Andrew Beals

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Andrew Beals joined legendary jazz organist, "Brother" Jack McDuff and the "Heatin' System" in 1986. Beals became the latest in a long line of Jazz Saxophone greats, including Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Red Holloway, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano, Harold Vick, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk to work with Jack McDuff's band. It was marked by a busy performance schedule, which included lengthy tours of North America and Europe. Andrew Beals has appeared as a leader of his own band and as a featured soloist with Jack McDuff, and others, at many renowned Jazz clubs and festivals.

Beals was a semifinalist at the 1993 Thelonious Monk Jazz Saxophone Competition; and in 1998 he was awarded the prestigious NYU Jazz Orchestra Scholarship for graduate studies in jazz performance and composition. Andrew is currently an adjunct professor of Jazz Saxophone and Jazz Improvisation at Western Connecticut State University (W.C.S.U) and a woodwind instructor at the Greenwich Music School.

He received his Bachelor of Arts Music degree at Livingston College and Rutgers University, and has a Master of Arts Music Degree from New York University. His teachers were Paul Jeffery, John Stubbelfield, Frank Foster, George Garzone (saxophone), and Jim McNeely (composition).

Peter Furlan Project: Live at Maureen's Jazz Cellar

Read "Live at Maureen's Jazz Cellar" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 20, 2026

The third album by the Peter Furlan Project, the New York-born and based saxophonist's splendid nonet, was recorded Live at Maureen's Jazz Cellar in Nyack, NY, on June 20-21, 2025. The concert's nine numbers, all written and arranged by Furlan, travel along a conventional straight-ahead path whose sunny melodic and harmonic byways allow ample room for close group interaction and one or more resourceful solos by every member of the ensemble. While that may be enough ...

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Extended Analysis

Andrew Beals: Gravy Train

by Elliott Simon
April 19, 2008

Andrew Beals Gravy Train NASMusic 2008

For half a century, saxophonists have gravitated toward Hammond B3-led bands to hone their chops. The demands of the “chitlin' circuit" combined with those burnin' B3 lines create the perfect musical training ground. Consequently, some of the sagest advice for an aspiring musician is simply, “If you want to really learn your instrument go play with a B3."

One of the best to play ...