* En anglais uniquement
Steven Bernstein is a trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader based in New York. Best known as founder/leader of the Grammy-nominated band
Sex Mob and avant-fusion trio Spanish Fly,
Bernstein is a widely diverse talent and has amassed hundreds of credits as a sideman. He was the music director for
the Lounge Lizards, arranged and led the
Kansas City Band (from the
Robert Altman film and Verve All-Stars Tour), and conducted the Academy Award-nominated score for the film Get Shorty.
Bernstein served as musical director for several high-profile
Hal Willner projects devoted to the music of
Leonard Cohen,
Doc Pomus, and
Bill Withers. Between 1999 and 2008, he issued four aesthetically linked, critically acclaimed outings for
John Zorn's Tzadik label, including Diaspora Soul and Diaspora Hollywood. In 2004, he joined
Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble house band. He also founded the
Millennial Territory Orchestra. Their debut album,
MTO, Vol. 1, was released in 2006, followed by
We Are MTO in 2008. MTO Plays Sly appeared from Royal Potato Family in 2011.
Bernstein and the late New Orleans pianist
Henry Butler founded an almost unclassifiable, all-star band called the Hot 9 and recorded
Viper's Drag for Impulse! in 2014.
MTO issued
Tinctures in Time (Community Music, Vol. 1) in 2021.
Bernstein was born in Berkeley, California in 1961. He learned to play trumpet as an elementary school student. He was deeply influenced by his band director, Phil Hardymon, who instilled discipline in his students and ensembles. During sixth grade, he formed a lifelong and friendship and artistic relationship with composer and multi-instrumentalist
Peter Apfelbaum (
Hieroglyphics Ensemble). The pair attended many jazz concerts together in the Bay Area, seeing
Eddie Harris,
Sam Rivers,
Art Blakey,
Dexter Gordon,
Roland Kirk, and
Woody Shaw at the Keystone Korner, solo concerts by
Wadada Leo Smith,
Lester Bowie,
Oliver Lake, and
Baikida Carroll, and a group, concert by the
Art Ensemble of Chicago at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall.
After graduating high school in 1978,
Bernstein moved to New York City in 1980. Before he left, he played trumpet on Pillars, the debut album by
Peter Apfelbaum with the Berkeley Arts Company & the Hieroglyphics Ensemble. After arriving in New York, he was mentored by Jimmie Maxwell, lead trumpeter in the
Benny Goodman Orchestra during the early 1940s and a prolific sideman. That same year, he played on disco outfit
Slick's Go for It on the Fantasy label.
Bernstein scuffled, playing with his own groups, and joined others wherever he could. In 1981 he played on Aisha by Saheb Sarbib & His Multinational Big Band, and in 1985 he played on
Kamikaze Ground Crew's self-titled debut outing.
Bernstein got his first real break in 1989 when he appeared on
Karen Mantler's My Cat Arnold and came into contact with her mother
Carla Bley and bassist
Steve Swallow. He continued to work with
Mantler for 1990's Karen Mantler & Her Cat Arnold Get the Flu, and with
Kamikaze Ground Crew on
The Scenic Route. The following year he appeared on
The Very Big Carla Bley Band,
Phyllis Hyman's
Prime of My Life, and assumed the role of music director for
the Lounge Lizards on
Live in Berlin, Vol. 1. By 1992,
Bernstein was playing live and in the studio almost seven days a week. He played on recordings by
Apfelbaum (who had migrated to New York),
Ryuichi Sakamoto's Heartbeat, and
Medeski Martin & Wood's Notes from the Underground, to name just three. In 1993,
Bernstein was performing in studio and live with
MMW, and recording with
Sakamoto,
Aztec Camera, and
Justin Warfield.
Late that year,
Bernstein co-founded the Spanish Fly trio with guitarist
David Tronzo and tuba master
Marcus Roja and began wowing audiences at the Knitting Factory and elsewhere on the downtown scene. They recorded Rags to Britches for Knitting Factory Works and Insert Tongue Here for Home Recordings in 1994. The following year he was part of
Zorn's large ensemble for the recording of John Zorn's Cobra's Live at the Knitting Factory, and guested with
Don Byron for his hit
Raymond Scott tribute
Bug Music.
Bernstein served as conductor and orchestrator on the score for director Barry Sonnenfeld's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty for the big screen.
Spanish Fly issued Fly by Night in 1996, and
Bernstein also played studio sideman to
Lori Carson,
Satoko Fujii, and
Jim Foetus. That same year,
Bernstein worked in Hollywood again. He joined
Hal Willner and
Butch Morris as an associate music producer and arranger on the score and soundtrack for
Robert Altman's film Kansas City.
Although
Bernstein founded
Sex Mob in 1995 (he plays slide trumpet), they played live until 1997, when they issued their first recording, Sign of the Times, for Knitting Factory Works. They followed with the
Columbia-distributed
Din of Inequity in 1998, directed
Lounge Lizards on
Queen of All Ears, and played on
John Lurie's
African Swim and Manny & Lo. That same year,
Sex Mob issued its second album,
Solid Sender, and toured regionally.
In 1999,
Bernstein issued Diaspora Soul for
Zorn's Tzadik label as an entry in its Radical Jewish Culture Series. His bandmates included
Sex Mob-bers
Briggan Krauss and
Tony Scherr, with Roberto Rodriguez,
Apfelbaum, and
Michael Blake, among others. In 2000, he played on
Lou Reed's
Ecstasy. In 2001
Sex Mob released its Grammy-nominated album,
Sex Mob Does Bond, and in 2002, he issued the solo Diaspora Blues for Tzadik. The following year,
Sex Mob issued
Dime Grind Palace, and
Reed requested that
Bernstein rejoin him for his
Edgar Allan Poe tribute,
The Raven. The trumpeter also guested on
Paul Shapiro's Midnight Minyan for Tzadik. Diaspora Hollywood appeared in 2004, the same year
Bernstein joined
Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble band, playing in the house and touring versions; he also played on
Bill Frisell's
Unspeakable,
Antony and the Johnsons'
The Lake, and
Medeski Martin & Wood's
End of the World Party.
Bernstein founded the
Millennial Territory Orchestra in 2004, showcasing a stellar compendium of musicians from across the country, and many guests. Their debut album,
MTO, Vol. 1, was released in 2006, during the same calendar year that
Sex Mob released
Sexotica, and
Bernstein arranged the orchestra for
Willner's
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man. He also cut sessions with
Antony and the Johnsons,
Joan as Police Woman,
Trey Anastasio,
Bobby Previte,
Shapiro, and
Mario Pavone.
Bernstein remained exceptionally busy as a studio and touring sideman in 2007.
He issued
We Are MTO in 2008 (the orchestra was primarily a vehicle for
Bernstein's arranging of other people's compositions) as well as Diaspora Suite, the fourth and final entry in the project for Tzadik. In 2009, he collaborated with
Marcus Rojas and
Kresten Osgood to release Tattoos & Mushrooms on the ILK Recordings imprint, and played on no less than ten other recordings, including sets by
Marianne Faithfull and
Helm. In 2010, he played a key role in composer/guitarist's
Todd Clouser's band for the album A Love Electric, and was a featured soloist on
Fight Like a Bull's
All Is Gladness in the Kingdom on Clean Feed.
Bernstein showed no signs of letting up in 2011. He played on
David Bromberg's comeback album
Use Me,
Lee "Scratch" Perry's
Rise Again, and
Helm's live
Ramble at the Ryman. Still he found time to make his own music -- even if it was a variation on someone else's. Despite the side work,
Bernstein once again found time for
MTO. They released the widely acclaimed MTO Plays Sly on Royal Potato Family that September. The nine-piece orchestra -- augmented by guest appearances from
Antony Hegarty,
Bernie Worrell,
Dean Bowman,
Sandra St. Victor,
Bill Laswell,
Martha Wainwright,
Vernon Reid, and
Shilpa Ray -- performed a
Bernstein-arranged suite from the Sly Stone catalog and included several original interludes.
Bernstein also worked with
Coheed and Cambria in 2011, playing on the albums The Afterman and
The Afterman: Descension.
After an eight-year break,
Sex Mob reunited. Delivering a program of
Nino Rota's themes, Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti: Sex Mob Plays Fellini was released in 2013. It was a big year for the trumpeter, who played on
Marshall Crenshaw's Stranger and Stranger EP and
Roswell Rudd's Trombone for Lovers, among other appearances.
Back in 1998,
Bernstein met top-shelf New Orleans pianist
Henry Butler while leading the band in
Robert Altman's film Kansas City. The pair re-teamed in 2011 to perform early 20th century blues and jazz at a N.Y.C. blues festival. In 2012, they played an extended run at the Jazz Standard, where producer Joshua Feigenbaum caught their act and convinced them to record. He produced
Viper's Drag, co-billed with an all-star backing back called the Hot 9. The set was issued to kick off the revitalized Impulse! label in July of 2014. It was their only outing,
Butler died in 2018. That same year
Bernstein continued to work in the studio with
Antony and the Johnsons,
Loudon Wainwright III, and the
Satoko Fujii Orchestra.
In 2016,
Sex Mob issued Cultural Capital, a collection comprised entirely of
Bernstein originals. He also played an important role on
Nels Cline's double-length
Lovers. The following year,
Bernstein was tapped to play on
Valerie June's
The Order of Time,
Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber's All You Zombies Dig the Luminosity, and
Mostly Other People Do the Killing's
Loafer's Hollow.
Bernstein was a co-billed soloist on
Nobody Does It Better: The CCDM Jazz Orchestra as James Bond. He also appeared on Elvis Costello & the Imposters'
Look Now, and longtime friend and collaborator
Joe Fiedler's
Open Sesame.
In 2021,
Bernstein played with
Ray Anderson's
Pocket Brass Band on Come In and issued
Tinctures in Time (Community Music, Vol. 1) with
MTO on Ropeadope. The album marked the very first time that
Bernstein composed as well as arranged original music for the ensemble. ~ Joslyn Lane & Thom Jurek