Tim Berne


Tim Berne is an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and record label owner. His primary instruments are the alto and baritone saxophones.
WWW screwgunrecords.com

Biography

Berne was born in Syracuse, New York, United States. He has said that he had no interest in playing an instrument until he attended Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. Hearing the album Dogon A.D. by Julius Hemphill turned his attention toward jazz. He was a fan of rhythm and blues, and it seemed to him that Hemphill was playing jazz with the soulfulness of R&B. In 1974, he went to New York to find Hemphill, who gave him saxophone lessons and advice on how to manage his career. Berne started the record label Empire Productions in 1979.
For Empire, he recorded four albums with avant-garde jazz musicians such as John Carter, Alex Cline, Nels Cline, Olu Dara, Vinny Golia, Paul Motian, and Ed Schuller. His next two albums appeared on Soul Note in the early 1980s. In these sessions he worked with Motian, Schuller, Ray Anderson, Herb Robertson and others. He then got a contract with Columbia and recorded with Robertson, Hank Roberts, Bill Frisell and others. During this time he also recorded a duo album with Frisell and two albums with John Zorn. After two albums with Columbia, he signed with JMT, a label known for avant-garde jazz.
In the 1990s, he recorded in the trio, Miniature, with Roberts and Joey Baron, and in the band Caos Totale with Django Bates, Mark Dresser, Marc Ducret, Steve Swell, and Bobby Previte. He led a trio with Michael Formanek and Jim Black, then added Chris Speed to form the quartet Bloodcount. PolyGram bought JMT and closed it. This motivated Berne to start Screwgun Records as the outlet for his albums.
Screwgun's first release was a 3-disc set by Bloodcount called Unwound, the music of which exemplified Berne's characteristic style of "explod the walls of traditional compositional form: instead of adhering to anything remotely resembling theme and variations, he intersperses thematic material–sometimes repeated, elongated, or truncated–with the careening pleasures of free improvisation." During the late 1990s he continued to perform with Bloodcount, formed Paraphrase, a trio with Drew Gress and Tom Rainey, and Big Satan, a trio with Ducret and Rainey.
In the early 2000s, Berne formed several groups, including the trio Hard Cell with Rainey and Craig Taborn, and the quartet Science Friction. He also collaborated with members of The Bad Plus for the project Buffalo Collision, with Nels Cline of Wilco for the critically acclaimed album The Veil in 2011, and with David Torn on several projects and recordings.
Berne formed the band Snakeoil with Matt Mitchell, Oscar Noriega, and Ches Smith, which released a self-titled album in 2012, and six more recordings, with slight personnel changes, over the next decade. During this time, he has also recorded with members of The Bad Plus as Broken Shadows, and in duos with several musicians. In 2023 he released Oceans And with Hank Roberts and Aurora Nealand.
In the late 2010s albums by other musicians interpreting Berne's music have begun to appear. These include Førage by Matt Mitchell, Koi by Gregg Belisle-Chi, Palm Sweat by Marc Ducret, and Oddly Enough by Gordon Grdina.

Groups

  • BBC Trio
  • Big Satan
  • Bloodcount
  • Broken Shadows
  • Buffalo Collision
  • Caos Totale
  • Capotosta
  • Hard Cell
  • Miniature
  • Paraphrase
  • Science Friction
  • Snakeoil

Discography

As leader/co-leader

With ARTE Quartet
  • 2002 The Sevens
With BB&C
With Gregg Belisle-Chi
  • 2022 Mars
  • 2022 Zone One
With Gregg Belisle-Chi and Tom Rainey
  • 2025 Yikes Too
With Big Satan
With Bloodcount
With Broken Shadows
  • 2019 Broken Shadows
  • 2020 Broken Shadows Live
With Buffalo Collision
  • 2008 Duck
With Caos Totale
With Bruno Chevillon
  • 2011 Old and Unwise
With Marilyn Crispell
With Michael Formanek
  • 1993 Loose Cannon
  • 1998 Ornery People
  • 2024 Parlour Games
With Bill Frisell
With Hardcell
With Mark Helias
  • 2020 Blood From A Stone
  • 2025 Medium Cool
With Masayo Koketsu and Nava Dunkelman
  • 2025 Poiēsis
With Miniature
With Matt Mitchell
  • 2018 Angel Dusk
  • 2020 1
  • 2020 Spiders
  • 2022 One More, Please
With Aurora Nealand and Hank Roberts
  • 2023 Oceans And
  • 2024 Lucid/Still
With Aurora Nealand and Mark Helias
  • 2024 Live At The 188 Club
With Paraphrase
With Hank Roberts
  • 1998 Cause & Reflect
With Herb Robertson, Marc Ducret and the Copenhagen Art Ensemble
With Science Friction
With Snakeoil
With David Torn, Trevor Dunn, and Tom Rainey as Disco Tent
  • 2024 Ravens Low & Ready 2
With David Torn and Ches Smith as Sun of Goldfinger
With Nasheet Waits
  • 2020 The Coandă Effect
  • 2022 ''Tangled''

Albums Featuring Music by Tim Berne

As sideman

With Ray AndersonBig Band Record
With Nels ClineAngelica
With Marc DucretTower Vol. 2 Tower Bridge
With Enten EllerMelquiades Auto da Fe
With Umberto PetrinEllessi
With Jazzophone CompagnieMosaiques
With Simon FellPositions & Descriptions
With Figure 8Pipe Dreams
With Michael FormanekExtended Animation Low Profile Nature of the Beast The Rub and Spare Change Small Places The Distance Even Better Pre-Apocalyptic
With Vinny GoliaCompositions for Large Ensemble Facts of Their Own Lives
With Drew GressSpin & Drift 7 Black Butterflies The Irrational Numbers The Sky Inside
With Mark HeliasSplit Image The Current Set
With Julius HemphillFive Chord Stud One Atmosphere
With Ingrid Laubrock
With Mr. RencoreIntollerant
With Ivo Perelmanivo
With Hank RobertsBlack Pastels
With Herb RobertsonTransparency X-Cerpts: Live at Willisau Elaboration Real Aberration
With Samo Salamon & Tom RaineyDuality
With George SchullerHellbent
With Ches SmithHammered International Hoohah
With Spring Heel JackMasses
With Chloe SobekBurning Up
With David Torn, Craig Taborn, and Tom RaineyPrezens Slipped on a Bar xFORM
With Stefan WinterThe Little Trumpet
With Yōsuke YamashitaWays of Time
With John ZornThe Big Gundown