Musical Styles
Andy Peate's Wide-Ranging Musical Expertise
BLUES BANDS
Andy is regarded as a leading exponent of blues piano and boogie woogie, having been encouraged, helped and taught briefly by Big Joe Duskin, one of the best of the veteran American bluesmen of recent years. He has at times played interval piano sets between those of bands led by such as Steve Ajao and Roger Hill.
Andy also plays Hammond Organ blues style, having at his disposal truly authentic Hammond sounds.
Any bands he puts together will be totally genuine sounding, and he always works with the best local bluesmen around. These bands derive from such acknowledged masters as B.B. King, Elmore James, Muddy Waters and others, and so are not essentially based on rock-and-roll, "Blues Brothers" or "Commitments" style set-ups commonly associated with blues nowadays.
However, numbers from these setups can always be included in the repertoire. The music is always powerful, but never harsh or over-loud.
MAINSTREAM JAZZ COMBOS
What used to be called "modern" jazz has now found its way into the mainstream tradition of jazz and is no longer considered cult, as it now has wide public acceptance.
Andy plays swing, be-bop and post be-bop trumpet and flügelhorn player in this tradition, heavily influenced by such masters as Louis Armstrong, Buck Clayton, Harry Edison, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, and Chet Baker. As such, he is highly esteemed by local musicians and jazz fans alike. Andy is also becoming increasingly well known as a keyboard player in this field, and he has become highly regarded as an excellent accompanist to singers, very often, but not always, with the considerable aid of his world class jazz backing tracks.
His bands are always of the highest standard, being made up of the best sidemen around. The music played by these bands is always melodically oriented and is never "way-out", or inaccessible, as is sometimes thought to be the case with bands of this kind.
MP3's
Sister Sadie----Autumn Leaves----Make Me A Memory
SOLO KEYBOARDS/PIANO
Andy has performed at many prestigious venues, including a residency at Rustie Lee's Caribbean restaurant, and regularly at many of the region's leading hotels, including the Metropole, Grand, Hyatt, Plough & Harrow, Thistles, Belfry, Moat Houses, Ettington Park, Nailcote Hall, The Shakespeare, Stratford Manor, to name but a very few. He has also done sessions at Hagley, Ragley, and Shugborough Halls, and Stoneleigh and Coombe Abbeys, and most recently has played regularly at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham.
For the purposes of background music, his solo repertoire is wide and versatile, taking in jazz, blues and boogie woogie (a speciality), ballads, and laid-back popular music. If requested, he can also include a set of old-time singalong numbers in the programme. In addition, with his keyboard set-up, he has authentic church/pipe-organ sounds which can be used at civil wedding ceremonies or for Christmas Carol singalongs.
Andy has also compiled a considerable library of mainly jazz backing tracks which he uses to great effect to give extra variety, for example, to cater for those who might want to take to the dance floor in the later stages. However, he can easily carry off a whole session of purely solo piano if that is all that is needed.
If the venue does not have a piano, there is no cause for concern, as Andy has an excellent and authentic sounding electric piano based keyboard set-up, which takes very little space (less than a grand piano!). Only one power point is needed, and, needless to say, volume levels always take first priority.
TRADITIONAL JAZZ BANDS
Andy has worked with many of the leading trad jazz players of Great Britain, most notably having been featured on trumpet with Acker Bilk, playing along side of Mike Cotton (a founder member of the Average White Band). He is currently working at various times with sidemen or ex-sidemen of Acker, Chris Barber and Kenny Ball, playing rousing and musically excellent Dixieland or Mainstream Jazz.
He is equally at home in the traditional setting of a New Orleans Jazz Band, and has led three to ten piece outdoor marching or parade bands for a wide variety of occasions, as well as for indoor wedding/dancing functions.
Notable projects have included a series of outdoor gigs for Barratts the house-builders, providing music for their Fun Days in the Midlands, and annual conferences of the Prison Service. The bands are always visually suitable, and proper attention is always paid to correct volume levels.
MP3's
I've Found A New Baby----Blue Monk----Wabash Blues
SOLO BRASS
The trumpet (muted or open) and flügelhorn in recent years have taken something of a back seat to the saxophone in terms of popularity.
Properly played, they are a genuinely viable alternative to the sax.
Over the years, Andy has put together a large library of mostly jazz backing tracks. These are all well known standards: they are totally professional sounding, absolutely appropriate accompaniment that is perfectly tasteful and utterly authoritative and accurate. Add mellow flügelhorn and laid-back muted trumpet sounds to these, and you have a totally convincing alternative to the all too common saxophone, to provide extremely classy background music as easy listening.
He also has a portable battery powered amplification system, which enables him to set up absolutely anywhere (within reason!), indoors or out.
Also, Andy can play the "Prince of Denmark", or similar trumpet voluntary/fanfare at pageants or wedding ceremonies, to add that special touch of distinction to such events.
Finally, he can play the Last Post and Reveille at funerals, both indoors and outdoors.
WEDDING MUSIC
As a wedding musician Andy can provide:
1) A trumpet voluntary for the bride's procession
2) Suitable keyboard music, religious or secular, for the ceremony
3) An outdoor/indoor mobile traditional jazz band (up to 10 piece)
4) Suitable background music for the wedding breakfast (solo keyboard, vocal/instrumental duo or trio)
5) Duos, Trios, five piece function band for the celebrations (self-contained)
PLEASE NOTE:-
WEDDING MUSIC PACKAGES CATERED FOR...
...BUT MUCH MORE THAN THAT...
IF YOU ARE ORGANIZING ANY EVENT WHICH REQUIRES MUSIC THAT INVOLVES MORE THAN JUST A CD PLAYER OR A DISCO (let's face it - most of them sound exactly the same, and the best ones aren't cheap either!), THEN YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE TO THINK OF LIVE MUSIC.
ANDY'S ABILITY, SKILL AND EXPERIENCE PUT HIM IN THE FOREFRONT OF LOCAL MUSIC PROVIDERS, THOUGH HE IS STILL PREPARED TO TRAVEL. HAVE A GOOD LOOK THROUGH THE REST OF THIS WEBSITE AND CHECK IT OUT...