by dan pine
staff writer
Leave it to Steve Bernstein to compare Moshe Koussevitsky –– the famous Lithuanian-born cantor extraordinaire of the 1940s –– to Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong.
The comparison is not at all outlandish, he insists. To demonstrate a link between klezmer and Dixieland, the New York-based composer and jazz trumpeter whips out his horn and plays three bars of the frenzied klezmer tune “Chazen Kaleh Mazel Tov,” followed by four bars of the equally famous New Orleans dirge, “St. James Infirmary.”
The connection immediately becomes apparent: It’s practically the same tune, but a different meter.
Bernstein loves to weave connecting threads between divergent styles in his music. How divergent? In his latest series of compositions, collectively titled “Diaspora Blues,” Bernstein lays down mellifluous Koussevitsky melodies over Afro-Cuban rhythms.
Bay Area audiences will have a chance to sample “Diaspora Blues” when Bernstein joins Berkeley jazzman Peter Apfelbaum in a Sunday, March 18 concert at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Thrust Stage, as part of this year’s Jewish Music Festival.
Bernstein and Apfelbaum go back a long way. Both attended Malcolm X Elementary School and Berkeley High School together, and both were part of the highly regarded Berkeley High School jazz program, which counts among its alumni esteemed artists Joshua Redman and Benny Green.
Both also have experimented with integrating Jewish themes into their compositions. Over the last eight years, Bernstein has recorded three “Diaspora” CDs for John Zorn’s Tzadik label.
To familiarize himself with the music of Koussevitzky, Bernstein went to the source — his large collection of 78-rpm records, which he plays on a crank-powered 1911 Victrola record player.
“[John] Coltrane used to listen to Koussevitsky,” Bernstein said. “I had this idea of taking these Koussevitsky prayers and modal music and putting them into an American jazz context.”
Bernstein has had plenty of other ideas over the course of his career. His band Sex Mob was nominated for a Grammy earlier this year, and his touring schedule keeps him out on the road. He also has scored several feature films and documentaries and has written ballet scores. Along the way, he has worked with Leonard Cohen, Sting, Linda Ronstadt, the Band’s Levon Helm and Elton John, among others.
Though he wasn’t a klezmer fan growing up, and had studiously avoided labeling himself a “Jewish musician,” Bernstein eventually realized he couldn’t avoid something so fundamental to his being.
“When you’re a young musician, you try to emulate others as much as you can — but the job is to create your own music and recreate it in your own image,” he said. “So I made this record [‘Diaspora Blues’].”
Growing up Jewish in Berkeley (his family belonged to Congregation Beth El), Bernstein was exposed to the thriving multiculturalism of the East Bay. Although he considers himself a proud cultural Jew, his spiritual life has gone in a different direction.
“My religion is music,” he says. “Music is the religion of peace. When you [play music], you have an instant moral code, because we’re only doing this for love.
“People don’t realize how hard it is to practice every day, to go on a plane for 10 hours and play,” he continued. “But most people don’t have what we have, a direct connection to the other world. When you’re a musician, you live your entire life on the other side.”
That musician’s life has taken him, in his various band incarnations, around the world, including to the Jewish Music Festival in Krakow, Poland, and a concert in Germany, where he performed “Diaspora Blues.” (The significance of playing Moshe Koussevitsky’s music in what was the heart of the Third Reich was not lost on him.)
Coming home to Berkeley for the Jewish Music Festival is a treat for Bernstein, but no more special than any day he gets to play jazz for a receptive audience.
“I’m doing the exact same thing now I’ve been doing all my life,” he says. “Playing and hanging out with friends.”
“Diaspora Blues,” from Grammy-nominee Steven Bernstein with Peter Apfelbaum and Friends, takes place 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 18 at Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. Information and tickets: (800) 838-3006 or online at www.jewishmusicfestival.org.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California