Singer to swing in the New Year
By Deborah Martin Express-News Arts Writer

For 15 years, vocalist Michael Andrew has known exactly where he would be on New Year's Eve: up on a bandstand, leading one of his two bands at a nightclub bash.

This year, however, after he sings the last note at the San Antonio Symphony Pops' Sunday matinee, he'll hop on a plane to Los Angeles and ... well, he really doesn't know what'll happen after that.

"I'll probably stay home and watch TV; I don't know what to do with myself," he said in a telephone interview. "We've been invited to a few parties, and we might go to one."

This weekend will be his first outing with the San Antonio Symphony. He's looking forward to it, he said: "I've heard nothing but great things from a lot of different people who have worked with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra. And I think (Michael Krajewski) is an incredible conductor."

The programs will unfold as a kind of history of big band, beginning with "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" and ending with a tribute to Bobby Darin.

"We want to explore where the big band went from wartime in the '40s when the jitterbug and Lindy Hop were so popular, to how it evolved into the popular music, all the way into the '60s, when Bobby Darin was doing 'Mack the Knife,'" Andrew said.

The thirtysomething vocalist will be featured in tributes to Frank Sinatra and Darin, performers who made their biggest splash when his parents were pups. His folks turned him on to the music when he was growing up. It didn't matter to him what his peers were blasting from their speakers.

"I was not a conformist at all when I was a kid; I was more of a trendsetter kind of guy, and I didn't care if people followed me or not," he said. "I was always into performing and putting on shows for the kids in the neighborhood. I liked musicals, but I really loved the music of the big bands and the swing era and some early jazz."

He started performing swing tunes in clubs in the '80s. At that point, the retro grooves were viewed as a novelty, he said. He even built a musical around it: "Mickey Swingerhead and the Earthgirls" had a futuristic swinger time traveling to the '50s to get a jazz fix. Instead, he winds up in the '80s, where he finds no one is hip to his lingo or his taste in music.

The show had to be rewritten when the swing craze hit. By then, Andrew and his bicoastal band, Swingerhead, had avid nightclub followings in Los Angeles and Orlando, Fla. The musicians took full advantage of audiences' newfound taste for their sound and toured all over the place. They also recorded a few CDs and won regular bookings at the chic Rainbow Room in New York City and the Coconut Club in Merv Griffin's Beverly Hilton Hotel.

These days, Andrew is trying to do more performances like this weekend's outing with the symphony.

"It's something I really love and have a passion for, concerts as opposed to strictly playing for dancing and dining," he said.

KENS 5 and the San Antonio Express-News.