Andy Summers (born Andrew James Somers on December 31, 1942) is an English guitarist, composer, photographer, and writer best known as a member of The Police. His playing became one of the defining elements of the band's sound, combining sharp rhythmic control, jazz-influenced harmony, reggae accents, and extensive use of effects. Rather than filling the trio's arrangements with conventional rock guitar, Summers created carefully shaped textures that gave The Police much of its space, tension, and atmosphere.
Raised in Bournemouth, Summers began playing guitar as a teenager and became involved in the local jazz scene while still young. His early professional work included appearances with Zoot Money's Big Roll Band and its psychedelic successor, Dantalian's Chariot. He also spent a short period with Soft Machine and later joined a version of Eric Burdon and The Animals. These experiences exposed him to rhythm and blues, jazz, psychedelia, and the expanding vocabulary of electric guitar.
During the early 1970s, Summers studied classical guitar and composition in California. After returning to England, he worked as a touring and session guitarist with artists including Neil Sedaka, Kevin Ayers, Kevin Coyne, David Essex, Joan Armatrading, and Jon Lord. This period established him as an experienced professional before his most commercially important chapter began.
Summers met Sting and Stewart Copeland through the short-lived project Strontium 90 in 1977. He subsequently joined The Police, replacing guitarist Henry Padovani and completing the lineup that would make the group internationally famous. The band's early music drew on punk's directness, reggae's rhythmic emphasis, and a sophisticated mixture of rock and jazz ideas. Summers' guitar work was central to that synthesis. His parts often relied on suspended chords, delay, chorus, open strings, and selective distortion, producing a sound that was economical but highly distinctive.
With The Police, Summers played on five studio albums, from Outlandos d'Amour (1978) through Synchronicity (1983). The group moved from the club circuit to worldwide success through songs such as "Roxanne," "Message in a Bottle," "Walking on the Moon," "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," and "Every Breath You Take." The Police ended their original run in 1984, leaving Summers recognized not simply as a supporting guitarist but as a major contributor to the character of the band's recordings.
Summers pursued broader musical interests during and after his Police career. He recorded two experimental instrumental albums with Robert Fripp, I Advance Masked (1982) and Bewitched (1984), then developed a substantial solo catalog influenced by jazz, contemporary instrumental music, and world music. Important releases include XYZ, Mysterious Barricades, The Golden Wire, Charming Snakes, World Gone Strange, Green Chimneys: Music of Thelonious Monk, and Peggy's Blue Skylight, a project devoted to Charles Mingus.
He has also worked on film music, collaborated with guitarist John Etheridge, and explored photography through books and gallery exhibitions. His autobiography, One Train Later, appeared in 2006. Summers returned to the stage with The Police for the band's 2007 reunion tour and later formed Circa Zero with Rob Giles. Across his career, he has maintained a reputation for musical restraint, tonal imagination, and an ability to make the guitar function as both rhythm section and sound-design instrument.