After 32 years of following an incredible array of immensely creative and intensely restless musical explorations from the amazing Tim Berne, I finally got to see him perform live last night at Zebulon in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles with long-time collaborator, cellist Hank Roberts, and accordionist, clarinetist and vocalist Aurora Nealand under the banner of Oceans And.
The concert was one extended piece featuring the remarkable interplay between these three master musicians and it was striking to hear the tonal relationships between Roberts and Nealand, especially when he was playing arco, with Berne demonstrating his usual stunning excursions on his alto. To see all three listening intently, eyes closed, as the performance unfolded was interesting to observe as well as to hear what they offered up.
Often, Roberts would turn to playing the cello pizzicato, as well as tapping and drumming on his instrument, sometimes with breathtaking variety. Nealand made the most of the accordion in terms of her solos and accompaniment, including as a drone. The interplay between these two was often staggering as they provided an underlayment to Berne's playing.
There were long passages of quieter performance as well as those with a boiling intensity and it ebbed and flowed (perhaps this is where the ocean metaphor comes in?) and Berne's weaving in and out, sometimes with a plastic bottle inserted in the horn was often very powerful. So, too, were sections in which overtones were employed and the three instruments were so in sync that it sounded almost orchestral. Beautiful, mysterious, contemplative, unnerving—a wide range of emotions were expressed, including when Nealand offered wordless vocalizations that echoed what her bandmates were playing.
In many ways, the Oceans And album, released by the Swiss label Intakt in April, is what was heard in the concert, but longer and divided into a dozen tracks. All of the qualities and characteristics are there, but it doesn't really seem to matter that there are individual pieces and titles and listening to the recording, which is beautifully rendered, recorded, mixed and engineered, it felt like the breaks into the tunes didn't matter because the performance of this highly immersive music made it seem like time was being stretched.
After the playing stopped, a man in front of me commented that, if someone was looking to discover jazz, this was probably not the place to start. Perhaps—but Tim Berne's immense discography should be part of any primer even if a major recalibration is needed in terms of how to listen to music not observing standard conceptions of time, rhythm and harmony.
The other act performing last night was the power trio Harriet Tubman, so the next post will feature that amazing group and its latest recording, The Terror End of Beauty.
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