How well do you know Cannonball Artist, Andrew Neu? We were lucky enough to have him visit us here at the Cannonball headquarters and record on our Villa stage. Along with being a player, Andrew also writes and arranges music. We recorded Andrew, Tevis Laukat, Ryan Lillywhite, and Randal Clark playing a saxophone quartet with rhythm section to one of his charts, “Salt City Samba.” In the video, you’ll see how they were in a crazy mood! Someone suggested, “Let’s change it up and play LOTS of saxophones,” so they did their version of musical chairs — but the music didn’t stop when they traded horns.
While he was here in Utah, Andrew did clinics and performances for university and high school students at Utah Valley University (UVU). One of his demonstrations there had the rhythm section of the quartet change a standard which was originally written and known in 3/4 time to 4/4 time. Andrew adjusted the melody to fit and created new life in an old standard. Later, the UVU Jazz Band performed several of Andrew’s big band compositions in a concert that featured many soloists, including Andrew.
Andrew is a natural educator, and in addition to performing and touring, he also conducts a high school and college band in his area of Philadeplhia. Kendor Music publishes his big band charts (https://www.kendormusic.com) and Printsound Publishing in Germany publishes the Michael Lington songbook and his sax quartets.
In addition to keeping busy in Philly, Andrew also leads an all-star big band in Los Angeles along with trumpeter, Anthony Bonsera. You can often catch Andrew touring in Japan as a featured soloist with Bobby Caldwell. You’ll also see him touring with Diane Schuur and Smokey Robinson. But that’s only the beginning of the mountain of people that play and record with Andrew.