In what will be very welcome news for mandolin aficionados, virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Andy Statman is poised to release his first mandolin recording in more than ten years. East Flatbush Blues is due for release in the near future, and there is an email notification link on Andy’s web site for anyone who would like to receive a note when the CD is shipping.
Statman was a product of the folk and acoustic music flowering in the 1960s, coming of age in the active cultural environment of the Greenwich Village musical scene. He was raised in a family of professional musicians and cantors, and became fascinated in his teens with the sounds of bluegrass music – and the mandolin. A chance meeting with David Grisman turned into a opportunity for intense instruction on the instrument, and Grisman quickly recognized that he had a true prodigy on his hands.
Andy made a number of recordings with progressive New York area acoustic groups in the 1970s, including jaw dropping solos on projects for Tony Trischka and Russ Barrenburg which brought him to the attention of critics and fellow mandolinists alike. In recent years, Statman has dedicated more and more of his professional life to his other musical love, traditional klezmer music, which he performs brilliantly on the clarinet. Most of his recordings and performances have had that focus of late, and it is terrific news that he is offering his mandolin music again after so many years.
You can preview a few audio snippets from the new CD on Andy’s web site.
