Jeff Andrews passed away?

[caligula]

That drug thing makes sense, unfortunately. For many years Jeff played and toured with Mike Stern who has been quite open about his drug problems in the past and, sadly, a lot of famous jazz - fusion guys went that path.
Whenever you hear or read that someone of that caliber "has some problems and issues in their personal life" or "is currently taking care of their health", it's often a euphemism for drug related problems.
Jeff was such a monster player, IMO there are very few players that can solo the way he did. Shame I never saw him live.

 

[Lee Moses]

Can we please turn this thread in another direction? The mudslinging at a dead man strikes me as tasteless.

 

[shwashwa]

Can we please turn this thread in another direction? The mudslinging at a dead man strikes me as tasteless.

I can see how it could be taken this way, but I for one am glad you posted this. It does give me some sort of closure. I knew Jeff, not extremely well, but I knew him. We were planning on getting together when I heard he had passed. I know gone is gone, so the reason shouldnt really matter, but for some reason I feel some closure knowing. It was obvious he was suffering, and I had my suspicions. I wouldn't call this thread mudslinging. It's documenting factual information about a very important person in the history of electric bass. I believe it's widely known that Jeff had a huge heart and was a very sweet person. I don't think this thread cast aspursions on that in any way. He was simply a victim of depression and drug addiction, 2 diseases which, in my opinion are as real and serious as any other disease such as cancer or the like. Hopefully this thread can serve as a warning or education for people who may need it. The quotes above are Jeff's own words. I can picture him saying them, but from a place of kindness. I personally don't see anything wrong with posting them, especially since some of them were / are posted publicly on Facebook. Jeff was a very generous and kind person who suffered with his own personal demons, but in spite of them still managed to be , in my opinion , one of the most important electric bass players ever.

 

[jerry]

The whole "give me a gig" aspect at the end of that post is both familiar and scary from another of the best of the best players.

 

[shwashwa]

The whole "give me a gig" aspect at the end of that post is both familiar and scary from another of the best of the best players.

That Facebook quote is legit. I read it a couple years back, it's probably still there

 

[Stefan Svensson]

I apologize if I have disrupted or offended anyone.

Zman, I believe that at the time you met Jeff, he was a total wreck, and if it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t have played again, maybe even died earlier, not trying. He woke back to life briefly from 2014 and entered rehab, started gigging again, but his addiction took hold of him! Had not so many of his so called friends tried to hide the facts about his problems,maybe he would have been alive today! People are/were Not doing Jeff any favours by denying his problems, it’s time to be open about it!! Like someone said, it might help someone else! God Bless!