146: Steven Bernstein, Peter Apfelbaum, Will Bernard

Steven Bernstein, Peter Apfelbaum and Will Bernard are all innovative, creative and boundary pushing musicians who are equally at home in the avant garde as they are in the swamp. It comes as no surprise that they grew up together in Berkeley, California, exploring the edges of the music they loved, finding “substances” in their parents’ freezers, and improvising freely. What happened next… is the story they tell here.

We recorded this conversation at the Winter Jazzfest in New York. Here they talk about looking forward, looking back, the musical concept of opposition, defying category, broken mirrors, free improvisation, why coffee is so expensive and music is so cheap, the musical conversation between Berkeley and New York, spontaneous composition, rock and roll, Jewish weddings, Sly Stone, Bill Laswell, Trey Anastasio, and why “sex” is still a dirty word in jazz.

From L-R Leo Sidran, Will Bernard, Peter Apfelbaum, Steven Bernstein, New York, January 2020

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