Andy Milne
Biography
ANDY MILNE (pianist, composer) was born on January 29, 1967 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. In 1990, after completing an Honors in Music Degree program at York University in Toronto – studying with Oscar Peterson, Pat LaBarbera, and Don Thompson – he received a Canada Council grant to study at the Banff Centre for Fine Arts. It was there he met saxophonist Steve Coleman, who encouraged him to move to New York, which he did in 1991 after a year gaining experience in Montreal.
Now living in NYC, he worked with Coleman’s Five Elements for six years, as well as with vocalist Cassandra Wilson, and Greg Osby’s group. In 1995, he began an intensive touring and recording period with his own group, and in 1998, formed his current band Dapp Theory to “explore the truths that exist in universal cosmic wisdom while creatively expressing life’s great journeys”.In 2001, Milne engaged in an ambitious songwriting collaboration with Bruce Cockburn which resulted in the music featured on Dapp Theory’s 2003 release of Y’All Just Don’t Know (Concord).
In February 2006, he served as Artist-in-Residence at the University of British Columbia, and currently teaches at New York’s School for Improvisational Music as well as The New School University. As a musician, Andy Milne has established himself as a distinctive voice at the heart of New York’s creative jazz scene, performing, from that base, in varied musical settings around the world, often in collaboration with artists including Dianne Reeves, Red Mitchell, Robin Eubanks, Avery Brooks, Sekou Sundiata, and Sonny Greenwich. He has performed on dozens of recordings including releases by Ranee Lee, Ravi Coltrane, Ralph Alessi, Carlos Ward, and Grammy-nominated vocalist Carla Cook.
AWARDS
1988 – Winner of the Oscar Peterson Scholarship from York University
1996 – Nominated for the Herb Alpert Award
2000 – Named The Jazz Report Awards’ ‘Keyboardist of the Year’
2004 – Named Down Beat Magazine’s ‘Rising Star Keyboardist’
2006 – Awarded the Chamber Music America ‘New Works’ commission
2007 – Chosen for Chamber Music America’s French/America Jazz Exchange