For more than 30 years, two-time Juno Award winning pianist/composer Andy Milne hasdemonstrated boundless versatility, collaborating with dancers, film makers, authors, visualartists, poets and musicians spanning multiple genres. With UNISON Milne returns to hisfirst love, exploring the intimacy of the piano trio. The synchronistic relationship Milne enjoyswith his bandmates represents the complimentary threads within the fabric of Milne’s pianotrio philosophy -- the intersection of texture and groove. Unison’s 2024 Sunnyside Recordsrelease “Time Will Tell” was nominated for a 2025 Juno Award and was included on numerous“best of 2024” lists. Their 2020 debut, “The reMission” [Sunnyside Records] won the 2021JUNO Award for Jazz Album of the Year: Group and received widespread media praise.The emotionally complex album that came out of that session owes much to thesingle-minded focus of the three players as they moved fluently through Milne’sdynamic compositions. Downbeat Magazine
A former student of Oscar Peterson, Milne has collaborated with a range of artists includingRalph Alessi, Ravi Coltrane, Andrew Cyrille, Sekou Sundiata, Avery Brooks, Bruce Cockburn,and Cassandra Wilson. During his early career in the 1990s, he was at the center of the M-BASE Collective as a core member of saxophonist Steve Coleman’s bands and became adistinct and respected voice at the heart of New York’s creative jazz scene. Milne hasreleased 12 recordings as a leader or co-leader, and is actively composing for orchestra,chamber ensembles, and scoring for film and television. His credits include two films forEmmy Award winning director Michèle Stephenson, as well as seven films by acclaimedactor/director William Shatner. In 2024 Milne premiered a piano quintet with the IsidoreString Quartet, commissioned by the Banff International String Quartet Competition. He isa Yamaha Artist and sought-after educator, currently a full-time assistant professor of musicat The University of Michigan.
John Hébert, originally from New Orleans, has been a highly sought-after New York bassistsince the mid-1990s. A former student of Rufus Reid, Hébert has collaborated extensivelywith pianists Fred Hersch and Andrew Hill, appearing on celebrated recordings from eachpianist. He has also performed with Lee Konitz, Paul Bley, John Abercrombie, KennyWheeler, Paul Motian, Uri Caine, Bill Stewart, Mary Halvorson, Tomasz Stanko, DavidLiebman, and Toots Thielemans, among many others. An accomplished bandleader, Hébert’s2015 Sunnyside release with his quartet Rambling Confessions -- his quartet featuring Milne-- received critical acclaim, including 4.5 stars from Downbeat. Over the past decade, hehas been named multiple times as a “Rising Star Acoustic Bassist” in Downbeat’s Critics Polland has received multiple Grammy nominations.
Drummer Kush Abadey has cultivated an eclectic and fast-moving career, known for hisversatility across jazz, rock, and electronica. At age 16, he joined the band of GrammyAward-winning trumpeter Wallace Roney, and has since performed with leading artistsincluding Ravi Coltrane, Chris Potter, Melissa Aldana, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Ethan Iverson,Wayne Krantz, Nicholas Payton, Tomasz Stanko, Gilad Hekselman, Seamus Blake, Dee DeeBridgewater, Frank Lacy, Wynton Marsalis, and Buster Williams.
