Stimulated by the recent emergence of a champion of his music, Tim Berne has made an album that pairs the longtime saxophonist, composer and bandleader with that champion, guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi. Mars is the latest addition to Berne’s ginormous catalog but a rare one where he’s in a sax/guitar duet.
The very idea of Tim Berne pairing up one-on-one with a guitarist is actually an old one. Back when both have just begun to gain notice from the jazz community, he and Bill Frisell recorded Theoretically (1984), a true collaboration where each have roughly equally contributed songs. A spacious, textural-heavy record made at a point where both artists were still finding their way but were already making very interesting music that disregarded the trends of the time. Theoretically has held up fine and is well worth seeking out.
Mars, though, is exclusively about Berne’s now-sharpened vision through the lens of the music’s creator alongside a former Frisell protégé who’s become Berne’s most articulate interpreter in Gregg Belisle-Chi.
No one – or at least, no guitarist – has been able to unlock the secrets contained in Berne’s esoteric compositions quite like Belisle-Chi, who proved that with his 2021 all-Berne covers album played exclusively on acoustic guitar. That album, Koi: Performing the Music of Tim Berne, was one of the boldest releases of that year, deconstructing the complexity of Berne tunes into its simpler, earthbound elements through the voice of a folk instrument.
Mars is likewise bold, bringing the interpreter in close proximity to the creator. Belisle-Chi once again sticks to acoustic guitar and so once again lays bare his interpretations as he constantly finds ways to coalesce his six strings with the ardent and unpredictable alto sax of Berne. Just listen to how Berne introduces the melody on a song like “Rose Bowl Charade” while Belisle-Chi puts it into sharper focus. Or on “Purdy,” where the guitarist finds the right chords at the exact right moment to tie right into what Berne is playing.
Single Berne performances have often churned on for longer than the length of a sitcom episode, but I think that Mars comprising of a hefty dozen tracks generally running in the 3-5 minute range signals a desire to emphasize conciseness and hewing close to the essence of these songs. Yet in these shorter performances a lot is revealed. The serpentine but unhurried unison lines heard on songs like “Microtuna,” “Rabbit Girl,” “Palm Sweat” and the brief “Giant Squids” pulls back the certain on the composing mind of Berne.
For “Big Belly,” Gregg Belisle-Chi gets to set the parameters of the song on his own before Berne enters, a subtlety that establishes it more as a folk song than a jazz one, underscoring the idea that the boundless Tim Berne probably doesn’t think at all in terms of genres when crafting compositions. “Middle Seat Blues” is assuredly bluesy in feeling, and here (and everywhere, actually) Belisle-Chi shows restraint in playing only what’s needed to get the message across, deftly using space and silence as partners alongside notes.
The great enjoyment of listening to Tim Berne songs comes largely from them being puzzles that challenges your ears to put together, making the tenth listen as fresh as the first one. Gregg Belisle-Chi has mastered Berne’s idiosyncratic language and on Mars he helps to place some of those puzzle pieces together, in real time. And the more of a Tim Berne’s song is revealed, the more brilliant it comes across.
Mars will go on sale January 21, 2022 from Intakt Records. A copy can be had from Screwgun Records’ website.
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