What is it about Tim Berne? As influential a saxophonist on the underground avant garde jazz scene as you’ll care to find, he sticks to his guns, wouldn’t even think of brokering compromise, and so it's scarcely a surprise that there’s little self-conscious or phoney about the Syracuse-born player, who turns 59 next month, in any album he makes. But before anyone manages to strike a match to light the birthday candles, Shadow Man, Berne’s latest album for ECM with his quartet, will be released on 7 October. It’s the same band (Berne on alto, Oscar Noriega clarinet/bass clarinet, Matt Mitchell piano, and Ches Smith drums/vibes/perc) that released Snakeoil, a name the band also goes under, last year. Shadow Man produced by Berne and David Torn (remember the brilliant Prezens?) and recorded in upstate New York has a scalding intensity that long term admirers will, at a shrewd guess, lap up. No UK or Ireland dates yet or sadly at all, but Tim Berne pictured hits the continent in the autumn. Worth a trip to Finland to hear him? http://www.marlbank.net/news/1036-jack-dejohnette-group-featuring-don-byron-tim-berne-s-snakeoil-and-anemone-quartet-booked-for-tampere-jazz-happening Yes.