(Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Improvisation) Bruno Chevillon & Tim Berne - Old and Unwise - 2011, WEB, FLAC (tracks), lossless

It's one of the ironies of life that the more you learn during your time on this planet, the more you realize how little you really know. Perhaps that is the ultimate wisdom... OLD & UNWISE is two veterans of improvised music – American saxophonist Tim Berne and French double-bassist Bruno Chevillon – facing the known and the unknowns, tête-à-tête; it's a record of one afternoon in the studio, in Portugal – the pair improvising freely and totally, exploring sound, spinning tales in the moment. There was nothing, then there was music, for keeps. One minute that music can seem as if the listener stumbled through the Amazon jungle to find two shamans keening in some ritual, charming snakes, casting a spell; other tracks can sound like off-kilter seductions, as if they were noir love songs from the back alley of another world. There are melodies from the bass, rhythms from the alto sax, and vice-versa; there is humor, there is beauty – it rumbles, it sings, it's intoxicating. Such duets demand rare intimacy, the one-on-one communication forcing each player to open up, unable to rely on group interplay. The format has always appealed to Berne, with his past duo encounters including discs with guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Marilyn Crispell, cellist Hank Roberts and bassist Michael Formanek. Previously, Berne and Chevillon developed chemistry together in bands led by guitarist Marc Ducret and violinist Dominique Pifarély, although the two originally met long before – in 1983, in Avignon, when Chevillon was a photographer and Berne was on his first tour of Europe. "I love Bruno's playing – it's this great combination of the organic and the virtuosic. His arco playing is insanely good. A lot of people know him from playing with Louis Sclavis for so long, but Bruno was actually a late-starter, another thing we have in common." Chevillon and Berne went into the studio in Lisbon after three live gigs, improvising every note on the spot in the most fluid manner, as the saxophonist recalls: "We went in at 2:30, and by 5:00, I was out body-surfing." The musical result is marked by distilled concision. Berne explains: "An audience makes things more visceral, the feedback stoking your ego, getting the adrenaline going. But the studio vibe with Bruno was concentrated. We would hit on a central idea, milk it and then out, no circling around." The end product was mastered by technical whiz David Torn and packaged with artwork by Steve Byram, two longtime Berne confreres. But the music is presented exactly as it happened on the day, in order with no edits. "We set up in a big, high-ceilinged room, natural with no headphones, and we just played," Berne says. "It's very old-school. In a good way." ~ Bradley Bambarger

Freedom. Free-dom. What is it? And how do you get it? In music the word denotes something specific. At least in jazz. It means in part starting out a musical performance with the idea that what is going to happen will happen because the players spontaneously put their improvised parts together without a great deal of overt deliberation. They also, to whatever extent. play what they please, without someone dictating to them in some concrete sense. So it could be anything. And when the ensemble has a small number of people, then constraints on the improvisers are even less, at least in some purely "free" situation. So freedom in jazz relies on the maximum of creative input on the part of the players. Such freedom is a part of all jazz to some extent. But so-called free jazz accentuates that. Now of course each player has ways of playing that have something to do with his or her originality and way of musical thinking-feeling. And each responds to the other players. So of course it is not some cosmic random freedom, but a human one that involves intention and will on the part of each musician.
And now we turn to an excellent example of this kind of freedom. Bassist Bruno Chevillon, a name not overly familiar to me, and alto saxophologist Tim Berne, well-known and well-liked for his originality, join forces for the hour-plus session Old and Unwise (Clean Feed 221). It's a series of 11 free duets. It shows Mr. Chevillon a very game player, a very good improvising artist and able partner of the lucid and singular Tim Berne.
Each improvisation is distinguished by a way to go about things. One for example consists of trading short phrases, one more staccato, one legato, one with longer tones, one with rapid exchanges, etc. It is a mark of their rapport as a duo and their individual free imagination that the mood and sound of each duet varies. It also makes what could get tedious just the opposite.
This is high-level music making. It is a testament to Bruno's bass playing prowess and fertile inventive skills that he is a full partner in the exchange with Tim, who has well established his credentials in this arena. Berne is in top form throughout, spurred onward by some very capable bass wielding. The music is more about the notes than about sound color. Improvised jazz line melody is the top priority and they come through the hoop of fire flying freely and gracefully, so to speak.
This one will appeal to all fans of Tim Berne, free contrabass and the creative improvised music scene. Most definitely recommended! ~ Grego Edwards

Tim Berne’s prodigious discography is mostly stocked with collections of his monumentally scaled compositions, sprawling musical roadmaps for laborious treks through ever-changing landscapes. These two new releases, however, are both wholly improvised sessions, revealing that the scope of Berne’s thinking is hardly diminished by the absence of sheet music.
Old and Unwise finds Berne keeping less-familiar company in French bassist Bruno Chevillon. Where the BB&C trio single-mindedly forged itself into a lumbering, destructive behemoth, this duo outing is a more traditional dialogue between two adventurous soloists. The album takes the form of 11 focused interactions, each staking out slightly different territory.
Berne’s playing has always balanced on a tightrope between tart serpentines and the burly, big-shouldered honk inherited from his mentor, Julius Hemphill. Chevillon proves a perfect complement to that sound, offering up massive slabs of tone to meet the saxophonist’s piercing stabs, bowing gentle elegies under bluesy howls, or meeting breathiness with tense, insectoid buzzing. Chevillon maximizes his bass, coaxing sounds from the instrument outside of its expected range. “Quelque Chose Vacille” opens with almost vocal-like resonances from sharply plucked strings; on “Single Entendre” it becomes a percussion instrument, with pops, slaps and booms. “Cornered” seems to take the idea of “sawing” the bass literally.
It may be difficult to keep up with Berne’s release schedule (even more so with his endless supply of pun-happy band names), but each new title finds his expansive inventiveness diverting down another strangely contoured alley. Almost always, it’s worth the effort to follow his lead. ~ Shaun Brady