“Jazz was sort of in my consciousness so early on, that it is so hard to imagine it not being there.”

Sax players are an interesting group of musicians.  There are so many out there, most of whom are dying to be out in front – in the spotlight.  Then there are others who have been in the business for years too many to count, playing alongside most of the big names out there.  This month, On the Side would like to turn to one of those saxophonists by featuring Andy Suzuki.

Born in Finland to a Finnish mother and Japanese father, Andy Suzuki has been a world traveler since a very early age.  And that world travelling had a profound influence on his world music.  His family moved to New York City, Philadelphia, then Japan where Andy attended grade school, and finally settled in the Seattle area of Washington State.  Regardless of where he was, music was always around and a part of his everyday life.  “My Mom loved jazz & Dad loved classical music.  Dad tinkers on drums, keys, flute & sax, and my younger brother is a hobby bassist.”  At age four, Andy began playing keyboards.  His family was living in Japan where he says that “it seemed like everyone played keyboards.  But by sixth grade, and by then in Washington State, I picked up the sax in band.”  While living in Seattle, Andy took sax lessons in from the same teacher that taught Kenny G.  He was THE guy in the northwest.  He taught no jazz improvisation, just classical and classical concerto.  All of the jazz side of stuff was self taught. 

Just five days after graduating high school, Andy was on his way to Los Angeles. After a series of jam sessions and getting to know some other musicians, Andy’s reputation gave way to bigger gigs, including a spot with the group, Kilauea.  “That was a great gig and led to another opportunity.  While on one of Art Good’s cruises from California to Mexico, Kilauea was playing on the way down and David Benoit was playing on the way back.  I had the chance to chat and jam with David.  That encounter was enough for David to invite me to join his band.”  Andy has toured extensively with Benoit, but he is far from being the only other artist this talented and creative saxophonist has played with.  His resume also includes Gregg Karukas, Dave Brubek, Chick Corea, Michael Franks, Al Jarreau, Rick Braun, Peter White, and Marc Antoine.

While the sax is the instrument of choice, Andy still chooses to compose on a piano, and his compositions these days seem to be drawing inspiration from his other love:  math.  In his spare time, Andy can be found devouring anything math and number theory related.  He picks numbers and creates music around them.  His newest project is a CD is called Prime, and is using only prime numbers in every tune as a compositional idea.  “What I’ll do,” says Andy, “is to take a number and break down the compositional process and assign a number to most aspects of the music, whether it be the number of beats in a measure, the number of measures in a phrase, or the duration of notes.  You can even assign numbers to the notes on a keyboard and derive chords and melodies from those numbers.  So I kind of took that approach.” 

In addition to his love of math, astronomy, chess and puzzles are other hobbies that Andy enjoys and partakes of when not composing, but that time is not often for this jazz artist with nearly 25 years of professional experience.  He is busy getting his new website (www.suzukisax.com) up and running, and getting the word out about his new CD.  Check out CD Baby for more information.   And be sure to catch Andy on tour with David Benoit and on CDs of many of your favorite jazz artists.

- Bonnie Schendell