Bernstein’s back, and he’s taken the lid completely off the pot with Manifesto of Henryisms, the third of four installments in his Community Music project, available on Bandcamp. Dixieland, funk, R&B, contemporary jazz—they’re all here, and they all share a native ground: New Orleans.

Steven Bernstein
Manifesto of Henryisms (Community Music, Vol. 3) (Royal Potato Family)
A review
I believe I’ve noted this before, but it bears repeating: When composer, arranger, trumpeter Steven Bernstein first heard the prodigious New Orleans pianist Henry Butler, he says, “I couldn’t believe there was a guy who could sound like the most ancient music and the most futuristic music at the same time.” That was my first impression on hearing the Butler/Bernstein/Hot 9 recording Viper’s Drag a few years back. That same sentiment very much applies to Manifesto of Henryisms, which doses the roots of New Orleans music with some audacious up-to-date fertilizer that makes the blooms pop and keeps the roots—and listeners—happy.

Bernstein was profoundly influenced by Butler, whose pianistic eccentricities seemed to light up Bernstein’s imagination. As the liner notes explain it, “Manifesto Of Henryisms is Bernstein’s term for the rhythmic and harmonic idiosyncrasies in Butler’s piano playing. For his inventive arrangements, Bernstein isolated those ‘Henryisms’ and distributed them to different musicians in the Hot 9, so now Butler’s style was emulated by an entire 10-piece band, effectively turning his piano into an orchestra.”

And what an orchestra it is, The Hot 9: Bernstein (trumpet, slide trumpet), Curtis Fowlkes (trombone), Charlie Burnham (violin; vocals on “(My Girl) Josephine”), Doug Wieselman (clarinet, tenor saxophone), Peter Apfelbaum (tenor and soprano saxophones), Erik Lawrence (baritone saxophone), Matt Munisteri (guitar), Brad Jones (bass), and Donald Edwards (drums); with special guests John Medeski (organ and piano on tracks 1–5) and Arturo O’Farrill (piano on tracks 6 and 7).

The opener, “Black Bottom Stomp,” sets the stage, with its Dixieland feel, Medeski going Medeski on organ, a terrific tubalike bass line from Jones, and a glorious 46-bar ensemble improv that will take your head off. “Booker Time” stretches New Orleans funk, with nice appearances from Wieselman and Lawrence. The sedately funky “Bogalusa Strut” connects Dixieland to funk and pulls out all the stops with a postmodern close.

Speaking of strut, that’s exactly what the Fats Domino R&B hit “(My Girl) Josephine” brings to the table: a strutting parade. Folks in New Orleans love to parade. They parade when they’re happy, and they parade when they’re sad. It’s an integral part of the city’s culture, and it infuses its music. It’s no mistake that the signature syncopated second line drum beat you hear in so much of its music is a march. Nice vocal and violin solo from Burnham on this one, too.

The album is rounded out with fine kinetic arrangements of “Xmen,” which is based on Bernstein’s intro to “Wolverine Blues” on Viper’s Drag, and “Newport Aperitif/Diminuendo and Crescendo.” As the liner notes tell us, the legendary 27-bar solo on “Diminuendo and Crescendo” played by saxophonist Paul Gonsalves at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival provides the material for the band’s ensemble sections under O’Farrill’s solo. (Bernstein writes the music’s history into his arrangements. Ancient and modern.)

Manifesto of Henryisms will make both your feet and your head happy. Strut, baby, strut!

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© 2022 Mel Minter