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Andy Milne

For over 30 years, two-time Juno Award winning pianist/composer Andy Milne has demonstrated boundless versatility, collaborating with dancers, filmmakers, visual artists, poets and musicians spanning multiple genres. He has released 12 recordings, composes for orchestra, chamber ensembles, film and TV, and is a former student of Oscar Peterson. A respected voice at the heart of New York’s creative jazz scene, Milne has recorded and toured globally with Ravi Coltrane, Ralph Alessi, Carla Cook and Steve Coleman. He has collaborated with a range of artists including Andrew Cyrille, Sekou Sundiata, Avery Brooks, Cassandra Wilson and Jen Shyu.

Milne composed the score for “True North”, the latest film from Emmy winning director Michèle Stephenson, which premiered at TIFF in 2025. His score for Stephenson’s episode of the CBC Television documentary series “Black Life – Untold Stories” was nominated for a 2024 Canadian Screen Music Award. In 2024, the Toronto Symphony with saxophonist Joe Lovano, premiered select Milne orchestral arrangements as part of the John Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra project, also performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Another 2024 highlight included the premiere of a piano quintet, commissioned by the Banff International String Quartet Competition, and performed by Milne and the Isidore String Quartet.

Several of Milne’s past projects merge senses and cultures. Strings & Serpents, which premiered at Lincoln Center in 2014, synthesized the melody, form, improvisational language and rhythm of Japanese and Western structures, blending musical and visual forms into a unified experience. In 2007 with tap dancer/choreographer Heather Cornell, he created Finding Synesthesia, which combined an inventive range of sounds and influences, weaving tap into the texture and sound of the orchestration. His 2001 collaboration with Bruce Cockburn blended jazz, funk and folk textures with social protest lyrics of 1960s folk and 1980s hip-hop

Awards

SouthArts - Jazz Road 2022 Juno Award - Jazz Album of the Year: Group 2021 Juno Award - Jazz Album of the Year: Group 2019 Japan Foundation/Performing Arts Japan – Touring Grant 2014 Chamber Music America - New Jazz Works 2013 American Composers Orchestra - EarShot 2012 New Music USA - Commissioning Music/USA 2012 Japan Foundation/Performing Arts Japan – Collab. Grant 2012 Canada Council - Travel Grant 2012 Canada Council - Short Term Grant 2011 Canada Council - Touring Grant 2010 Civitella Ranier Foundation - Civitella Fellowship 2009 Canada Council - Specialized Sound Recording Grant 2008 Chamber Music America - FAJE 2007 Chamber Music America - New Works Creation Grant 2006

Dapp Theory: In The Moment

by Mike Jacobs
April 9, 2025

This instrumental track from Dapp Theory's breakout album, Y'all Just Don't Know (Concord, 2003), bursts at the seams with Andy Milne's sonic vision, as well as some great improvisational mastery from him and his bandmates. Featuring Sean Rickman, Gregoire Maret, Rich Brown and David Gilmore. ...

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Album Review

Black Lives: People Of Earth

Read "People Of Earth" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 4, 2024

Black Lives is not just a band; it is a movement. Comprised of globally recognized artists across generations and genres, their mission transcends mere musical performance. They aim for a utopia, especially in these turbulent times where words of hate and racism proliferate faster than cat videos on the internet. Now more than ever, their cause is vital. The album does not veer away from its intentions: to raise awareness, inspire change, and celebrate unity. Musicians from the ...

Album Review

Jean-Paul Bourelly: Black Lives - From Generation to Generation

Read "Black Lives - From Generation to Generation" reviewed by Vic Albani

by Vic Albani
September 26, 2023

Doppio CD o doppio vinile prodotto in HI-Res e con packaging di lusso dalla Jammin'colorS, agenzia per artisti jazz, world, funk, alternativi, hip-hop, electro e sperimentali nonché etichetta indipendente. Il lavoro che ha pubblicato in tanta pompa magna è un ampio collage di musica nera realizzato da 25 musicisti africani, caraibici e afroamericani guidati dalla visione creativa di Stefany Calembert (compagna del bassista jazz Reggie Washington) e produttrice estemporanea dell'etichetta belga. A tutti è stato chiesto di comporre ...

Album Review

Various Artists: Black Lives - From Generation to Generation

Read "Black Lives - From Generation to Generation" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 19, 2022

Indeed, African Americans are the architects of several musical formations, hearkening back to Scott Joplin's development of 'ragged' rhythms i.e., Ragtime, along with blues, funk, jazz, and other genres, often evolving into various tangents and offshoots. And on this comprehensively entertaining set produced by Belgian Stefany Calembert with assistance from her husband and acclaimed bassist Reggie Washington, they righteously bestow Black Music as a “source of moral truth and potent weapon against racism." Numerous stars such as saxophonist ...

Album Review

Ingrid Laubrock and Andy Milne: Fragile

by Troy Dostert
May 15, 2022

In 2019, tenor & soprano saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock began for Intakt Records a series of duo recordings with leading pianists . The first two instalments paired her with Aki Takase (Kasumi) and Kris Davis (Blood Moon), both sensible choices as Takase and Davis have long been fixtures in avant-garde jazz, traveling in the same circles as Laubrock and with similar stylistic proclivities. This makes the third offering, with Andy Milne, a bit more interesting. Milne is certainly unafraid of adventure, ...

Album Review

Dave Glasser: Hypocrisy Democracy

Read "Hypocrisy Democracy" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 4, 2020

Something of a socio-political scythe--a title and tool cutting straight into the failing system that surrounds us--Hypocrisy Democracy is also a broad statement detailing the ceaselessly looping fallibility of man and his actions. It's saxophonist Dave Glasser's most probing work to date, bound to both our present state of affairs and the history it mirrors, and it's an album that, despite its bold conceit, actually needs no concept to latch itself onto. The music is that strong. ...

Multiple Reviews

3x3: Piano Trios: April 2020

by Geno Thackara
April 29, 2020

Andy Milne The Re:Mission Contrology Records 2020 Though Andy Milne actually hasn't recorded in the classic trio format before, you'd never know it just from The Re:Mission. He's been no slouch in many other settings, from supporting Cassandra Wilson or Steve Coleman to the genre-mashingly ambitious Dapp Theory quintet. Having always had a dream of trying this particular classic format, and invigorated after a 2018 fight with cancer (hence the title), he decided it was ...

Performance / Tour

Composer/Bassist Alexis Cuadrado Presents Poetica, Featuring Rowan Ricardo Philips, Melcion Mateu, Miles Okazaki, Andy Milne & Tyshawn Sorey

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity
March 20, 2014

Composer/Bassist ALEXIS CUADRADO Presents POETICA: A multi-disciplinary new work by Alexis Cuadrado crossing languages and poetry in collaboration with authors/poets Rowan Ricardo Philips and Melcion Mateu In Residency at Seeds Brooklyn April 30 & May 1, 2, 3, 2014 Located at 617 Vanderbilt Ave Brooklyn, NY 11238 Featuring: Alexis Cuadrado - Composer & double bass, Rowan Ricardo Philips - Poetry, Melcion Mateu - Poetry, Miles Okazaki - Guitar, Andy Milne - Keyboards, Tyshawn Sorey ...
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Performance / Tour

Sunday June 27 2010 Andy Milne and Dapp Theory @ Royal/T

Source: SoCal Creative Music
June 10, 2010

SUNDAY MAY 27 2010 @ 7PMANDY MILNE & DAPP THEORYROYAL/T8910 WASHINGTON BLVD. CULVER CITY, CA 90232310.559.6300$18 admission at the door. $12 for studentsDAPP THEORY is a quintet that blends contemporary funk, groove and hip-hop into jazzwith such seamless, casual precision its almost freaky. (LA Weekly)ANDY MILNE - KeyboardsJOHN MOON - PercussionAARON KRUZIKI- SaxophoneCHRIS TORDINI - BassKENNY GROHOWSKI - DrumsAs demonstrated on their recent ...
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Performance / Tour

New Haven's Firehouse 12 to Present Andy Milne and Dapp Theory June 2nd

Source: Improvised Communications
May 2, 2007

On Saturday, June 2nd, Brooklyn-based keyboardist/composer Andy Milne and his longstanding group Dapp Theory (formerly Cosmic Dapp Theory) will perform at New Haven's Firehouse 12 as part of its five-stop June tour of the Northeast. The group, which strives to link the essence of jazz with hip hop and other forms of musical expression, features vocalist/percussive poet/MC John Moon, saxophonist Loren Stillman, bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Sean Rickman.

“Dapp Theory defies convention," declared JazzReview.com's John Kelman in his review ...
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“Opting for variety under a post-bop umbrella with a special eclectic touch, Milne explores colorful frameworks where the voices of his bandmates become an extension of his own clear and accurate compositional delineations.” [JazzTrail.com]

"Milne plays some dazzling piano. He has precise touch and tells stories in his keyboard statements as well as his writing. … This is a somber record, beautifully realized.” [Downbeat Magazine]

“The reMission as of one this year’s finest recordings.” [AllAboutJazz.com]

"Milne's talent is unequivocal, ... unraveling newfound landscapes, ... innovative approaches to reharmonization and re-rhythmification" [AllAboutJazz.com]