By Gary Chapin
There’s a master’s thesis—or a tawdry Netflix miniseries—to be written
about Tim Berne and his serial relationships with amazing, visionary
guitarists. Bill Frisell, Nels Cline, Marc Ducret, etc. Berne met guitarist
Gregg Belisle-Chi when the latter arranged a Berne composition for solo
acoustic guitar (it was something to do during the pandemic) and
posted it on Instagram. Berne reached out to Belisle-Chi and soon we had
Belisle-Chi’s
Koi: Performing the Music of Tim Berne
, produced by Berne. Then came
their duet record
. Now, Belisle-Chi has become one of Berne’s usual suspects on both
acoustic and electric guitar.
Belisle-chi has an expansive way of playing the electric, filling the room
the way an orchestra does, with a quantity of sound. There’s a touch of
proggy goodness in there—which is a treat for this lifetime prog fan. This
sort of electric bombast makes for a perfect partner for Berne’s
preternaturally strong sax.
The two take Berne’s compositions in a less oblique way than in other
settings. It’s always interesting to hear how different agglomerations of
players render these compositions. On the disc, we’re given 10 studio
tracks and 9 live tracks. Here’s the thing: in a few cases, we hear a tune
played in the studio, and then hear the same tune played live. Call me a
nerd but I find it FASCINATING to compare versions of the tunes to one
another. There’s the obvious differences of improvised chunks, but tempos,
dynamics, voicing … it’s all up for grabs. The composition is composed in
the moment! And look, I know that this is how our kind of music works—but
it’s very cool to see it so explicitly in action. Like seeing the aurora
borealis.
I haven’t mentioned Tom Rainey, yet. Not because I want to look away, but
because I want to set him aside for high honors. Rainey is
characteristically great on Yikes Too, holding the whole garment
together with his infinitely long thread of whackity-whack. I’ve
loved his stuff forever, but this year I’m feeling something special. In the
race for improv MVP of 2025, he’s already at the top of my list. 5 Stars