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Adam Berenson: Tunnel of Love: The Gary Burton Quintet Project
by Roger Weisman
Traditionally the “tunnel of love" was a carnival ride, a boat built for two people to glide down tight, dark corridors together. In more socially stodgy times, it provided privacy and an excuse for some kind of physical contact that would be less accepted outside of the ride. As so much of Tunnel of Love: The Gary Burton Quintet Project feels like ruminations of solitude, the title feels almost ironic, and that is probably the point. With Berenson's austere, spacious ...
Continue ReadingAdam Berenson: Everything That No One Ever Saw
by Mark Corroto
You may recall Rod Serling's famous introduction to The Twilight Zone (1959-1964): “You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension--a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind." Those words provide an apt entry point for pianist and composer Adam Berenson's Everything That No One Ever Saw. Much like Serling's series, Berenson's music invites the listener into an unfamiliar space where perception itself becomes part of the experience. Berenson's ...
Continue ReadingAdam Berenson: What Is This Place?
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist/keyboardist/composer Adam Berenson is fascinated with Eberhard Weber, the German jazz player probably better known for his “worked with" listing than his own album releases. The influential bassist/composer has helped to shape and shade and color albums by, among others, saxophonist Jan Garbarek, Pat Metheny, guitarist Ralph Towner and vibraphonist Gary Burton. This is a “minimal list" for someone who is often described as a minimalist artist. Let us say that Weber casts a spell and that Berenson ...
Continue ReadingAdam Berenson: Dwelling on Magic Mountain
by Karl Ackermann
Pianist and keyboardist Adam Berenson excels in various music genres including jazz, classical and electronica. His solo box-set Every Beginning is a Sequel (Dream Play, 2020) found the exploratory composer employing an arsenal of keyboards and high-end synthesizers in his original compositions. Berenson returns to that general cache of instruments for Dwelling on Magic Mountain, another solo outing. The six lengthy tracks cover a lot of stylistic ground. Dark and portentous, “Cryptomnesia" opens the set in a place ...
Continue ReadingAdam Berenson: Songs from the Garret
by Karl Ackermann
Adam Berenson's Songs from the Garret is a two-CD solo collection but the essence of other composers prowl in the shadows. The lofty album title pays tribute to particular compositions from Steve Swallow, Carla Bley, Michael Gibbs, Chick Corea and a host of others. Berenson, a well-versed composer/keyboardist, takes the unusual approach (for him) of focusing entirely on covers. The pieces on Songs from the Garret are broadly described by Berenson as “Boston standards." While most of these compositions are ...
Continue ReadingAdam Berenson: Homages and Worlds
by Karl Ackermann
Adam Berenson's Assemblages (Dream Play Records, 2021), a trio outing with bassist Scott Barnum and drummer Bob Moses, was the pianist/composer's return to an acoustic piano trio setting. But Berenson is a restless pioneer who plants a flag and moves on to new territory. Never far from his collection of electronics and synthesizers, he found a commanding tool for expression in his Sequential Prophet XL, a powerful seventy-six key sampler/synthesizer. On Homages and Worlds, Berenson pays tribute to a wide ...
Continue ReadingAdam Berenson, Scott Barnum & Bob Moses: Assemblages
by Karl Ackermann
Keyboardist and composer Adam Berenson has at his disposal an arsenal of instruments, electronics, synthesizers, etc. But to hear him in the traditional acoustic piano trio setting is immensely enjoyable, while hardly “traditional." On the double-disc Assemblages, Berenson puts aside his Korg Triton Extreme, Yamaha Symphonic Ensemble and other impressively named and plugged-in instruments in favour of the piano and colleagues Scott Barnum on double-bass and Bob Moses on percussion. The trio previously released three albums on the Dream Play ...
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