The San Francisco Bay Guardian
Will Bernard & Motherbug: Working It Out
September 20-26, 2000

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Over the years, guitarist Will Bernard has drawn more and more attention in jazz circles, first as a side player in myriad Bay Area projects, then as a cohort of Charlie Hunter in the group T.J. Kirk, and finally in 1997 with his own album of upbeat funk, Medicine Hat.

For a midweek set at Cafe du Nord in July, Bernard's band put his newer material through its paces. What appeared to be complex, multi-segmented compositions turned out to be largely improvised jams. "We have these basic forms, and we just kind of stretch them," Bernard says. That night, for example, bare-bones rhythms would be called out by Bernard plucking a few tight, squealy-high chords in repeating lines or by bassist Keith McArthur rolling out a hard groove.

"Saving Grace" established the rules with some easygoing guitar lines and small splashes of organ, eventually slipping into a hard-cutting blues piece. Whereas jambands such as Phish will ride a chord for aeons, Bernard's group kept things shifting, changing every two bars or two minutes, depending on what worked. Drummer Jan Jackson, wearing a pressure-cooker grimace, kept time sharply, combining loose, rolling beats with the hard, dry crack of his snare.

Bernard drew from his CD for the tune "Prankster" -"an old friend of ours, who we like to communicate with sometimes," Bernard called it. It turned into a long, spacey exploration, with keyboardist Michael Bluestein abandoning the Hammond B-3 sound that fortified him for most of the set, turning instead to a vibe backed by Bernard's echoey guitar tricks with plucked lines and some e-bow work like low alien saucer buzzing. Bernard also showed off touches of the outside jazz he's played in outfits such as Peter Apfelbaum's Hieroglyphics Ensemble. One piece had Bernard packing tricks into the finale: de-tuning his low E string and finger-drumming the strings below the bridge for a sound like metallic rainfall.