San Jose Mercury News
Formidable Guitarist's Group Grooves
New Incarnation, Motherbug, Jams With Eclectic Sound
March 9, 2001
A few years ago, there was the Will Bernard 4-Tet, a band that alternately swung, grooved and shredded. But over time, with personnel changes, the East Bay guitarist's group was transformed into Motherbug, whose sound is even more eclectic than the quartet's.
"It's been a gradual evolution from the 4-Tet," says Bernard, speaking of the Motherbug musicians with whom he's worked for two years - keyboardist-organist Michael Bluestein, bassist Keith McCarthur and drummer Jan Jackson. The band performs Saturday at San Jose's Agenda Cellar.
"It's hard to say where we changed from the 4-Tet to Motherbug since those guys have been members of both. I guess it happened when we put the record out."
Bernard's second album, "Motherbug," self- released in October, offers styles that reflect the bandleader's diverse tastes and fluid musicianship. He wrote all the songs and put in the spoken-word performances and answering machine message that provide interludes between some tracks.
As for the music, there's the Afro-Cuban sound of "Baldy Wonderland," which highlights Bluestein's dazzling fingerwork and percussion contributions from guest Josh Jones. "Pursuit of Happiness" is slow, deep blues with underpinnings from a string quartet. The funky "Mung Beans and Rice" is propelled by the three-piece Cannonball Horns.
An alumnus of the famed Berkeley High School jazz program, Bernard has been a formidable force on the Bay Area scene, performing with everyone from Indofusionist Jai Utal and composer-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum to eight-string guitar magician Charlie Hunter and the hip-hop ensemble the Coup.
Steel and strings
On "Motherbug," the 40-ish Albany resident over- dubbed his six-string guitar lines with lap steel and 12-string and baritone guitar."I've been branching out a little bit more:' he says. "I got a banjo, and I've been playing in this French group called the Baguette Quartet that plays music from the '20s through the' 40s."
His main focus, though, is on Motherbug. "I feel this band, as a unit, is really important," he says. "With the 4-Tet, I went through a lot of different personnel changes trying to find something that would jell. A lot of the group's chemistry comes from our playing together a long time. Keith, Jan and I were in a hard-edged funky jazz band called Pothole before. Really, the three of us have been playing for about eight years or so. ...It's almost like I went back to these guys because we have such a good personal and musical relationship."
Having made the transition from a major label to putting out his own CD, Bernard also has learned a lot about business. "I've been playing publicist and booker and manager and arranger and composer and record-label boss," he says, laughing. When he finds time to compose, he infuses his memorable melodies with rhythms that are alternately slippery and rock-steady. He also allows room for his bandmates to color in the spaces.
"I feel like I've gotten to know how to write for this specific group," he says. "It takes some time to learn how to write for people you're working with, while you're learning what their strengths are. In my head, now I can hear Jan playing different drum parts that would work. I try to think of things which are not only within their capabilities but their instincts, too."
Jazz or jam?
Though Motherbug is sometimes described as a jazz band, Bernard doesn't object to the "jam band" label, either."Whereas I don't really call us a jam band, I don't mind that title as much as I minded the 'acid jazz' thing" in the early to mid-'90s, he says. "Because to me, it has much broader stylistic ramifications. It doesn't really pin us down. There are jam" bands that are doing almost electronica, and there's people who do Grateful Dead-y stuff. Others do R&B-flavored music.
"But it's definitely … nice that people are interested in improvisation and seeing live music. And we're getting more and more hooked up with various components of that movement, which is just expanding our audience."