New Live Album by Tim Berne’s Snakeoil

[Guy Berger]

http://intaktrec.ch/358-a.htm

Two gigs by the core Snakeoil quartet (no guitar) from 2010 and 2017, on the Intakt label.

[Steve Reynolds]

16 hours ago, Guy Berger said:

http://intaktrec.ch/358-a.htm

Two gigs by the core Snakeoil quartet (no guitar) from 2010 and 2017, on the Intakt label.

Looking forward to this. I’ve gotten to really enjoy the band - with or without the guitar. Nice to see that Torn has again find the sound on this. I like that 6 of the 8 tracks are long which gives these dudes time to build on Berne's sometimes complicated and labyrinthian arrangements/compositions. Ches live is always incredible and I’m sure we will get strong evidence if this on these 2 expansive discs of music.

Edited August 16, 2020 by Steve Reynolds

[colinmce]

Glad to see the group back to a quartet! I will check this out for sure, not a fan of the guitar. 

[Steve Reynolds]

Older recordings from 2009 & 2017. When they were playing recently they played as a quartet or a quintet. One of the last shows I saw pre-pandemic (maybe February I think) was Berne with Malaby, Formanek, Ferreira & Elliott Kavee 

great 2 sets with Ferreira being a plus. Only quibble is Kavee was too restrained and didn’t push the band like Ches Smith, Tom Rainey or any number of other superior drummer would have. Both saxophonists were excellent and geared their playing towards Berne’s compositions. 

 

[Steve Reynolds]

Streaming “The Fantastic Mrs. 10“ which is the newest on Intakt with Ryan Ferreira on electric guitar. Opening 12 minute title track hit me as hard as any Berne or Berne/Snakeoil piece maybe ever has. Fairly typical Berne type intro with those very long lines. The greatness of the piece was the mid-section (with Ferreira to the fore) where the music morphs into abstraction - and then organically comes back to the compositional materials. Not an unusual methodology of course but how it was done was wondrous. 
 

second 11:30 piece doesn’t seem to have the guitar - but now here it is....Sorry Colin....also this piece turns into seeming nothingness (which for my ears is by far the best aspect / I’d like to hear the band play a set of free improvisations but I’d almost always prefer that to notated music) let’s see what happens. Pretty great stuff. Listeners familiar with the group know his great Mitchell, Noriega & Smith are.  Berne is Berne, of course but he’s never been intimidated by hiring or playing with more complete or advance improvisors. Surely both Mitchell & Smith are in the virtuoso category and Noriega is a subtle and captivating player. That being said Berne’s playing in this track is incendiary.

 

[Guy Berger]

6 hours ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Streaming “The Fantastic Mrs. 10“ which is the newest on Intakt with Ryan Ferreira on electric guitar.

This album features Marc Ducret on guitar, not Ryan Ferreira 

[Steve Reynolds]

19 minutes ago, Guy Berger said:

This album features Marc Ducret on guitar, not Ryan Ferreira 

Thanks

no wonder I liked the first track so much!! When I’m streaming I don’t have my CD case to reference. In any event he sounds great as does the band 

[colinmce]

7 hours ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Streaming “The Fantastic Mrs. 10“ which is the newest on Intakt with Ryan Ferreira on electric guitar. Opening 12 minute title track hit me as hard as any Berne or Berne/Snakeoil piece maybe ever has. Fairly typical Berne type intro with those very long lines. The greatness of the piece was the mid-section (with Ferreira to the fore) where the music morphs into abstraction - and then organically comes back to the compositional materials. Not an unusual methodology of course but how it was done was wondrous. 
 

second 11:30 piece doesn’t seem to have the guitar - but now here it is....Sorry Colin....also this piece turns into seeming nothingness (which for my ears is by far the best aspect / I’d like to hear the band play a set of free improvisations but I’d almost always prefer that to notated music) let’s see what happens. Pretty great stuff. Listeners familiar with the group know his great Mitchell, Noriega & Smith are.  Berne is Berne, of course but he’s never been intimidated by hiring or playing with more complete or advance improvisors. Surely both Mitchell & Smith are in the virtuoso category and Noriega is a subtle and captivating player. That being said Berne’s playing in this track is incendiary.

 

As a favor to you I will buy the new one alongside Fantastic Ms. 10 and compare. I was underwhelmed by the 3rd ECM quintet album after loving the first 2 acoustic ones, and the live quintet stuff I saw on youtube didn’t change my mind, but perhaps I just need to squeegee my ears some; it’s been necessary before!

[Guy Berger]

Enjoying this album over the past 2 weeks.

[BFrank]

Just watched him with the Coanda Trio (Scotty Colley, Nasheet Waits) from Seeds in Brooklyn on Thursday. A typical Berne blowout session. He's always worth watching.