Après trois disques Intakt en des formules diverses, le saxophoniste-alto Tim Berne choisit le duo avec le guitariste Gregg Belisle-Chi. Ce jeune musicien avait enregistré des œuvres de Berne en solo, les deux “devaient” donc se rencontrer. Douze compositions du saxophoniste sont revues avec le guitariste et interprétées dans un format ramassé qui oblige à la concentration. Servi par un travail considérable sur l’instrument, le jeu somptueux de Tim Berne est superbement mis en valeur par celui, ciselé de la guitare acoustique. Une musique d’une grande pureté et de très haut niveau.

https://culturejazz.fr/spip.php?article3852

Het klikt tussen Tim Berne en Intakt Records, het Zwitserse huis waar hij recent blijft opduiken en dat sinds 1986 is uitgegroeid tot een instituut van de avontuurlijke jazz met een ijzersterke catalogus van intussen bijna 400 releases. Het klikt overduidelijk ook tussen Berne en de jonge Aziatisch-Amerikaanse gitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi. Die bracht met Koi (2021) al een persoonlijke hommage aan de meester en mag nu de klus klaren in zijn gezelschap. Hun ontmoeting is een iriserend samenkomen van onvoorspelbare composities vol vrijheid, met Berne die zichzelf regelmatig verliest in die zo herkenbaar spiralende cirkels, terwijl Belisle-Chi de muziek even stoïcijns als daadkrachtig richting kamermuziek port. Complex, zonder te overrompelen. Cerebraal, maar met een hart. Eentje voor fijnproevers met een beetje ervaring.

Metrica sinuosa, traghettata nel mondo del minimalismo jazz. Tim Berne (Alto Saxophone) e Gregg Belisle-Chi (Guitar) disegnano in musica un patchwork vario che assorbe le loro linee astratte e melodiche. Bozzetti Impro. timbri free e una fedele riproposizione di schemi jazz su tessuti decisamente informali. Con la sua vasta biografia artistica, Tim Berne è una delle figure più importanti del jazz americano, la stella nascente Gregg Belisle-Chi con le sue vaste capacità e l'immenso potenziale sonoro. Dodici tracce tutte scritte da Tim Berne, incantano l'ascoltatore con un'interazione intensa e giocosa. Avanguardia.

https://www.facebook.com/WIndout-156994887987877/

Since the 1980s, alto saxophonist/composer/record company micro-mogul Tim Berne has operated in multiple settings, releasing albums with prolific regularity and restlessly creative energy. Something relatively new is afoot with his new sax-acoustic guitar duet with Gregg Belisle-Chi, of the sort we haven't heard since Berne's fascinating and now hard-to-find 1984 duet recording with Bill Frisell, Theoretically.

Critical backstory: Nimble-fingered guitarist Belisle-Chi worked his way into Berne's world via his impressive 2021 solo guitar album Koi, interpreting Berne's music. Not surprisingly, given the guitarist's sensitive approach to Berne's musical language, they get along famously in a duet context. Conversation flows freely between them, with digressive chatter and contrapuntal spiciness in the mix to keep things lively. Despite the serious nature of Berne's music and playing - though never brooding or lacking in drive or energy - his innately, wily sense of humor sneaks in via his song titles. Some of the tracks here relate to the eating arts, as in "Gastrophobia" (fear of eating?), “Big Belly" and "Microtuna."

Opening the album, the punningly named "Rose Bowl Charade" sets the stage for what's to come, through Berne's melody line. Nattering, stuttering heated notes peel off into angular flurries and generally keep our ears in suspended mode: Berne's happy place. Sentimentality has no sway here, as is Berne's wont, but he can find angular roots to heartfelt expressions.

Five years back, the circuitous melodic journeys and rhythmic contrariness of Tim Berne's music spawned a brilliant devotee in pianist Matt Mitchell, whose dedication to the New York one-off's composing inspired the remarkable solo-piano album of Berne interpretations, Førage.

Last year, another quirkily gifted connoisseur turned up in the shape of young acoustic guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi, with the comparably imaginative solo session Koi: Performing the Music of Tim Berne. Now, Mars brings Berne's alto and Belisle-Chi's guitar together on a dozen short dialogues around the composer's pieces, produced by David Torn.

The acoustic guitar's necessary fragility, and the intimacy of this partnership, casts Berne's music in a different and in some ways warmer light, and though Belisle-Chi distils the compositions to their essentials, these tracks nonetheless radiate immense vividness. The guitar chimes quietly behind the softly buzzy twists and turns of the alto sax on 'Gastrophobia, pillows its soulful dreaminess on 'Middle Seat Blues', shepherds the busy melodic lines of 'Dark Shadows', skips brightly around the Ornettish 'Giant Squids'. Without cranking up the percussiveness, Belisle-Chi imparts a mysterious momentum to these serpentine tunes - his folk-bluesy relentlessness and scatterings of lateral melody drive 'Big Belly' long before Berne's free-jazzy alto floats into the picture, while the pair are animatedly joined at the hip on the episodic 'Palm Sweat'. By paring Tim Berne's music to the bone, Gregg Belisle-Chi may just have helped his hero to unveil fascinating new stories within it.

Chamber Jazz with a crisp filter, these collections of multiple brief tracks use contrast and cooperation to avoid the uniformity engendered when only a saxophone and guitar duo is involved. True to its title, Nine Improvisations for Sopranino and Guitar features the Italians, saxophonist Marco Colonna, who has played with AgustíFernández; and electric guitarist Enzo Rocco, who has partnered Carlo Actis Dato. Saxophonist Tim Berne who leads a series of other bands, also composed Mars' dozen selections. His partner here is fellow American acoustic guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi, who has played with Cuong Vu among others. Often condensed, the tracks on both sets primarily have the saxophonist state the theme statement and work out variations while each guitarist's comping providing the rhythmic backing and chromaticism.

Throughout the Colonna/Rocco session the guitarist keeps the program moving by switching between sliding pressurized strokes and diaphanous displays of finger-style frails or moderated plinks. For his part Colonna's scene-setting encompasses flashing reed arabesques and slides plus shrills that sometimes reach altissimo and above.

Despite detours into squeaks and whines from one player, and casual or intense strumming from the other, tunes remain linear and expositions usually evolve with reflective harmonies. While some such as "Bianchi e Neri" pivot to a folksy or balladic narrative, others such as "Ridondanze" propel intensity that comes from reed biting variations and flat-picking percussive string strokes. The most impressive tracks are those which integrate extended techniques within horizontal narratives. "Alti e Bassi" for example begins with strident reed trills in near-piccolo range that are met by tense electrified twangs. But the resolution involves Rocco's cerebral phrasing which moves Colonna away from stratospheric squeaks to a moderated conclusion.

Having the peripherals available from an electric guitar helps in constructing proper expositions or responding to the sometimes strident saxophone tones. However Belisle-Chi has to do the same with an acoustic instrument. Occasionally he defaults to a folksy solemness which is less helpful on certain tracks. As the duo's junior partner and as the interpreter not the composer of the tunes, it's his warm and cushiony tone s which work best to lessen the stridency implicit in Berne's sometimes mercurial themes and variations. When he's more assertive, a better balance of intersection and tone rebounds is maintained. One such track is "Big Belly", where metal-tinged pinpointed strokes set the scene for the eventual entrance of Berne's screechy Ornette-like theme that widens into a proper narrative as reed slurs intermingle with responsive guitar rebounds. Other tunes like "Rabbit Girl" evolve in double counterpoint, with the exposition a mixture of the saxophonist's dynamic slides from high to low expressions as Belisle-Chi's concentrated strums become both soothing and connective. With allowances made for Berne to pull textures from the middle of his saxophone's s-curve and even highlight some R&B honking in part, the crunches and doubled strums Belisle-Chi add to the interpretations.

As a first-time effort Mars passes muster as a tentative exploration of sonic space and time, but lacks the truculent confidence that a project with that tile should project. Nine Improvisations for Sopranino and Guitar sets out to do exactly what the title promises. Notable within that paradigm, extending the project still further could possibly expose its built-in limitations.

http://www.jazzword.com/one-review/?id=131043

Nouveauté. Voici un album qui rend justice au lyrisme fondamental de la musique de Tim Berne. Toujours ce son de saxophone sans apprêt, mais des mélodies à tue-tête déroulées comme à l'infini sans jamais nous lasser, entretenant constamment notre envie d'aller voir ce qui se passe au prochain tournant. Le guitariste Gregg Belisle-Chi - qui ne cache pas son admiration pour Bill Frisell et Ben Monder - avait exploré ce répertoire en solo, pour se faire la main sur une musique "différente". Il en résulta "Koi - Performing The Music Of Tim Berne" sur Screwgun le label du saxophoniste, co-producteur, comme ici, avec David Torn. Sur "Mars", Belisle-Chi reprend la guitare acoustique à cordes acier, mais cette fois-ci en duo avec Berne, toujours sur les compositions de ce dernier dont il fait sonner les sinuosités à perte de vue comme des mélodies folk. Unissons écrits, divagations en contrepoints, extensions harmoniques des lignes écrites ou improvisées par le saxophoniste, fruit d'un travail de longue haleine entre les deux artistes qui inspire à David Torn cette citation de Gustav Malher en regard de ses notes pochettes :

<<< La tradition n'est pas la culte des cendres, mais l'entretien du feu. >>> Et il y a bien là quelque chose d'incandescent!

That Tim Berne's name rings a bell to few outside a devoted coterie doesn't make him any less of a jazz hero. Since putting down New York City roots, in 1974, this audacious alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader has never strayed from a path of his own making, hewing to left-of-center forms and unfettered improvisation. Berne originally drew inspiration from such second-generation avant-gardists as Julius Hemphill; he's now a patriarch of sorts to a new generation of similarly risk-taking players. United in a compact trio with the gifted drummer Nasheet Waits and the guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi, Berne flaunts skills that are as passionate as they are exploratory.

https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/night-life/altin-gun-and-sessa

Seit mehr als vier Dekaden gehört Tim Berne zu den Künstlern ohne kreativen Stillstand. Beharrlich setzt der Altsaxofonist seine musikalischen Visionen mit unterschiedlichsten Besetzungen um. Allein seine Begegnungen mit Gitarristen, unter ihnen Bill Frisell und David Torn, sprechen für sich. Zu diesen illustren Protagonisten stößt jetzt Gregg Belisle-Chi, der offenbar keine Schwierigkeiten hat, sich in Bernes musikalischem Kosmos zurechtzufinden. Seine auf der akustischen Gitarre kreierte Begleitung und seine Soli ergänzen hervorragend Bernes fantasievoll mäandernde Altsaxlinien.

Dopo le ottime prove con gli Snake-oil e il quartetto Broken Shadows, Tim Berne riduce gli effettivi e si concentra in un duetto con il chitarrista acustico Gregg Belisle-Chi, giovanotto di belle speranze autore già di un'incisione ("Koi") in cui riprendeva vari temi del sassofonista. È un dialogo serrato, conciso, caratterizzato dai saliscendi e dagli improvvisi di Berne così come dalle risposte in tempo reale di Belisle-Chi, affermativo e dinamico negli interventi. La sua non è una presenza accessoria e anche se l'altista pare dominare la scena in misura maggiore si finisce ben presto per tendere l'orecchio verso la controparte, che per forze di cose si ritrova a prodursi a un livello di volume un gradino inferiore. In contraddizione al titolo non è musica per volare su Marte, ma basta e avanza per stare bene sulla terra.