Andy Summers spent the decade before joining the Police becoming one of the world’s greatest guitarists. In the years leading up to his colossal, world-conquering trio with Sting and Stewart Copeland, Summers logged time in blues bands and psychedelic outfits, and even earned a degree in classical guitar.
By the time the Police went global, Summers was a musical heavyweight with long stretches of time that needed to be filled with something other than playing hit records.
“I’m in the Police and we’re on the road all the time,” Summers told Herald. “We’re surrounded by photographers and it came to me, ‘I should do photography. I should become a very good photographer.”
And so Summers became a very good photographer.
He may be the rare example of somebody who could actually quit their day job, but instead of deciding between the camera and guitar, he recently combined the two. His current tour, The Cracked Lens + A Missing String, which stops at Beverly’s Cabot Theater on July 21, has him performing solo beside projections of his photos.
“A minimum of fifty percent of the show is improvised every night,” he said. “I have a certain framework, but I never play the same thing twice.”
If you’ve spent a decent chunk of time with the Police’s catalog, you know Summers’ playing is enormously creative (see the textures, tones and solos on “Message in a Bottle,” “Bring on the Night,” “Demolition Man,” and more). Listening to Summers, it’s clear that he cares equally for melody and dissonance, art and pop. Apparently that’s always been the case no matter what art form he’s interested in.
“As a kid, I’m 15, 16-years-old and I started going to the cinema… seeing European art house films and I was totally addicted to them,” he said with a laugh. “I was seeing Truffaut, Bergman, Fellini. I had a vague desire that I wanted to be a filmmaker but I was also obsessed with the guitar.”
Just like that same young teenager he once was, he still loves exploring. He’s scored feature films and made jazz records, guested on Sting songs and collaborated with anti-guitar hero Robert Fripp, put on photo exhibitions at galleries across the globe and recently published his first collection of short stories, “Fretted and Moaning.”
Maybe this is why, unlike so many guitarists of his generation who locked into a sound, style or identity and hung on for dear life (Eric Clapton comes to mind), Summers repeatedly defies sonic expectations.
“As you play on through your life, you’ve got these various things that you’re interested in,” he said. “They come together in this hybrid voice that’s built out of eclecticism and comes out as being special to you.”
“Or so one hopes,” he added.
Whether it’s reworking “Bring on the Night” with an Italian guitar quartet or shooting photographs on the border between Tibet and China, Summer’s voice – his vision – is his own.
For tickets and details, visit Andysummers.com