The Energy & Ecstasy of Tim Berne

Tim Berne's great double album, The Sublime and Science Fiction Live, is one of those pieces of music that sat on my iPod for a long time before I managed to listen to all of it.  I just couldn't quite hear it.  Mr. Berne ought not to consider that an insult.  The same thing happened when I first listened to Brahms' First Piano Concerto, a piece of music I later came to deeply love. 

I am not calling Berne Brahms just yet, but there is definitely a modern classical element to his compositions.  A lot of his music earns the Science Friction title, as if a bebop box set had been captured and dissected by an extra-terrestrial quartet.  Okay, but there's power in that there saucer. 

I have been playing 'The Shell Game' from the above named recording, and right now it is sporting a five star approval.  Here is the lineup from Discogs:

• Drums – Tom Rainey
• Guitar [Electric] – Marc Ducret
• Piano [Rhodes], Computer [Laptop], Organ [Virtual] – Craig Taborn
• Saxophone [Alto] – Tim Berne

I shelled out for another Berne Album, The Shell Game. Amazon is only charging about four bucks for it.  I note that Matthew Ship is listed as a producer.  Here is the trio:

• Berne on alto, 
• Craig Taborn on keyboards and sci-fi, and 
• Tom Rainey on drums.  

Wow do I like that number.  Like a lot of Berne's music, it reminds me of Ken Vandermark and especially of the DKV Trio recordings.  It is avant garde in structure, a linear melody line that never quite closes.  But it builds in emotional intensity the way the best DKV compositions do: contradicting the commonplace that what goes up must come down.  This album is superb.  Buy it.  I did. 

Jason Crane has an interview with Tim Berne on his marvelous podcast show The Jazz Session.  I haven't listened to it yet, but that's on the agenda for this weekend.  I find myself enjoying an embarrassment of riches where jazz is concerned.  Check out Jason's page.  Tell'im Blanchard sent ya.

More Vandermark

My current passion is the DKV Trio: Hamid Drake on drums; Kent Kessler on bass; and Ken Vandermark on reeds.  DKV Trio discs are not easy to come by.  The eMusic folks have never heard of em, and there is nothing on Amazon.  I was able to order a couple directly from the label: Okka Disc.  They arrived by mail in less than four days. 

Trigonometry is a two disc set documenting a live performance in Rochester, New York and Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Although the discs are broken up by titled "index points", the liner notes inform us that each performance is really one long stream of music.  It works pretty much the same.  I wouldn't rank this quite as high as the Live at Chicago and Wels disc I reviewed recently, but it is superb anyway.  A lot of the music is abstract, as one would expect, but this morning when I listened to the first twenty minute cut I found myself slapping my knees and groovin down to the bedrock.  This is free jazz with a feelin. 

DKV Trio/Fred Anderson adds a tenor sax to make one mean quartet.  It is, frankly, more accessible than some of the stuff on the Trig disc.  It is very solid free jazz. 

I added a couple cuts from Trigonometry and one from the Fred Anderson disc to my Live365 page.  I also added a cut from the Vandermark 5 album, Elements of Style. 

DKV Trio Live at Wels & Chicago

Holy smoking reeds, Batman!  I didn't get around to listening to the second half of the two disc set: DKV Trio Live at Wels & Chicago until tonight.  As mentioned in the previous post, DKV is Hamid Drake on percussion, Kent Kessler on bass, and Ken Vandermark on reeds.  I read somewhere that Vandermark is the greatest living jazz horn player.  After listening to "Blues for Tomorrow", I can no longer dismiss that as hyperbole.  The power of Vandermark's bluesy solo is simply breathtaking.  He got a hold on my heart and squeezing it for nearly twenty minutes.  Pretty much the same goes for the other two tracks on the second disc. 

I uploaded the cut to my Live365 station.  I think you can order the disc from Okkadisk.  It seems to me a crime that no DKV recordings are available from eMusic or Amazon.  I do not understand why.  You'll have to wait for it to come around on my station, and there is almost nine hours of music on it now.  Take my word for it and order the recording from Okkadisk.  They are only asking 15 bucks.  Meanwhile, here is a clip from YouTube