Tim Berne

Tim Berne stands out as an alto and baritone saxophonist who also composes, leads ensembles, and runs his own label, bringing a distinctive voice that unifies an array of projects through the consistent blend of carefully scored passages and spontaneous improvisation. His pair of Columbia releases during the 1980s featured the cult classic Fulton Street Maul. Across the span from 1988 to 1995 he produced nine albums for Stefan Winter’s JMT imprint, among them the two Live in Paris sets by his avant-fusion outfit Bloodcount. In 1996 he launched Screwgun Records, which became the home for Bloodcount material plus further endeavors such as Hard Cell, Paraphrase, and Big Satan alongside Marc Ducret. ECM signed him in 2012, at which point he introduced the debut recording of his fresh ensemble Snakeoil. From 2012 through 2017 that ensemble placed four albums with ECM, one of them being the 2013 release Shadow Man. Numerous creative improvisers have drawn inspiration from Berne, and his command of industry mechanics has allowed him to follow an unyielding artistic course.

Born in Syracuse, New York in 1954, Berne acquired his initial alto saxophone during his time at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. Although drawn to R&B and Motown, he remained largely detached from jazz until encountering Julius Hemphill’s Dogon A.D. The record’s demonstration of R&B-infused soulfulness within an exploratory jazz setting prompted an immediate response, leading Berne to New York City where he sought out the saxophonist and secured lessons. Their connection deepened into a mentor-apprentice dynamic. Berne handled logistics for Hemphill’s sporadic concerts while receiving both supportive guidance and instruction on independent operation. Hemphill, who established the World Saxophone Quartet and stood as a central presence in the 1970s New York loft jazz community, passed away in 1995 yet left a lasting mark on creative music; Berne continues to acknowledge him as an ongoing influence.

Berne inaugurated his first label, Empire, in 1979 and issued four albums during the ensuing four years. Those sessions involved players already or soon to become prominent in creative jazz, among them Paul Motian, John Carter, Olu Dara, Vinny Golia, Alex Cline, Nels Cline, and Ed Schuller. Giovanni Bonandrini of the Italian Soul Note label took notice and released The Ancestors in 1983 and Mutant Variations in 1984. Motian and Schuller returned for these dates, which also introduced trumpeter Herb Robertson into Berne’s circle; the two first connected at a 1981 loft session, after which Robertson participated in many subsequent and widely regarded recordings. Berne regards Mutant Variations as the initial project for which he tailored compositions to the specific musicians involved, rather than writing without foreknowledge of personnel.

Following six leader dates, Berne secured a Columbia contract that yielded Fulton Street Maul in 1987 and Sanctified Dreams in 1988. The earlier album incorporated cellist Hank Roberts and then-ECM guitarist Bill Frisell alongside Berne and drummer Alex Cline. Sanctified Dreams assembled a larger group once more featuring Roberts and Robertson, together with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Joey Baron. This quintet enabled some of Berne’s most intricate and concentrated work up to that point, its fluctuating rhythms, angular melodies, and textural focus establishing a trajectory he would pursue further on later recordings.

Columbia, not known as an avant-garde stronghold, issued only those two albums before the association ended. German producer Stefan Winter then brought Berne to JMT, granting him latitude from 1989 to 1995 for several ambitious undertakings. The results encompassed two recordings by the collaborative trio Miniature with Roberts and Baron, Fractured Fairy Tales as Berne’s debut JMT leader session, and the Pace Yourself and Nice View albums by Tim Berne’s Caos Totale. Released in 1991 and 1993, the Caos Totale projects presented an expanded lineup of Berne with Robertson, Dresser, trombonist Steve Swell, drummer Bobby Previte, and guitarist Marc Ducret, the second also adding British musician Django Bates on keyboards and E-flat peck horn. These sessions display a confident Berne with a recognizable saxophone approach and a compositional method shifting toward expansive forms of remarkable breadth. JMT also put out the 1993 tribute Diminutive Mysteries (Mostly Hemphill), issued two years before Hemphill succumbed to a heart condition; that the saxophonist responded positively to the homage continues to gratify Berne.

A fresh chapter opened with the creation of a significant new band and another label. Berne participated in bassist Michael Formanek’s 1991 session for Extended Animation, issued the next year on Enja. The following year the pair reconvened with drummer Jeff Hirshfield from that ensemble, resulting in the 1993 Soul Note release Loose Cannon that highlighted their compatible reeds-and-bass partnership. Berne then formed his own trio with Formanek on bass and recruited drummer Jim Black, recently arrived in New York from Boston. Deciding a quartet better suited his composing impulses, he followed Black’s suggestion and added tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Speed, likewise originally from Seattle and Boston-trained. The new working group was named Bloodcount. Still contracted to JMT, the quartet traveled to Paris in September 1994, joined by guitarist Ducret for four nights of live recording. Issued in 1995 as a JMT trilogy, the performances feature extended individual and collective improvisations that gradually return to unison frameworks carrying Berne’s distinctive R&B inflection; the long-form pieces, now reaching thirty to fifty minutes, build mounting tension that resolves at times in deliberately restrained rather than climactic fashion.

The Paris trilogy earned substantial praise, yet JMT soon folded after Polygram acquired it and ceased operations, removing the recordings from circulation and deleting Berne’s entire JMT catalog. Much of the music from his early-1990s work vanished, prompting the remark to The New York Times that it felt “like being erased.”

True to form, Berne advanced by founding his second independent outlet, Screwgun, which thereafter served as the principal vehicle for his output. Employing guerrilla recording methods, unadorned packaging, and Steve Byram’s energetic graphic designs, the Screwgun titles capture Berne at his rawest and most angular. The label’s first release, 1996’s three-disc Bloodcount Unwound, documents high-energy club performances by the core quartet without Ducret in Berlin and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Additional titles followed through the remainder of the decade, among them Bloodcount’s Discretion and Saturation Point plus Paraphrase’s Visitation Rites and Please Advise, the latter an improvising trio with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Tom Rainey. Berne also appeared elsewhere: I Think They Liked It Honey by the Big Satan trio of Berne, Ducret, and Rainey emerged on Stefan Winter’s Winter & Winter label in 1997, while further releases included the Berne-Formanek duo Ornery People on Little Brother Records, Cause and Reflect with Hank Roberts on Level Green, and Melquiades by the Italian band Enten Eller featuring Berne as guest alto saxophonist on Splasc(h) Records. At the June 2000 Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival in New York City he premiered two new ensembles, both incorporating former Detroit-area keyboardist and Roscoe Mitchell collaborator Craig Taborn along with Big Satan members. Hard Cell’s Shell Game appeared the next year; Science Friction and The Sublime And by the Science Friction quartet plus Souls Saved Hear with Big Satan arrived on Thirsty Ear in 2002 and 2003. Hard Cell Live and Feign came out on Screwgun in 2005, followed by Big Satan Live in Cognito in 2006.

In subsequent years Berne continued to record fresh material and archive earlier work on Screwgun while contributing to notable sessions such as David Torn’s Prezens and Formanek’s The Rub and Spare Change, both for ECM, Drew Gress’s Irrational Numbers, Herb Robertson’s Real Aberration, and Hugo Carvalhais’s Nebulosa. He also participated in Buffalo Collision by the collective Duck alongside Roberts, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer Dave King.

The saxophonist and composer maintained a high level of activity in 2011. Portugal’s Clean Feed issued the large-ensemble Insomnia and the duet recording Old and Unwise with bassist Bruno Chevillon. Cryptogramophone presented The Veil: Live at the Stone, a trio date with guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Jim Black, while Italy’s Auand label released Intollerant by Mr. Rencore + Tim Berne. Berne further appeared on recordings by Simon Fell and Ducret.

After signing with ECM later that year he assembled Snakeoil with drummer Ches Smith, clarinetist Oscar Noriega, and pianist Matt Mitchell; their self-titled debut appeared in 2012, the same year he performed on Formanek’s Small Places for the label. Snakeoil’s second album, Shadow Man, followed on ECM in 2013, while Berne also guested on dates by Gress, Salo Salomon, and Ches Smith. Adding guitarist Ryan Ferreira, the group returned to the studio with Torn producing and delivered You’ve Been Watching Me on ECM in 2015. That year Berne also put out the limited-edition book Spare on Screwgun, illustrated by longtime collaborator Steve Byram; alongside the jagged drawings appear Berne’s photographs of hazy faces and low skies, together with a live Snakeoil recording. The edition sold out rapidly.

Two years afterward Snakeoil, with Torn functioning as de facto fifth member and producer/engineer, released Incidentals on ECM. In 2019 Torn, Smith, and Berne issued the trio album Sun of Goldfinger for the label. Berne made his first appearance on Intakt Records with Formanek’s Very Practical Trio, also featuring guitarist Mary Halvorson, on Even Better. The association with Intakt continued productively: on Valentine’s Day 2020 Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, with Ducret replacing Ferreira and Torn again producing, issued its label debut The Fantastic Mrs. 10.