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Andy Clausen

Andy Clausen is a New York-based trombonist, composer, producer, and educator. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Clausen currently serves as Artistic Director for Jazz at New York Youth Symphony.

As a trombonist, Clausen maintains an active performance schedule in Jazz, Chamber Music, and Pop/Rock circles. He has performed or recorded with Bill Frisell, Wynton Marsalis, Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Frank Wess, Gerald Wilson, Kurt Elling, The After Midnight Orchestra, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Wayne Horvitz, Andrew D'angelo, John Zorn, The American Brass Quintet, Fleet Foxes, Big Thief, Feist, My Brightest Diamond, Patrick Watson, Josh Garells, and Landlady. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fischer Hall, Radio City Music Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, Red Rocks, The Kennedy Center, The Ravinia Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, The National Gallery of Art, SF Jazz, Caramoor, The Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, Panorama, Pitchfork Music Festival, Shaky Knees, Outsidelands, Bumbershoot, The Allen Room, Dizzy Club Coca Cola, The Blue Note, Birdland, 54 Below, The Stone, The Earshot Jazz Festival, The Vancouver Jazz Festival, PDX Jazz, Music In The Mountains, The Umbria Jazz Festival, Jazz A Vienne, and the Sound of The Dolomites Festival.

As a composer, Clausen’s works for small and large ensembles explore what it means to grow up in a 21st Century America, in which both artist and listener are expected to be equally versed in the music of Bach and Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong and Leonard Bernstein. By embracing these seemingly disparate traditions with passion, balance, organization, contemplation, and judgment, Clausen is rapidly creating a body of work that connects them with a sense of playful nostalgia. Although jazz is woven into the fabric of Clausen’s music, his projects reflect a belief that Jazz isn’t a "what" but a "how" – how to share the most honest emotions possible with fellow performers and audiences.

Clausen is a founding member of The Westerlies, an award winning new music chamber ensemble comprised of childhood friends from Seattle: Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands on trumpet, and Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch on trombone.

Formed in 2011, the self-described “accidental brass quartet” takes its name from the prevailing winds that travel from the West to the East. “Skilled interpreters who are also adept improvisers” (NPR’s Fresh Air), The Westerlies explore jazz, roots and chamber music influences to create the rarest of hybrids: music that is both "folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). Equally at home in concert halls and living rooms, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues and projects with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along.

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Album Review

Theo Bleckmann & The Westerlies: This Land

Read "This Land" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Given the state of the nation in 2021, it is no wonder that protest music has been springing up in all genres. This particular effort by vocalist Theo Bleckmann and the brass quartet the Westerlies mixes protest songs and hymns of the past with original compositions, to comment on various present-day problems. Issues touched on in these songs include war, bigotry, gun violence and economic inequality. Bleckmann's voice rings out as a powerful beacon supported by intricate quartet ...

5
Album Review

Theo Bleckmann & The Westerlies: This Land

Read "This Land" reviewed by John Chacona


Could This Land, from Theo Bleckmann & The Westerlies be the first great musical declaration of the Biden Era? If so, it's probably an accident. When they tracked This Land in August 2019, Bleckmann and the brass quartet entered the studio with a program of protest songs. But in degree and kind, they are worlds away from the howling fervor of Moor Mother or the rousing call to the barricades of Gordon Grdina's Resist (Irabbagast Records, 2020), to ...

5
Album Review

The Westerlies: Wherein Lies the Good

Read "Wherein Lies the Good" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


The dynamic and inventive brass quartet The Westerlies explores an eclectic array of pieces on its third release, the mesmerizing Wherein Lies the Good. Consisting of four jazz-leaning horn players, the ensemble, in addition to interpreting delightful originals, delves into the modern classical, art-rock and folk repertoires. The album opens with trombonist Andy Clausen's mellifluous “Robert Henry." A hypnotic and effervescent tune that Clausen wrote for his nephew, it flows from one member to another with shimmering lines ...

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Take Five With...

Take Five with Andy Clausen

Read "Take Five with Andy Clausen" reviewed by Andy Clausen


Meet Andy Clausen Andy Clausen is a New York-based trombonist, composer, and educator. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he currently serves as Artistic Director for Jazz at New York Youth Symphony. Clausen is also a founding member of The Westerlies, an award winning new music brass chamber ensemble. From Carnegie Hall to Coachella, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a ...

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Album Review

Andy Clausen: The Wishbone Suite

Read "The Wishbone Suite" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Nineteen year old trombonist Andy Clausen started his music studies at The Julliard School in the fall of 2010. He did not wait to finish his studies before releasing, in March of 2012, his debut CD, The Wishbone Suite. Apparently the music was in him and it had to be recorded.The music on The Wishbone Suite is, in Clausen's words, “a collection of simple melodies, themes and chord structures that chronicle a childish romance I had in the ...

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Recording

Debut Album by Seattle Trombonist/Composer Andy Clausen

Debut Album by Seattle Trombonist/Composer Andy Clausen

Source: Michael Ricci

Announcing the release of the debut album by The Andy Clausen Sextet

Streaming and avaibible for purchase and download at andyclausen.com

Trombonist and Composer Andy Clausen established his sextet in 2007 with fellow members of Seattle's award winning Roosevelt High School Jazz Band to serve as a testing ground for their original compositions. The six members of the Andy Clausen Sextet and guest vocalist Emma Staake represent many of the standouts to emerge from the Roosevelt Jazz Program in recent ...

“Sleek, dynamic large-group jazz, a whirl of dark-hued harmony and billowing rhythm… impressive.” – New York Times

“His skills belie his age.” – The Seattle Times

"Brilliant release...Clausen finds a way to fuse these disparate musicians and their seemingly ill-fitting instruments into an alluring, whimsical, and just- plain-cool mix of jazz, classical, and experimental music. Challenging music that doesn’t shy away from also being pretty." - eMusic

"Improvisational brushstrokes through elements of classical composition, frenzied syncopation, flashes of pop structure, and buoyant, melodic themes

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

This Land

Westerlies Records
2021

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Wherein Lies the Good

Self Produced
2020

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Shutter Volume I

Self Released
2015

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Wish The Children...

Songlines Recordings
2014

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The Wishbone Suite

Table and Chairs Music
2012

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Follow

Self Produced
0

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The Pursuit II

From: The Wishbone Suite
By Andy Clausen

Videos

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