Tim Berne

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Tim Berne

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Img_capt = Photo by Matt Brown
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Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
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Born = 1954
Died =
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Instrument = saxophone
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Genre = avant-garde jazz
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Label = Empire, Columbia, Screwgun
Associated_acts = Bloodcount, Miniature
URL = http://www.screwgunrecords.com
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Tim Berne (born 1954) is an American jazz saxophone player and composer.

Though Berne was a music fan, he had no interest in playing a musical instrument until he was in college, when he purchased an alto saxophone. He was more interested in rhythm and blues music--Stax records releases and Aretha Franklin, especially--until he heard Julius Hemphill's 1972 recording "Dogon A.D."

Hemphill was known for his integration of soul music and funk with free jazz. Berne moved to New York City in 1974. There Berne took lessons from Hemphill, and later recorded with him.

In 1979, Berne founded Empire Records to release his own recordings. He recorded "Fulton Street Maul" and "Sanctified Dreams" for Columbia Records, which generated some discussion and controversy, due in part to the fact that Berne's music had little in common with the neo-tradionalist hard bop performers prominent in the mid-1980s. Some regarded Berne's music as uncommercial. In the late 1990s Berne founded Screwgun Records, which has released his own recordings, as well as others' music.

Beyond his recordings as a bandleader, Berne has recorded and/or performed with guitarist Bill Frisell, avant-garde composer/sax player John Zorn, violinist Mat Maneri, guitarist David Torn, trumpet player Herb Robertson and as a member of the cooperative trio Miniature.

Recent years have found Berne performing in several different groups with drummer Tom Rainey, keyboardist Craig Taborn, bassists Michael Formanek and Drew Gress, guitarists Marc Ducret and David Torn, and reeds player Chris Speed.

Berne's complex, multi-section compositions are often quite lengthy; twenty to thirty minute pieces are not unusual. One critic has written that Berne's long songs "don't grow tiresome. The musicians are brilliantly creative and experienced enough not to get lost in all the room provided by these large time frames." [cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Ack9ks32la3pg |title="Discretion" (review) |accessdate=2008-08-21 |last=Layne |first=Joslyn |format=HTML |work=Allmusic |publisher=Macrovision Corporation |language=English]

Groups

* Bloodcount (w/ Michael Formanek, Chris Speed, Jim Black, Marc Ducret)
* Caos Totale (w/ Mark Dresser, Steve Swell, Bobby Previte, Herb Robertson, Marc Ducret, Django Bates)
* Big Satan (w /Tom Rainey, Marc Ducret)
* Hard Cell (w/ Tom Rainey, Craig Taborn)
* Science Friction (group) (w/ Tom Rainey, Craig Taborn, Marc Ducret)
* Paraphrase (group) (w/ Tom Rainey, Drew Gress)
* Miniature (group) (w/ Joey Baron, Hank Roberts)

Discography

* 1979 "The Five Year Plan"
* 1980 "7X"
* 1981 "Spectres"
* 1981 "Songs and Rituals in Real Time"
* 1983 "Ancestors"
* 1983 "Mutant Variations"
* 1983 "Theoretically"
* 1986 "Fulton Street Maul"
* 1988 "Sanctified Dreams"
* 1989 "Tim Berne's Fractured Fairy Tales"
* 1990 "Pace Yourself"
* 1992 "Diminutive Mysteries"
* 1993 "Nice View"
* 1994 "Lowlife - The Paris Concert One"
* 1994 "Poisoned Minds - The Paris Concert Two"
* 1996 "Memory Select - The Paris Concert Three"
* 1997 "Unwound"
* 1997 "Discretion"
* 1997 "Saturation Point"
* 1997 "I Think They Liked It Honey"
* 1998 "Please Advise"
* 1998 "Visitation Rites"
* 1998 "Ornery People"
* 1998 "Cause & Reflect"
* 2001 "The Shell Game"
* 2001 "Open, Coma"
* 2002 "The Sevens"
* 2002 "Science Friction"
* 2003 "The Sublime And"
* 2004 "Souls.Savedhear"
* 2004 "Acoustic and Electric Hard Cell Live"
* 2005 "Feign"
* 2005 "Pre-Emptive Denial"
* 2006 "Livein Cognito"
* 2007 "Seconds"

References

External links

*A more detailed discography: [http://www.northwestern.edu/jazz/artists/berne.tim/discog.html]
*An 1998 interview: [http://www.furious.com/perfect/timberne.html]
*Another Interview: [http://www.jazzweekly.com/interviews/berne.htm]