Skip to main content

Maverick Ad

Home

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Cover Stories
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Legacy Awards
  • Past Covers
  • Weekly Archive
2x JUNO Award Winner Andy Milne Chronicles His Lifelong Efforts To Uncover His Birth Family History In New Album "Time Will Tell"

Breadcrumb

  • Home
  • 2x JUNO Award Winner Andy Milne Chronicles His Lifelong Efforts To Uncover His Birth Family History In New Album "Time Will Tell"
Andy Milne
Fri Feb 16, 2024
Cashbox Canada

Time Will Tell chronicles Andy Milne lifelong efforts to uncover his birth family history. Adopted as an infant, his efforts to connect with his birth family proved fruitless – until 2018, when the gift of an Ancestry.com DNA test from his wife, singer La Tanya Hall, changed everything.

A DNA match led him to his first cousin, Marc, with whom he discovered he shared a mutual friend. Ironically, just as world events collided with the COVID-19 lockdowns, the profound mysteries of his biological family began to rapidly reveal themselves.

“In 2022, my voyage eventually received an unimaginable upgrade when I finally met my birth mother,” he recounts. “This recording reflects part of my expedition navigating the mixed emotions associated with this identity paradox. How we move through life, and the lives we will touch, is unknown to us, despite our best efforts to chart a path.”

While he says the new album shouldn’t be taken as a pound-for-pound musical account of these experiences, the journey inspired and informed his process.

“I realized my compositions were a subconscious reflection of my experience,” says Milne, who is also an assistant professor of music at the University of Michigan. “I met my birth mother days before I composed a lot of this music, and quickly recognized that this would be a significant throughline in those pieces. I essentially allowed it to flow and envelop my process.”

The notion of “family” extends to Milne’s artistic approach, in terms of his commitment to honoring relationships, building community and blending musical languages. This is heart-wrenchingly expressed in the track “Lost and Found.” It reveals his personal mission -- both in title and his plaintive performance – and introduces a new texture to Unison’s soundscape in the koto of virtuoso Yoko Reikano Kimura. She can be heard on three other tracks on Time Will Tell. Check it out on YouTube here:

Milne’s interest in Asian culture dates back to his student days, when he also became curious about Zen Buddhism. A decade ago, he fell in love with the string universe of the Japanese koto and created the multidisciplinary project Strings & Serpents, which featured a piano duo, a koto duo, and an animated film. This led to him inviting Kimura to join Unison for a gig.

“That set the wheels in motion,” he recalls. “I like the koto for its soulfulness and because it can express opposite and complementary sonic qualities to the piano. It’s quite flexible – it can be delicate but it can also be really ferocious. The similarities and differences between these two iconic string instruments really appeal to me.”

Also bringing considerable chops to four tracks is tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, with whom Milne recorded the 2022 album Fragile. Their interplay on opening track “Purity of Heart” lends a sense of urgency to the proceedings, and after their previous collaboration the ease of their give-and-take is apparent.

“Ingrid and I have known each other for years, and in 2012, we had a transformative experience training together at the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute at UCLA,” Milne explains. “Then, during the pandemic, she reached out and invited me to make a duo recording. It was challenging, inspired, and a lot of fun, and we realized we had forged a very good musical connection.”

Echoing Milne’s winding personal journey, some tracks on Time Will Tell are journeys themselves, marked by dramatic shifts in tempo and tone. “Beyond the Porcelain Door” and “Kumoi Joshi” are striking examples.

“In traditional jazz song form it’s perhaps less common for compositions to express two tracks in one,” he explains. “With some of this music, when you hear the beginning of the track, you really can’t tell how it will end. On one level, I know I was reflecting and channeling the power of the unknown as it related to my journey connecting with my birth family. There is a certain amount of freedom that comes from being committed to yourself and your process that allows you to feel comfortable making these choices.

“Having been around the sun a few times and having composed a lot of music, I find it empowering to trust my instincts, be bold and move things around. It’s a spiritual expression of being in a place where this is not only permissible, but natural and organic.”

Milne continues to enjoy a strong sense of brotherhood with Hébert and Penn, who each contribute a composition to Time Will Tell. Penn wrote “Papounet” – the title being his children’s term of endearment for their grandfather – which features some of the trio’s most synchronous and adventurous playing. Meanwhile, Hébert provided “Broken Landscape,” which gives the bassist ample space to virtuosically explore color, soloing almost throughout against the backdrop of Penn’s evocative brush work.

“I’ve always felt a strong musical kinship with these guys,” Milne notes. “It was key that their voices as players and composers come through, expressing how the music could go in a way that it’s their vision as well. It’s important to me that even when our collective vision reaches across aesthetic boundaries, a framework exists that supports a cohesive coexistence of our voices and approaches – like family.”

Reviews
Album
Andy Milne
Month: Nov 2020
D2UR Empty Streets & Collective Concern Inspired Winnipeg Rockers D2UR’s New…
Heather Christine & Featuring Donovan Locke "Love At Christmastime" Single by Heather Christine & Featuring Donovan…
Leahy Leahy Releases Holiday Traditional Classic O Come All Ye Faithful in Time for…
Peter Foldy Bronte Road Music Releases “This Christmas” By Peter Foldy
The James Clark Institute The James Clark Institute Release Moe Berg Produced SIngle “Should I Tell Her”
Mattmac #2 on Indigenous Music Countdown, blind singer MATTMAC from Manitoba…
Delyn Grey Canadian Indie Wonder Delyn Grey Taps Into Bloodied Heart Of Heavy Blues On…
Month: Dec 2020
Katie Ditschun Contemporary Jazz Singer Katie Ditschun Sends Peace & Warmth with “Be Still”
Krosst Out Grunge Trap / Alt Hip Hop Rocker KROSST OUT Offers “Intro” & Sophomore…
Michele Mele Christmas Time in Canada Jazz Chanteuse Michele Mele Harnesses The Spirit Of Christmas On Yuletide EP
SEKSI Chef and Popstar Luke Hayes / SEKSI Sparks Holiday Spirit with “Be My…
Tortured Soul Remixes Japan Edition TORTURED SOUL Flees From The DJ Booth With 'Remixes Japan Edition'
Wallish Alt-Pop Singer/Songwriter Wallish Releases Biting Candid New Single, “Give It To…
Astrid Tanton Pop Singer/Songwriter Astrid Tanton is “Better Off” with the Release of Her Latest…
Cliff Hillis Life Gets Strange, Indeed — New EP from Award-Winning Singer/Songwriter Cliff…

Pagination

  • First page « First
  • Previous page ‹ Previous
  • …
  • Page 26
  • Page 27
  • Page 28
  • Page 29
  • Current page 30
  • Page 31
  • Page 32
  • Page 33
  • Page 34
  • …
  • Next page Next ›
  • Last page Last »

CEO/PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF
SANDY GRAHAM

email:sandygrahamemg@gmail.com 

Canadian Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Don Graham
email: dongrahamwriter@gmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Lisa Hartt
email: lisahartt87@hotmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada 
Michael Williams
email: greydread@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

International Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Malin Osth
email: malin@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Jonas Tancred
email: jonas@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - USA
Rob Durkee 
email: rockster2746@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Web Developer/Technical Support
Chris Wardman

email: info@chriswardman.com
website: chriswardman.com

Cashbox Cover Design and Graphic Artist
Jain McMillan

email: jainmcmillan@gmail.com

Contributing Photographer 
Tracey Savein - South Paw Productions
southpawproductions@rogers.com

 

 

 

Footer menu

  • Home
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Archive
  • Issue Archive
  • Past Covers