As Andy Summers Tunes Up for San Juan, Rock’s Out and Jazz Is In

In a wire service blurb that appeared earlier this week, former Police guitarist Andy Summers used such terms as banal and boring to describe his old group’s songs, claiming that he has lost interest in rock ‘n’ roll because “most of it is terrible,” which suggests, perhaps, that “Roxanne” won’t be part of Summers’ set at the Coach House tonight.

While the guitarist is indeed performing an all-instrumental set drawn chiefly from his current eclectic album, “The Golden Wire,” he claims that the quotes aren’t entirely indicative of his feelings about his past in rock.

Reached in San Diego on Tuesday amid his short West Coast tour, Summers, 46, said, “What you say probably depends on who’s interviewing you at the time, but I feel those comments are generally true. On the other hand, just to ameliorate whatever I said there, I don’t like to close any doors totally. I don’t think all of rock music is awful. A lot of it is terrible, but some is good as well, like any form of music.

“But in terms of embracing the whole rock thing again and going out and trying to make it as a rock group, I really don’t aspire to do that anymore, to be honest. I don’t think there’s any point in that. Generally, I’m playing instrumental music that leans more towards jazz now, and that’s what I’m really interested in playing. But I’m not closing the doors to anything else, if something really good came along.”

Summers has had ample acquaintance with the rock world. His pre-Police history includes stints with Eric Burdon’s ‘70s-edition Animals and avant-garde rockers Soft Machine. During his seven years with the Police, that band slipped in on the fringes of the British punk movement to become perhaps the preeminent pop group of its time, filling arenas and stadiums before they called it quits in 1984.

In 1987, Summers declared in interviews: “I love pop music . . . at (its) best it’s definitely equal to jazz and is probably more creative.” He had one more go at proving it that year with his short-lived group XYZ.

“Yes, I tried that once,” he says now, “I was with MCA Records, and the whole thing was a pretty unpleasant experience for me, and I finally decided I didn’t want to go on that path anymore. I went around America then doing lots of interviews and subscribing to those values, to the Top-40 system, and I just didn’t enjoy that anymore. I felt I’d had the best of that, and I thought it was time to pursue something that was probably closer to my heart, which was playing this kind of music and being a player more, and doing the kind of music I do best.”

Described by Musician magazine as “the guitar equivalent of Peter Gabriel’s ‘So,’ ” “The Golden Wire” blends elements of ECM-label jazz, new-age, Indian and Middle-Eastern traditional music, blues and other “pretty arcane stuff.”

“It’s things I have been inspired by over the years, but I can’t cite particular people. Making music isn’t always directly the influence of other people. A lot of it comes from inside me, not as a result of ‘Oh, I got this off that disc, and I owe this to that guy.’ I think it’s more of the feelings that I’ve really enjoyed listening to in music over the years that I try to bring out in my own music.”

Much of Summers’ atmospheric music possesses a cinematic sweep, a quality that has not gone unnoticed by Hollywood studios, which tapped him to score “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” and “A Weekend at Bernie’s.” In December, he’ll record a sound track for a film tentatively entitled “Fatal Charm,” but only after recording another solo disc in November. With his schedule, it is more than a convenience that Summers owns his own studio near his home in Venice, where he has lived since transplanting to California from England two years ago.

Summers is hauling plenty of high-tech equipment about with his band--composed of bassist Doug Lunn, drummer Brian McCloud, keyboardist Joyce Imbesi and percussionist Kurt Wortman--to enable him to replicate the textural richness he achieves in the studio, but he also stresses that the performances leave ample room for free soloing and spontaneity.

For someone who once played to stadiums full of fans and heard his records on every pop station, Summers seemed unperturbed that he’s now touring clubs and is practically ignored by radio. “This has nothing to do with the Police. Obviously, I know what I’m playing now is less commercial, and there’s just not the audience for it that there is for Top-40 music. But I feel that it’s what I do best and what I should be doing now, and I have to sit with whatever it brings, or doesn’t.”

Summers refers to the Police reunion on 1986’s Amnesty International tour as a “short, sharp, fun-packed week.” As for the future, he said, “I wouldn’t rule out anything. I know what I want to do, and if you want to present yourself in a certain way, I think it’s important to not dilute that. If you’re wearing one suit, you don’t want to appear in 15 other ones, because you confuse what you’re doing.

“I’m doing what I’m doing to the max, as far as possible. Then if other things come along that really interest me and happen to be good but aren’t quite in the genre I’m in at the moment, then maybe I could get into them.” Whether the Police ever regroup or not, Summers feels that there is no shortage of the band’s sound: “The Police definitely left a very strong mark in music, certainly in pop music. I think a lot of what we did has become incorporated into the lexicon, as it were, and I think you can definitely hear my guitar playing all the time now in different groups and pop records. Whether that’s good or not is for someone else to judge.”

Andy Summers plays tonight at 8 at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. Tickets: $16.50. Information: (714) 496-8930.