Steven Bernstein Releases a Daring Pair of Albums, ResoNation Trio with Scott Colley and Nasheet Waits, and Ultra Resonance with Scotty Hard

This article originally appeared on Jazz Police.

By Don Berryman

Steven Bernstein and Scotty Hard, photo by Marc Berg

Steven Bernstein of Sexmob fame released a pair of albums – one being the seed of the other. He is known for his prowess on the slide trumpet (a.k.a. the soprano trombone) in the group Sexmob that formed in 1996 and is still going strong 30 years later. For this new project Bernstein plays valve trumpet and flugelhorn together with jazz heavyweights Scott Colley on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums in the ResoNation Trio. Though the instrumentation is spare, the sound is full as each player has space for creative expression. Then Bernstein partnered with producer Scotty Hard (Scott Harding) taking the tapes from ResoNation Trio to be parsed and reassembled with augmentation into a completely new and other-worldly work called Ultra Resonance. Although each work can stand on its own, these albums are sold as a pair.

From the outset Steven Bernstein had both projects planned. As he says in the notes: “ResoNation Trio and Ultra Resonance have been percolating in my imagination for a very long time. In 1981, I became enchanted by Burning Spear’s record Garvey’s Ghost… I didn’t know what I was hearing, but I loved the new musical world that was surrounding my ears. Years later, when I realized that the album was a “dub” reinvention of the record Marcus Garvey, my first thought was, “What if we did that to an instrumental jazz/improvisation record?” It’s taken a long time to get here.”

ResoNation Trio

A trumpet trio is not frequently heard. Although a chordless trio format has been explored extensively by saxophonists dating back to Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West and A Night At The Village Vanguard both from 1957. Rollins said the piano was a dominating instrument and he enjoyed the freedom of the trio. Likewise Bernstein with his trio Scott Colley and Nasheet Waits explores the musical landscape with harmonic freedom. This format puts particular responsibility in the hands of the bass player. Scott Colley’s big woody sound on the bass tends to dominate the sound while providing the anchor for the compositions. Nasheen Waits’ peppery drum work adds the spice and forward momentum. This is an all-acoustic session, and Bernstein’s trumpet and flugelhorn is played without mute or effects, as his playing sometimes soars above and other times mournfully broods below. The music flows naturally like a conversation and the interplay between these three musicians keeps it interesting. The sound on the recording is excellent.

Track listing

Side A

Turf
Pettiford
Two Shakes
Woodstock
August 3

Side B

West
Mammoth
Question
South
Sitting on Top of the World

All compositions by Steven Bernstein (Spanish Fly Music, ASCAP) Except ”Sitting on Top of the World” by Walter Vinson & Lonnie Chatman (Public Domain)

Ultra Resonance

Steven Bernstein photo-by-Andrew Blackstein

Like Mary Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein, Scotty Hard took chopped up pieces from the ResoNation Trio session recordings, augmented and reassembled them, and gave them new life. His bolt of lightning arrived via drum machines, samplers, synthesizers and a Hammond organ. Bernstein added sound from an EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument). More percussion was provided by Jeremy Gustin.

As Bernstein describes in the notes: “Scotty Hard and I have been making records together for 30 years… his imagination and art embrace the unknown. Ultra Resonance is a view into his singular musical vision. Each piece Scotty created started with a seed from the ResoNation Trio album that grows into a futurist orchestration of rhythms and vibrations.”

Ultra Resonance is everything the acoustic trio is not; it is dense and reverberating while using fragments from the trio with lush sounds intermingled in with loops. The sound is reminiscent of Scotty Hard’s remix work on Martin Medeski and Wood’s 2000 Blue Note release The Dropper.