Andrew White, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, musicologist, and entrepreneur who proudly styled himself the most voluminously productive self-industrialized musician in history died on November 11, 2020 at an assisted living facility in Silver Spring. He was 78.
Over 60 years, he built his reputation as a performer, complementing his robust slightly coarse tone on both alto and tenor saxophones with a boisterous persona, colorful wardrobe and extraordinary stamina.
In the larger jazz world, he was best known for his scholarship on jazz great John Coltrane, having transcribed and published 840 of his saxophone solos. Andrew was a formidable Coltrane interpreter himself.
Andrew also worked in musical settings at far ends of the formal spectrum. From 1968 om, he spent several years as a principal oboist for the American Ballet Theater -- at the same time that he played electric bass for Stevie Wonder, for the pop R&B group The Fifth Dimension, and on Weather Report's album Sweetnighter. Later in the 1970s he became a prolific composer and solo performer, producing and distributing nearly 50 albums through a self-owned and operated company, Andrew's Musical Enterprises, Inc.
Though he was born in Washington, D.C., Andrew Nathaniel White III grew up in Nashville, Tenn., and immersed himself in music. He returned to the nation's capital in 1960 to attend Howard University, where he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in music theory with a minor in oboe. He later studied at the Pairs Conservatory.
While a student at Howard, he formed the JFK Quintet -- which became the house band at the famed club Bohemian Caverns. The quintet would ultimately record two albums for Riverside Records.
After his tenures as classical oboist and pop bassist ended, he began building his jazz career in earnest. Between 1971 and '80, he self-produced and released 39 albums, and drew both a Washington fan base and an international cult following with his dense, often frenzied attack on alto and tenor. The sound leaned avant-garde, a la Coltrane, but White applied it with equal force to a hard-bop context, as on 1979's "Tearitup Tenor."
By the 1980s, Andrew was celebrated for his scholarship as his music. His 16 volumes of Coltrane transcriptions were well received by academics and Coltrane devotees. He worked as an adjunct professor at American University, lectured throughout the world, and published prolifically. He continued performing well into his 70s.
Andrew was preceded by his wife of 41 years, the former Jocelyne H.J. Uhl.
The legacy he leaves behind is tremendous. Along with his 48 albums, there are 1,200 transcriptions (John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, and himself); numerous videos; scholarly studies; and an 900-page autobiography, Everybody Loves the Sugar, among other writings. All told, the Andrew's Musical Enterprises catalog numbers some 3,000 products.
Andrew is survived by his 1st cousin William B. "Nikki" Covington, 2nd cousins Kellie (Abraham) Covington Castano, and Jordan N. Covington; two sister-in-laws Marylene Elvezi and Joelle Savin of France; many other family members in the US and France; close neighbors, and an extended family of friends, musicians, business associates, and fans.
Photo by Antoine Sanfuentes
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