Andy Statman @ Barbès
February 12th, 2007 by WaS
Saturday night I had the opportunity to see one of the great virtuoso musicians of our time, up close and personal. Andy Statman performed at Barbès in Park Slope. To appreciate how good the show was, it’s important to understand how special of a venue Barbès is to see live music. The bar is on the ground level of a brownstone-type building. Up front there is a long, narrow bar area. Halfway to the back of the room is a wall with a window and a door that divides it from the performance space. The performance area is small, maybe fitting 75-100 people at the most, with half standing and half sitting up front. Live music at Barbès has the informal feeling of getting a private concert in someone’s living room. It’s what I imagine the jazz scene used to be like back in the hay day - incredible musicians performing in small spaces for a small cover charge.
Andy Statman is an orthodox Jew from Brooklyn who studied under the mandolin player David Grisman. He is a master of both the mandolin and the clarinet. He arrived with a drummer, upright bass player, and a burly orthodox Jewish man with a big furry hat who disappeared for the show, but reappeared again at the end to help pack up the equipment (roadie?).
The first half of the show featured Andy on the clarinet. 
He opened with an improvisational piece. His technique is original - a sort of combination of klezmer and jazz. The first piece ventured into abstract, almost avant-garde territory. Every so often Andy belted out a klezmer-sounding riff and then would head back to outer space. There were at least 4 climaxes and I thought the song was about to end 3 or 4 times. While I appreciated the virtuosity on display, I found my attention drifting. Amazing piece but not for everyone. He followed up with a handful more tunes on the clarinet – along the same vein but a bit more structured. These were phenomenal, each one showcasing his amazing musicianship. For the last clarinet piece he busted out a traditional klezmer medley which was by far the best klezmer I’ve heard. It was hard to believe at times that he was only being accompanied by drums and an upright bass. It was also hard to believe that I was witnessing some of the best live music I’ve seen, 10 feet in front of me.
The second half featured Andy on mandolin and it was mostly his own twist on bluegrass music - not too dissimilar from the style of Dave Grisman. The highlight for me their rendition of the old folk song “Turkey in the Straw” which was mindblowing. They finished up around 12:30 and it was an incredible night of music. I will definitely be going back to Barbès to see him perform again.