Andy Statman is known both for his clarinet and mandolin playing, and he is equally adept at both. Sometimes his two worlds collide, but
East Flatbush Blues finds him sticking to his strings, while the simultaneously recorded
Awakening from Above is meant to showcase
Statman's clarinet work. He's a restless performer with deep roots in
Americana as well as various strains of
world music (particularly
klezmer), but this one's all about the former, skipping from
bluegrass to
blues to
traditional mountain music (with more than a bit of a New York touch, hence the title, which reflects on
Statman's 1979
Flatbush Waltz) with ease.
Statman works here with bassist
Jim Whitney and drummer
Larry Eagle, and there is plenty of room for them to improvise --
Whitney, in particular, sets off on a number of well thought-out solos. But mainly it's about
Statman's virtuosity -- from the first bars of the opening cover of
Bill Monroe's
"Rawhide," in which
Statman reels off lightning licks on his axe, the focus is primarily on his fingers.
Statman offers his takes on such
standards as
"Golden Slippers" and
"Arkansas Traveler," but it's his original compositions, among them the earthy title track and the spare
"Roots Waltz," that prove the most impressive on the disc.
Statman does break out the clarinet for a ten-minute tour de force reconfiguration of the trad
"Old Joe Clark" that heads into some fairly
psychedelic avant-garde territory, but the track seems out of place on this otherwise unadorned recording. ~ Jeff Tamarkin
