Berkeley Express
Quick-change Artist
February 16, 2001
Will Bernard switches bands faster than a runway model changes outfits. Over the past decade, the Berkeley-bred musician has performed with, among others, Peter Apfelbaum's Hieroglyphics Ensemble, Jai Utta1's Pagan Love Orchestra, Beth Custer, the Coup, and T.J. Kirk, the celebrated but short-lived combo with fellow guitarists Charlie Hunter and John Schott that mixed and matched the music of Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and RahsaanRoland Kirk. Bernard usually associates with more than one group at a time - currently he can be found playing Parisian cafe music and Gypsy jazz with accordionist Odile Lavault's Baguette Quartette, popular standards with the Will Bernard Trio, and original groove-fueled jazz-funk-surf-Iounge sounds with Motherbug, an outgrowth of two earlier units - Pothole and the Will Bernard 4-Tet.
IF IT'S SATURDAY ...
The 41-year-old picker carries a "fake book" filled with standards to the restaurant gigs he does with the trio, though his definition of a "standard" is more a Beach Boys tune or "Isfahan " from Duke Ellington and BilIy Strayhorn's Far East Suite than a more familiar ElIington number like "Satin DolI." "I might play 'Satin DolI,' but I'd probably play a really weird version of it," says Bernard while sitting on the back porch of his modest Albany apartment. The trio's personnel changes from engagement to engagement. "I can hire different people all the time, so Iget to play with all these different drummers and bass players," he explains.Motherbug, in which he'sjoined by keyboardist Michael Bluestein, electric bassist Keith McArthur, and drummer Jan Jackson, has a fixed membership and serves as the primary outlet for Bernard's own compositions. The music on Motherbug's self-titled debut CD- the release of which the quartet is celebrating Saturday night with a live Webcast at iMUSICAST -isn't too much different from that on Medicine Hat, the Bernard 4-Tet's 1998 album. It reflects the leader's eclectic influences, including formal studies of composition, 2Oth-century music, and conducting at UC Berkeley.
Bernard credits Apfelbaum.. a childhood Berkeley neighbor, as one of his "more direct influences," along with legendary San Leandro-based guitarist Dave Creamer, with whom he studied jazz guitar. "Peter has a whole different way of looking at music than most people I've run into," Bernard said. "He just takes from all kinds of influences and puts together things that are unusual."
... THIS MUST BE MOTHERBUG
The Motherbug CD- which Bernard issued on his own Dreck to Disk label (and sells on consignment while trying to attract the attention of a major label) -has more of a rock edge than the 4-Tet album, thanks no doubt to the input of coproducer Jason Cramer, of Third Eye Blind renown. Before getting bitten by the jazz bug as a teenager, Bernard played Allrnan Brothers, Led Zeppelin, and other rock tunes in a Berkeley band called Scream. "When I hear these bands on the jam-band circuit, it's like, wow, they sound like the stuff we were playing back then," he says.Motherbug is now finding a following on the jam-band scene, a phenomenon that emerged after the death of Jerry Garcia. The jam-band concept is difficult to define, but has come to encompass groups as diverse as the Dave Matthews Band and the Meters. Saturday night's iMUSICAST performance is being promoted by Ten Ton Chicken, a local jam band that's also opening the show.
"I don't think we're specifically doing anything different than we ever did before," Bernard said, "but playing for these audiences enables us to stretch out in ways that maybe we haven't before."