October 16th marks Tim Berne’s 72nd birthday, and few saxophonists have walked a more fiercely independent path through creative music.
Born in Syracuse, New York, in 1954, Berne didn’t come up through the usual jazz channels. He bought his first alto saxophone while attending Lewis and Clark College in Oregon — a young R&B and Motown fan with no particular jazz ambitions, until he heard Julius Hemphill‘s Dogon A.D. That 1972 recording rewired everything: in 1974 Berne moved to New York City to study with Hemphill, who became his mentor. He also cites Anthony Braxton among his most important early inspirations.
What followed is one of the most uncompromising careers in the music. Berne founded Empire Records in 1979 to release his own debut, The Five Year Plan, and after stints on Columbia (Fulton Street Maul, Sanctified Dreams), Soul Note, and JMT, he founded Screwgun Records in 1996 — the Brooklyn-based label that has documented his work ever since.
As a player, Berne moves between alto and baritone with a sound that’s instantly recognizable: jagged, vocal, harmonically daring. As a bandleader and composer, he’s led a string of landmark groups — Bloodcount (with Chris Speed, Michael Formanek, and Jim Black), Big Satan (with Marc Ducret and Tom Rainey), and his ECM quartet Snakeoil, with Oscar Noriega, Matt Mitchell, and Ches Smith, whose 2012 debut opened with “Simple City.”
Four decades in, Berne hasn’t mellowed and hasn’t compromised. Still pushing, still uncompromising. Happy birthday, Tim.
This tribute first appeared as a birthday reel on our Instagram, @the_world_of_sax.