Andy Cutting

Andy Cutting is an English folk musician and composer. Born 18 March 1969 in Harrow,[1] he plays melodeon and has had instruments made by Castagnari to his own specification. He won the Folk Musician of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008, 2011 and 2016.[2] He is married and has three children.

Career

Starting playing the melodeon in his early teens, Cutting was invited to join a local ceilidh band, Happenstance, when he had been playing for only a few months. In 1988 he joined the influential and innovative band Blowzabella (which also featured Nigel Eaton, with whom Cutting has since collaborated). Cutting made one album ("Vanilla") with Blowzabella before they broke up in 1990. Their repertoire, blending English traditional music with that of central France and Eastern Europe, had a great influence on Cutting.[3] Blowzabella subsequently reformed; they celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2003, with Cutting once again an official member.[3] They released the album Octomento in 2007.[4]

In 1989 Cutting formed a partnership with Chris Wood, whom he had met two years earlier at Sidmouth Folk Festival. They tour extensively over several years reuniting in August 2010 for the Towersey Village Festival and have made five albums together. Wood introduced Cutting to a wealth of Québécois music and shared his love of English and French dance music.[3] Wood & Cutting, together with Karen Tweed and Ian Carr, make up the Two Duos Quartet, who have made one album Half as happy as we.

Tweed & Cutting have also worked as a duo; they have made one album together and contributed to a live CD, "Across the Waters", recorded at Cork University in 1994.

Cutting is in great demand as a session musician and has worked with artists as diverse as Sting, June Tabor and Chumbawamba. He has been a member of several bands, including Fernhill and Tanteeka. As well as the Wood & Cutting duo, he is part of the trio 1651 (with Mark Emerson and Tim Harries), the John McCusker Band, the Kate Rusby Trio and the Kate Rusby Band.[5][6] He is also a popular workshop tutor and has taught at summer schools for Folkworks.[7]

In March 2011, Cutting was part of the Cecil Sharp Project, a joint commission between Shrewsbury Folk Festival and EFDSS that saw him and seven other modern folk musicians take part in a week-long residential project to create new works related to life and works of folk collector Cecil Sharp.

Compositions

Cutting has composed many tunes, several of which have been recorded by other artists. Some have passed into the music session repertoire. His compositions include:

  • Alltfechan
  • Flatworld
  • Heidi Hendy
  • In Continental Mood
  • I Like You, You're Common
  • I Only Want a Snack
  • It's A Square Word
  • Miss Lindsay Barker
  • New Pneus
  • Oliver's
  • Round the Corner
  • St Michael's Mount
  • Seven Years
  • Spaghetti Panic
  • The Abbess
  • The Bay Tree
  • The History Man
  • The RSB
  • The Walled Garden Waltz
  • There are Angels
  • To The Edges
  • Two Beers
  • Waltz Harry Lane
  • Waiting for Janet


Partial discography

His recordings include:[8]

In 2009 Fulmine from Vanilla was included in Topic Records 70 year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten as track twenty one on the seventh CD.

Books

Cutting contributed tunes and a biographical essay to:

Cutting contributed tunes to:

References

  1. ↑ "Biography of Blowzabella". Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  2. ↑ BBC Radio 2 website; Folk Awards 2008: Winners Accessed 15 January 2010
  3. 1 2 3 Blowzabella – New Tunes for Dancing (by Andy Cutting, Nigel Eaton, Jo Freya, Paul James, Ian Luff, Cliff Stapleton, David Shepherd, Jon Swayne), Blowzabella, Glastonbury (2004) ISBN 0-9549013-0-4
  4. ↑ Blowzabella website: history Accessed 15 January 2010
  5. ↑ Andy Cutting's website: Home Accessed 15 January 2010
  6. ↑ Kate Rusby's website: Biography Archived 15 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 15 January 2010
  7. ↑ Andy Cutting's website: News Archived 17 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 15 January 2010
  8. ↑ Andy' Cutting's website: CDs Archived 9 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 15 January 2010

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.