Andy Biskin Quartet.(BRIEFLY NOTED)(Early American: The Melodies of Stephen Foster)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)

Andy Biskin Quartet. Early American: The Melodies of Stephen Foster. Strudelmedia SMCD-009, 2006.

This strange and generally quite lovely album came about as the result of clarinetist Andy Biskin's newfound fascination with the melodies of nineteenth-century songwriter Stephen Foster, composer of such standard American songs as "Oh! Susannah" and "Beautiful Dreamer." These arrangements of Foster's songs were written for Biskin's quartet, itself an unusual ensemble consisting of clarinet, guitar, trombone, and drums, and are alternated here with original compositions. Biskin's settings of both Foster's and his own melodies tend to be rather fractured and at times almost spiky, though he is usually a bit gentler with Foster's material than his own. There are few explicit connections between his original compositions and his versions of the Foster ...