My entrance into the Saloon last night was hearing the news from
Peach Guy and after a second or two of shock my first comment was
somehting like, "it's a shame but not unexpected". Joanne was
attentive behind the bar but I heard that she'd heard the bad news at
the beginning of her shift and fell apart crying for awhile but "the
show must go on". A photo of Andy was placed behind the bar as an
instant memorial. The was some great music happening on stage with
Steve Freund holding fort with a bunch of his pals. Wendy DeWitt,
Steve Kaufman and Pierre LeCorre were up there when I entered with Jan
Fannuci, Matthieu, Tom Bowers and Shauna Marshall all providing fuel
for a great evening there and the reaction from those in the house
was proof that it was. Tim Wagar and Robi Bean held things together
and Steve was in a great mood and, with a fairly young crowd there,
channeled Clapton and Cream for awhile and that really got them
heated up. In spite of the happy energy I started feeling very sad
and moved off my barstool and perched myself across from the
bandstand and refused dance offer until the end of the night when I
finally snapped back into a "show must go on mode" and had a few
minutes of fun with the others on the floor in front of the band.
Only a weeke earlier I was in conversation there with some others on
a "where's Andy?" topic noting that with all the jams available
lately he'd been greatly missed. His scheduled appearances were few
and far between with The Saloon and JJ's the only places you'd expect
to find him. When he got up to play, even when he was a bit out of
control, everyone listened and everyone loved what they heard. He was
fearless on stage playing blues fiddle as a change of pace between
guitar pyrotechnics was something to see. He will be missed by all.

I found a link to his website and his bio gives information about him
most never knew. He did a year with Joan Osborne--who'd figure? Then
the stuff about playing with some of the legends of blues--who knew?
Here's the biography from his own website:

"Andy Mazzilli is a young virtuoso guitarist with the highest
reputation among his peers, and a prolific songwriter who combines an
array of sophisticated rhythms with lyrics of keen observations and a
fresh, impassioned sensibility. Mazzilli is also a charismatic
showman on stage with a burgeoning talent that keeps him in high
demand.

Growing up in the San Fransico Bay Area, he began his musical career
playing rock-n-roll and classical music, and quickly established a
reputation of being dazzlingy gifted, with seemingly unlimited powers
of invention. One of his first perfoming bands featured Eric Kretz
on drums, who went on to fame and fortune with the Stone Temple
Pilots.

He left California to attend the Berklee School Of Music in Boston
for a year, then came to New York City at the age of seventeen. Word
passed quickly about the new phenom in town, and soon Andrew was
touring with the blues legends Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, Jimmie
Rogers, and Louis Myers, veterens of the Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters,
and Little Walker Bands from Chicago. His versatility also enabled
him to play club gigs with musicians such as John Popper of Blues
Traveler, the Holmes Brothers, and was the main guitarist for a year
with Joan Osborne.

Leaving New York for San Francisco, Mazzilli returned to dazzle
local audiences with his impressive heights of excitement and
creation, playing with music greats like Greg Allman and Kim Wilson,
and opening for such acts as John Mayall, The Chamber Brothers, John
Lee Hooker, and Lonnie Mack. He makes those moments happen in the
clubs when even the waitresses stop."

Andy's website wasn't maintained well. His last gig schedule was
from 2004 and his News section contains his last update there from
April 9,2005:

"For those that may not know already, Andy had an unfortunate
accident a couple of weeks ago. He is feeling better now and on a
strong comeback. Andy had been laid up in a local hospital for a few
days before continuing on to a physical rehabilitation facility here
in the San Francisco Bay Area"

If Andy was somehow still able he might have added this new update:

Andy had an unfortunate accident in Los Angeles the other day. There
will be no recovery. There will be no comeback.

ANDY MAZZILLI, May you Rest In Peace

Here's a link to his web site where you can view his discography and
some archived reviews and endorsements:

http://www.andymazzilli.htmlplanet.com/


Jack

(My weekend list which appears at our spin-off group at Bay Area
Blues Clues http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jacksblues/ will be a bit
delayed for obvious reasons but will be posted in an hour or so. The
home page there is in tribute to Andy).