Lately: Tim Berne at 70 and Jack DeJohnette at the Keyboard

Two musical giants still pushing ahead

First off, it’s been a while! Still haven’t found that elusive rhythm of regular Substack-ing amid the flow of deadline-oriented work, and I make no promises for the future. But as always, thank you for tuning in. For now, all posts here remain free, so gather ’round, all, and do tell a friend.

I’d like to take this opportunity to share two New York Times profiles, one new as of today and the other from a weeks back. I’m grateful to have been able to spend some time recently with two musical heroes of mine, namely:

Tim Berne, the great saxophonist-composer, who turns 70 tomorrow, and who’s still very much in it to win it, as I hope the story will convey. I’ve been a fan since college, when my friend Joe lent me his copy of Visitation Rites, the smoking Paraphrase album picture above. Many gigs and albums later, I remain enthralled. Something about his signature combination of musical brilliance and a total lack of pretense, plus a bit of old-fashioned DIY attitude, just really does the trick for me.

Where this piece is concerned, I want to thank Tim, of course, but also everyone else who spoke to me for the story, including those whose voices did not make it into the final piece, namely Gregg Belisle-Chi, Ches Smith and Tom Rainey, all vital to the still-unfolding Berne saga. Thanks as well to Sarah, Tim’s wife, for her hospitality and kindness, and to the legendary Reyes Deli & Grocery for the culinary fuel.

Note that Tim has a new archival release out via Relative Pitch, a 1991 duo with Michael Formanek, and some really exciting music on the way early next year that I’m sure you’ll hear about in due time.

Also note some important earlier sources on Berne, including this two-part Ethan Iverson interview, and a series of valuable dispatches by Nate Chinen (here, here, here and here, for starters).

And lastly, go see Tim Berne at Lowlands! Next gig: Oct. 22.

And secondly, Jack DeJohnette, drumming legend, master bandleader and also, as the story explores, lifelong pianist. The show that this piece was tied to (sold out at press time!) has come and gone, but hopefully there’s still some value here. I enjoyed visiting Jack in 2019 for an episode of my Heavy Metal Bebop podcast, and I was excited to take the dialogue to some new places this time around.

Thanks again for being here — more soon!