Jazz Articles about Steven Bernstein

Millenial Territory Orchestra: We Are MTO

by Tom Greenland
January 22, 2009

The Millennial Territory Orchestra, the lovechild of leader/arranger/slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein, is back with its sophomore release, We Are MTO, a typically boisterous romp through middle-Americana. Starring the same dramatis personae as its debut, the band is an unwieldy cast of character actors, strong individualists all capable of stealing the scene on any given song. Inspired by his researches for the film Kansas City, Bernstein continues to foment and signify on the sound of early '20s jazz ...

Steven Bernstein: Diaspora Suite

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 5, 2009

Racconta Steven Bernstein, nelle note di copertina di questo Diaspora Suite [nuova tappa di un percorso che ha già prodotto tre splendidi e eterogenei dischi a partire dalla tradizione cantoriale: Diaspora Soul, Diaspora Blues e Diaspora Hollywood], dell'insistenza di John Zorn affinchè il nuovo progetto contenesse tutto materiale originale. Questo desiderio, unito alla reunion - in ricordo di Robert Altman - della band con cui aveva registrato la colonna sonora per il film Kansas City, ha ispirato il trombettista e ...

Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra: We Are MTO

by Mark Corroto
November 17, 2008

Jazz is fun again. Yes, in the hands of a showman like Steven Bernstein it can be a ball. Whether he is fronting his band Sexmob, playing sideman to Bobby Previte, or arranging tracks for Mario Pavone, he means to entertain us. And entertainment as in “that's show biz folks." Maybe it was his early work with John Lurie's Lounge Lizards or his experience researching regional jazz bands as the musical director for Robert Altman's film Kansas ...

Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra: We Are MTO

by Troy Collins
November 8, 2008

From his career-defining work on the score to Robert Altman's film Kansas City to his recent arrangements for producer Hal Wilner's various projects, trumpeter Steven Bernstein has ascended from the ranks of the underground to attain a level of recognition that few musicians of his caliber receive.

Bernstein's rough and tumble Sex Mob quartet has been tearing down musical boundaries for well over a decade, but it is his large ensemble, the Millennial Territory Orchestra (MTO), that offers ...

Steven Bernstein: Diaspora Suite

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
March 11, 2008

Diaspora Suite is the fourth installment of trumpeter Steven Bernstein's Diaspora series, which explores the connections between Jewish melodic traditions and contemporary styles. And it may be the most personal. The six-hour session was recorded in Oakland, California--Bernstein's hometown--and included musicians he's played with since grade school: multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum, trombonist Jeff Cressman and drummer Josh Jones. The nonet is completed with additional drummer Scott Amendola, electric bassist Devin Hoff, clarinetist Ben Goldberg and the twin guitars of Nels Cline ...

Steven Bernstein: Diaspora Suite

by Troy Collins
February 18, 2008

Diaspora Suite is trumpeter and bandleader Steven Bernstein's fourth recording (and first of all original material) in a series dedicated to radical reinterpretations of traditional Yiddish melodies. After a memorial for the late director Robert Altman (Bernstein scored Altman's Kansas City), he reflected on a quote from Altman, “Create an event and shoot it like you have no control over it."

Inspired by Altman's words, Bernstein recruited a group of long time associates in the Bay area for ...

Steven Bernstein: Diaspora Suite

by John Kelman
February 8, 2008

Leaving behind the west coast cool of 2004's Diaspora Hollywood, Steven Bernstein travels 350 miles north along the California coast to Oakland for the edgier, left coast avant of Diaspora Suite. It's the freest, most aggressive disc in the trumpeter's Diaspora series, which began with 1999's Diaspora Soul and continued with 2002's Diaspora Blues, all four discs a part of John Zorn's Radical Jewish Culture on Tzadik.

Every Diaspora disc has had its own premise, and ...