ANDY SHEPPARD

The man who has emerged as one of Britain's foremost tenor and soprano saxophonists was introduced to the music of John Coltrane at the age of 19 and immediately went out and bought his own saxophone. Three weeks later, he was playing with the Bristol based quartet Sphere, which gathered an impressive reputation through the late 70's, recording several albums, winning the occasional award and playing an astonishing number of live dates throughout Britain and Europe. These years established Sheppard as a saxophonist to watch, but instead of the obvious move to London he based himself in Paris, working with French bands LumiËre and Urban Sax.

Returning to the UK in the mid 80's, Sheppard signed to Island's Antilles label and released his self-titled debut album in 1987. Star trumpeter Randy Brecker featured on several tracks, and the record was produced by the great American bassist Steve Swallow - the beginning of a musical relationship that continues to this day. The album was an immediate critical and popular success and was boosted by Andy winning the Best Newcomer at the British Jazz Awards, shortly followed by Best Instrumentalist Award in 1988, Best Album and Best Instrumentalist in 1989 and the Big Band Award in 1990.

The music on the first album was built around the nucleus of his acoustic quartet, augmented by a distinctive use of percussion and exploration into Latin and African grooves. The follow up album Introductions In The Dark featured a sophisticated mix of acoustic and electric sounds - just one week after release the album entered the British pop chart. A growing reputation was reflected by documentaries on both BBCTV and HTV and Andy was invited to present his choice of jazz archive footage to celebrate the 25th anniversary of BBC2.

At the same time, Sheppard was building an impressive reputation internationally. His band toured throughout Europe and to Canada - and pulled off a unique coup by being the first Western jazz group to play in Outer Mongolia.

During 1987, he joined George Russell's Living Time Orchestra as featured saxophone soloist and also toured with the legendary Gil Evans. Andy remains one of very few soloists to have played in the big bands of all three of the greatest post-war jazz composers - Evans, Russell and Carla Bley, and continues to tour and record with the latter two.

In 1990 Sheppard formed his Soft On The Inside Big Band, which was carefully assembled to include the diverse talents of Hans Bennink and Ernst Reisjeger, Gary Valente, and several luminaries of the London scene - Claude Deppa, Chris Biscoe and Orphy Robinson amongst them. The band produced an album and a video. The album was credited as one of the finest releases of the year in Q, the Daily Mail and The Guardian. The project confirmed Sheppard's growing status as a composer.

After Sheppard's original acoustic group had run its course, he looked towards a more punchy, electronic sound for his next move. The result was In Co-Motion, a band including the trumpeter Claude Deppa and Steve Lodder on keyboards, drummer Dave Adams and electric bassist Sylvan Richardson (once guitarist with Simply Red). The music was a potent mix of funk and rock grooves, complex ensemble lines, and solos that moved from lyrical ballad passages to exciting free jazz. The In Co-Motion album was released in the autumn of 1991.

An expanded band, almost inevitably called Big Co-Motion, added 5 strong horn players, including the ebullient Gary Valente and when Sheppard signed to Blue Note, he released Rhythm Method with the band in 1993. They went on to record live at Ronnie Scott's resulting in the album Delivery Suite which was released on Blue Note in 1994.

Andy also formed a trio, Inclassificable, which involves Lodder and percussionist Nana Vasconcelos. They devised the music for the award winning dance piece In Modern Living. Inclassificable also played at major festivals in Macedonia, Austria, Norway,Istanbul and London and released a self-titled album on French label, Label Bleu in 1995.

Sheppard's writing talents are increasingly in demand. He has been invited to write music for big band - working with the renowned UMO Orchestra in Finland, in a special project with the Bergen Big Band, and with the Voice of the North band in the UK; and he composed a chamber piece for pianist Joanna MacGregor, premiered at the Salisbury Festival in 1998 by Bournemouth Sinfonietta. He has written music for theatre (Bristol Theatre Royal's production of Arthur Miller's first play, The Man Who Had All the Luck); dance (including the afore-mentioned Modern Living); radio and TV. His TV credits include original music commissioned for the BBC Omnibus documentary about ice dancers Torvill and Dean; the Oscar-nominated Channel 4 short Syrup; HTV's documentary on the life of 18th Century black violinist Joseph Emidy; and BBC2 Arena documentary series abut Peter Sellers.

Sheppard formed a quartet with long-term writing partner Steve Lodder to record the music for the latter two TV shows, subsequently released as a CD for Verve. This group, featuring bassist Dudley Philips and powerhouse drummer Mark Mondesir, toured internationally, and re-forms occasionally most recently for a season at Ronnie Scotts in February 2000.

Often described as a serial collaborator, Sheppard has worked with an astonishing range of musical partners. As well as Carla Bley, George Russell and Gil Evans, he has played with Indian violinist Shankar; Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos; with percussionists from Malaysia, India and Singapore (as a featured soloist at the 1997 Princes Trust concert for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in Edinburgh); with organist Barbara Dennerlein, Danish pianist Maj-Britt Kramer and French bassist Michel Benita; with violinist and string quartet leader Alex Balanescu, improvising pianist Keith Tippett, Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger, and Australian composer Michael Mantler. An invitation to take part in a month-long residency as part of Copenhagen's City of Culture year, enabled him to play with a number of leading Danish musicians, alongside workshop and teaching activity - and in 1997, he undertook a two month educational residency at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton.

He has also worked often with classical saxophonist John Harle, in the trio Twentieth Century Saxophones, and as featured soloist in Harle's recording and touring project Terror and Magnificence, alongside Elvis Costello and soprano Sarah Leonard.

Andy can also be found on an equally eclectic range of recordings - as well as featuring on CDs with Carla Bley and George Russell, he has played on sessions with dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah, John Martyn, Baaba Maal, Basia, Nigel Kennedy, Bristol indie band Blue Aeroplanes - and he even turned up on a tribute album to the New York Dolls.

In 1998 Sheppard took the decision to sign to independent label Provocateur Records. He formed a new sextet, including renowned table player Sharda Sahai and recorded the album Learning To Wave, which marks yet another new direction. This new band creates a fresh and individual sound featuring Andy's playing and his lyrical composition at its very best. The release of Learning To Wave marked a resurgence of interest in the man and the music, and the album continues to sell in significant quantities many months after its release date.

His second CD for Provocateur, Dancing Man and Woman, is released in March 2000. It features the musicians from Learning To Wave - Steve Lodder, guitarist John Parricelli, bassist Chris Laurence and percussionist Paul Clarvis, with special guests - electric bassist Steve Swallow and tabla player Kuljit Bhamra. The music is commissioned by the arts programme at Canary Wharf, and receives a UK live premiere in April 2000 with performances in Bristol, London and Newcastle, following a short tour of Turkey.

Looking further ahead, Sheppard will continue to perform this music through the year - whether in quintet or sextet form, or by the acoustic trio he has formed with Lodder and Laurence. Other activity in 2000 includes an October residency in Bologna, one of the millennium Cities of Culture; an Autumn European tour with Carla Bley's new eight-piece band; and more live work with Maj-Britt Kramer and the French pianist Jean-Marie machado. Two other projects point towards yet more new directions - a solo performance with live saxophone and electronics was commissioned by the Maison de la Culture in Amines and performed there in December 1999; and the end of 1999 also saw a complete change of tack, in a collaboration with trumpeter Claude Deppa and DJs Rita Ray and Max Reinhardt, for a short tour commissioned by the Serious Sampler series.