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by Ian Patterson ★★★★ Excerpt: What effect does solitude have on a person? How can one grow as a result of being alone? These questions provoke a musical response from saxophonist, Andrew Rathbun, though the roots of his inspiration for this music lie over forty years...

Andrew featured in the February 2011 edition of Downbeat.

Andrew Rathbun's CD The Idea of North was inspired by the late classical pianist Glenn Gould's radio documentary of the same name, though the latter debuted back in 1967 (after Gould had retired from public performing). Rathbun, a fellow Canadian, used the diversity...

by Scott Yanow Tenor and soprano-saxophonist Andrew Rathbun on Where We Are Now explores postbop jazz, which is music that falls into the large area of being more advanced than hard bop but not quite as free as avant-garde jazz. Rathbun, whose soprano sound (but not...

by Peter Hum Excerpt: Rathbun's CD, Where We Are Now, features a quintet tackling Rathbun's meaty, moody compositions. Guitarist Nate Radley, a notable post-Kurt Rosenwinkel player, is more a front-line member than rhythm-section man on the disc. Pianist George...

by Ray Comiskey ★★★★ The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings calls Rathbun a rising star and, on this evidence, that s spot on. The Canadian saxophonist/ composer is a gifted performer who writes challenging and complex pieces; their main raison d' etre may be harmonic,...

by Mark Corroto Excerpt: It is quite insouciant to categorize jazz musicians as either composers or players. But jazz devotees sometimes typecast artists as writers or interpreters of music. With a mature talent such as composer/saxophonist Andrew Rathbun,...

Poetry has played a significant part in the oeuvre of Andrew Rathbun, and this recording is no exception. In his past work, the poetry has on more than one occasion been a spoken accompaniment to the music (& vice-versa). Here (as is often the case on planet Earth...