Steven Bernstein: The Trumpet's Blank Slate

This week we’re putting The Tonearm's needle on trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Steven Bernstein.

Amongst his many activities, Steven leads Sexmob and the Millennial Territory Orchestra and serves as Laurie Anderson's musical director.

He's out now with an entwined set of albums. ResoNation Trio pares him down to valve trumpet, bass, and drums with Scott Colley and Nasheet Waits. Ultra Resonance is producer Scotty Hard's full reinvention of that same recording.

We talk about why a trumpet trio gave him a blank slate, what Burning Spear has to do with Ultra Resonance, and what it means to still be playing Levon Helm's music twenty-two years from when he started.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Steven Bernstein’s albums, ResoNation Trio and Ultra Resonance)

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Steven Bernstein:

• Visit Steven Bernstein at stevenbernstein.net and browse his projects — including Sexmob and the Millennial Territory Orchestra
• Purchase ResoNation Trio and Ultra Resonance from Royal Potato Family, Bandcamp, or Qobuz, and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Read the All About Jazz review.

The Trio and Collaborators:

• Scott Colley — bass
• Nasheet Waits — drums
• Scotty Hard — producer of Ultra Resonance

Bands, Projects, and Company Kept:

• Laurie Anderson with Sexmob, Let X=X (Live) on Nonesuch
• Levon Helm Studios and the Helm Family Midnight Ramble, Woodstock, NY

Musical Touchstones:

• Burning Spear, Garvey's Ghost (1976) — the dub companion to Marcus Garvey that seeded the Ultra Resonance concept: Wikipedia · streaming
• Miles Davis, Panthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis 1969–1974, reconstructed by Bill Laswell — a precedent for reworking improvised recordings: Wikipedia · streaming
• Butch Morris, who gave Bernstein some of his earliest New York gigs, and his theory of Conduction

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