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The prestigious Orlando Music Awards.
Public voting (that's YOU) determines winners.
Nominated by local
judges.
MICHAEL ANDREW AND SWINGERHEAD
Orlando Music Awards
Genre: Jazz/Swing
OMA History:
7 NOMINATIONS in 6 YEARS with 5 WINS with 4 for
JAZZ BAND:
1997 Swing/Big Band NOMINEE
1998 Lounge/Swing Band WINNERS**and**
CD of the Year WINNERS
1999 Lounge/ Swing/ Rockabilly WINNER
2000 Jazz/Swing WINNER
2001 Jazz WINNER
2002 Jazz NOMINEE
If you placed a vote, we thank you.
http://orlandoweekly.com/music/OMA2002/
Michael Andrew and Swingerhead, September 1999 (photo:
Ann Reiman)
Michael Andrew and Swingerhead,
August 2000 (photo: Doug Dukane)
Michael Andrew and Swingerhead, September 2001 (photo: Doug Dukane)
Michael Andrew and Swingerhead,
September 2002 (photo: Gregory Matthews)
2002
Lineup: Michael Andrew (vocals, band leader), Kevin Palacky (guitar),
Bobby Brennan (acoustic bass), Pat Gullotta (trombone), Paul Roth (trumpet),
Paul Parker (drums), Doug Spoonamore (saxophones), Dean Mongerio (saxophones),
Christian Tamburr (vibraphone)
Discography: "Michael Andrew
presents a Swingerhead Christmas" (1999, Michael Andrew Records),
"She Could Be a Spy" (1998, Colossal
Music and Film), "Destination
Moon" (2002, Michael Andrew Records), "Michael
Andrew Pays Tribute to Frank Sinatra featuring the Swingerhead Big Band"
(2002, Michael Andrew Records)
Michael Andrew and Swingerhead
2002 WRITEUP by Steve
Schneider:
When Michael
Andrew and his Swingerhead sidemen emerged unscathed from the
local lounge bust of a few years ago, it was obvious that this unit
had the goods to outlast trends. Now, they've found a secondary hobby:
outlasting venues. The former house band at the now-defunct Rat
Pack's on the Avenue recently had the honor of being the final
entertainment seen on the stage of Longwood supper club Peter Scott's.
"The owner said, ÔAt least
Michael Andrew was the last act that played here,'" Andrew relates.
Even up to the end of the venue's nosedive, Swingerhead had continued
to draw a crowd. That's the way it's been all along for Andrew, whose
lifelong dedication to crooner-hood has gifted him with a career of
atypical longevity. "
For me, it never was anything
about a trend," Andrew says of swing. A child of the '70s who played
dress-up in a pint-sized Sinatra suit, Andrew grew up to direct
the orchestra at New York
City's prestigious Rainbow Room. But it's Orlando that has been
his so-called "Swingerhead Central," a home base where he can do his
best work.
Of late, Andrew has courted
the highbrow element around town, both by performing gigs with the Orlando
Philharmonic (part of a running series of collaborations
with U.S. orchestras) and by renewing his acquaintance with live theater.
Having incubated the Swingerhead concept in the musical "Mickey
Swingerhead and
the Earth Girls," Andrew
returned to the footlights as a cast member in the retro revue
"As Thousands Cheer." The ghost of "Earth Girls" also alights
on the latest Swingerhead CD, "Destination
Moon," a kitschy covers collection graced with a sci-fi cover
illustration by cocktail-hour artist supreme Shag. "Moon" is
one of two Andrew discs that saw simultaneous release. The other is
a collection of Sinatra covers
that, predictably, sounds like an eminently credible homage to the
late chairman of the board. The suit still fits; Andrew's only lingering
quandary, it seems, is where to wear it. ÑSteve Schneider
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2001 WRITEUP by Joseph Hayes
Apart from an abundance of jazz of the
smooth variety, Orlando boasts world-class "chunky style" players as
more-legendary musos also call Central Florida home. Underrated sax
great Allen Eager, Noble "Thin Man" Watts, pianist Harold Blanchard
and, of course, our treasured Sam Rivers all live here. Danny
Gottleib and killer bassist Chuck Archard also can be seen
wandering downtown. Even Art Blakey's piano is over in New Smyrna.
But why? True, Watts was born in DeLand and Archard is from Daytona,
and the observation that old bones like warmth has some truth. But the
playing is the thing. Both Rivers and Michael Andrew have said
that the caliber of musicians in town is first-rate, and those players
are eager to wail when away from the 9-to-5. Most of the members of
King 'Tet and the 16-odd horn players in The RivBea Orchestra regular
work at the theme parks in some capacity. After dark, Orlando rhythm-beaters
are omnipresent and intermingled.... Anthony Cole's mother is
the extraordinary R&B singer Linda Cole, and he can claim Nat
"King" and Natalie as relatives. The gifted musician propels
music in front of him like a steamroller, and it's hard to say if Cole
or Rivers is more fun to watch onstage when the two are playing together,
which is often. Cole's venerable and internationally renowned mentor,
Sam Rivers, an OMA evergreen, claims he invented free jazz, and
who can argue? "I'm a jazz musician. I'm blues, I'm swing, I'm bebop
and I'm free!" he has said, counting Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie,
Cecil Taylor, T-Bone Walker and B.B. King as bandmates over
the many years...Rivers takes his trio (which includes Cole and bassist
Doug Mathews) to Europe regularly for festival dates. Up ahead,
a new ensemble CD called "Aurora," a Jazz Master Tour for the Southern
Arts Federation and the possibility of master-artist residency at the
Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach. The incestuous circle
completes with Michael Andrew & Swingerhead: Andrew himself,
King's ex-boss, played with Cole in one of his early bands. Andrew has
come through the other side of the swing revival intact, playing gigs
with symphony orchestras across the country. (His next in a series of
recent performances with Orlando Philharmonic
Orchestra is Nov. 24 at Carr Performing Arts Centre.) Andrew
has retained the triple-OMA winner's super-tight horn arrangements from
his days as musical director of New
York's Rainbow Room. And the cat can sing: Merv
Griffin, until recently Andrew's host at his long-running stint
at L.A.'s Coconut Club,
said, "Michael is one of the great singers of our time." Now that he's
back in town, we can expect to see lots more of him (Swingerhead the
band steadily gigs at Timpano's Chophouse), and there's a new CD on
the horizon called Destination
Moon.
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2000 WRITEUP by Steve
Schneider:
Not since the glory days
of the USO has a bandleader logged as much time in the air as Michael
Andrew. Orlando's ambassador of lounge lives his life on planes,
shuttling between Orlando and Los Angeles to push two separate versions
of his Swingerhead combo to new heights of hydra-headed celebrity.
In California, Andrew conducts
a nine-piece collective of musos (many Orlando expatriates) in weekly
gigs at the Coconut Club in the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Greeting
him on his return to the Sunshine State is a totally different lineup
- this one a septet - that mounts such special events as a continuing
collaboration with the Orlando Philharmonic
Orchestra.
With the national market
for swingin' sounds undergoing enough dips and climbs to make Wall Street
jealous, it's mandatory that Andrew go where the work is. But his Orlando
appearances aren't solely big-ticket affairs. Regular sets at cramped
filling stations like the Blue Room and Midtown Tavern
maintain family ties that were established when O-town's lounge fever
was at its apex a couple of years ago.
"I always love to work
in a more intimate setting," Andrew says. "We get immediate feedback
from an audience."
In "Heartbreakers,"
a feature film released in 2001, Andrew was seen fronting a wedding
band played by the members of his West Coast outfit - while an overdubbed
amalgam of his California and Florida sidemen wails away on the soundtrack.
Their onscreen medley of honkin' classics includes a cover of Bad
Company's "Can't Get Enough." Though it's hardly a Sinatra standard,
a better anthem for this workaholic warbler has yet to be written.
ÑSteve Schneider
Michael's last word:
"I got a great idea for a show proposal: The Sam Rivers Band with
special guests Anthony Cole, Jackie Jones, Swingerhead and Rocket
88. Somebody call Carnegie Hall!"
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OMA 1998 WINNERS: **Live
act of the Year: Kow **DJ (all
styles): Q-Burns Abstract Message **Electronic: Q-Burns Abstract Message
**Folk/Acoustic: Terri Binion **Blues:
Noble "Thin Man" Watts **Eclectic:
Obliterati **Garage/Surf/ Rockabilly: Nutrajet
**Hardcore: Bloodlet
**Hip-hop: Nature Kids **Jazz:
Sam Rivers**Metal:The Kill **Pop
Rock: My Friend Steve **Punk: Shyster**Latin:
Cuco Reyes y su Orquesta Vibracion **Lounge/Swing:
Swingerhead **R&B/Soul/Funk:
Kow **Rock: Bughead **Ska:Skif
Dank **CD of the Year: Swingerhead "She Could Be a Spy"
 OMA
1999 WINNERS: **Bluegrass/Country Blues The Hindu Cowboys **Blues:Noble
"Thin Man" Watts **DJ: DJ Sandy **Experimental: Obliterati
** Folk/Acoustic: Amy Steinberg ** Hard
Rock/Heavy Metal: Gargamel ** Electronic: Prophecy ** Hardcore: Fortitude
** Hip-Hop: Nature Kids, **Jazz: Sam Rivers Trio ** Latin: Cuco Reyes
y su Orquesta Vibracion **Lounge/Swing/Rockabilly: Swingerhead
** Pop/Rock: VonRa **Punk: Shyster **World: Umoja ** Rock: Bughead and
Blue Meridian (tie) **Rock en Espa–ol: Parafanelia ** Ska: Skif Dank
**Soul/Funk/R&B: Kow ** CD of the year "Millennium" by Backstreet Boys
**Live Act of the Year; VonRa.
 OMA
2000 WINNERS: **Live Act of the Year: Deroot ** Favorite Local CD:
Blue Meridian, ÒBrave AngelÓ ** Favorite Venue for Live Local Music:
House of Blues ** Blues: Funky Blues Messiahs Club DJ: DJ Sandy ** Country/Folk:
The Hindu Cowboys ** Electronic: Prophecy ** Hard Edge: Gargamel! **
Hip-hop: Nature Kids ** Jazz/Swing: Michael Andrew and Swingerhead
** Latin: Cuco Reyes y su Orquesta Vibracion ** Punk/Ska: Spitvalves
** Reggae/Caribbean: The Coldspot Eight ** Pop Rock: Cider ** Rock:
Blue Meridian ** World: Umšja.
OMA
2001 WINNERS: **
Live Act of the Year Blue Meridian, **
Americana ¥ Hindu Cowboys **Club DJ ¥ DJ Sandy **Electronic ¥ Prophecy
**Funk/Soul/R&B ¥ 11 Red Apples **Hard Edge ¥ Gargamel! **Hip-hop/Rap
¥ **Nature Kids **Jazz ¥ Michael Andrew and Swingerhead **Latin
¥ Cuco Reyes y su Orquesta Vibracion **Pop Rock ¥ Blue Meridian **Pop
Vocal ¥ 'N Sync** Punk ¥ Spitvalves **Rock ¥ My Hotel Year **Singer-Songwriter
¥ Amy Steinberg **World ¥ Umoja **CD of the Year ¥ Gargamel!, "Touch
My Fun".
 OMA
2002 JAZZ BAND NOMINEE! Michael Andrew and Swingerhead were honored
to be nominated again this year. The OMA Concert and Awards presentation
was Saturday, October 12, 2002 at Hard Rock Live at
Universal CityWalk in Orlando. Sixty-five
local bands and artists were nominated in 15 categories for the sixth
annual Orlando Music Awards. Orlando Weekly readers voted to choose
the winners from among the nominees via ballots as well as online at
www.orlandoweekly.com
. The Orlando Music Awards show is a three-hour multimedia extravaganza
mixing live performances by the nominees and special guests. 2002
WINNERS: **JAZZ
SAM RIVERS **AMERICANA
HINDU COWBOYS **CLUB
DJ SANDY **ELECTRONIC
PROPHECY **FUNK/SOUL/R&B
JUNKIE RUSH **HARD
EDGE GARGAMEL! **HIP-HOP/RAP
ANDROMEDA **LATIN
PURA PLENA **METAL
INDORPHINE **POP
CIDER**
PUNK SPITVALVES **ROCK
BLUE MERIDIAN **SOLO
AMY STEINBERG **WORLD
UMOJA A
**CD OF THE YEAR SUPERVILLAINS,**
BEST LIVE ACT OF THE YEAR DEROOT**
BEST NEW ACT OF THE YEAR INDORPHINE
CLICK
HERE FOR OMA 2002 NOMINEE and WINNER INFO
And, THANK YOU for your support!!!
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