{"id":3242,"date":"2021-09-02T22:03:18","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T03:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=3242"},"modified":"2021-09-03T15:47:45","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T20:47:45","slug":"changing-molecules-steven-bernstein-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/changing-molecules-steven-bernstein-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing Molecules: A Conversation with Steven Bernstein (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We continue our conversation with Steven Bernstein by discussing his Community Music project more generally and what distinguishes Tinctures in Time<\/em> (Royal Potato Family, 2021) from the forthcoming three albums in the series. We also consider Sexmob’s continued legacy on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the groundbreaking band’s founding, including the uniqueness of Bernstein’s choice to use the slide trumpet and the influences of John Lurie, Hal Willner, and Don Cherry. The first part of our conversation can be found here.<\/a>
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PostGenre: What was behind the idea of spreading the Community Music project over four albums? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steven Bernstein: I\u2019ve been putting out records for about 30 years, going back to the band Spanish Fly. At a certain point, it just seems like you aren\u2019t making the albums for yourself. I am not going to be some big famous musician. And there\u2019s also no real need to revisit what I\u2019ve already made as I think they all hold up. So, I only make new records if I feel like there\u2019s something new that I can say. <\/p>

The original idea for the Community Music project was to document as many arrangements as possible that I had done for Hal [Willner], The Town Hall Ensemble, etc. I would get Bettye LaVette and Lisa Fischer to sing. I would also get all these different people like Pedrito Martinez, Nels [Cline], and Lenny Pickett, and just put something huge together. But it just cost way too much money to do that.  I started thinking more about the unifying idea behind that project.

I\u2019ve lost a lot of people in the last few years and realized that, since none of us will be here forever, I wanted to document those closest to me while they were still with us. So, instead, I got together with one core group of guys and went in to record music for four days. I also have a lot of compositions that have barely been played. Most of the compositions on Tinctures in Time<\/em> have barely been played live. They\u2019ve been on paper but the opportunity to play live just never came up. And the focus became on performing these songs. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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