ANDREW CLARK plays alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone - singer, songwriter, arranger, and bandleader - doubles on Akai EWI, flute, clarinet, keyboards - columnist/journalist/master class instructor

I started playing the saxophone like most kids do, I went to a band class demonstration in the fifth grade one day and made a somewhat random choice. The instruments I was drawn to at first in the demo had a lot of kids signed up already. I felt like I wanted to be in a smaller group of students and it would help me learn faster with more attention from the teacher. Saxophone didn't have many sign ups so I wrote my name there! Good fortune led me to my first really influential teacher. Mr. Stellato just exuded cool! He was an excellent music educator and saxophonist. He got me off to a good start and I met with him years later while on tour with the Fredonia Jazz Band. I asked him for advice and he gave me a wonderful suggestion that I followed to great success. He said, "Find your favorite be bop song, doesn't matter if it is a blues or something complex, but learn every part. Not just the sax, all of the parts. You can't play the other instruments but you can understand what they are bringing to the table and how it affects you. Be able to copy the saxophonist sound for sound, note for note." My next influential teacher was Bob Shaut at Poughkeepsie High School. Another great teacher and saxophonist! I don't think he knew what to make of my crazy teenage personality but he was very important in my development. So much so that I went to study with his teacher, Dr. Laurence Wyman at Fredonia. Dr. Wyman was a "disciple" of Sigurd Rascher, they were extremely close. The one year I studied with him was the only year that Mr. Rascher didn't visit the campus. Dr. Wyman taught important lessons about how to practice, saxophone acoustics, using technology to advance your skills, and a much needed dose of humility after a saxophone quartet rehearsal. I was still a bit of a teenager and he helped me to stop acting like one. I matriculated to Berklee and wound up as diametrically opposed as I could possibly be as a student. Now I was sitting in front of Jimmy Mosher, a true road warrior jazz saxophonist at the peak of his skills. He guzzled coffee, chain smoked during practically every lesson, and was one of the most under appreciated alto saxophonists of all time. He taught me the language of jazz when I expressed my frustration at being the weakest horn player on campus and my desire to learn and achieve. We had a meeting before my senior performance recital that is etched in my mind. It was about two weeks out and he heard me rehearsing with Wayne Ward and he hadn't seen me much for the previous two years because I switched to Joe Viola. He was pleasantly surprised at my development and helped me organize my program. My two years with Joe Viola were amazing. He was the consummate woodwind player and teacher, best friends with Marcel Mulé, and in my opinion the most influential saxophone teacher of the past fifty plus years. The list of his students is incredibly long and filled with some of the most recognizable players in the saxophone world. My final stop for "finishing school" was Jerry Bergonzi. He helped me take the final steps towards finding my own voice. I only got six months of lessons until the transmission fell out of my '73 Nova and it was either fix the car or take more lessons. I told him I'd try to get back again soon. But after I fixed the car I started getting gigs and I never got back to lessons but I have all of my notes! I've had help, lessons, training, advice, scoldings, and praise from many of my colleagues along the way. I can't thank them all individually here but in the "pages to come" I'll share some stories.

My professional career began in the 1980's. I joined an excellent rock band called Trouping The Color and we played all of the usual venues in Boston at the time. That eventually became a reggae band called One World. Then a friend of mine at a retail job told me a band in Rhode Island was looking to hire a new saxophonist. I went to audition at a private party gig and it went well. A few days later I was out with some friends, got home around midnight, and had a message on my answering machine (remember those??) from the trumpet player in the band. They were at a night club about fifteen minutes from my apartment and he said if I wanted the gig I'd better be there. I was in my aforementioned Nova minutes later and was onstage by 12:30am. They hired me that night and I bought my first tenor saxophone from Pete Hadden, who was leaving the group. I stayed with Steve Smith and The Nakeds long enough to qualify for induction into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame with the group. I learned how to be a real musician during my stint with the group.

I left the group in 1989 and soon after joined Motor City Rhythm Kings, a great blues band based in Boston. I met saxophonist Scott Shetler at a gig at the Plough and Stars and I was immediately accepted into the group. But the band splintered badly over the next year and it was a rotten outcome. It affected me so profoundly that I swore I wouldn't join another band again. And I haven't since then! I positioned myself in the market as the sub you call when your regular guy flakes out. I've been the first call saxophonist for many groups and artists but I haven't officially "joined". One of the first artists to hire me on a regular basis, and still does to this day, is James Montgomery. I have learned so much from him about music and how to run the stage from the front position. In my early days I thought the front people weren't doing much, just singing, chatting into the mic, etc. Watching James put together these line ups of amazing musicians who haven't played as a unit, with no rehearsals EVER, usually a very short sound check, and a huddle back stage is nothing short of a musical and professional miracle every time. During my twelve years as a bandleader in the front position I have deep respect for the role and I 've learned from some of the "best in the business", to quote James....

My band existed from 1994 to about 2006. It was called SAXATTACK and it started as a brash little four piece and eventually expanded to bigger line up with featured guest saxophonists. We would have some serious saxophone battles and our home base was the ill fated Dodge Street in Salem, MA. We played Halloween there four years running and the club was at its peak both professionally and socially. Every musician in town seemed to gravitate there for the generosity of the owner, the late Robert Bersofsky. My band released two CDs and gained a lot of attention in the New England area but I wasn't able to keep it going due to several issues. One of them was health related - I officially broke up the group in 2006 when I had throat surgery. I fully recovered and then some - with the help of voice therapy my singing range increased and I never had a problem again.

With my group gone I refocused on being the "super sub". John Cafferty is Steve Smith's cousin and we met, performed, and recorded together during my time with The Nakeds in the late 80's. John's longtime bandmate is saxophonist Mike Antunes, one of the most important figures in my professional development. He had sage advice for me when we first met and I call him sensei to this day. I was thrilled when I was asked to sub for him with Cafferty while he was playing the a new group called Ernie and The Automatics, an all star line up put together by Ernie Boch, Jr. They asked me to learn every solo Mike recorded with Cafferty and I got to work. Several weeks later, before the first gig with Cafferty, both bands reached out to me and expressed that it would be best for Mike to be with Cafferty and for me to go with the Automatics. All I had to do was learn every solo note for note that Mike played! I started laughing and told them there better be a gig this time to play these solos at! And of course the first date got cancelled but I did played a bunch of dates with them, and eventually with Cafferty as well.

In between these experiences I have had the pleasure of playing with The Beach Boys (Mike Love line up), The Uptown Horns, Gary US Bonds, The Coasters, DD Martin, Jeff Pitchell, Christine Ohlman, J Geils (the guitarist), Danny Klein (the bassist!), Brian Maes, Bruce Marshall, Joey Kramer, and a very long list of names that I hope to compile at some point!

On the education side of my career I have focused on being a private lesson teacher. I taught at Belmont Hill School for several years in the 1990's, at Brooks School from 2005 to present, and owned a lesson studio from 2007-2012. I merged it with another company and since then I continue to teach privately.

In 1995 I became the Rock and Roll Saxophone columnist for Saxophone Journal, which was an internationally distributed magazine. Eventually it went digital and changed to Saxophone Today for a few years before publication ceased in 2018. I spent twenty-two years writing columns, cover stories, and recording eight master class CDs on a wide range of subjects. Part of the impetus for this website is to have a forum to revisit all of my past writings and create new content for saxophone enthusiasts.

With over thirty years of professional experience doing literally every conceivable job in the music industry from selling merch to headlining as a frontman I am one of those guys you want when it matters the most. When you need a dynamic performer to enhance your band or a skilled educator to help you start playing the sax or take your playing to the next level, I'm the best call you can make!
~ AC the saxman