Andy González

Andy González (January 1, 1951 – April 9, 2020) was a jazz double bassist of Puerto Rican descent recognized as was one of the innovators of Latin Jazz. González was a versatile player, as well as an arranger, composer, music historian and producer of other musicians' records. He embraced African, Cuban and Puerto Rican styles, various strains of jazz and other influences, often merging them into something fresh. Gary W. Kennedy and Barry Kernfeld wrote in Grove Music Online, "González played a solid-bodied, upright electric double bass (baby bass) and is considered to be one of the pre-eminent bass players of his generation in Afro-Cuban music within the USA. As a freelance he made several hundred recordings of Latin music." Andy González was born in Manhattan on January 1, 1951. Trumpeter and percussionist Jerry González was his older brother by eighteen months. Andy played violin in grammar school and later started studying the double bass at about the age of 10. González left this group in 1970 to join Dizzy Gillespie's band but subsequently returned to Barretto's band for a period before working in Eddie Palmieri's band from 1972 to 1974. The band members on these albums included Frankie Rodríguez, Milton Cardona, Gene Golden, Carlos Mestre, Nelson González, Manny Oquendo, Oscar Hernández, José Rodríguez, Néstor Torres, Gonzalo Fernández, Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, Willy García, Heny Álvarez, Virgilio Martí, Marcelino Guerra, Rubén Blades, Orlando "Puntilla" Ríos, and Julito Collazo. Many years later the group (with a different lineup of musicians), recorded a third and final album, Homenaje a Arsenio.

With Manny Oquendo, González co-founded and co-led the band Conjunto Libre (a band that mixed salsa and jazz) in 1974.

Bobby Sanabria stated the following, "González's unique ability to play creatively within the confines of the tumbao — the repetitive patterns played by bass, piano, guitar, tres and cuatro in Cuban and Puerto Rican music — led him to be called for literally hundreds of recording sessions. But he was not limited to salsa-based dates, as he would be called upon by artists including David Byrne, Kip Hanrahan, Dizzy Gillespie and Astor Piazzolla for his expertise on both acoustic and baby bass."

Selected discography

Conjunto Egrem – Tu Dices / Solamente Tuyo (Egrem 1975) Concepts in Unity (1975) Lo Dice Todo (1976) Michael Manring, Andy Gonzalez, Francis Rocco Prestia & Victor Wooten – Bass Day '98 (Hudson Music, 1999) Bob Mintzer, Giovanni Hidalgo, Andy Gonzalez, David Chesky, Randy Brecker – The Body Acoustic (2004) Michael Simon (6) Featuring Marlon Simon, Andy Gonzalez, Edward Simon – New York Encounter (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2009) Homenaje a Arsenio (2011) Entre Colegas (Truth Revolution Records, 2016)