Tim Berne - Sunday Interview

Tim Berne. Photo by Peter Gannushkin.

Introduction by Gary Chapin

I first heard Tim Berne around 1986. His first album was 1979. I’ve waxed lyrical about that time, when I was hanging around the Knitting Factory, spectating the most amazing music I’d ever heard—up til then. It suited my temperament perfectly.

I recently saw Tim Berne with Hank Roberts and Aurora Nealand at the Portland Conservatory of Music, in Maine, and had that same feeling. The most amazing music I’d ever heard. An hour that improved life on Earth. Maybe this points to the absurdity of any sort of quantitative accounting of “greatest music” (what’s your unit of measurement?) but I also think some “sense of greatness” accrues from the body of work.

I’ve noticed this happening with a lot of musicians that used to feel like “the new guys.” By 2024, their oeuvres—yeah, I said it—are of a quality that could drag you down with fascination like a gravity well. If you never emerged, you’d still be content. This is “lifes’ work” in the Bach sense, where you can map out eras, functions, concepts, collaborators, techniques, instruments, etc.

From the answer to the first question below you’ll see that Tim does not think like this (or he doesn’t let me see him thinking like this), but I do. In fact, at the Free Jazz Blog, it’s exactly what I do. Like it’s my job, or something.

Tim Berne was gracious in his answering these questions. Enjoy, and then read the reviews linked below.

1. What is your greatest joy in improvised music?
   
   A nice gig
   
   
2. What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?
   
   Humility
   
   
3. Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?
   
   Julius Hemphill
   
   
4. If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?
   
   Clyde Stubblefield
   
   
5. What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?
   
   Get better
   
   
6. Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like?
   
   Karen Dalton
   
   
7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
   
   My belt
   
   
8. Which of your albums are you most proud of?
   
   I try not to compare
   
   
9. Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how much?
   
   Not much / Rarely
   
   
10. Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?
    
    Dogon AD (Julius Hemphill)
    
    
11. What are you listening to at the moment?
    
    My kitchen
    
    
12. What artist outside music inspires you?
    
    Charles Burnett

Recordings with Tim Berne reviewed on Free Jazz Blog:

• Tim Berne/Hank Roberts/Aurora Nealand - Oceans And (Intakt 2023)
• Marc Ducret, Palm Sweat - Marc Ducret Plays the Music of Tim Berne (Out of Your Head Records 2023)
• Ivo Perelman - Reed Rapture in Brooklyn (Mahakala Music 2022)
• Tim Berne & Matt Mitchell, One More, Please (Intakt 2022)
• Tim Berne, Decay (Screwgun 2022)
• Tim Berne and Gregg Belisle-Chi, Mars (Intakt 2022)
• Two Tim Berne Duets (with Matt Mitchell and Mark Helias, respectively)
• Tim Berne, Sacred Vowels (Screwgun 2020)
• Three 2020 Tim Berne Records
• Tim Berne & Nasheed Waits, The Coandă Effect (Relative Pitch 2020)
• Michael Formanek, Practical Trio (Intakt 2019)
• David Torn, Tim Berne, and Ches Smith, Sun of Goldfinger (ECM 2019)
• Trapper Keaper - Meets Tim Berne and Aurora Nealand (ears&eyes 2019)
• Tim Berne and Matt Mitchell, Angel Dusk (Screwgun 2018)