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Andy
Abad Versatile guitarist Andy Abad, is best known for his elegant and passionately explosive guitar artistry while on tour with Marc Anthony and the Backstreet Boys, as well as his equally impressive recording style. Yet the coming together of his musical talent, experience, and style, has been many years in the making. Andy plays acoustic, electric, African, Spanish and tres guitars, among others, but his musical training began with the accordion at age 10. At the age of 13, he took up the guitar. He later studied at the prestigious University of Southern California School of Music where he earned a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Music. He even taught at the University while finishing his degree. While still in college, Andy was part of Grammy winning Jazz group Shadowfax. He later played the tres, African, and electric guitars with World Music artists Sam Mangwana and Ricardo Lemvo. His first big break in terms of International exposure came in 1999 when he was chosen to tour with Anthony. With the Artist, Andy plays acoustic, electric and tres guitar and is part of his Pop and Salsa bands. In 1999, 2000 and 2002 he toured the US and Latin America with Marc Anthony and performed on numerous television programs, including: Saturday Night Live, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Today Show, Good Morning America, Rosie O'Donnell Show, The View, 2000 Grammy Awards, "Marc Anthony: The Concert, Live from Madison Square Garden" HBO Special, and the “Marc Anthony I’ve Got You” CBS Concert Special, where he was a featured soloist. In November of 2000, the guitarist was the Musical Director for Oscar De La Hoya's debut singing performance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In 2001, Andy toured the United States, Canada, Asia, and Latin America with the Backstreet Boys for 11 months. He played with the group in numerous television appearances, including the Today Show, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The View, Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards, MTV Concert Special, and a CBS Live Concert Special, where he was a featured soloist. That same year, Andy took a break from touring to record with one of his heroes, Bonnie Raitt, on an inspiring African tune “Hear Me Lord” for her album "Silver Lining". A Billboard magazine review of the album lauded the guitarist’s work on the song, describing it as, “Blazing guitar work by Andy Abad”. In 2001, he also recorded on two Marc Anthony albums; his Grammy-nominated Salsa album, "Libre", and his Pop album, "Mended". He had the pleasure of also performing the songs live on Anthony’s 2002 concert and promotional tours. Most recently, Andy recorded the Salsa version of the worldwide hit song “Asereje”, by Spanish superstars Las Ketchup and performed on their US promotional tour. Andy's recording credits include Marc Anthony’s "Libre"(Columbia/Sony Discos) and "Mended" (Columbia), Bonnie Raitt’s "Silver Lining" (Capitol), Las Ketchup’s “Asereje, Salsa version” (Sony Discos), Ricky Martin's Grammy Award winning album "Vuelve" (Sony Discos); World Music group Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca's album Sao Salvador (Putumayo); Jazz group Shadowfax's albums Magic Theatre and Shadowfax Live; and the scores for UPN-TV series Roswell and Adam Sandler's movie Happy Gilmore. He has also recorded the music for commercials for Honda Motors, Cuervo Tequila, Kellogg’s, Washington Mutual, Nabisco, and Bank of America. |
