The Jazz Guitar of

Andy Brown

September 2010 | By Frank-John Hadley

Vocalist Petra van Nuis and guitarist Andy Brown, a married jazz couple, have been performing as a duo in the Chicago metropolitan area since 2004. Though they have other gigs, this state of affairs in their pride and joy. Throughout their first album together, they seem to have an exceptional telepathic rapport that obviates the need for complicated arrangements. For van Nuis, who has a light, gorgeous and fairly delicate voice, there is both security and risk in striving to have a blended sound with the guitar and mirroring her man's spare, uncluttered, less-is-more style. Brown, a protégé of Cincinnati guitar master Kenny Poole, happens to be an uncommonly good player, with a modesty that brings to mind the fine Canadian guitarist Ed Bickert and a warmth suggestive of Joe Pass.

Joined at the conjugal hip, Brown and van Nuis share a gift for melody and have plenty of rhytmic confidence. They project naturalness when phrasing, and their overall intelligence makes understatement and subtlety virtues. They also merit praise for the integrity informing their choice of songs from the past and for their personal involvement with a lyric. The couple endows "Invitation," from the soundtracks of two early 1950s films, with an undercurrent of quizzical tension that keeps their sentimental impulses in check. "I'll Never Stop Loving You," identified with mid-50s Doris day, is beautifully rendered (Nellie McKay and Jay Berliner couldn't do it any better), and their convincing study of Cole Porter's "Let's Do It" posits love as quiet ecstasy. Escapist fare like the Bing Crosby-identified title track and "Destination Moon," launched by Nat Cole decades ago are too much of a nice-and-sweet thing, but, then again, in this time of billion-dollar bailouts, global strife, and environmental distress, maybe songs about dream castles are what we need as a restorative break from everyday chaos. ***1/2

May 2010 | By Matt Warnock

Far Away Places is a hard swinging and enjoyable album from the Chicago duo of guitarist Andy Brown and vocalist Petra Van Nuis. When one thinks of a guitar-vocal duo in a jazz setting the great albums and concerts of Joe Pass and Ella Fitzgerald immediately come to mind. While the soul and inspiration of these jazz titans can be heard in Van Nuis' vocal lines and Brown's fret-work, this is not a tribute album, or an attempt to imitate or emulate anyone else. This album stands on its own two feet as a solid contribution to the jazz guitar-vocal catalogue.

The tunes on this album represent a wide view of the traditional and, to a certain extent, more modern jazz repertoire. There are songbook standards, such as Cole Porter's "From This Moment On," Latin Jazz standards, "Caravan" and "Invitation," and just enough hidden gems, such as the tragically underperformed "Destination Moon," "Bim Bom" and "I'll Never Stop Loving You," to keep any jazz fan happy. Combined, these classic tracks, mixed with Latin grooves, underplayed standards and newer material, provide an intimate look into the duo's musical tastes and backgrounds, while at the same time ensuring that the album never becomes monotonous as each new track brings with it a new musical excursion into the creative minds of these two talented jazzers.

Maybe it's the fact that Van Nuis and Brown have spent years sharing the bandstand, or the fact that away from their careers they also share their lives together as husband and wife, but their interaction is incredible to witness. Brown is always right there when Van Nuis takes an unexpected turn on the melody or twist of the time in a rubato section. Brown's ability to know exactly when to pluck solid chords, fingerpick arpeggios, or just play single-lines behind a melody line should be commended.

Brown never gets caught up in trying to do too much, like constantly walking a bassline and comping. Instead, he manipulates the harmony through a diverse range of textures that provides comfort for the singer, as well as interest for the audience. This is where the spirit of Joe Pass can be felt in Brown's playing. Not in his note choices or incredible chops, but in his ability to let the accompaniment breathe and react to Van Nuis. It's no wonder Brown has been making a name for himself as one of Chicago's rising young jazz guitarists.

Far Away Places takes the listener on an engaging and enjoyable journey through the musical world of this talented duo. It's one of those rare albums that would go well as background music for a dinner party, yet it can draw in even the most seasoned jazz fan with its intricacies and elevated musicality. Do yourself a favor and check this album out. You won't be disappointed.

Jan 2010 | By Jack Huntley

The combination of a female vocalist backed by a solo guitar is not a heavily- exploited instrumentation, and there's a reason for that—it's very hard to pull off. While Ella Fitzgerald's recordings with Joe Pass are a perhaps the gold standard, overwhelmingly the piano is the stand-alone accompaniment instrument of choice for singers. But vocalist Petra van Nuis and guitarist Andy Brown's wonderful Far Away Places is a reminder of the beauty this form can achieve, and how the inherent openness of a duet setting can add interesting, expectant overtones to the music.

To their credit, van Nuis and Brown keep the tracks fairly straightforward, choosing songs with charming melodies and then never straying too far away from them. The tunes are a mix of up-tempo standards, dreamy ballads, and Latin tunes. Their take on a cut like "Me, Myself And I" adds just the right amount of harmonic complexity while maintaining the song's unambiguous melody. The opening track, "Destination Moon," achieves similar results with Brown's savory voicings teasing the ear while pushing the rhythm ahead at a loping pace.

Throughout the album, van Nuis' vocal quality is at once strong and wistful. In "A Cottage For Sale," she hangs on notes perfectly, releasing them as if saying goodbye to a good friend. There is also an innocence in van Nuis' voice that she exploits beautifully on the Cole Porter tune "From This Moment On." On the title track, a lovely ballad whose dreamy lyrics seem tailor made for her vocal talents, van Nuis never fails to support the melody's cadences with her range and endearing clarity.

It's unfair to term Brown's playing as "accompaniment," because his guitar adds a wholly other voice to the album. In "Born To Blow The Blues," Brown slides into chordings with a sax-like quality on one bar before unleashing a shimmering staccato voicing at the next change. Always mindful of the melody, Brown manages to wrap his rich harmonic style in a unhurried feel that calls to mind the spirit of George Van Eps with a current harmonic understanding. On the Duke Ellington classic "Caravan" and the Antonio Jobim cut "Bim Bom," Brown's dexterous playing really jumps off the disc with its crisp, steady feel that mixes walking bass lines, pulsing chord melodies and even some open string drone passages. Brown's playing throughout is filled with a vibrate fluidity that defines the album and keeps the ear interested track after track.

Far Away Places is an unique album with a relaxed feeling that more than handles the acoustic constraints of a duo setting. With smart song choices, engaging vocal interpretations, and captivating guitar work this album creates a beautiful landscape with minimal digressions. Petra van Nuis and Andy Brown's interpretations are over-flowing with skill and imagination.

March 2011 | By Andreas Geyer

Duo recordings are the crowning achievement [or: ultimate discipline] in jazz, since both musicians have to possess an enormous measure of congeniality, if it's going to work. As previously with Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass, who as guitar-vocal duo set the timeless standard. The singer Petra van Nuis and the guitarist Andy Brown, a musician couple from the Chicago area, have found their own way to the magical musical dialogue, which can only partially be described as blind understanding. With the sparse arrangements and Andy Brown's restrained, but no less effective accompaniment, the 13 pieces on this CD acquire a great intensity in their melody-oriented interpretation. The girlish-light and extensively modulated mezzo-soprano voice of Petra van Nuis, often tinged with a trace of melancholy, is superbly suited to the mainly balladesque pieces. Their range extends from Cole Porter's "From this Moment on" and pieces with Latin rhythms, like "Caravan" or "Invitation," to rarely heard tunes like "Born to Blow the Blues." The two musicians' musical declaration of love, "I'll Never Stop Loving You," is especially beautiful. Andy Brown proves to be a technically accomplished guitarist with perfect timing and an incredible wealth of harmonies. He almost telepathically follows his wife's vocal lines and subtly connects playing individual notes and chords. His unobtrusive virtuosity is on display in the solo piece "Bim Bom," a composition by Antonio Carlos Jobim. This duo album with wonderfully relaxed music is an invitation to dream and listen.

October 2009 | by Chris Spector

This isn't a self conscious/diva/songbag collection, but to make the title track the often overlooked "Far Away Places" certainly gets this pair points. A vocal/guitar duo set by two long time fellow travelers shows that elegance and simpatico can go a long way. It ain't about the fireworks, it's about the purity of the performance and that's what makes this one of those great, low key wonders. When you've got it going on, you've got it going on and this duo is one of the most ripping good new duos to come along. Check it out when your adult listening ears need something new to fill them.

October 2009 | by Michael Steinman

One of the many pleasures of the 2009 Jazz at Chautauqua was hearing Petra van Nuis and Andy Brown perform in front of a live audience, and I think the performance clips I've posted are solid evidence of their talents. I was hoping that the duo's new CD would provide the same experience. Sometimes, of course, magic dissolves in the recording studio amid attempts to make recordings flawless.

But I need not have worried. Petra and Andy's new CD is splendid. Where to begin? (Once we've taken in the picture of the happy good-looking couple above...) The songs on the CD are DESTINATION MOON, FAR AWAY PLACES, FROM THIS MOMENT ON, I'LL NEVER STOP LOVING YOU, CARAVAN, BORN TO BLOW THE BLUES, LET'S DO IT, BIM BOM (a solo for Andy), A COTTAGE FOR SALE, HOW LITTLE WE KNOW, INVITATION, ME MYSELF AND I, WITH A SONG IN MY HEART.

That song list speaks to a wide-ranging and discerning knowledge of the great songs of the last eighty or so years, a delight in itself: Porter, Ellington, Robison, Rodgers, and some delightful oddities. I know, for instance, that DESTINATION MOON is attached to a film of the same name and it even appears on a Lester Young live date c. 1950, but how many people have ever recorded it? (If you don't know the song, imagine IN MY MERRY OLDSMOBILE updated to the era of fantasy rocket travel.) And BORN TO BLOW THE BLUES is associated with Marilyn Moore - but I haven't heard it in ages. But this CD isn't a high-toned musical archeology lesson, either.

Andy Brown, first: barring a half-dozen I admire, most jazz guitarists have become entranced, Narcissus staring at their own reflection in the shiny body of the Gibson or Macaferri, with the endless possibilities of their own technique. (You could blame Charlie Parker or Jimi Hendrix for this, but we're here to celebrate.) So the notes pour out in what sound like endless streams; the fingers fly. Few guitarists seem to understand the value of space, of breathing pauses, of logical solo construction - with music delivered at an intelligible rate. Andy could cover the fingerboard, digits a blur, if he chose to. But he knows better. So his playing unfolds beautifully in its own song, no matter what tempo or what chords. He loves melody; he can swing any band several steps closer to Heaven with his chordal strum, and he is an absolutely flawless team-player, never fixated on the limelight. Accompanying a singer isn't easy, either, but Andy is rather like a tactful, energized conversationalist at the party: he has things to tell us, he has comments to offer and support by the bucketful, but he never tries to outshine Petra.

And Petra? The first thing I noticed about Petra (before I had heard her in person) was the focus she brought to her songs. She isn't one of these gospel whoopers; she hasn't channelled Aretha or Billie; she isn't a Broadway belter. All to the good, let me assure you. It means that she doesn't overact, that she fits the word to the deed and the notes to the emotion, never smudging a lyric to appear hip, never landing in the wrong place. She can romp very happily (her enunciation is flawless, even in fourth gear) and she has a speaking presence. And before I had heard this CD, I would have praised Petra for avoiding the dramatic excesses I hear from so many singers. But then I heard her version of A COTTAGE FOR SALE, and I was just about stunned by its great dramatic range, mixing ruefulness, poignancy, and loss - without overacting so much as a hair. It was pure feeling, captured beautifully. I might never hear that song sung so heartbreakingly again.

Both Petra and Andy get first place in my imagined TALENT DESERVING COSMIC RECOGNITION category! Check out their websites to find out such useful information as "May I hear some audio clips?" and, following quickly,"How can I buy these CDs?"

Michael Steinman is a freelance jazz journalist whose writing can be found in such publications as Cadence, All About Jazz, Coda, the Mississippi Rag, as well as in liner notes for many jazz labels. For more information, please go to www.jazzlives.wordpress.com

June 2010 | by Joe Lang

One of my favorite vocalists of all time was Beverly Kenney, a unique stylist who had a career in the 1950s that was cut short far too soon. When I started to listen to Far Away Places by vocalist PETRA VAN NUIS and guitarist ANDY BROWN, I was reminded of Kenney, and particularly of the album that she made with the legendary guitarist Johnny Smith. As I continued to listen, I became more impressed with both van Nuis and Brown. They have selected a program that is tasty, comprised of tunes that are not overdone, and includes a few surprises like "Born to Blow the Blues," a Bob Russell/Jack Segal song previously recorded only by two relatively unknown, but hip vocalists, Marilyn Moore and Lucy Reed. Also refreshing to hear again is a ditty associated with Billie Holiday, "Me, Myself and I." Always welcome are "Destination Moon," that opens the album, "Cottage for Sale," and the title track, "Far Away Places." She gives "Let's Do It" the suggestive edge that makes it most effective. This recording will find an immediate place in my stack of must hear again and again discs.

June 2010 | by Ian Mac Gregor

Andy Brown is a talented guitarist originally from Cincinnati who was influenced by two great guitarists from that city, Cal Collins and our late member Kenny Poole. Andy and his wife, vocalist Petra van Nuis, have been resident in Chicago since 2004. This is their first duo album together and highlights Andy as an accompanist. His wife has an attractive voice with clear diction and reminds me of the great Blossom Dearie. "Caravan" is an excellent example of how Andy keeps the momentum going and comes up with a great solo. Cole Porter's "Let's Do It" is one of the CD's highlights. Andy gets a chance to display his solo guitar talents on "Bim Bom" and you would swear it was two guitars playing. This is a fine duo CD of two talented youngsters who are carrying on the tradition. Andy was recently featured in the Feb 2010 Just Jazz Guitar and is a fine mainstream player to watch out for in the future.

January 2010 | by Randy Freedman

Far Away Places is the title of the first recording by guitarist Andy Brown and his wife, vocalist Petra van Nuis, that features them together as a duo. This CD has a beautiful wrap-around cover with striking photos, and insightful liner notes by Chicago/Phoenix jazz icon pianist/vocalist Judy Roberts.

It is worth noting that days before this CD's release, Brown's abilities as an accompanist––so evident on this recording––were put on national display as Brown and a small group of local musicians accompanied legendary vocalist Barbara Streisand as she performed a song on the Oprah Winfrey TV show.

Brown has such a vast repertoire of varied guitar techniques and textures at his command that his ability to choose between them and employ the correct ones with impeccable timing might be his greatest talent of all. But I suggest you pay special attention to the dynamics of his guitar performance.

It may seem simple, but Brown uses the full measure of dynamic range from soft to loud, a skill seemingly lost by many of his contemporaries. The intimate microphone placement and high recording quality of Far Away Places will allow you to appreciate this and other subtle audio nuances as well.

The voice of van Nuis is effervescent, yet refined and classy. She can sound hopeful without being overly sweet, or serious with out any sense of manufactured drama. Van Nuis sings the lyrics as she feels they were intended to be sung, adding only the "salt" of her enthusiasm and the "pepper" of her charm. There is a sense of sincerity in every note that even that the most jaded of listeners could not fail to hear.

My favorite tracks include the title song, "Far Away Places." Brown and van Nuis succeed in believably expressing a musical sense of childlike wonder at travel in our era where "far away" can just mean the fifty-six inch HD TV in the living room, set to the Discovery Channel. Van Nuis does this with inspired phrasing, while Brown provides some homespun chords flavored with the slightest touch of the exotic.

His solos on "Caravan" (suggestive and seductive) and "Me, Myself, And I" (breezy and fun) are totally different from one another, yet are both so cool as to be worth the price of the CD all by themselves. "Let's Do It" provides a perfect showcase for van Nuis's charming vocal style, and I cannot think of another version of this Cole Porter classic that I have enjoyed as much. "A Cottage For Sale" casts our duo in the role of sad storytellers, with van Nuis using inflection and nuance with scalpel-like precision to evoke just the right amount of pathos from her listeners.

The eerie and mysterious introduction by Brown to "Invitation" sets the stage for van Nuis to make her musical entrance as a woman caught in a dark delusion of shadow and desire.

With their new album, Far Away Places, Andy Brown and Petra van Nuis have given their audience a musical time capsule reflecting the hopes, dreams and aspirations of twentieth century Middle America for its own future. With the clarity that only hindsight can provide, we can see where those dreams actually came true or crashed and burned along the way.

Perhaps there are even a few of those hopes and dreams left on which the final verdict has not yet been decided. I highly recommend that you bring Far Away Places home and open this enjoyable musical time capsule for yourself.

November 2009 | by Brad Walseth

Vocalist Petra van Nuis and her husband, guitarist Andy Brown have released their new CD - Far Away Places a sensitive duet recording with just the two in an intimate setting, and it is a sparkling gem. Entering this duos' world is like stepping into a time machine and revisiting an era when the song was the thing and Coltrane-like deconstruction was just a glimmer in your daddy's eye.

The songs range from beloved standards: "Cottage for Sale" "From this Moment On," "Let's Do It," "How Little We Know," "Invitation," "Caravan," "Bim Bom," "With a Song in My Heart" to lesser known pieces like the jaunty "Destination Moon," "Born to Blow the Blues," "Me, Myself and I" and the stunning title track.

This world of innocence, romance and peaceful melodies is carried by van Nuis' honeyed voice and Brown's exceptional old-school guitar support (who needs a rhythm section? - check out his bass lines on Cole Porter's "From This Moment On" - there are bass players who would kill to play that well). The partner's subtle interplay on Sammy Cahn & Nicolas Brodszky's "I'll Never Stop Loving You" is another delicious highlight.

While most modern singers will cover a song or two from the golden age - usually jazzing it up with rock and roll and disco beats, screaming guitar solos and incessant vocal somersaults, van Nuis and Brown have found a niche in presenting the songs of the bygone eras straight and allowing the melodies to hang relatively unadorned. The quaint and clean presentation is utterly charming: in this case it is hip to be square.