If you’ve been out to an O-town festival or caught some live music at one of the clubs, chances are you’ve seen Steve Berndt perform. The man gets around. From swinging performances with soul sensations The Commotions, bopping beats and jumpin’ blues with The Jivewires, to smaller trio tributes to Tom Waits, Berndt and his trombone have been making the Capital groove for years.
His tune "Blue Skies On Mars", a song written for the Brian Lutes film with the same name, won Best Original Song at the 2018 International Independent Film Awards in Los Angeles and was nominated by a third party to the Orinos Film Awards in Italy. Recently, he’s somehow found the time to start working on his first solo release.
Steve and I chat about where his new project is at, his long-time partnership with trumpet player Ed Lister and his thoughts on the current Ottawa jazz scene before he takes this stage with The Commotions for a free show Saturday night at Craft Beer Market. It’s all part of RBC Bluesfest’s new Come See and Hear the World festival!
Check out more on that right here but, first, let’s talk a little jazz with Steve Berndt.
Andre Gagne: What sparked your initial interest to start playing the trombone?
Steve Berndt: I was always interested in music and was already a fan of Chicago and mentioned that band when I was asked what music I liked when it came time to choose an instrument in junior high. As the trombone is often the lead in Chicago's horn section, my music teacher suggested I play the trombone. Of course he needed trombone players but I liked the horn and stuck with it.
What advice might you have for somebody just starting out with the instrument and what recordings/musicians should they try to track down and listen to?
I would recommend hiring a private trombone teacher once certain you want to play that horn. I understand it's expensive but it is the best way to make sure a beginner gets the basics right as well as providing inspiration. As to recordings, I would recommend listening to as much trombone playing in all styles as they can, from jazz to classical to blues to marching band to anything and everything out there. Of course there are the famous jazz trombonists like JJ Johnson, Slide Hampton and Urbie Green but there are many other players in many other styles that can also inform and inspire.
As somebody who has been in the Ottawa scene for many years, how would you say it has progressed recently?
The scene is growing with the city, as you would expect. There are more and more players and bands deciding to base themselves here and the trend to leave for larger centers is slowing down. There are also more intermediate venues and concert series as well as very good local festivals. As tough as it is to compete with multimedia, there is still a decent club scene.
People have told me that Ottawa doesn’t have much of a jazz scene until the summer festival rolls around and others have said that Ottawa is a big jazz town. What is your view on jazz in O-town?
There is lots of jazz here, many small venues as well as Options Lounge at the Brookstreet Hotel. Also there are many self-produced concerts at venues like the 4th Stage and The Shenkman Arts Centre. The Jazz Fest has a well-funded ad campaign that buys TV space so people see it and assume there is nothing else going on.
You mentioned a few t. Where are some of the other places you’d suggest people go to find jazz music in O-town?
Check out the many websites that promote jazz and local venues, also newspapers and radio. There is quite a bit of information if you're willing to look for it. If you take a passive approach you will miss a great deal of what is available on the scene.
You play with many bands in the city as well as supporting your own more solo efforts. How do you balance all these and still, you know, have a personal life outside of music?
Scheduling is always a tough balancing act but I manage to cover most of the dates that come my way. It's comparatively rare that two important gigs fall on the same date but when that happens you simply have to make a choice, communicate and move on. Personal time is mostly compromised by the large load of unpaid but necessary rehearsals.
How do you prepare for a show with, say, The Jivewires verses one with The Commotions?
As the leader of The Jivewires I have a great deal more to do in preparation for a show than I do for The Commotions as I'm not the leader of that band. As a new group with an ambitious recording agenda, The Commotions are rehearsing far more than The Jivewires right now.
So, despite multiple shows with various bands and the holiday season nipping at your heels, you still manage to record your first solo album. However did you pull that off and still be standing let along melody making?
Not that hard to do, just keep going. I would imagine raising a family and holding a full time job is tougher as well as never ending!
You did this over three days, right? Three days? Recording 15 tracks! Just after Boxing Day! Sounds gruelling. What can you tell me about the recording process?
I chose Boxing Day to start as the holiday period between Dec 25th and the 31st is typically slow for live performance and Gigspace would also be closed for the same reason. So it made sense seeing as that people would more likely be available and that turned out to be the case. We started each day laying down bed tracks with the rhythm section and then added the horns later on. It all worked out very smoothly and what I've got so far sounds great! Gigspace has a properly tuned room as it was originally a recording studio and it also has a good grand piano so everything fell into place nicely.
I made beef stew for everyone each day which is always the essential ingredient for a great sounding record. All else is secondary, of course!
You pulled in a bunch of Ottawa’s best musicians to join you. How did you find it all meshed together over such a quick batch of sessions. I mean, I imagine you’ve worked with many of them before?
We had one rehearsal with everyone to make sure my charts worked and then stuck to a recording schedule. We actually came in a few hours shorter than my original estimate. Yes, I've worked with all the people on the album many times, I know them all well as artists, technicians and friends so it was easy to predict what would happen. Production is always easy when you have talented personnel who know each other’s' abilities and conduct themselves in a professional manner.
Speaking of collaborations, you’ve done a lot of great work with Ed Lister. Why do you think you two gel so well to create amazing horn sections?
Ed is a great trumpet player, I am more than certain that any horn section he was part of would be amazing, providing the other players were also good. It's great having him play in The Jivewires and to work with him in The Commotions.
What’s left to complete on the new album?
I was coming down with a cold when the album was being recorded so I didn't lay down the vocal tracks. That wouldn't have taken too much time but it was not in the cards. Along with the vocals I still have to add some guitar to a few tracks and also some organ. The end of the recording phase marks the beginning of the post production phase: editing, mixing, mastering, album graphics and marketing.
I don’t want to press you for a title and such seeing it is all still in progress but what can you tell me about some of the tracks on this release?
Without going into detail on each tune I will say that most of the 11 original songs were written over in the last few years but the oldest was built on something I wrote in college for theory class in the 80's. I expanded it into a full tune about 15 years ago and wrote the lyrics in 2011. Fittingly it's called “Long Lost Love Affair”. Two of the songs are brand new compositions I wrote the week before the recording. Three of the songs were written last year as a promotional gag for a show I did at La Nouvelle Scene. I decided to advertise the show as containing 3 new songs written one week before the show and played for the first time. All three turned out well and so they're all on the album. The album also contains 3 pop tunes from the 70's, re-harmonized and in a jazz treatment. There’s also the big band version of my song "Blue Skies On Mars" that I wrote for a movie of the same name.
You mentioned that you recorded this at Gigspace, a valuable new resource for many creative types here in Ottawa. Can you share what the space was like for you to other musicians who may be thinking of recording there?
Gigspace is a custom built, properly tuned recording space with a professionally maintained grand piano. It was a great space to record in and I would recommend it to anyone for any project. The reality however is that it is a full time teaching and performance space that is not being rented for private recording. I was able to rent the space because I'm on staff there and I booked during the holidays.