The veteran trumpeter and arranger joins the podcast to discuss the twin albums 'ResoNation Trio' and 'Ultra Resonance,' Laurie Anderson's lesson that you never need permission to make art, and why this music dies if it stays in a museum.
------------------
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)
------------------
00:00 Introduction
01:18 A trumpet trio with no baggage
02:19 Why Scott Colley and Nasheet Waits
05:21 A Berkeley kid obsessed with Louis Armstrong
11:55 Mistaking the Grateful Dead for a local band
15:12 Improvisation as spontaneous composition
18:56 Twenty-two years of Levon Helm's Rambles
23:47 Keeping the music out of the museum
25:05 A joint in the studio with Burning Spear
26:59 The dub idea behind Ultra Resonance
29:32 A bridge between downtown generations
35:44 Playing the room: Central Park to the Elbphilharmonie
39:54 Losing Hal Willner and the sounding board
42:14 Making records as research
------------------
Visit Steven Bernstein at https://www.stevenbernstein.net
and browse his projects — including Sexmob and the Millennial Territory Orchestra — at https://www.stevenbernstein.net/projects
Purchase 'ResoNation Trio' and 'Ultra Resonance' from Royal Potato Family → https://royalpotatofamily.com/product/steven-bernstein-resonation-trio-ultra-resonance
Bandcamp → https://stevenbernstein.bandcamp.com/album/resonation-trio-ultra-resonance
or Qobuz → https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/resonation-trio-steven-bernstein/eaaj9mlahuluu
and listen on your streaming platform of choice → https://orcd.co/resonationtrio
------------------
For extensive show notes, links, and podcast information, go to https://podcast.thetonearm.com
Be sure to check out The Tonearm, an online music + culture magazine featuring fascinating perspectives and conversations with creative people → https://www.thetonearm.com
The Tonearm on Mastodon → https://social.lol/@thetonearm
The Tonearm on Bluesky → https://bsky.app/profile/thetonearm.com
The Tonearm on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-tonearm
------------------
• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.
• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter.
#Podcast #StevenBernstein #Sexmob #Trumpet #ScottyHard #ScottColley #NasheetWaits #LaurieAnderson #ResoNationTrio #UltraResonance #ExperimentalJazz #JazzTrumpet #TheTonearm