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.[citation needed] He won the Folk Musician of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008 and 2011.[2] He is married and has three children.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] 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, Andy is part of the Cecil Sharp Project, a joint commission between Shrewsbury Folk Festival and EFDSS that sees Andy and 7 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:
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Partial discography
His recordings include:[8]
- Vanilla (Blowzabella) – Special Delivery – SPDCD 1028 (1990)
- Chris Wood & Andy Cutting – RUF Records RUFCD01
- Lisa (Wood & Cutting) – RUF Records RUFCD02
- Live at Sidmouth (Wood & Cutting) – RUF Records RUFCD03
- Lusignac (Wood & Cutting) – RUF Records RUFCD04
- Half as happy as we (Two Duos Quartet) – RUF Records RUFCD07
- Knock John (Wood & Cutting) – RUF Records RUFCD08
- A new tradition (Tanteeka) – Osmosys Records OSMO CD013 (1997)
- Panic at the Café (Andy Cutting and Nigel Eaton, (1993) – Beautiful Jo Records BEJOCD-27 (1999)
- Ca' Nôs (Fernhill) – Beautiful Jo Records BJOCD-14
- Llatai (Fernhill) – Beautiful Jo Records BJOCD-23
- Whilia (Fernhill) – Beautiful Jo Records BJOCD-30
- Cast a bell (1651) – Beautiful Jo Records BEJOCD-33 (2001)
- One Roof Under (Tweed & Cutting) – Fyasco Records FYC004 (2002)
- Across the Waters (contributor, with Karen Tweed and others) – Nimbus NI5415 (1994)
- Pandemonium (Nigel Eaton) – Beautiful Jo Records BEJOCD-39 (2002)
- 10 (Kate Rusby) – Pure Records PRCD10 (2002)
- Apples (June Tabor) – Topic Records TSCD 568
- Hold Your Horses (Ella Edmondson) – Monsoon MONMUCD001 (2009)
- Andy Cutting (Andy Cutting) – Lane Records LANECD01 (2010)
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:
- 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
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ BBC Radio 2 website; Folk Awards 2008: Winners Accessed 15 January 2010
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 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
- ↑ Blowzabella website: history Accessed 15 January 2010
- ↑ Andy Cutting's website: Home Accessed 15 January 2010
- ↑ Kate Rusby's website: Biography Accessed 15 January 2010
- ↑ Andy Cutting's website: News Accessed 15 January 2010
- ↑ Andy' Cutting's website: CDs Accessed 15 January 2010
