There’s a master’s thesis—or a tawdry Netflix miniseries—to be written about Tim Berne and his serial relationships with amazing, visionary guitarists. Bill Frisell, Nels Cline, Marc Ducret, etc. Berne met guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi when the latter arranged a Berne composition for solo acoustic guitar (it was something to do during the pandemic) and posted it on Instagram. Berne reached out to Belisle-Chi and soon we had Belisle-Chi’s Koi: Performing the Music of Tim Berne , produced by Berne. Then came their duet record . Now, Belisle-Chi has become one of Berne’s usual suspects on both acoustic and electric guitar.
Belisle-chi has an expansive way of playing the electric, filling the room the way an orchestra does, with a quantity of sound. There’s a touch of proggy goodness in there—which is a treat for this lifetime prog fan. This sort of electric bombast makes for a perfect partner for Berne’s preternaturally strong sax.
The two take Berne’s compositions in a less oblique way than in other settings. It’s always interesting to hear how different agglomerations of players render these compositions. On the disc, we’re given 10 studio tracks and 9 live tracks. Here’s the thing: in a few cases, we hear a tune played in the studio, and then hear the same tune played live. Call me a nerd but I find it FASCINATING to compare versions of the tunes to one another. There’s the obvious differences of improvised chunks, but tempos, dynamics, voicing … it’s all up for grabs. The composition is composed in the moment! And look, I know that this is how our kind of music works—but it’s very cool to see it so explicitly in action. Like seeing the aurora borealis.
I haven’t mentioned Tom Rainey, yet. Not because I want to look away, but because I want to set him aside for high honors. Rainey is characteristically great on Yikes Too, holding the whole garment together with his infinitely long thread of whackity-whack. I’ve loved his stuff forever, but this year I’m feeling something special. In the race for improv MVP of 2025, he’s already at the top of my list. 5 Stars
2 comments:
Preternaturally - nice word. Sums up Tim for sure.... Look forward to listening to this helluva trio....
I’ve seen the trio at least 20 times alone or with added musicians like John Hebert & Trevor Dunn. Always unique and often incredible.
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