Adam Matlock Photo
For the leader of a band named Snakeoil, alto saxophonist Tim Berne didn’t give off much of a salesman vibe. His introductions for each composition, over two sets at Firehouse 12 last Friday, were infused with wry humor, and while he did try to pitch T‑shirts for his record label to the audience (“the last nine in existence”) you didn’t get the impression he was trying to push something on you. As he and pianist Matt Mitchell, his longtime collaborator, shot ideas back and forth with modifications, feints, and additions, it was obvious that this was a negotiation — and a fascinating one — to watch and to hear.
The show, a duo of horn and piano — part of Firehouse 12’s ongoing concert series — was Berne’s and Mitchell’s last collaboration after two and a half months of touring together as part of Snakeoil, a quartet-turned quintet, and precision abounded as a result. In the title track from the new Snakeoil album You’ve Been Watching Me, Mitchell pushed a stately tempo while fully exploiting the piano’s capacity for resonance, while Berne held down a melody that recalled the lyricism and atonality of Alban Berg, until both fell into place with a pair of melodic lines operating with slightly different pulses. The momentum was fascinating, especially leading into and out of an extended piano solo formed around dense sequences of clusters. Given that the recorded version clocks in at just under two minutes, this exploration was particularly intriguing, full of the risks that a well-rehearsed band would be rewarded for taking with familiar material.
Berne’s compositions have an aching beauty to them, a fact that can be overlooked in the irreverence they sometimes also display. But the composer’s tone at all ranges of the alto saxophone makes it a hard fact to ignore, particularly in the clarity of his high notes, selectively inflected with the brusqueness reminiscent of any number of Eastern-Hemisphere double reed instruments. Berne’s solo on “Aura de Felice”, the first tune of the night, hinted at harder-edged rhythms one phrase at a time among the bed of lyrical lines he had built up.
Duos of horn and piano can be limiting when the artists stick too closely to their traditional roles, with the horn leading and the piano offering rhythm and color. Berne and Mitchell did much to dissolve these roles, as both handled melodic and rhythmic duties nearly equally. The rapport between the two as they navigated extended sections of improvisation was a joy to watch. One such moment found Mitchell selectively employing the sustain pedal to grab Berne’s sax lines out of the air and build resonance with his input on the piano. When Berne became aware of this, he approached the piano and brought the bell of the horn close to the strings, amplifying the resonance in the small room and creating a ghostly call and response.
Many of the compositions from the two sets were of tunes from Snakeoil, a group that includes Oscar Noriega (clarinet and bass clarinet), Ches Smith (percussion and vibraphone), and Ryan Ferreira (guitars). In Snakeoil, the winds and piano propel Berne’s insistent melodies, while percussion and guitars spend as much time making pure texture as they do following the interlocking rhythms of the high lines. On the album and in performance, the guitars add a sense of space to the more abstract angles of the group’s dynamic.
But as a duo, Berne and Mitchell managed to strip down the tunes without really losing anything. The absence of a drummer was heard, but barely felt, except in the slight extra breath allowed between some of the phrases. Berne’s melodies are so heavily rhythmic that to play them well is to play them rhythmically, and the harder edges of the composer’s tone, alongside the strong pulse of riff-like ostinati on the piano, gave some moments a giddy sense of momentum. Berne’s writing often paired the piano and sax together in unison or harmonized lines, and it was here that Mitchell’s command of fugue-like voicing made its most masterful display, casting a series of brief diverging lines against the pauses in the main phrase, expanding the sound in subtle, busy ways.
Whether from the passages bordered on late romantic chamber music throughout the first set, or built tension as the duo worked their way out of an improvised section, Berne and Mitchell were always in communication. It was a negotiation, but one in which almost every outcome was a gain.
The next show at Firehouse 12 is tomorrow. It features Spectral, a trio with Darren Johnston on trumpet and Dave Rempis and Larry Ochs on saxophone. Firehouse 12’s current run of shows extends to June 18; click here for more details.
