The outside jazz music of Tim Berne sits so far apart from everyone else that listening to his music gives listeners no choice but to abandon all preconceptions and accept it, as Django Bates writes, “with open eyes, ears, mind and heart.”
In pianist Matt Mitchell, Berne has found a savant pianist who can channel his alien music through eighty-eight keys, the perfect partner who alternately illuminate ideas and offer up counter perspectives of the same music that bolster the ideas. Maybe this is why Berne and Mitchell are poised to offer their fourth album together since 2018.
One More, Please continues the piano/sax conversation that grew out of Berne’s celebrated Snakeoil quartet of the 2010s, determinedly so given all the other projects each have going on apart from each other. It’s another capture of a club date, but honed by many club gigs preceding it lending to the heavily instinctual and tightly interlocking feel of these recordings.
Like Gregg Belisle-Chi so brilliantly does, Mitchell is able to exploit the full chordal capabilities of his instrument to tell a fuller story of Berne’s pieces. On “Purdy,” he adorns it with a sense of delicacy and beguilement, all the while being so dialed in to Berne’s own articulation. Compare it to the earlier version they recorded for their 2020 tête-à-tête Spiders and it becomes apparent that the two treat Berne’s compositions as living, evolving organisms, and each time they play the same song they freely adapt it to their instincts and whimsy.
Making each performance of a song as unique as a snowflake is ingrained into the duo, even apart from Berne’s songs. For Julius Hemphill’s “Number 2,” Mitchell distributes his chords as precious commodities, making each utterance from the piano more impactful. Berne gently ushers himself in and mixes in beauty with despair, becoming more passionate as Mitchell matches the mood.
“Oddly Enough: Squidz” is Snakeoil reduced down to its essential elements and as much as this sounds like ultra-typical Berne, Gordon Grdina actually had the first crack at it. Hearing Berne taking his song back makes one realize how well Grdina “gets” the composer, but and also how Berne’s songs are so adaptable to such contrasting platforms.
Mitchell is focused on serving the melody of “Middle Seat Blues: Chicken Salad Blues,” and when Berne enjoins him, it does indeed sounds almost like the blues. “Motian Sickness” finds Mitchell playing increasingly strident as Berne remains circumspect.
Being the longest piece, “Rolled Oats: Curls” is also the most episodic. Going through peaks and valleys, the two minds operate as one through it all despite the complexity. Near the end, Berne opens up a can of squawk but circles back to Mitchell’s piano to conclude the performance harmoniously.
For “Rose-Colored Missive,” Berne introduces the song on his own, handing off the baton to Mitchell who presents his own read on the melody. It’s striking how in his hands – utilizing long, flowing chords – it takes on an entirely different contour. When the two combine, the diverging approaches fit together like hand in glove in perfect symmetry.
Tim Berne saw something in Matt Mitchell long ago that others are now just beginning to notice, but their partnership brings too many rewards artistically to not keep it going. As One More, Please makes evident, they can do this for a long time because their collaboration never moves beyond the discovery phase.
One More, Please is debuting on October 21, 2022 from Intakt Records. You can get your copy of it from Screwgun Records’ Bandcamp page.
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