“There is nothing false about Andy’s performance. You clearly see and hear that he loves every minute of what he's doing on stage – you will instantly be moved by him.”
Voice
Q: "do you play any instruments?"
A: "just vocal chords"
The one common characteristic that most listeners agree when hearing Andy is on the unique sound of his voice and quality of the phrasing. More specifically, his voice is uncannily sincere to the era within his music selection. If there is one rare attribute to Andy's art that makes him unique it is this: his sound is nostalgic and like that of the original crooners.
Although he covers much of the material common to singers like Sinatra, Andy has never been identified exclusively within that repertoire or style. That's what keeps him coming back to the jazz venues again and again. Nor is Andy a jazz singer, despite its influence on his career. He's just a crooner who loves the standards of Great American Songbook.
Andy's vocal blend is rooted in a varied background of singers and styles. He attributes his clear phrasing to Sinatra, his warm resonance to Nat King Cole, his prolonged breath control to Matt Monro and an occasional huskiness to Bobby Darin.
The greatest complement Andy receives, almost every month, continues to be when someone in a busy restaurant or corporate event says that they thought it was a CD playing.
Musicians
Andy works regularly with his TRIO:
- Rick Maltese (piano)
- Ken McDonald (bass)
- Steve Farrugia (drums)
and "if you have a bigger room):
Other Musicians played with since 2011:
- PIANO: Robert Scott, Sean Belavitti, Richard Whitehouse, Mark Kieswetter, Peter Hill
- BASS: George Koller, Ross MacIntyre, Tien Yeung, Dave Field.
- SAX: Richard Underhill, Phil Skladowski, Steve MacDonald.
- TROMBONE: Chris Butcher
- TRUMPET: Howard Leathers
- DRUMS: Great Bob Scott, Mark Kelso, Jay Alter, Tim Shia, Norman Marshall Villeneuve
Biography
From childhood in Toronto, Andy was mostly moved by classical music and powerful orchestrations; especially of film soundtracks. Jazz found him in his teens; then the crooners. He once heard a famous singer say: "you wanna learn how to sing, listen to Frank".
Although being only slightly aware of that part of music world Andy nevertheless fell quickly in love with classic American pop music from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. He absorbed daily doses of the recordings from Columbia, Capitol and Reprise and found himself fascinated by the complex big band and orchestra arrangements behind the lyrics. To this day, that is what really moves and inspires him.
After his time in University, in England, Andy began performing regularly at the local jazz venues and restaurants. To this day, the greatest compliment he received was at one of those early gigs. The venue owner – a big Old Blue Eyes fan - told Andy: “I’ll never listen to Sinatra the same way again”.
In the following 4 years, Andy moved back to Portugal and sang with one of the country’s top swing bands and on television.
Andy decided to move to Canada in 2004, he had to start over again, beginning at the local Toronto jazz and swing venues. Since then it has been the usual uphill battle that more often seems downhill thanks to music!
Andy lives in Toronto with his wife Carol and two children Nat and Christina.
