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Andrew Bishop is an active composer, improviser, saxophonist, and
clarinetist in highly diversified musical idioms. He earned five degrees
in music including a Doctor of Musical Arts (Composition) and two Master
of Music degrees (Composition and Improvisation) from the University of
Michigan along with two Bachelor of Music degrees from Wichita State
University (Theory-Composition and Saxophone). He studied composition
with William Albright, William Bolcom, Evan Chambers, Michael Daugherty,
and Walter Mays; jazz and improvised music with Jerry Bergonzi, Tom
Fowler, Jimmy Guiffre, Dave Liebman, Roscoe Mitchell, Craig Owens, Ellen
Rowe, Ed Sarath, and Reggie Workman; and saxophone with Donald Sinta and
Jean Lansing. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Music Theory,
History, Composition, and Jazz at Albion College and received the Arthur
Andersen New Professor of the Year Award in 2002.
He has received over 20 commissions from professional organizations
and universities, numerous residencies, and recognition and awards from
the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), The
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Hewlett-Melon Foundation, and a
nomination from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His orchestral
composition "Crooning" was recorded by the Albany Symphony Orchestra on
Two American Piano Concertos (Albany Records) featuring pianists Ursula
Oppens and Ian Hobson. He has also completed composition and arranging
projects for Matt Wilson, Steve Houghton, and is currently working on a
chamber music project for saxophonist Dave Liebman. Of his diverse
abilities, Dave Lynch of All Music Guide writes: "A composer of
contemporary orchestral and chamber music, Bishop combines a jazzman's
fire and flow with a rigorous compositional sensibility, resulting in a
potent and highly satisfying blend."
As a composer and improviser Bishop’s music seeks to find the balance
of these two forms of expression. His debut recording as a leader, Time
and Imaginary Time (Envoi Recordings)—with drummer Gerald Cleaver and
bassist Tim Flood—derives its title and inspiration from the physics
principles and uses a melodic fragment as an agent of variation to bind
the divergent works. Donald Elfman of All About Jazz-New York writes:
"This recording is a free-form, freewheeling delight. It's new music
from a piano-less group, but the spirit is so playful, the soundscapes
are so simple and rich, and the playing is so accomplished and together,
that this dense and complicated_ new music falls richly and beautifully
on the ears." Andrew Bishop’s Hank Williams Project (Envoi Recordings)
draws on Bishop’s Midwestern roots with works that range from original
compositions that elicit the moods and textures of country music and the
lonesome landscapes of the great plains; and re-compositions and
arrangements of Williams’ music. W. Kim Heron of the Detroit Metro Times
gave it an “A+” writing: "Hear that lonesome postmodern whippoorwill?
Bishop makes it sound utterly natural to take liberties with the bard of
the country highway. Bishop alternately plays Williams tunes (and
originals inspired by him) for laughs and for angst; he jazzes things up
and slows them down to Williams-haunted dirges."
As a performer, Bishop in the words of Nate Chinen of the New York
Times is “happily pinballed between the supposed poles of tradition and
experimentation.” He has performed with Gerri Allen, Reid Anderson, Greg
Bendian, Karl Berger, Sandip Burman, Kenny Burrell, Eugene Chadbourne,
Ray Charles, Gerald Cleaver, Drew Gress, Jerry Hahn, John Lindberg,
Chris Lightcap, The Either Orchestra, Matt Maneri, The Manhattan
Transfer, Tony Malaby, Ben Monder, Jeremy Pelt, Hank Roberts, Jacob
Sacks, Craig Taborn, Clark Terry, Ben Waltzer, Matt Wilson, and John
Zorn among others. He leads a number of his own groups including his
trio Bishop/Cleaver/Flood and the avant-Americana/Chamber ensemble The
Hank Williams Project. His current associations as a sideman included
Gerald Cleaver's Violet Hour, The Ellen Rowe Quartet, the Tad Weed
Freedom Ensemble, and Bottomed Out with guitarist and composer Ryan
Mackstaller. Bishop has recorded over 30 compact discs as a sideman and
his performance with the Ellen Rowe Quartet at the 2003 San Jose Jazz
Festival was broadcasted on NPR's Jazzset with Dee Dee Bridgewater.
