Tuck & Patti are an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

duo consisting of guitarist William Charles "Tuck" Andress (born Oct. 28, 1952 in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

) and singer Patricia "Patti" Cathcart Andress (born October 4, 1949, in San Francisco).

Music career

Guitarist Tuck Andress met singer Patti Cathcart at an audition in San Francisco in 1978. Before this, Andress studied classical music at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

and was a session musician with

The Gap Band The Gap Band was an American R&B and funk band that rose to fame during the 1970s and 1980s. The band consisted of three brothers: Charlie, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson, along with other members; it was named after streets (Greenwood, Archer, an ...

. Cathcart was also classically trained and was a member of

The Brides of Funkenstein The Brides of Funkenstein were an American Soul and Funk girl band, originally composed of singers Dawn Silva and Lynn Mabry. History Previously background singers for Sly Stone, singer of Sly and the Family Stone, Lynn Mabry and Dawn Silva jo ...

. Andress and Cathcart married in 1983. After moving to Cathcart's hometown of San Francisco, they worked in a rock and roll cover band. They declined offers of recording contracts so they could polish their sound. In 1987, they signed with Windham Hill Jazz, a subsidiary of

Windham Hill Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The label was ...

for whom they recorded their breakout album, ''Tears of Joy'', which received airplay on jazz and pop radio stations around the U.S. They recorded several more albums for Windham Hill Jazz, then signed with

Epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...

in 1995. They followed this with more albums for Windham Hill and 33rd Street. They started the label T&P Records, which licenses their albums for worldwide distribution.Bio page, TuckAndPatti.com In addition to performing they teach private lessons and vocal and guitar workshops. In ''The Jazz Book'', the authors write that Andress uses "unusual percussive and tapping techniques to create rhythmically unbelievable effects". He plays a 1953

Gibson L-5 The Gibson L-5 guitar was first produced in 1923 by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo, Michigan, under the direction of acoustical engineer and designer Lloyd Loar, and has been in production ever since. It was considered the pr ...

guitar, which he bought because it was the model played by

Wes Montgomery John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for an unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a dist ...

. His niece is singer-songwriter Annie Clark, also known as

St. Vincent Saint Vincent may refer to: People Saints * Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), a.k.a. Vincent the Deacon, deacon and martyr * Saint Vincenca, 3rd century Roman martyress, whose relics are in Blato, Croatia * Vincent, Orontius, and Victor (died 305) ...

. As a teenager, Clark was a roadie for Tuck and Patti and was later a tour manager for them.

Discography

* ''Tears of Joy'' (

, 1988) * ''Love Warriors'' (Windham Hill, 1989) * ''Dream'' (Windham Hill, 1991) * ''Learning How to Fly'' (

, 1995) * '' Paradise Found'' (Windham Hill, 1998) * ''Taking the Long Way Home'' (Windham Hill, 2000) * ''Chocolate Moment'' ( 33rd Street, 2002) * ''A Gift of Love'' (T&P, 2004) * ''I Remember You'' (T&P, 2007) Solo albums by Tuck Andress * ''Reckless Precision'' (Windham Hill, 1990) * ''Hymns, Carols, and Songs About Snow'' (Windham Hill, 1991)

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuck and Patti American musical duos Fingerstyle guitarists Windham Hill Records artists Male–female musical duos Married couples Musical groups established in 1981 1981 establishments in California Musical groups from California