Jazz Articles

Sun of Goldfinger: Congratulations to You

by Mike Jurkovic
October 2, 2020

As if Tim Berne were a pied piper bearing the eleventh hour of democracy solely on his back, on the fourteen-minute opener “Bat Tears" (recorded in 2010) his rebel alto and now-retired baritone saxophones presciently pierce the abhorrent now under which we all labor, with a viscerally ecstatic, David Torn-Dopplered, sweeping, urgency which seizes the senses with all the abstract subtlety of a meat hook. Now that is a boatload to take in, but so is the concept ...

Paraphrase: Please Advise

by Dan McClenaghan
March 5, 2018

Saxophonist Tim Berne has taken his Snakeoil group to the top, with four excellent CD releases on ECM Records, including 2017's Incidentals. The ECM label is considered by many to be the gold star standard in terms of jazz--though the word “jazz" is way too confining to describe the music in their extensive catalog. That level of success for Berne and his bands could overshadow his work on his own label, Screwgun Records, where his releases include offerings by his ...

Matt Mitchell: Forage

by Dan McClenaghan
February 16, 2017

Alto saxophonist Tim Berne could have been called, at the dawn of the new millennium, the American artist least likely to join the ECM Records roster. The thought here was that Berne's relentless momentum and frequent agitation and flat out wild man brazenness wouldn't fit in well enough with the European impressionism/Nordic cool approach (a definite simplification of the way ECM rolls) to attract the attention of ECM Record's head Manfred Eicher. Then Berne appeared on guitarist David Torn's Prezens ...

Tim Berne's Bloodcount: Seconds

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
February 9, 2008

Nearly ten years after their last performance, saxophonist Tim Berne has resuscitated archival recordings of his influential group Bloodcount. The three-disc Seconds includes two concerts from 1997 and a documentary DVD from 1994. Hardly leftovers, the package boasts previously unavailable original compositions and the type of bristling performances that forged the band's reputation. With songs rarely shorter than eleven minutes and several stretching to fifty, Bloodcount was a vehicle for Berne's extended compositions. The labyrinthine pieces tack ...

Tim Berne's Bloodcount: Seconds

by John Kelman
October 31, 2007

Tim Berne's Bloodcount Seconds Screwgun Records 2007

While documentation of saxophonist/composer Tim Berne's remarkable Bloodcount has been most widely available on Lowlife, Poisoned Minds and Memory Select--all culled from four nights in Paris in 1994, released that year on JMT and ultimately reissued in remastered form by Winter & Winter--the intrepid Berne did regroup the band subsequently, releasing live recordings from 1996 and 1997 tours of Europe and the United ...

Big Satan: Livein Cognito

by John Kelman
December 28, 2006

Some bands are best experienced live. There's simply no denying the energy and element of surprise that occurs when playing in front of an audience. In recent years, advances in technology and a corresponding reduction in costs have closed the gap between studio and concert recordings to the point where an increasing number of artists now favor live recordings--some, like pianist Keith Jarrett, exclusively so. Livein Cognito isn't Big Satan's first live recording, but given that this trio has convened ...

Paraphrase: Pre-Emptive Denial

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
May 24, 2006

Without a compositional safety net, freely improvising musicians must listen deeply and react quickly to avoid excess repetition or meandering. Executed with precision, the visceral immediacy of free improv can be exhilarating, as is the case on Pre-Emptive Denial, the third release by Paraphrase, saxophonist Tim Berne's improvising trio with drummer Tom Rainey and bassist Drew Gress. Like their previous CDs, this was serendipitously recorded live by an enterprising audience member; the band had not intended to ...

Paraphrase: Pre-Emptive Denial

by Dan McClenaghan
December 24, 2005

Alto saxophonist Tim Berne describes himself as a perfectionist, a word that has “control" lurking just under its skin. So how does someone who's into control get comfortable going into a situation of spontaneous composition, where the unpredictable is the game plan?Paraphrase, with drummer Tom Rainey, bassist Drew Gress, and Berne, got togther to perform live, and outside the confines of the more mapped out territory you hear on some of Berne's discs under his own name. Pre-Emptive ...

Paraphrase: Pre-Emptive Denial

by John Kelman
November 8, 2005

What do you do for a release when your normal modus operandi is to play within a context of complex composed material? In the case of saxophonist Tim Berne, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer Tom Rainey, the answer is to periodically convene a group called Paraphrase, whose purpose in life is to improvise without a safety net or advance planning. Paraphrase may not be a regular occurrence, but the three have played together so often--especially Berne and Rainey, who have ...

Hardcell: Feign

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
October 17, 2005

Like a double helix of alto saxophone and piano, no matter how far Tim Berne and Craig Taborn twist and diverge their improvisations, they are always connected, intersecting with composed passages and enveloped in the swimming rhythms of drummer Tom Rainey. Feign further explores the acoustic sensibility tested on half of last year's Hard Cell Live, with Taborn exclusively playing piano. The acoustic instrument's clarity highlights the synchronization between pianist and saxophonist, sometimes lost in the maelstrom of electric keyboard ...