Dogmental - 2025

Amazon.com Andy Biskin has created fascinating work on this debut CD, mixing and matching elements from a century of American music. His sound palette on 11 tracks is the traditional frontline of New Orleans jazz, aligning his own clarinet with Ron Horton's trumpet and Bruce Eidem's trombone and a rhythm section of Ben Allison on bass and Matt Wilson on drums. But his forms--including waltz and polka--come from elsewhere and anywhere. The emphasis is very much on Biskin's writing, with pieces composed over an eight-year period. He mixes melodic echoes of klezmer, cool-school harmonies, and a polyphonic style that can suggest Charles Mingus writing chamber music or the program music of Raymond Scott. It's all done with a sly, puckish wit, a sense of displacement that transforms the sometimes banal sources with an original sensibility, akin to Charles Ives or Carla Bley. The same compellingly light touch extends to the performances, with each player making his own imprint in a music that somehow balances sentiment and burlesque. Biskin's fluid clarinet can suggest Dave Tarras or Jimmy Giuffre. Horton can make a pointed, hard-bop attack seem the ideal complement, while Allison and Wilson add detailed commentary to their strong foundation. Eidem, like Biskin, is a master of nuance, with every timbral gesture in the trombone vocabulary coming into play, from the sweetest, roundest tone to mocking bray. The closeness of their partnership is further evidenced by four tracks from an earlier Biskin quartet recorded in 1996. --Stuart Broomer Review Album of the Week: It's hard to find gentle humor in jazz but the clarinetist Andy Biskin has perfect radar for it. Dogmental 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. --Ben Ratliff, The New York Times One clarinetist worth watching is Andy Biskin, as much for his composing as his playing. Andy Biskin's compositions tend to be light in tone, even a bit frothy at times, but they have real substance. Biskin is a good clarinet player too, with a full and liquid tone, and a knack for nimble phrasing. His style is appropriately slippery, in keeping with the way he writes. It's as if he picked through the rubble of collapsed buildings, collecting a door here, and a window frame there, and some lumber around back, and then built himself a handsome new house. --Kevin Whitehead, Fresh Air with Terry Gross Clarinetist Biskin has a rare gift: he can create witty, sophisticated jazz with a light touch. His music is often complex, but his bands on this album spring each charming tune on the listener like a surprise party. This thoroughly enjoyable release achieves a delicate balance between serious musical qualities and lightheartedness. --Ed Hazell, Jazziz
ASIN: B00004WFCK
VSKU: GGV.B00004WFCK.VG
Condition: Very Good
Author/Artist:Andy Biskin Quintet
Binding: Audio CD