Tim Berne

Tim Berne (born October 16, 1954) is an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and record label owner. His primary instruments are the alto and baritone saxophones.

Biography

Berne was born in Syracuse, New York, United States. He has said that he had no interest in playing an instrument until he attended Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. Hearing the album '' Dogon A.D.'' (1972) by Julius Hemphill turned his attention toward jazz. He was a fan of rhythm and blues, and it seemed to him that Hemphill was playing jazz with the soulfulness of R&B. In 1974, he went to New York to find Hemphill, who gave him saxophone lessons and advice on how to manage his career. Berne started the record label Empire in 1979.

For Empire, he recorded four albums with avant-garde jazz musicians such as John Carter, Alex Cline, Nels Cline, Olu Dara, Vinny Golia, Paul Motian, and Ed Schuller. His next two albums appeared on Soul Note in the early 1980s. In these sessions he worked with Motian, Schuller, Ray Anderson, Herb Robertson and others. He then got a contract with Columbia and recorded with Robertson, Hank Roberts, Bill Frisell and others. During this time he also recorded a duo album with Frisell and two albums with John Zorn. After two albums with Columbia, he signed with JMT, a label known for avant-garde jazz.

In the 1990s, he recorded in the trio, Miniature, with Roberts and Joey Baron, and in the band Caos Totale with Django Bates, Mark Dresser, Marc Ducret, Steve Swell, and Bobby Previte. He led a trio with Michael Formanek and Jim Black, then added Chris Speed to form the quartet Bloodcount (which was occasionally a quintet with the addition of Ducret). PolyGram bought JMT and closed it. This motivated Berne to start Screwgun Records as the outlet for his albums.

Screwgun's first release was a 3-disc set by Bloodcount called '' Unwound'', the music of which exemplified Berne's characteristic style of "explod ngthe walls of traditional compositional form: instead of adhering to anything remotely resembling theme and variations, he intersperses thematic material–sometimes repeated, elongated, or truncated–with the careening pleasures of free improvisation." During the late 1990s he continued to perform with Bloodcount, formed Paraphrase, a trio with Drew Gress and Tom Rainey, and Big Satan, a trio with Ducret and Rainey.

In the early 2000s, Berne formed several groups, including the trio Hard Cell with Rainey and Craig Taborn, and the quartet Science Friction (Berne, Ducret, Rainey, and Taborn). He also collaborated with members of The Bad Plus for the project Buffalo Collision, with Nels Cline of Wilco for the critically acclaimed album ''The Veil'' in 2011, and with David Torn on several projects and recordings.

Berne formed the band ''Snakeoil'' with Matt Mitchell, Oscar Noriega, and Ches Smith, which released a self-titled album in 2012, and six more recordings, with slight personnel changes, over the next decade. During this time, he has also recorded with members of The Bad Plus as Broken Shadows, and in duos with several musicians. In 2023 he released ''Oceans And'' with Hank Roberts and Aurora Nealand.

Recently albums by other musicians interpreting Berne's music have begun to appear. These include ''Førage'' by Matt Mitchell, ''Koi'' by Gregg Belisle-Chi, and ''Palm Sweat'' by Marc Ducret.

Groups

* BBC Trio (Jim Black, Nels Cline)
* Big Satan (Marc Ducret, Tom Rainey)
* Bloodcount (Jim Black, Marc Ducret, Michael Formanek, Chris Speed)
* Broken Shadows ( Reid Anderson, David King, Chris Speed)
* Buffalo Collision ( Ethan Iverson, David King, Hank Roberts)
* Caos Totale (Django Bates, Mark Dresser, Marc Ducret, Bobby Previte, Herb Robertson, Steve Swell)
* Capotosta (Gregg Belisle-Chi, Tom Rainey)
* Hard Cell (Tom Rainey, Craig Taborn)
* Miniature (Joey Baron, Hank Roberts)
* Paraphrase ( Drew Gress, Tom Rainey)
* Science Friction (Marc Ducret, Tom Rainey, Craig Taborn)
* Snakeoil (Marc Ducret, Matt Mitchell, Oscar Noriega, Ches Smith, formerly Ryan Ferreira)

Discography

As leader/co-leader

* 1979 ''The Five Year Plan'' (Empire)
* 1980 ''7X'' (Empire)
* 1981 ''Spectres'' (Empire)
* 1982 '' Songs and Rituals in Real Time'' (Empire)
* 1983 '' The Ancestors'' ( Soul Note)
* 1984 ''Mutant Variations'' (Soul Note)
* 1987 '' Fulton Street Maul'' ( Columbia)
* 1988 ''Sanctified Dreams'' (Columbia)
* 1989 '' Tim Berne's Fractured Fairy Tales'' ( JMT)
* 1993 '' Diminutive Mysteries (Mostly Hemphill)'' (JMT)
* 1999 ''The Empire Box'' ( Screwgun)
* 2011 ''Insomnia'' ( Clean Feed)
* 2020 ''Sacred Vowels'' (Screwgun)
* 2020 ''Adobe Probe'' (Screwgun)
* 2022 ''Decay'' (Screwgun)

With ARTE Quartet
* 2002 ''The Sevens'' (New World)

With BB&C
* 2011 '' The Veil'' ( Cryptogramophone)

With Gregg Belisle-Chi
* 2022 ''Mars'' ( Intakt)
* 2022 ''Zone One'' (Screwgun)

With Gregg Belisle-Chi and Tom Rainey
* 2025 ''Yikes Too'' (Out Of Your Head/Screwgun)

With Big Satan
* 1997 '' Big Satan'' ( Winter & Winter)
* 2004 ''Souls Saved Hear'' ( Thirsty Ear)
* 2006 '' Livein Cognito'' (Screwgun)

With Bloodcount
* 1995 '' Lowlife: The Paris Concert'' (JMT)
* 1995 '' Poisoned Minds: The Paris Concert'' (JMT)
* 1995 '' Memory Select: The Paris Concert'' (JMT)
* 1996 '' Unwound'' (Screwgun)
* 1997 ''Discretion'' (Screwgun)
* 1997 '' Saturation Point'' (Screwgun)
* 2007 ''Seconds'' (Screwgun)
* 2021 ''Attention Spam'' (Screwgun)
* 2021 ''5'' (Screwgun)

With Broken Shadows
* 2019 ''Broken Shadows'' (Newvelle)
* 2020 ''Broken Shadows Live'' (Screwgun)

With Buffalo Collision
* 2008 ''Duck'' (Screwgun)

With Caos Totale
* 1990 '' Pace Yourself'' (JMT)
* 1994 '' Nice View'' (JMT)

With Bruno Chevillon
* 2011 ''Old and Unwise'' (Clean Feed)

With Marilyn Crispell
* 1995 ''Inference'' ( Music & Arts)

With Michael Formanek
* 1993 ''Loose Cannon'' (Soul Note)
* 1998 ''Ornery People'' (Little Brother)
* 2024 ''Parlour Games'' ( Relative Pitch)

With Bill Frisell
* 1984 '' Theoretically'' (Empire)
* 2024 ''Live In Someplace Nice'' (Screwgun)

With Hardcell
* 2001 '' The Shell Game'' (Thirsty Ear)
* 2004 '' Electric and Acoustic Hard Cell Live'' (Screwgun)
* 2005 '' Feign'' (Screwgun)
* 2020 ''The Cosmos'' (Screwgun)
* 2021 ''Sensitive'' (Screwgun)

With Miniature
* 1988 '' Miniature'' (JMT)
* 1991 '' I Can't Put My Finger on It'' (JMT)

With Matt Mitchell
* 2018 ''Angel Dusk'' (Screwgun)
* 2020 ''1'' (Screwgun)
* 2020 ''Spiders'' (Out of Your Head)
* 2022 ''One More, Please'' (Intakt)

With Aurora Nealand and Hank Roberts
* 2023 ''Oceans And'' (Intakt)
* 2024 ''Lucid/Still'' (Screwgun)

With Aurora Nealand and Marc Helias
* 2024 ''Live At The 188 Club'' (Screwgun)

With Paraphrase
* 1997 '' Visitation Rites'' (Screwgun)
* 1999 '' Please Advise'' (Screwgun)
* 2005 '' Pre-Emptive Denial'' (Screwgun)

With Hank Roberts
* 1998 ''Cause & Reflect'' (Level Green)

With Herb Robertson, Marc Ducret and the Copenhagen Art Ensemble
* 2001 '' Open, Coma'' (Screwgun)

With Science Friction
* 2002 '' Science Friction'' (Screwgun)
* 2003 '' The Sublime And'' (Thirsty Ear)
* 2007 ''Mind Over Friction'' (Screwgun)
* 2020 ''Science Friction +size'' (Screwgun)
* 2024 ''No Tamales On Wednesday'' (Screwgun)

With Snakeoil
* 2012 '' Snakeoil'' ( ECM)
* 2013 '' Shadow Man'' (ECM)
* 2015 '' You've Been Watching Me'' (ECM)
* 2015 ''Spare'' (Screwgun)
* 2017 '' Incidentals'' (ECM)
* 2020 ''The Fantastic Mrs. 10'' (Intakt)
* 2020 ''The Deceptive 4'' (Intakt)
* 2025 ''Snakeoil OK'' (Screwgun)

With Nasheet Waits
* 2020 ''The Coandă Effect'' (Relative Pitch)
* 2022 ''Tangled'' (Screwgun)

As sideman

With Ray Anderson
* '' Big Band Record'' ( Gramavision, 1994)

With Nels Cline
* ''Angelica'' ( Enja, 1988)

With Marc Ducret
* ''Tower Vol. 2'' ( Ayler, 2011)
* ''Tower Bridge'' (Ayler, 2014)

With Enten Eller
* ''Melquiades'' (Splasc(H), 1999)
* ''Auto da Fe'' (Splasc(H), 2001)

With Umberto Petrin
* ''Ellessi'' (Splasc(H), 1999)

With Jazzophone Compagnie
* ''Mosaiques'' (Yolk, 2000)

With Simon Fell
* ''Positions & Descriptions'' (Clean Feed, 2011)

With Figure 8
* ''Pipe Dreams'' (Black Saint, 1994)

With Michael Formanek
* ''Extended Animation'' (Enja, 1992)
* ''Low Profile'' (Enja, 1994)
* ''Nature of the Beast'' (Enja, 1997)
* ''The Rub and Spare Change'' (ECM, 2010)
* ''Small Places'' (ECM, 2012)
* ''The Distance'' (ECM, 2016)
* ''Even Better'' (Intakt, 2019)
* ''Pre-Apocalyptic'' (Out Of Your Head, 2020)

With Vinny Golia
* ''Compositions for Large Ensemble'' ( Nine Winds, 1984)
* ''Facts of Their Own Lives'' (Nine Winds, 1986)

With Drew Gress
* ''Spin & Drift'' (Premonition, 2001)
* ''7 Black Butterflies'' (Premonition, 2005)
* ''The Irrational Numbers'' (Premonition, 2007)
* ''The Sky Inside'' (Pirouet, 2013)

With Mark Helias
* ''Split Image'' (Enja, 1985)
* ''The Current Set'' (Enja, 1986)

With Julius Hemphill
* '' Five Chord Stud'' (Black Saint, 1994)
* '' One Atmosphere'' (Tzadik, 2003)

With Ingrid Laubrock
*'' Ubatuba'' (2015)

With Mr. Rencore
* ''Intollerant'' (Auand, 2011)

With Ivo Perelman
* ''(D)ivo'' (2022)

With Hank Roberts
* ''Black Pastels'' (JMT, 1988)

With Herb Robertson
* '' Transparency'' (JMT, 1985)
* '' X-Cerpts: Live at Willisau'' (JMT, 1987)
* ''Elaboration'' (Clean Feed, 2005)
* ''Real Aberration'' (Clean Feed, 2007)

With Samo Salamon & Tom Rainey
* ''Duality'' (Samo, 2012)

With George Schuller
* ''Hellbent'' (Playscape, 2002)

With Ches Smith
* ''Hammered'' (Clean Feed, 2013)
* ''International Hoohah'' (For Tune, 2014)

With Spring Heel Jack
* ''Masses'' (Thirsty Ear, 2001)

With Chloe Sobek
* ''Burning Up'' (Relative Pitch, 2024)

With David Torn, Craig Taborn, and Tom Rainey
* '' Prezens'' (ECM, 2005)
* ''Slipped on a Bar'' (Screwgun, 2009)
* ''xFORM'' (Screwgun, 2020)

With David Torn, Trevor Dunn, and Tom Rainey
* ''Disco Tent/Ravens Low & Ready 2'' (Screwgun, 2024)

With David Torn and Ches Smith as Sun of Goldfinger
* ''Sun of Goldfinger'' (ECM, 2019)
* ''Congratulations To You'' (Screwgun, 2020)
* ''Ozmir'' (Screwgun, 2022)
* ''Mystic'' (Screwgun, 2023) with Aurora Nealand as The Sunny Four
* ''Candid'' (Intakt, 2024) was Devin Hoff and Marc Ducret as Sunny Five

With Stefan Winter
* ''The Little Trumpet'' (JMT, 1986)

With Yōsuke Yamashita
* ''Ways of Time'' (Verve, 1995)

With John Zorn
* ''The Big Gundown'' (Nonesuch/Icon, 1986)
* '' Spy vs Spy'' (Elektra/Musician, 1989)

References

External links

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Official website, Screwgun Records





Interview at Ethan Iverson's site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berne, Tim
1954 births
Living people
American jazz saxophonists
American male saxophonists
Avant-garde jazz saxophonists
Free jazz saxophonists
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American saxophonists
21st-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
Big Satan members
Clean Feed Records artists
Thirsty Ear Recordings artists
ECM Records artists
Black Saint/Soul Note artists
Columbia Records artists
Intakt Records artists