Minature - I Can't Put My Finger on It

2003 reissue

EAR MAGAZINE about Miniature's debut Miniature: "One of the best records of 1988" THE WIRE about the band: "One of the hottest properties around right now." JAZZTIMES: "This trio is to their time and place what Air was, coming out of Chicago, a dozen years ago - a distillation of creative community".

Tim Berne and Joey Baron happened upon the title of their new album by accident. Tim Berne: "Joey and I were talking about something not related to our music. I was telling him about an impression that I couldn't quite define or place. In this context I used the phrase 'I can't put my finger on it', and we both knew at once that this was going to be a fitting title for the new recording. Hank liked it and agreed."

Indeed, you "can't put your finger" on Miniature's style. The trio makes music beyond all clear-cut, identifiable styles. The compositions by Hank Roberts, Joey Baron and Tim Berne use tradition and elements of various styles rather irreverently, without on the other hand advocating eclectism for its own sake.

Listening to I Can't Put My Finger On It opens stimulating new horizons for jaded ears. Its effect is like a roller-coaster ride must feel to someone who has been confined to nothing more exciting than leisurely strolls in flat country: Kicks, adventure, fun.

Fun. This word keeps reapperaring when the three members of Miniature talk about their project. Hank Roberts: "We had lots of fun in the studio, recording I Can't Put My Finger On It, and we are hoping that this feelings will inject our listeners, too." Joey Baron: "Sure we gave our concept a lot of thought. But what really counts is that the music is fun. I am convinced of the inviting quality this music has for any listener." Contrary to JMT art director Steve Byram's visual interpretation of the album title (he translates it into particularly repulsive pictures), Miniature's new disc is out to attract; to attract an audience well beyond the limits of any specific musical idom. It sets out to invalidate all fears someone might have of "touching" improvised music.

I Can't Put My Finger On It is of course not Tim Berne's, Joey Baron's and Hank Roberts' first effort at blasting the confines of the "jazz" ghetto. Hank Roberts (b.1954, Terre Haute, Ind.), one of the very greatest among the handful of cellists who have established this unusual instrument in improvised music, explores his roots in pop, soul and rock music with his band BIRDS OF PRAY (see Arcado, JMT 919 028-2, Behind The Myth, JMT 919 039-2) he explores new terrain between improvised music and modern chamber music.

Joey Baron (b. 1995, Richmond, Va.) has played with almost everyone who has a name in jazz (Dizzy Gillespie, Carmen McRae, Chet Baker, Jim Hall.....). Since the early 80's he has worked frequently with artists like Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Herb Robertson, and increasingly adjusted his musical focus to acknowledge early influences like show tunes, r&b, The Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix.

In saxophonist Tim Berne's (b. 1954, Syracuse, N.Y.) work one finds traces of many musics, from bebop to soul and blues (see Tim Berne's Fractured Fairy Tales, JMT 919 030-2, and Pace Yourself, JMT 919 040-2) transformed in an original manner.

Tim Berne: "I Can't Put My Finger On It is an accurate representation of all facets of our collective musical backgrounds." The collective nature of the band is emphasized by all three members. Hank Roberts: "Our new recording is "about" the group. It is not about individual show-off. What counts is the group sound, and that is I think unique."

Miniature, with its unorthodox line-up, produces an astoundingly full and multicolored sound. For the first time on record Tim Berne plays baritone saxophone in addition to his soaring alto and thus provides a fascinating new sound and rhythmic terseness. Hank Roberts treats his cello alternately like a bass, bowing and plucking, strums it like a guitar, coaxes etheral sounds from it. Joey Baron pounds his drum set with sticks, hands, and assorted objects. His electronic equipment affords him many more possibilities to amplify ideas he picks up from the others, as well as pure fun.

Joey's, Tim's and Hank's compositions vary audibly in character. Hank Roberts' pieces ("Jersey Devil", "Weasels in the Bush", "Bullfrog Breath") are situated somewhere between fairground and avantgarde, rhythmically gripping and catchy. Fun-loving Joey Baron ("P.G. Suggested", "Aspetta", "Who's Vacant", "Dink") exhibits a remarkable penchant for lyrical moods. Tim Berne's compositions ("Zilla", "Luna", "Combat", "Lowball") are the most structurally complex ones. The sound, whether hard or soft or in between, is a always unmistakeably Miniature.

Tim Berne affirms: "I Can't Put My Finger On It is not a jazz album. The sound quality and mix are quite different from a jazz recording, much more direct, like rock music is recorded." He points to producer David Breskin (journalist, fiction-writer and producer of Vernon Reid, Bill Frisell, John Zorn a.o.) for successfully capturing the adventurous music of Minitaure and making their second recording a great document of our individual and collective growth as instrumentalists and composers (Hank Roberts).

Asked for a concluding comment about I Can't Put My Finger On It, Joey Baron's answer was, "it looks great, sounds great, feels great."

- Original Press Text written in 1991