A Splendid Night of Inventive Music at 1905 Jazz Club with Andy Milne and his Unison Trio

Andy Milne, John Hébert, and Kush Abadey at 1905 Jazz Club

On Wednesday November 12, 2025, at Portland's premium jazz club 1905, the Juno award winning Canadian pianist Andy Milne brought his trio Unison in support of a tour featuring the music of his latest Sunnyside album Time Will Tell. On this West Coast tour, Milne's Unison trio included the superb bassist John Hébert, who was on the album, and the colorist drummer Kush Abadey, who ably replaced the percussion work of Clarence Penn, who was the original drummer on the album. 

Andy Milne and Unison-Time Will Tell-Sunnyside records

I first saw Milne perform as the pianist with the eclectic trumpeter Ralph Alessi's quartet when they played 1905 back in June of 2023. For those of interest you can read my review of Alessi's group performance here. After seeing the impressive Milne in action with Alessi, I made it my business to do some research and listen to more of this pianist's work.  After listening to his Juno award winning album The re Mission, a emotionally moving album that traced Milne's experience with his own personal diagnosis of cancer, his following treatment and eventually his full remission from the condition, I became an enthusiastic  fan. When Milne released Time Will Tell, his Sunnyside release from April of 2024, I had a listen and reviewed this fine album which you can read here. When I heard Milne and his trio was going to come to play in my favorite venue in my area I couldn't resist.

Hearing this group play 'live' and experience the dynamic interaction and intuitive comradery these three guys can generate while playing some of today's most modern and exciting music is like being a kid in an ice cream store. A real treat!

Part of Milne's imprimatur is his distinctive pork-pie style hat, a flat-toped felt or straw fedora that resembles a pork pie and thus the name. The artist facially reminds me a little of the actor Jeff Goldbum. 

Andy Milne at 1905 Jazz Club

The group opened the early set I attended with a composition from Milne, "Purity of Heart," which was from the latest album Time Will Tell. The album is  partially inspired by his personal search as an adopted child for his birth mother and his roots. Milne opens with a beautiful, classically influenced piano entre. The music is propelled by an syncopated, ostinato-based flow, brilliantly maintained by Hébert and Abadey. In the original album version, the music has Ingrid Laubroch's  tenor saxophone as the key foil to Milne's piano work. On this live set, the trio, and specifically, the counterpoint of Hébert's fluid bass work, was key to the  alluring interactivity. The music had its own heartbeat, an organic drive that flows like a dynamic life-force. Milne's keyboard work is emotive and inventive, lively yet melodic, tense yet beautiful. The threesome find joy and excitement in their magical bond and it shows. The audience loved it.

The second song was bassist Hébert's gorgeously reflective "Broken Landscape," which was also from the current album. Milne's piano work explores while maintaining sensitivity to the composition's intent. Beauty flows seamlessly from this man's mind to his hands. Hébert's arco work resonates with feeling through the room.  Abadey's expanded palette includes subtle colors urged by timely rim shots, deft use of sticks, brushes or hands, and using the abrasion of the surface of cymbals to great effect. His percussive ingenuity was a highlight of the evening.

John Hébert

"Kumoi Joshi" is another composition of Milne from the latest album. Milne has been intrigued by Japanese string music as played on  the Koto, a thirteen string, zither-like instrument that is plucked. This piece was played on the Koto on the album by Yoko Reikano Kimura and had some saxophone work by Laubroch.

Kumoi Joshi is translated as Cloud Scale and refers to a scale used by Koto players that is characterized by an interval structure that gives music a bright and exotic quality.  On this night, the music opened with a repeating piano line from Milne that is countered by Hébert's bass and some tom work by Abadey. Hébert's arco enters the picture where the Koto would have been played in the album. Milne's piano lines ascend and descend and seem to by following a path that has no particular destination. The trio seem to find common ground in executing this odd scale-based music.  

Milne reprised his "Drive by-The Fall" from his album The re Mission. This composition was written by the pianist as an appreciation of nature. When diagnosed with his cancer, Milne had to acknowledge the fact that sometimes nature can confront you with challenges. What Milne had to face, upon receiving his diagnosis, was like being in a drive-by accident- confusion, unbelief, despair and eventually acceptance.  The only positive way to deal with such challenges is to resolve yourself to being resolute, to embracing confidence in yourself and in your ability to rise above what is before you. The music opens with a  roiling drum solo that has a disrupting, staccato-like jaggedness to it. The piano and bass enter the ascending and descending lines that seem to emulate a person who is trying to gain their bearings after being disoriented. Abadey and Hébert create the landscape upon which Milne's piano work seems to be searching for stability. The trio brings the music to an apex of excitement before Hébert takes out his bow to beautifully punctuate the coda and then Abadey creates his own vortex of percussive excitement.

Kush Abadey

The trio gives the audience a treat with the standard, Billy Strayhorn's "Isfahan."  Milne's ability to expand on the theme with aplomb is on display. A lyrical musician of great depth, his piano sings the immediately recognizable theme. Hébert plays the foil with his astute walking that always seems to be adding some timely counterpoint ideas simultaneously. He keeps the ear from being able to  predict the next move. Hébert's pizzicato fluidity is impressive and Abadey adds his own fertile percussive ideas. These three working together is like a  testament to the making of creative music and the appreciative audience members are the grateful recipients.

Milne closes this set with McCoy Tyner's "Passion Dance" which was the opening tune from The re Mission. The repeating melodic line is identifiable and sets the stage for Milne's pianistic exploration. Hébert and Abadey maintain the initial  pace before the three move it up a level. This allows Milne's piano power to let loose in the modal mode. This trio continually urge each other on to new heights.

The set was a resounding success, even charming those in the audience who were new to Milne's music.  This is a special trio and if you can catch them before the end this tour at some of the future locations like Scottsdale, AZ or Santa Fe , NM than don't  hesitate. You will not be disappointed. 

Ben Wolfe, George Colligan and Aaron Kimmel Bring Swing, Melodicism and Edge to Portland's 1905 Jazz Club

George Colligan, Ben Wolfe and Aaron Kimmel at 1905 Jazz Club 

The musician/educator Ben Wolfe had a two night stand at Portland's 1905 Jazz Club this past weekend. Wolfe is a New York-based bassist and is on the faculty at the prestigious Julliard School of Music. He has been a prolific composer and band leader for several years, and its a real pleasure to see this swinging and exuberant bassist perform in person out here in the Pacific Northwest. 

Wolfe brought along his regular drummer, the talented Aaron Kimmel, and enlisted one of Portland's best, the progressive pianist George Colligan, to round out his trio. Wolfe's last two Resident Artists releases, Unjust from 2023 and The Understated, which was named part of Notes On Jazz Best of List for 2024, were both well received by the public and the critics. 

Wolfe's musical and recording history, has found him in productive associations with the crooner Harry Connick Jr., the pianist/vocalist Diana Krall and with leader/trumpeter Wynton Marsalis as a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Centers Band, to name just a few. His albums are almost exclusively comprised of self-composed material. 

Wolfe's playing has been once compared to “Mingus and Miles Davis meet Bartok and Bernard Herrmann” by NY Times Ben Ratliff. There is a certain sense that Wolfe deftly brings together some of the elements of swing with a lush melodicism in his music that retains its modernity and edge. To some degree, he accomplished this delicate balancing act by compositional acumen and by his astute choice of forward thinking musicians to present his music.  Albums like Unjust ,The Understated  and his PosiTone record The Whisperer from 2015, found Wolfe aligned with such progressive band mates as Nicholas Payton and Josh Evans on trumpet, Immanuel Wilkins, Stacy Dillard, and Nicole Glover on saxophones, Joel Ross on Vibes, and Orrin Evans and Sullivan Fortner on piano. Wolfe knows how to mine talent and uses their strengths to make his music more vibrant and accessible.

On this night, Wolfe, Colligan and Kimmel went through nine of the bassist's compositions, many currently untitled. The opener was unannounced, but was opened by a swinging bass line by Wolfe. This man can swing. Colligan keyed in on Wolfe's facially  animated bass lines and Kimmel's savvy percussive pulse, before breaking out with some exquisite pianistic lines that just gracefully dance across the keyboard. Always fluid, Colligan offered some chunky, block-chording, ala Red Garland, for emphasis. Kimmel was given a drum feature that demonstrated just how expressive a simple snare, a crash cymbal and a kick bass could provide in the right hands.

The second song was a 3/4 ballad that might have been Wolfe's "Love Is Near" and featured Ben's buoyant 3/4 bass and Colligan's gorgeous piano work.

Wolfe announced the next "Always Four," apparently a new song soon to be included on an upcoming album as yet to be named. This 4/4 burner featured a quick staccato pace that included quick-stops, accentuated by the trio in concurrent synchronicity. Colligan matched his fellow bandmates moves seamlessly and the trio managed to make it all seem telepathic.

The music continued with Wolfe labeling one piece as a "Waltz #2 for a nonet", a graceful waltz with Ben maintaining the flow and Colligan embellishing the music with surprising lines and gorgeous chords. Another loosely titled composition by Wolfe he jokingly titled  "Fast Quintet,'' again from his upcoming album, was a 8/8 paced cooker that had the bassist at his most facile.

"If Only" is a moving ballad originally released on Wolfe's The Whisperer from 2015.  Originally it featured the expressive Stacy Dillard on soprano saxophone. This time, Wolfe took the lead as the solo instrumentalist, beautifully rendering the ballad with only Kimmel's brush work accompanying. 

"Blue or Blueish," as Wolfe jokingly called the next number, was a Monk-like piece that featured Colligan at his most expressive.

"Masked Man," supposedly a song inspired by the sardonic, late comic Lenny Bruce, was originally released on the album Unjust, and had featured a quick pace. A horn section of Payton on trumpet and Glover on tenor made the piece crack. On this take at the 1905 stage, Wolfe set the punctuated bass line driving the pulse as Kimmel stabbed and jabbed at his kit. Colligan was the feature here. He added another Monk-like attack at times that had an inventive angularity to it. Lenny Tristano was another influence that came to my mind as Colligan seemed to be tapping the ether on this one. Wolfe had one of his own more substantial bass solo features of the evening. As a player Wolfe isn't flashy, but his countenance has a joyous patina when he plays, and the music resonates and absorbs that vibe he emanates. 

The set ended with a pleasant, softly played Bossa and a more aggressive piece, as yet unnamed, that continued to demonstrate the virtuosity of these fine musicians. The set ended with the audience applauding for the band, appreciating the opportunity to get a chance to experiencing such an excellent set of music. It is often believed that top talent jazz can only be truly experienced in musical meccas like NYC, LA, Boston and Nashville, but as this set of music proved, there is nothing stopping us from having top notch music right here in Portland. Thank you 1905 Jazz Club. Come out and support local jazz.