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Steven Bernstein

An impactful presence on the New York scene over the past 30 years, trumpeter, composer, arranger and bandleader Steven Bernstein has immersed himself in such a wide array of music with his bands Sexmob, Millennial Territory Orchestra, Diaspora Soul, Universal Melody Brass Band, Spanish Fly, Blue Campfire and the Butler-Bernstein Hot 9 that he defies easy categorization. A former member of the Lounge Lizards and Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble Band, Bernstein has also composed works for film, theater and dance in addition to doing arrangements for a diverse list of artists ranging from Lou Reed to Lee “Scratch” Perry, Allen Toussaint, Marianne Faithfull, Linda Ronstadt, Rufus Wainwright, Darlene Love, Mario Pavone, Bill Frisell, John Lurie and the Kansas City All-Stars. His lengthy list of sideman credits includes recent recordings by Laurie Anderson (Heart of a Dog), Roswell Rudd (Trombone for Lovers), Mostly Other People Do The Killing (Loafer’s Hollow), Antony and the Johnsons (Turning) and Nels Cline (Lovers). He also continues to perform with Ray Anderson’s Pocket Brass Band, Omaha Diner and the Kamikaze Ground Crew.

Born on October 8, 1961 in Berkeley, California, Bernstein was hugely influenced by his Berkeley School band director, Phil Hardymon, who instilled in his students a sense of disciplined ensemble playing in the Count Basie tradition. In 6th grade, Bernstein formed what would become a lifelong friendship and musical partnership with saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum, later the leader of the Hieroglyphics Ensemble. The two would attend performances in the Bay Area by Eddie Harris, Sam Rivers, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Roland Kirk and Woody Shaw at the Keystone Korner and a series of solo concerts by Leo Smith, Lester Bowie, Oliver Lake and Baikida Carroll as well as one eye-opening gig by the Art Ensemble of Chicago at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. Bernstein studied in Berkeley with former Woody Herman and Stan Kenton trumpeter John Coppola and after moving to New York in 1978 was mentored by lead trumpeter and ubiquitous session man Jimmie Maxwell, who had replaced Harry James in the Benny Goodman Orchestra in the early 1940s.

Bernstein joined John Lurie’s outfit the Lounge Lizards in 1990, appearing on the group’s 1991 release Live in Berlin on the Intuition label. Shortly before that, in 1988 he had formed the daring Spanish Fly trio with slide guitarist Dave Tronzo and tuba virtuoso Marcus Rojas. They began performing at the Knitting Factory and subsequently released 1994’s Rags to Britches on Knitting Factory Works and 1996’s Fly By Night on Accurate Records. By 1995, producer Hal Willner, a fan of Spanish Fly, enlisted Bernstein as arranger for the soundtrack to Robert Altman’s film Kansas City, which led to collaborations on other Willner projects, including arranging for Jazz Foundation of America benefit concerts (featuring singers Lou Reed, Bono, Darlene Love, Macy Gray, Elvis Costello and Dr. John) at the Apollo Theatre, tributes to Bill Withers, Doc Pomus and Leonard Cohen at Celebrate Brooklyn and arranging work on the soundtrack for the 2005 documentary film, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man.

In 1996, Bernstein formed Sexmob with saxophonist Briggan Krauss, bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen. It remains his primary vehicle for exploring the slide trumpet, a rare instrument that he picked up in a Woodstock guitar shop back in 1977. Sexmob made its recording debut with 1998’s Din of Inequity and followed with 2000’s Solid Sender, 2001’s Sex Mob Does Bond, 2003’s Dime Grind Palace, 2006’s Sexotica, 2009’s Sex Mob Meets Medeski: Live in Willisau and 2013’s Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti: Sex Mob Plays Fellini. In that span of recordings, the group put their patented Sexmob touch on an eclectic list of tunes by the likes of Leadbelly, John Barry, Hoagy Carmichael, Paul McCartney, Duke Ellington, Prince, Kurt Cobain, the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Count Basie, Professor Longhair and Nino Rota. The group’s latest, in its 20th anniversary year, is Cultural Capital, the first Sexmob recording to feature all Bernstein original compositions.

From 1999 to 2008, Bernstein contributed four recordings to John Zorn’s Radical Jewish Culture series on his Tzadik label — 1999’s Diaspora Soul (featuring members of the Lounge Lizards and Sex Mob), 2002’s Diaspora Blues (featuring jazz legend Sam Rivers), 2004’s Diaspora Hollywood (inspired by the classic film composers and the West Coast cool jazz sound) and 2008’s Diaspora Suite (a kind of homecoming, recorded in San Francisco with some fellow Bay Area musicians he grew up with). Each project cleverly combined traditional cantorial songs and elements of jazz, blues and rock, with Bernstein serving as composer-arranger-producer and trumpeter/slide trumpeter.

Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra debuted with 2006’s MTO, Vol. 1, which featured large ensemble interpretations of tunes by Stevie Wonder (“Signed, Sealed, Delivered”), Prince (‘Darling Nikki”) and the Grateful Dead (“Ripple”) as well as Benny Moten (“Toby”) and Charlie Johnson & His Paradise Band (“The Boy in the Boat”). They followed with 2008’s We Are MTO, which included renditions of Fats Waller’s “Viper Song,” Don Redman’s “Paducah,” Count Basie’s “Dickie’s Dream” and the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love.” Their 2011 recording, MTO Plays Sly, was a tribute to the music of Sly & The Family Stone and featured the late P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell along with vocalists Dean Bowman, Sandra St. Victor, Antony Hegarty and Martha Wainwright.

In 2012, Bernstein combined forces with New Orleans piano master Henry Butler in the retro-flavored Butler, Bernstein & the Hot 9. Their critically acclaimed 2014 Impulse! debut, Viper’s Drag, featured spirited renditions of Fats Waller’s title track along with tunes by Jelly Roll Morton and originals by Butler. In keeping with Bernstein’s wildly eclectic nature, the group ranges from King Oliver to Professor Longhair to Billy Preston in concert.

The restlessly creative Bernstein continues to juggle working several bands. During his recent residency at The Stone in NYC, he trotted out Sexmob, Millennial Territory Orchestra, Spanish Fly, Blue Campfire and Universal Melody Brass Band. Says the trumpeter-composer-arranger of his modus operandi in all of his wide-ranging musical situations: “I’m trying to present this way of looking at music where you can do a Jelly Roll piece, then a Leonard Cohen piece, then an Ornette Coleman piece, then a Duke piece and then a piece by The Band. And it’s not even about it being eclectic, it’s just music. Let’s play it. Here’s a chart, let’s go!”.

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Ray Anderson Pocket Brass Band: Come In

by Vic Albani
November 2, 2023

Con tutto il rispetto per il quartetto di musicisti titolare di questa incisione, questo disco potrebbe essere velocemente destinato alla casella “bello anche se non fondamentale." Ma c'è una storia da raccontare che forse rende giustizia alla “necessità" di volerlo pubblicare e dargli un valore comunque non indifferente. L'11 marzo 2020 è una data certamente particolare. I telefoni di Ray Anderson, Steven Bernstein, Jose Davila e Tommy Campbell (arrivati da poco a Cottbus, borgata ad un tiro di ...

Album Review

Michael Blake: Combobulate

Read "Combobulate" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
November 5, 2022

The instrumentation alone promises something out of the ordinary. Saxophone, two tubas, trumpet, trombone, drums. Then there are the musicians, luminaries of downtown New York jazz. Michael Blake, Bob Stewart, Marcus Rojas, Steven Bernstein, Clark Gayton, Allan Mednard. And within seconds of the needle descending on track one, side one, Combobulate starts delivering on the promise. The album is one of four marking the return of audiophile-vinyl label Newvelle after a two-year hiatus. The approximate meaning of its ...

Radio & Podcasts

Ron Miles & Steven Bernstein

by Joe Dimino
March 27, 2022

From the very talented jazz veteran Steven Bernstein with his Millenial Territory Orchestra, we start the 744th Episode of Neon Jazz. From there, we hear his hero in Duke Ellington. We listen to new music from jazz veterans like Michael Weiss, Farzin Farhadi, Eric Person and Bernie Senensky. Finally, we salute the late-great Ron Miles who we unexpectedly recently lost at the age of 58. Enjoy the jazz, my friends.Playlist Steven Bernstein's Millenial Territory Orchestra “Planet B" Tinctures ...

Radio & Podcasts

Steven Bernstein, Michael Brecker and the Art of Jazz-Hacking the Pop world - Part 1

by Ludovico Granvassu
September 19, 2020

This week we focus on Steven Bernstein and Michael Brecker, the quintessential jazz-hackers of the pop world. If you heard a compelling saxophone solo on a high-end pop or rock production, especially between the 1970s and 1990s, you could bet it was by Michael Brecker, who over the years has appeared on almost 1000 albums. Likewise, if you have been struck by an elegant yet quirky arrangement on a high-end pop or rock album from the past two ...

Radio & Podcasts

Avant-Retro or Retro-Avant? Part I

by Ludovico Granvassu
February 29, 2020

Rigid categories are not what music should be about. This week we focus on music that some may file under “retro" but is performed by musicians that are often labelled “avant," it may not sound exactly how Count Basie and the Kansas City 7 or Fess Williams and the Royal Flush Orchestra would have played, but hey... it's 2020 and it debunks the notion that musicians that may like it skronky don't know how to swing. Case in point: Steven ...

Radio & Podcasts

Steven Bernstein, Peter Apfelbaum and Will Bernard: From the East Bay to the Avant Garde

by Leo Sidran
January 20, 2020

Steven Bernstein, Peter Apfelbaum and Will Bernard on looking forward, looking back, the musical concept of opposition, defying category, broken mirrors, free improvisation, why coffee is so expensive and music is so cheap, the musical conversation between Berkeley and New York, spontaneous composition, rock and roll, Jewish weddings, Sly Stone, Bill Laswell, Trey Anastasio, and why “sex" is still a dirty word in jazz. This podcast interview was recorded live at Winter JazzFest 2020. ...

Album Review

Steven Bernstein, Paolo Fresu, Gianluca Petrella, Marcus Rojas: Brass Bang!

Read "Brass Bang!" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
April 1, 2015

All'inizio c'è la voce di Steve Bernstein che su un sottofondo di fanfara snocciola una sequenza di frasi in italiano maccheronico, da turista fai da te, poi irrompe Duke Ellington, la sua “Black and Tan Fantasy" ha pienezza orchestrale, colori vividi e sorprendente delicatezza. Anche i Rolling Stones? Così parrebbe perché l'inconfondibile melodia di “As Tears Go By" si svela solo dopo quasi sei minuti di sonorità misteriose, siderali, richiami dallo spazio o dalle profondità marine che improvvisamente si assemblano ...

Event

The Painted Bride Stirs-up Excitement With A Special Event To Acknowledge Jazz On Vine–the Longest Continuing Jazz Series In Philadelphia

Source: Painted Bride Art Center
March 28, 2012

BRIDE'S BLACK CAT BREW RECENT RECIPIENT TO AN ASCAP NATIONAL AWARD FOR ADVENTUROUS PROGRAMMING THE BRIDE STIRS-UP EXCITEMENT WITH A SPECIAL EVENT TO ACKNOWLEDGE JAZZ ON VINE —THE LONGEST CONTINUING JAZZ SERIES IN PHILADELPHIA AND ALSO ON TAP FOR THIS EVENING'S CELEBRATION, MTO PLAYS SLY STEVEN BERNSTEIN'S MILLENNIAL TERRITORY ORCHESTRA DEBUTS TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF SLY & THE FAMILY STONE AS PART OF PHILADELPHIA'S JAZZ APPRECIATION DAY Philadelphia, PA—Painted Bride Art Center presents Black Cat Brew, an evening honoring ...
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Recording

MTO Plays SLY: Steven Bernstein's Tribute to Sly & The Family Stone

Source: Calabro Music
July 20, 2011

STEVEN BERNSTEIN'S MILLENNIAL TERRITORY ORCHESTRA Pays Tribute To The Music Of SLY & THE FAMILY STONE On Third Studio Album MTO PLAYS SLY With Special Guests ANTONY HEGARTY, BERNIE WORRELL, BILL LASWELL, DEAN BOWMAN, MARTHA WAINWRIGHT, SANDRA ST. VICTOR, SHILPA RAY and VERNON REID Available SEPTEMBER 27 On LP, CD & Mp3 from ROYAL POTATO FAMILY New York City's favorite “little big band," Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra cracks open wide the monumental songbook of Sly & The Family Stone ...
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174

Festival

RVAjazzfest: Steven Bernstein

Source: RVAjazz
February 19, 2009

Steven Bernstein will perform at RVAjazzfest with Fight the Big Bull on February 21, 2009, 8pm, at The Camel. Boots of Leather and Glows in the Dark open. Tickets are $10, all ages welcome. By Dean ChristesenTrumpeter and arranger Steven Bernstein considers himself to be in a fortunate position. He is one of the few people in New York City that is able to make a living being a musician and, despite working extremely hard ...
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156

Recording

Steven Bernstein:diaspora Suite

Source: All About Jazz
June 29, 2008

By: Dennis Cook

As bold in its way as primo Ellington, yet cookin' with very different flavored grease, Steven Bernstein's rejuvenating Diaspora Suite (Tzadik) percolates with modernity but is everywhere touched by older flavors, roots and tubers caught in the teeth of this steady trundling maw. To call this jazz is a compliment to the genre. While the field can hold this level of diversity - a fisherman's net that pulls in '60s Miles Davis, Klezmer, Duke's small group recordings, ...
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259

Recording

Max Nagl, Steven Bernstein, Noel Akchote, Bradley Jones: Big Four Live on Hatology 637

Source: All About Jazz
May 21, 2007

Big Four Live: Hatology 637 Max Nagl - alto saxophone Steven Bernstein - trumpet Noel Akchote - guitar Bradley Jones - double bass In Max Nagl's varied jumble of creative activities, Big Four comes nearest to what we traditionally perceive as jazz. Formed at the suggestion of the producer Werner X. Uehlinger, who introduced him to the recordings of the original Big Four (Sidney Bechet, Muggsy Spanier, Carmen Mastren, Wellman Braud) from 1940, the ...
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Interview

Trumpeter Steven Bernstein Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
November 20, 2006

Trumpeter/composer/arranger Steven Bernstein may be the ultimate Downtown jazz personality. Certainly, he's one of the most ubiquitous and hard-working since he began playing in New York in the 1980s after relocating from California.

Contributing Editor Paul Olson caught up with Bernstein for an in-depth interview that addresses, amongst other things, his two 2006 releases with his longstanding group Sex Mob, and the first release by his Millenial Territory Orchestra.

Check out Steven Bernstein: Proud Member of the Pre-Computer Absorption Generation ...
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Recording

Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra To Relese Debut Album

Source: All About Jazz
July 1, 2006

STEVEN BERNSTEIN'S MILLENNIAL TERRITORY ORCHESTRA MAKES ALBUM DEBUT WITH “MTO VOLUME 1" ON SUNNYSIDE RECORDS Brooklyn, NY - On August 1, 2006, Sunnyside Records will release the debut studio album by Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra entitled MTO Volume 1. The nine-piece, self-proclaimed “territory band" is led by the much-heralded New York City-based trumpeter Steven Bernstein and features Matt Munisteri on guitar, banjo & vocals, Charlie Burnham on violin, Clark Gayton on trombone, Doug Wieselman on clarinet & tenor saxophone, ...
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141

Performance / Tour

Cuong Vu + Steven Bernstein in Philadelphia, Feb 13 and 20

Source: All About Jazz
February 9, 2006

Monday, February 13 | 8pm CUONG VU TRIO with Cuong Vu, trumpet; Stomu Takeishi, bass; and Ted Poor, drums

University of Pennsylvania's Houston Hall Bodek Lounge, 3417 Spruce Street Free Admission

A truly unique musical voice, Cuong Vu has lent his remarkable talent to a wide range of artists including Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Dave Douglas, Cibo Matto, Mitchell Froom and Chris Speed. Since moving to New York in 1994, ...
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Performance / Tour

Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra @ Bowery Poetry Club Every Sunday in March at 5pm

Source: All About Jazz
March 19, 2005

Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra @ Bowery Poetry Club Every Sunday in March at 5pm $12!! 308 Bowery (Bleecker-Houston) 6 to Bleecker, F/V 2nd Av 212-614-0505 Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra will be taking over from Butch Morris on Sunday's in March at Bowery Poetry Club. Rooted in the early jazz bands of the 20's and 30's and living in the present, the band celebrates traditional American music, revisting the sounds of Cecil Scott, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Andy Kirk, Prince, ...
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Performance / Tour

Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra @ Bowery Poetry Club Every Sunday in March at 5pm

Source: All About Jazz
March 10, 2005

March 10, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected] Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra @ Bowery Poetry Club Every Sunday in March at 5pm $12!! 308 Bowery (Bleecker-Houston) 6 to Bleecker, F/V 2nd Av 212-614-0505 Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra will be taking over from Butch Morris on Sunday's in March at Bowery Poetry Club. Rooted in the early jazz bands of the 20's and 30's and living in the present, the band celebrates traditional ...
read more

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