Jan 10

Jan 10 Sasha Berliner | UMMG | Single

VIBRAPHONIST AND COMPOSER SASHA BERLINER PRIORITIZES IDEAS AND SOUND FIRST WITH FANTÔME, A METAPHORICAL CHALLENGE TO THE STATE OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, OUT MARCH 28, 2025 (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, releasing March 28, 2025 on Outside In Music.

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.