Roots music fans know trumpeter/composer/arranger/bandleader Steven Bernstein as one of the pillars of the late Levon Helm’s large ensembles. The NYC Jazz community knows him too. Closer inspection reveals a restless, prolific, and determinedly ambitious musician, one who did not shun at the notion of recording four entirely different projects with his band, Millennial Territory Orchestra, in just four days.
Tinctures in Time: Community Music Volume 1, a set of eight originals, a is the first of those projects. All releases are digital, and it will be followed by Good Time Music with singer Catherine Russell, Manifesto of Henry-isms, re-imagine arrangements for the late New Orleans pianist Henry Butler & The Hot 9, and Popular Culture – Bernstein’s take on The Grateful Dead, Charles Mingus, the Beatles, and others. These combined efforts are dubbed “Community Music” – “organic music played by gifted musicians with solid roots in tradition and a zest for innovation.” Even before these sessions, Bernstein said, “I’m trying to present this way of looking at music where you can do a Jelly Roll piece, then a Leonard Cohen piece, then an Ornette Coleman piece, then a Duke piece and then a piece by The Band. And it’s not even about it being eclectic, it’s just music. Let’s play it. Here’s a chart, let’s go!”.
Bernstein has known the nine members of his ensemble for decades in some cases, O’Farrill, nearly four for drummer Ben Perowsky and even more for saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum. He’s known all the other members for at least twenty-five years, meeting many after moving to NYC in 1979 from Berkeley and immersing himself in the downtown jazz scene. The remaining players of the current lineup are the widely known violinist Charles Burnham, fellow Levon Helm Band member, baritone saxophonist Erik Lawrence, Catherine Russell’s musical director, guitarist/banjoist Mark Munisteri, bassist Ben Allison, trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, and tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Doug Weiselman. Prior to this outing Bernstein had never composed original music for the MTO, who had covered artists from Count Basie to Duke Ellington to Prince to Sly and the Family Stone.
The phrase “a tincture of time’ stems from a saying of Bernstein’s father a doctor, meaning the passage of time for healing. But those familiar with herbal cures recognize the term as something people take to not only feel better but perhaps to get high. Thus, Bernstein calls this music “cannabis music”. It’s the tradition of trance music, which Bernstein is well steeped in, having helmed projects of the 1920s “viper music,” the kind associated with Fats Waller. Yet, as the instrumentation indicates, this music does not rely on psychedelic effects or electronica although a few exceptions occur. Burnham uses a wah-wah pedal that meshes nicely with Fowlkes’ trombone in the mysterious “High Light” and some passages of “Show Me Your Myth,” echo the Miles merging of funk and fusion from In a Silent Way and On the Corner. And, although guitar had rarely been a focal point of the MTO, Bernstein’s recent work with Los Lobos and David Hidalgo may be the inspiration behind Munisteri’s blistering solo in the opening “Planet B.”
The opening rich low tones of “Quart of Relativity” are set off by Weiselman’s clarinet before the brass adds to its cinematic effect as if a series of short film scores. The brief Solemn piece, “Angels,” is Bernstein’s most poignant musical statement with much packed into it considering relatively recent losses of Helm, Butler, his good friend Hal Willner, and even NYC icon Lou Reed. “The Gift” carries a NOLA funeral celebration second line spirit to begin, meanders mid-piece, and regathers momentum as it goes out. “Satori Slaptown” is full of low register sounds from the bari sax and trombone and its start-stop repetitive rhythm figure echoes Mingus somewhat. Bernstein and the MTO close, reprising the theme of “Angels” in “Angels Too,” a vehicle for Apfelbaum’s tenor and crafty trap work from Perowsky.
Fitting the moniker “Cannabis Music,” the album is full of textures, space, both lush and dissonant harmonics, and a weird, mysterious vibe that doesn’t often provide clues as to where the music is headed. It certainly sets up hefty intrigue for the three projects that will follow.
