Jazz Articles about Steven Bernstein

like 137

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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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Steven Bernstein: Big Four Live & The Harlem Experiment

by Kurt Gottschalk
October 6, 2007

Big Four (Nagl, Bernstein, Akchote, Jones) Big Four Live hatHUT 2007 Various Artists The Harlem Experiment Ropeadope 2007

Retro playing is always a bit of a gambit. Musicians often in the act of recreation lose the sense of creation. Whatever his secret is, trumpeter Steven Bernstein has always been able to ...

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Steven Bernstein: Proud Member of the Pre-Computer Absorption Generation

by Paul Olson
November 20, 2006

Trumpeter/composer/arranger Steven Bernstein may be the ultimate Downtown jazz personality. Certainly, he's one of the most ubiquitous and hard-working since he began playing in New York in the 1980s after relocating from California. In addition to playing with, well, everyone, he was a member of the 1990s edition of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards and a co-leader of the 1990s trio Spanish Fly. Meeting producer/impresario Hal Willner (who produced the first Spanish Fly album) led to a long association that's continued ...

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Steven Bernstein: Sexotica and Millennial Territory Orchestra Volume 1

by Tom Greenland
September 4, 2006

Sex Mob Sexotica Thirsty Ear 2006 Steven Bernstein's Millenial Territory Orchestra MTO Volume 1 Sunnyside 2006

Slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein knows what the people want: groove, bluesy soul, familiar tunes and humor - all in evidence on his two latest releases. Sexotica, Sex Mob's sixth release, continues a trajectory towards original ...

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Steven Bernstein's Millenial Territory Orchestra: MTO Volume 1

by John Kelman
August 10, 2006

It's hard to believe that someone with Steven Bernstein's encyclopaedic musical knowledge has left any stones unturned. Recruited by filmmaker Robert Altman as a musical consultant for Kansas City, the veteran trumpeter from the downtown New York scene became fascinated with the music of the late teens and '20s, when the language of jazz was still being formed. So much so that he turned the experience into an ongoing musical project that echoes the music of bands that toured territories ...