Unwinding for fun

Tim Berne takes Bloodcount on the road

by Ed Hazell

Tim Berne is no cockeyed optimist, but he sure sounds idealistic when he talks about Unwound, a three-CD set of live recordings by his band Bloodcount that is the first release on his own Screwgun label. "I thought the best way to reach my audience was to put out inexpensive recordings and try to reach people through mail order and on gigs and not get locked into working with corporate distributors," the saxophonist explains from a Motel 6 in Iowa City, a stop on the Bloodcount tour that will end at Johnny D's this Wednesday. "I just got tired of trying to talk other labels into distributing my CDs in a way I thought made sense, so rather than complain about it, I just decided, well, I'll do it myself."

Berne has produced an affordable and attractive package that also offers some of the best music of his career. The CDs, well over three hours of music, come in a cardboard case covered in the energetic scribbles of artist Stephen Bryam (the artist on several of Berne's earlier JMT releases). The cost is a mere $34 by mail, postage included. Compared with studio recordings, the sound quality is rough -- it's dictated by whatever sound system the band used on the road -- but perfectly acceptable. "The whole point was for it to be affordable for people," Berne says. "I wanted us to sound the way we do at a gig. These are live recordings because I think people who come to our gigs don't want to hear what we sound like in the studio; they want to hear music the way they just heard it."

What you hear is a quartet, with saxophonist Chris Speed, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Jim Black, that performs on a symphonic scale. The shortest track on Unwound is just over 13 minutes; the longest is over 40. The performances don't feel long, however. For instance, it's hard to believe nearly half an hour passes from the opening of "Mr. Johnson's Blues" (a good-natured energetic exchange of short, jagged phrases between the saxophonists) to the anguished smears of sound and abruptly concluded melody that end the piece. In part that's because Berne varies the textures of this tune, and all the others, with trios, duos, solos, and group improvisations. And as sequence follows sequence in his long written melodies, they sweep the performance along, often inspiring lengthy, convoluted linear solos from the band. But credit also the players' willingness to risk emotional exposure. They never lose the sense of exhilaration in their musicmaking, so that the album's screaming angularities, sprawling scale, and often abstract intensity bespeak not anger and self-indulgence but an excess of pure joie de vivre.

Bloodcount have their radar working all the time. Sometimes, as in the sparring duet between Berne and Black at the opening of "Bloodcount," they turn ideas on each other in mock combat. More often, as in the duet Berne and Formanek weave later in the piece, they work closely together. Their collective sensitivity makes each improvisation a spontaneous composition.

"Everyone has a lot of rope," Berne says. "If you encourage people to go for broke, then you have to allow some time for things to develop. I like hearing things come together. It's like watching someone build a car instead of watching it roll off the line. I'm also not trying to make it perfect. So the mistakes, the rough transitions, are there for everyone to hear. Sometimes the music is seamless, sometimes it's a little rough. Sometimes to really hit the magic, there's a period of dead air. I like putting everything in front of the audience and exposing them to the whole thing.

"Bloodcount is very collective. Everyone has a stake in the music, and I'm as surprised as anyone by what happens on any given night. It doesn't feel like my band. I like that feeling. I like the idea that we don't know what's going to happen every time. In fact, a lot of times, we'll fuck the tunes up a bit -- just for fun."

Tim Berne and Bloodcount appear at Johnny D's this Wednesday, March 26, with Jumbo and the Fully Celebrated Orchestra. Call 776-2004. Unwound will be available at the gig or by mail from Screwgun Records, The Screwgun Building, 104 St. Mark's Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11217.