Tim Berne/Snakeoil

[hackneyvi]

I heard them play at The Vortex 10 days ago and Radio 3 was recording for Jazz on 3. Has anyone heard the album? I went because Craig Taborn (also playing in a couple of weeks) spoke highly of Berne. They did seem a bit like a one trick pony - long tracks in a sort of ABA structure where A is loud and soloistic/fragmented, B is soft and intricately rhythmic or A is loud and intricately rhythmic and B is soft and soloistic/fragmented. The drummer Ches Smith and pianist Matt Mitchell were wonderful. The clarinetist Oscar Noriega had his moments on the bass clarinet, almost religiose in its soft sobriety. But Berne seemed like a very familiar row of hoots and sqwauks.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

we shall look forward to lissenin when jezzie gets back on air [never really thought i'd post that .... schooby does yer 'ead in innit]

[hackneyvi]

It was a surprisingly good and enjoyable gig where free jazz, song structure, pungently harmonic and figurative pianism, soulful respites amidst a sort of empty egoism. Quite extreme seeming contrasts that made the intention very clear even through the free jazz disguise. I wonder now if the music was actually philosophical?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

jezzie does it on 2 April

[hackneyvi]

Good news. I'll be glad to have an opportunity to hear this again while the first impressions are still clear in my mind.

It did cross my mind on the night, how can The Vortex - even at £15 a seat and a cut of the bar tab - even cover Snakeoil's airfare? I'm assuming a BBC fee makes these gig worth the artists' while. In which case it's reasonable to hope that the trio with Craig Taborn on 17th April will also be recorded.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

er yes i do hope that the Taborn session is broadcast

[Tenor Freak]

Me too - I think Taborn is emerging as one of the best pianists around.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

tonitre tonite ...etc from newsletter

If a snakeoil salesman is a peddler of quackery and products of dubious quality, what does that make this week's band? Well, if their music is a scam, it's an extremely intricate and ear-pleasing one, and I for one am more than happy to be taken for a ride.

Tim Berne has brought his wares to Jazz on 3 before and we've never been disappointed. This new quartet is no different, although the palette contains some softer shades than some of his previous bands. The trademark punchiness is there from the start, but there are also some really intricate melodic lines and delicate timbres that suggest classical chamber music as much as an improv band. It's the way that the music moves between complex composition and more open sections that I really enjoy, and as Tim says in our chat in the middle of the programme, the band have worked tirelessly at becoming 'tight and loose' at the same time.


The second part of the performance starts mellow, with a beautifully warm bass clarinet solo from Oscar Noriega, before drummer Ches Smith – a real discovery for me in this band – whips out the cowbell as a signal for things to gradually get heavy. The quartet finishes with a flourish, a big, propulsive number that clinches the deal and certainly had the Vortex crowd convinced that this band is the real deal.

[Tenor Freak]

I've been listening to it but it's not exactly a gripping set, IMO. Probably best experienced live.

It would be interesting to see what ECM will do to Snakeoil's sound. Not an obvious choice to sign up, unless Manfred is changing the label's direction.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've been listening to it but it's not exactly a gripping set, IMO. Probably best experienced live.

It would be interesting to see what ECM will do to Snakeoil's sound. Not an obvious choice to sign up, unless Manfred is changing the label's direction.

I agree on all four counts. Berne seems to be going for a full-on atonal musical language, maybe in part using tone-rows - as was evident in all but the last piece played. I think the lack of grippingness in the performance is down to a misunderstanding about working outwith the realms of major/minor tonality. Such music has to find other ways to breathe, and to resolve tensions. This set went along at more or less the same levels of moderate intensity for protracted passages, which made it hard to maintain interest and therefore attention - a problem I've felt with several of TB's groups over the past few years.

S-A