Steven Bernstein - Good Time Music (Community Music, Vol. 2)

 

The second volume from the legendary arranger/trumpeter's four album "Community Music" series!

Including new arrangements of songs by Percy Mayfield, Allen Toussaint, Bessie Smith, Earl King, WC Handy and Professor Longhair

Grammy-nominated trumpeter, bandleader and composer Steven Bernstein's new album Good Time Music: (Community Music, Vol. 2), shows how inclusive the blues really is — how it transcends time (both musical and chronological) and interacts with other genres of music in sometimes surprising ways.

"Good Time Music is a continuation of the music I was making with Levon Helm, with roots in Ray Charles, New Orleans, and the blues," Bernstein says, "but refracted through my own musical prism, the particular language of the MTO and Catherine Russell's magnificent voice."

Bernstein and Russell met in 2008 when Russell did a show at one of Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble's at his barn in Woodstock; later, she recorded her acclaimed album Sentimental Streak there, with Bernstein playing and arranging horns. Russell became a regular at the Ramble and cut the Harry Nilsson tune "Poli High" with Bernstein's band Sexmob the following year, followed by a few New York shows with the MTO. She became part of the community.

Good Time Music is the second of four albums that Bernstein recorded with his ensemble, the Millennial Territory Orchestra, over four days in January 2020, and which he is releasing throughout a 12-month period in 2021 and 2022. The group's name refers to the tradition of touring jazz bands that proliferated mostly in the South and Midwest in the 1930s. (Famously, the young Bill Basie apprenticed in the Oklahoma City Blue Devils long before he became the Count and led his own band.)

The first album in the series, Tinctures In Time (released in September), focused on Bernstein's original compositions. Good Time Music features six well-known numbers, all with a visceral connection to the blues. Most of these tunes happen to be written by residents of New Orleans: Percy Mayfield ("River's Invi-tation"), Earl King ("Come On"), Allen Toussaint ("Yes We Can") and Professor Longhair ("Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand").

New Orleans music runs deep in Bernstein's bones: he's worked extensively not just with Henry Butler but with Allen Toussaint and Dr. John; he was originally taught trumpet in the style of Louis Armstrong, and, like Satchmo, he funnels his charisma and sense of humor into a stage presence that's as entertaining as it is commanding.

Which is just one connection to Cat Russell: her father Luis Russell was Louis Armstrong's musical director in the '30s and early '40s; he also played with another New Orleans jazz originator, King Oliver. (Russell's mother Carline Ray, a Juilliard grad, was a hotshot session bassist, sang in choruses conducted by Leonard Bernstein and played with the famed International Sweethearts of Rhythm.)

Russell sang backup with Steely Dan and David Bowie for years, as well as other blue chip artists such as Paul Simon, Madonna and Al Green before stepping out on her own as an acclaimed solo artist, recording seven albums and winning two Grammy nominations. Russell, a consummate professional, sang her vocals live with the band. "She's just the best," Bernstein says. "She's got a perfect mixture of science and intuition. She's an excellent musician: listen to her rhythm, every note she sings, it's perfect. There is no one else like her."

 

 

Side A

1. River’s Invitation

2. Yes We Can

3. You’ve Been A Good Old Wagon

Side B

1. Loveless Love

2. Come On

3. Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand (In The Style of Henry Butler)

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