Berne

Guitarist-composer David Torn, a longstanding ECM artist, has enjoyed a particularly fruitful 21st-century with the label, releasing two albums under his own name – the solo only sky and quartet disc prezens – in addition to producing records by Tim Berne and Michael Formanek. With Sun of Goldfinger, Torn returns in a trio alongside the alto saxophonist Berne and percussionist Ches Smith (a member of Berne’s Snakeoil band who made his ECM leader debut in 2016 with The Bell). The Torn/Berne/Smith trio, also dubbed Sun of Goldfinger, features alone on two of this album’s three intense tracks of 20-plus minutes; the vast sonic tapestries of “Eye Muddle” and “Soften the Blow” – each spontaneous group compositions – belie the fact that only a trio is weaving them, with live electronics by Torn and Smith expanding the aural envelope.

Tim Berne Paraphrase - Visitation Rites (1998) {Screwgun}
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© 1998 Screwgun Records | screwu 70002
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Visitation Rites is the debut of Paraphrase, a collaborative improvisational trio featuring Tim Berne on saxophones, Drew Gress on bass and drummer Tom Rainey. Recorded live in Berlin in 1996, Berne and company stomp, boomerang, flail and jump all over the place, musically, yet somehow it all seems to make sense. Berne's serpentine lines let him milk a motif for all it's worth before letting Rainey and Gress take it somewhere else. Although their flights of collective improvisation are rather lengthy, they maintain a sense of cohesiveness throughout this challenging music. Their musical tapestry is vivid, rendering emotional peaks along with moments of whimsy.

Recorded live at The Stone in New York City on a sweltering July evening in 2009, The Veil is the debut of BB&C (also known as The Sons of Champignon), an acronym for alto saxophonist Tim Berne, drummer Jim Black and guitarist Nels Cline—veteran improvisers with a long history of collaboration. Cline first recorded with Berne in the early '80s, while Black was a member of Berne's revered '90s era Bloodcount quartet. Unfolding as a single uninterrupted long-form improvisation and encore, the date's indexing points and song-titles were created after the fact for convenience. Despite having no predetermined agenda or rehearsal, the set flows as seamlessly as if it were pre-composed—such is the intuitive accord of these three veterans.

The second, eponymous album from saxophonist-composer Tim Berne’s acoustic quartet Snakeoil. Over four years together, Berne and his band of New York standouts – pianist Matt Mitchell, clarinetist Oscar Noriega and drummer/percussionist Ches Smith – have developed a rapport that sounds like communal telepathy. The studio outcome is a marvel of kinetic action, the six pieces of Shadow Man making for music as visceral as it is cerebral; there is roller coaster dynamism and aching lyricism, roiling counterpoint and intriguing harmony, glinting detail and ensemble impact. The album is a dizzying experience for the senses, breathtaking in its sheer imaginative verve.

This 1993 release for the Italian Soul Note label signifies one of those lightly marketed gems that may have gotten lost in the grand mix of modern jazz-style fare. Here, three of the most prominent figures in the area of new jazz coalesce for a shrewdly focused and compactly organized excursion. And while many folks recognize Tim Berne for his alto saxophone work, the artist performs on baritone sax throughout many of these pieces…

After compelling contributions to ECM discs by David Torn and Michael Formanek, here is Tim Berne’s first leader date for the label. “Snakeoil” introduces a fascinating ensemble, a “chamber-like group” in Berne’s words, albeit one that packs some power. Tim’s tough alto is heard with Oscar Noriega’s earthy clarinets, Matt Mitchell’s cryptic piano, and Ches Smith’s tone-conscious drums, tympani, gongs and congas. Berne: “I'd decided on this very transparent instrumentation to try and avoid obvious stylistic references and to focus the listener on the musical ideas being presented.”