Sasha Berliner - LYDIALIEBMAN.COM

Fantôme
Release date: March 28, 2025
Label: Outside In Music

The backdrop of the music scene contemporarily can appear to resemble the apparent divisiveness of broader culture surrounding it, as different views seek to define what music is, should be, or once was. The subculture of jazz is seemingly no exception to the status quo, with factions of ideologies on improvisation, composition, and canonization all vying for their definition and perspective to be the authoritative one. Enter vibraphonist and composer Sasha Berliner, an already acclaimed voice on the contemporary scene, heralded as being “in the firmament of the here and now in modern jazz, and appears likely to occupy that upper stratosphere for some time to come” (All About Jazz). Amidst the musical strife, Berliner’s artistry calls for a ceasefire to the debate that pits tradition against modernity, as if the two are in opposition to one another. Following on the heels of her acclaimed albums Azalea (2019) and Onyx (2022), Berliner presents Fantôme, a salient statement that cries to take the music for what it is and to leave the brute force of categorizing jazz music behind.

The album’s title, Fantôme, is the cipher through which the heart behind the album may be interpreted. Fantôme, which literally translates to “phantom”, is a petition to nullify the warring of genre conventions and the rubric-like approach to jazz and listening. “Fantôme is about creating moods, making new interpretations of familiar songs or phrases, and presenting instrumental configurations that have rarely been done or explored before,” Berliner explains. “It's about not arguing what should or shouldn't be but just accepting what is, taking an artistic voice for exactly how it is without attempting to categorize it or figure it out every step of the way.” This album is an appeal to audiences and musicians to listen, and to create. “The boxing in of the music is phantom – it doesn't exist, and it doesn't need to in order to give the music validity,” Berliner says.

As Berliner sought to immerse herself in the creative process that draws equally from all angles within jazz past and jazz to come, she found herself surrounded - both in person and through records - by a vast sea of like-minded individuals. Whether through direct verbal statement or implied musical agreeance, Berliner found kinship in the music of artists such as Vijay Iyer, Ambrose Akinmusire, Taylor Eigsti (featured on Fantôme), Stefon Harris, Arooj Aftab, Ganavya, and Jason Moran. “They're all really known for creating not just their own improvisational styles but their own worlds on their albums,” Berliner says. “It's really captivating and powerful.”

As a composer and arranger, Berliner writes in a way that is transformative in nature, embodying her viewpoint. Exemplary of this is her arrangement of the beloved Billy Strayhorn standard, “Upper Manhattan Medical Group”. Berliner’s arrangement is an ode to that seminal standard which was a quintessential part of her early jazz education, yet presents it in such a way as to chronicle her unique artistic lens, through reharmonization and rhythmic and melodic displacement. Berliner notes that part of her approach revolves around the fact that she likes “to see several ways to present a single melody or contextualize a rhythm,” a fact which is equally evident in her original compositions. “Construction” illustrates this well, and is an original whose name is derived from varying melodic and harmonic constructions of the same bass line and chordal rhythm that occur throughout the piece. One iteration is more spacious, comprising a pedal note with shifting upper structures, while another is melodically complex, with angular harmonies and a moving bassline.

Berliner’s distinctive compositional voice is exemplified further on the album with “Khan Younis” a song whose title is a reference to the Palestinian city of the same name. A deeply emotive piece, “Khan Younis” is an anthemic outcry that parallels the despair felt by Berliner as she, along with the wider world, has observed the ongoing conflict in Palestine. Contrasting this piece is “The Worst Person in the World”. While the title seems heavy or spiteful, its tone and message is quite contrary to that, as the piece is not named after an individual, but rather after a Norwegian film of the same title. “It's a very real film about the progression of changing relationships, the onset of terminal illness and loss, which never comes at the right time, and how we still keep returning to ourselves at the end of it all,” Berliner says. “I've always liked movies that resemble real life, which often means they don't have fairytale endings or amicable resolutions between the characters.”

One of the most salient elements of Fantôme is the ensemble’s ability to flawlessly realize Berliner’s vision. To embody the perspective of the composer yet to bring one’s own ability and personality to the fore is no small feat, and the band rises to the occasion. In addition to the steadfast leadership of Sasha Berliner on vibraphone, Fantôme features Taylor Eigsti (piano), Harish Raghavan (bass), and Jongkuk Kim (drums) as the resident band. The album also showcases guest appearances by David Adewumi (trumpet), Rico Jones (saxophone), and Lex Korten (piano).

Fantôme represents a new stepping stone for Berliner, yet one that makes sense within her oeuvre. A culmination of her prior compositional approach while boldly reaching out into a new venture that proclaims the music at the fore with genre justifications residing in the rearview, Fantôme is set to make a resounding mark on the musical landscape, encouraging others to step forward simply to create that which is worth hearing.

Onyx
Release date: July 22, 2022
Label: JMI Recordings

Onyx finds the budding, San Francisco-born vibraphonist Sasha Berliner in a fiery, dense and genre-bending posture. Produced by Berliner alongside the esteemed Jimmy Fallon and The Roots music producer Steven Mandel and GRAMMY® winning audio engineer Ben Kane, Onyx is an embrace of idiosyncrasy, designating analog manipulation at the axis of a modern and uncommon improvisational magnum opus.

The “onyx” – a dark stone with a bold, cryptic nature – piqued Berliner’s interest as a title for her atypical harmonic range and compositional curiosity. In the already-sparse zone of female vibraphonists, Berliner is captured at a most authentic point of view, diverging from a singular sound or mood and relishing in the extemporaneous. An all-star cast joins her on this daring enterprise: Marcus Gilmore on drums, Burniss Travis II on upright and electric bass and James Francies on piano and Fender Rhodes. Special guests include Jaleel Shaw on alto saxophone, Julius Rodriguez on analog synths and vocalist Thana Alexa.

Positioning traditionalism and era-adherence on the backburner, Berliner opens with the uncompromisingly fierce “Jade.” Incarnated by a shuffle-inflected backbeat reminiscent of hip hop, the track’s darker harmonic setting presents a hint of revenge while also encapsulating a rigid moment in world history. Berliner began writing “Jade” during her senior year of college, finishing it once she had her degree amidst the pandemic. “I feel it paints a picture of tension as well as liberation that I had felt all of at that time of my life,” the composer notes.

“Crescent Park (In Elliptical Time)” is the only vocal track on the record, depicting the transient nature of love and relationships at large as we let go of the past. Wistful by nature, “Crescent Park” is a contrast to the sharp side of Onyx, offering a more inquisitive, less-cerebral portion of the record. “It is meant to feel like a walk in the park of your life, looking up at memories popping up and fading all around you like vignettes,” Berliner adds.

Berliner describes her musical presentation as an exercise in “opening audiences to a new era of jazz.” Where melodies are fleeting and each accompaniment imposes an array of feelings, the sonic boundlessness of Onyx compounds into an emotive kind as well. Perhaps the most resonant example of abandoning tradition is presented in Berliner’s two-part arrangement of the standard “My Funny Valentine.” Propelled by Berliner’s entrancing solo on the first, listeners ride through a forlorn, dreamlike exploration, waking up in a vibrant Part II where a brash and swift conversation between the band ensues.

Honoring her hometown of San Francisco in the “North West”, Berliner’s “NW”, the last full-length song on the album, shares the abbreviated title of one of her favorite books. English novelist Zadie Smith, known for her eccentric characters and stream of consciousness narrative technique, writes a tale of two childhood friends growing apart as they age. In a similar vein, Berliner’s “NW” grapples with how one’s role in another person’s life can change along with the passing of time. Inevitably, we grow distant from those we were once intimate with and sometimes, it is from a singular, altering conversation. Designed to evoke that feeling of suspension, “NW” sees a constant shapeshifting and never entirely resolves itself. Moving like an internal dialogue, Berliner takes unexpected turns on “NW,” driving listeners into a crossroads of harmony and tempo.

Fashioned by a contemporary fervor and a parade of her mallet mastery, Sasha Berliner’s sophomore statement emerges as an exploration of the ephemeral. “The album is meant to be seen as a collection of artistic statements rather than a story with a peak and a conclusion. Each work holds its own, yet infuses a bit of itself in every other piece.” An enthralling invitation to surrender to the unknown, Onyx defies what we know as finite, pressing listeners to depart from the familiar and accede to a swift ride through unknown sonic terrains.