—Enrico Tomasso

“Like having my own guys with me”—Peter King

“A Rolls-Royce rhythm section”—Mark Crooks

“Great trio and, more importantly, quite co-operative”—Alan Barnes

Playing and hanging out with Peter Erskine in 1996

Another past musical project was with the quartet Riprap which recorded a set of poetry by the American Beat poet, eco-warrior, Buddhist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Gary Snyder. This quartet has also worked the British poets Ruth Padel, Malcolm Guite and Grevel Lindop.

Most recently worked with the pianist and singer Chris Ingham and my last recording with him featured the compositions of the great Dudley Moore. Click on the following links to read and hear more about this CD and two other recordings:

Dudley — The Chris Ingham Quartet