Photo credit: Anna Yaskevich
For more than 30 years, two-time Juno Award winning pianist/composer Andy Milne has demonstrated boundless versatility, collaborating with dancers, film makers, authors, visual artists, poets and musicians spanning multiple genres. With UNISON Milne returns to his first love, exploring the intimacy of the piano trio. The synchronistic relationship Milne enjoys with his bandmates represents the complimentary threads within the fabric of Milne’s piano trio philosophy — the intersection of texture and groove. Unison’s 2024 Sunnyside Records release “Time Will Tell” was nominated for a 2025 Juno Award and was included on numerous “best of 2024” lists. Their 2020 debut, “The reMission” [Sunnyside Records] won the 2021 JUNO Award for Jazz Album of the Year: Group and received widespread media praise.
“The emotionally complex album that came out of that session owes much to the single-minded focus of the three players as they moved fluently through Milne’s dynamic compositions.”Downbeat Magazine
A former student of Oscar Peterson, Milne has collaborated with a range of artists including Ralph Alessi, Ravi Coltrane, Andrew Cyrille, Sekou Sundiata, Avery Brooks, Bruce Cockburn, and Cassandra Wilson. During his early career in the 1990s, he was at the center of the MBASE Collective as a core member of saxophonist Steve Coleman’s bands and became a distinct and respected voice at the heart of New York’s creative jazz scene. Milne has released 12 recordings as a leader or co-leader, and is actively composing for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and scoring for film and television. His credits include two films for Emmy Award winning director Michèle Stephenson, as well as seven films by acclaimed actor/director William Shatner. In 2024 Milne premiered a piano quintet with the Isidore String Quartet, commissioned by the Banff International String Quartet Competition. He is a Yamaha Artist and sought-after educator, currently a full-time assistant professor of music at The University of Michigan.
Personnel:
Andy Milne- piano
John Hébert-bass
Kush Abadey-drums
Check out: “Andy Milne and UNISON” “Winter Palace” “Vertical” “Time Will Tell”
