About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

Steven Bernstein sure likes to explore a theme. Following up 2008's Diaspora Suite, the fourth in his "Diaspora" series, the prolific Bernstein now returns to his Millennial Territory Orchestra, a concept rooted in the trumpeter's love for the sound of the territorial pre-swing bands of the 1920s and '30s. Like 2006's MTO, Vol. 1, We Are MTO doesn't so much attempt to re-create that vintage music as extract its essence and reimagine it in a contemporary downtown framework. Working with a nonet featuring trumpet, trombone, violin, saxophones, guitar, bass, and drums, Bernstein and his crew often take their time letting a tune unfold, giving each soloist time to make a concise but potent statement. Whereas the originators of the style were confined to the playing length of a 78-rpm single, MTO, on a number such as Fats Waller's "Viper Song," can bathe in their own blues for nearly eight minutes, as guest vocalist Doug Wamble, who also plays guitar and banjo, turns in a hepcat vocal. Yet, always, regardless of where each player has been, the unit finds its way home by song's end. Don Redman's "Paducah" floats along dreamily, while Count Basie's "Dickie's Dream" turns up the juice, a hyper swinger that never lets up. "Makes No Difference," a Jimmie Davis/Floyd Tillman composition recorded by everyone from Bing Crosby to Ray Charles to the Supremes, is sung here by guitarist Matt Munisteri, within a slow-burning Basin Street dirge-like arrangement. By far the album's most radical reworking, though, is the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love." Its main theme is slowly rolled out, the instrumentalists at times barely present (clarinetist Doug Wieselman is a gem here) until, at last, it builds to a climactic, brassy crescendo. Jeff Tamarkin, All Music Guide

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