From The WIRE by Julian Cowley.
APRIL 2008
Steven Bernstein
Diaspora Suite
TZADIK CD/Download
When at the close of the 1990s John Zorn first invited trumpeter Steven Bernstein to record for his radical Jewish Culture series, the outcome was Diaspora Soul, a selection of popular Jewish melodies, wedding dances, and cantorial transcriptions spiced with Afro-Cuban accents and New Orleans R&B. Bernstein – best known for his robust playing with the Lounge Lizards and Sex Mob – has now contributed four albums to Zorn’s series, each with a distinct flavor reflecting his own preoccupations at the time. The presiding genius of Diaspora Suite, recorded in Oakland California, is film maker Robert Altman, who died towards the end of 2006.
Specifically, Bernstein took heed here of Altman’s advice that “you write so the actors know who they are…allow the conversations to unfold…and get it all on tape.” A commonplace of jazz composition, perhaps, but it inspired Bernstein to relinquish his usual tight arrangements, to provide just loose frameworks for the nine-piece group he assembled a year ago in an Oakland studio and then to let things roll.
Don’t be deterred by the apparent preciousness of the word “suite.” This is a pleasurable slow-burning sprawl involving two drummers, two electric guitarists, electric bass, and a quartet of horns. The excellent cast of musicians includes guitarist Nels Cline, saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum, and clarinetist Ben Goldberg. Bernstein aimed to distil the spirit of Herbie Hanock’s Mwandishi group and the improvised West Coast rock of The Grateful Dead and Santana. Ancestral themes and rhythms continue to reverberate through the resultant music, which in its loping expansiveness, sly funk and fluid coherence bears comparison with the great mid-70s Miles Davis group. Altogether too good to miss.