Trio Tragico
$15.99
Featuring Andy Biskin (clarinet, bass clarinet), Dave Ballou (trumpet) and Drew Gress (bass)
STRUDELMEDIA SMCD010
The beautifully crafted miniature compositions on this album fuse jazz, classical, and social music into highly personal hybrid forms. Biskin's composing for Trio Tragico emphasizes ensemble balance and its overall sound, rather than individual soloists.
"If today’s fragmented jazz community resembled the fraternity it was during the classic periods of labels such as Blue Note and Contemporary, clarinetist Andy Biskin’s compositions might be showing up on many albums besides his own.... Trio Tragico is at once relaxed, ambitious and deceptive. It’s a chamber-jazz record in the most veracious sense."
— K. Leander Williams, Time Out New York
"The trio blends subtle improvisation and nuanced group interaction so seamlessly into Biskin's compositions that the dividing line between the two vanishes. With creative arrangements and stellar interplay, Trio Tragico invokes a broad sonic palette, bringing these enchanting pieces to life."
— Troy Collins, All About Jazz
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Early American:
The Melodies of Stephen Foster
$15.99Featuring Andy Biskin (clarinet), Pete McCann (guitar and banjo), Chris Washburne (trombone and tuba), and John Hollenbeck (drums and percussion).
STRUDELMEDIA SMCD009
Idiosyncratic arrangements of classic and lesser-known Stephen Foster melodies, interlaced with six Biskin originals that explore the roots of the American songbook.
"Everything on 'Early American,' including an abstracted 'Beautiful Dreamer' and a handful of originals more or less in the Foster manner (the most robust a bumping blues called 'Thin King Thinking'), attests to Biskin's admiration for this vintage material, despite his cheeky approach to it.
— Francis Davis, The Village Voice (10 Best CDs of 2006)
"Biskin’s six originals carry out the same kind of enthusiasm without Foster’s memorable melodies. His music is energetic, creative, and at the leading edge of jazz’s modern mainstream. Recommended for all ages, Biskin’s music puts a smile on the face of modern jazz."
— Jim Santella, All About Jazz
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Dogmental
$15.99Featuring Andy Biskin (clarinet, composer), Ron Horton (trumpet), Bruce Eidem (trombone), Ben Allison (bass) and Matt Wilson (drums)
GM3044CD
The Andy Biskin Quintet's debut album, Dogmental, was released in the fall of 2001 on Gunther Schuller's GM Recordings, and has received widespread critical acclaim. The record was featured twice on NPR's "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" (click here to listen to the interview, or here for the review) and has been used regularly between news stories on "All Things Considered."
Ben Ratliff (The New York Times) named it "Album of the Week," and wrote: "It's hard to find gentle humor in jazz but the clarinetist Andy Biskin has perfect radar for it. Dogmental, his first album, is full of short pieces that break down into contrapuntal arrangements and short, pungent solos; it's a sweet-tempered album that doesn't take itself too seriously but has a lot of hidden virtues.... You can't say it's indicative of what jazz is up to or where it's going, but it's a little triumph nonetheless."
Dogmental is available in stores everywhere and at Amazon.com.
Click here to read Gunther Schuller's notes for the CD.
Click here to read Andy's liner notes for the CD.
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