Vandell Andrew: Turn it Up!

Vandell Andrew, wife Dwanna, son Vandell, daughter Naima.

A musician hearing his song on the radio for the first time is a big thrill. Vandell Andrew – who is playing a show Friday, June 12, at City Tavern in Dallas – has had that thrill of hearing his song on the radio.

His song Let’s Ride was the first time people started to take notice and ask, who is that guy on alto saxophone, he said in an interview shortly after a two-hour practice with bandmates Jaquita Jones drums, Reginald Dunn bass, Lhanda Morgan keyboard and Josh Goode guitar. We sat outside on the steps of a former office building converted to music rehearsal rooms; inside was too loud with different bands practicing in different rooms.

His song Let’s Ride shot to number one on the Billboard smooth jazz charts and it stayed there for five weeks last year. It was nominated for a Soul Train Award. He said it was his first national breakthrough and fans and promoters started to pay attention and subsequently the phone started ringing and he got more bookings.

Let’s Ride was one of five songs on his mini-album Turn it up. All the songs are upbeat; that was intentional, he said, because his peers – he is 28 – have an antiquated view of what jazz is. He is on a mission to change the view that jazz is somehow elevator music or background music.

He has come a long way. He actually started to play trumpet at 13 when he was sent to a summer camp and like a typical kid, he said, he did not want to be there. He said, the teacher who was a sax player told him his embouchure was better suited for a saxophone and so he switched to sax. (His mom loved the saxophone so he swears to this day that his mom instructed the teacher to have him switch to saxophone.)

He went on to St. Augustine High School in New Orleans, a respected all-boys school which was actually started during the years of segregation to give black boys a decent education. Time magazine wrote about the school in 1965: "The boys are better trained than most Southern high school students of either race." The Time article quoted several Ivy League recruiters who said the school produces high-quality college students.

The school also has a famous marching band, the St. Augustine High School Marching 100. The band was the first to racially integrate the Mardi Gras parade. It has played for the Pope, at Superbowls, and at Presidential inaugurations. Vandell was to join this historic band and travel around the world as a member.

He said the school has become something of a fraternity and the tradition is passed on from generation to generation as sons of former students eventually go to the school. (He has accepted the possibility that his young son would not continue this tradition with his family living in Dallas.)

Vandell was able to get a great jazz education at St. Aug. He was a part of jazz ensembles where he learned the music of Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and other giants. The St. Augustine’s band would also play in the popular New Orleans Jazz Fest.

Vandell is also steeped in the traditional New Orleans songs like Iko Iko, Go to the Mardi Gras, and Tipitina because, he said, as a kid in New Orleans the music is all around you. He recalls the now-famous Trombone Shorty marching around the neighborhood blowing his trombone and his drummer beating a bucket.

After graduating in 2005, he moved on to Southern University to study under the respected jazz instructor Edward ‘Kidd’ Jordan. His studies there was brief though: a summer semester and early in the Fall semester was the devastating Hurricane Katrina; like thousands of others, Vandell evacuated to Dallas.

Dallas has been his home ever since. Dallas was in fact where he started his music career and started a family with his wife Dwanna, five-year-old daughter Naima and one-year-old Vandell. (Naima is named after a famous jazz tune.)

From New Orleans to Dallas to the world, Vandell Andrew is determined to turn it up!