Will Bernard - Blue Plate Special
Will Bernard - Blue Plate Special
(CD) Palmetto Records PM2137-2, 2008-09-30
This one grooves hard and will draw the attention of music fans from all walks of life! Will is joined by and all-star cast including Stanton Moore (Galactic), John Medeski (MMW), and Andy Hess for a smoking session called Blue Plate Special!
Tracklisting :
01. Baby Goats 5:24
02. Magpie 5:19
03. Blue Plate Special 5:20
04. 571 6:00
05. Blister 6:32
06. Gen Pop 5:28
07. Awanna 4:06
08. Fast Fun 4:20
09. Frontwinder 5:26
10. Gonzo 4:13
11. How Great Thou Art 4:00
Credits :
Will Bernard - guitars
John Medeski - keyboards
Stanton Moore - drums
Andy Hess - bass
Links :
willbernard.com
myspace.com/willbernard
palmetto-records.com
myspace.com/palmettorecords
About Will Bernard :
Will Bernard (guitar keyboards, composition). A Berkeley CA native and recent Brooklyn transplant, Will has played in a wide variety of situations including his own bands Motherbug and WIll Bernard trio as well as Peter Apfelbaum's Hieroglyphics ensemble, T.J.Kirk (featuring Charlie Hunter) Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, Beth Custer, Rinde Eckert, The Coup, Robert Walter's 20th Congress, Frequinox,Fully Loaded, Idris Muhammad, Dr Lonnie Smith, Stephen Yerkey, Zigaboo Modeliste, and Anthony Brown's Asian American Orchestra. He is currently performing with The Stanton Moore trio, Groundation,The Will Bernard band and the Bernard,Emer,Lackner,Ferber project. For a full discography and more info see www.willbernard.com
Biography :
"…one of the most potent, if under recognized, guitarists on the post-Frisell/post-Scofield scene." - Bill Milkowski, Jazz Times "Will Bernard is one of the best-kept jazz-guitar secrets on the planet." - Dan Ouellette, Billboard
An alumnus of the jazz studies program at Berkeley High School that included Peter Apfelbaum, Josh Redman, Charlie Hunter, Craig Handy and Steven Bernstein and Lenny Pickett, Bay Area guitarist/composer Will Bernard first began playing and recording on an international level during his membership in Peter Apfelbaum’s Hieroglyphics Ensemble, whose first recording was on Don Cherry’s "MultiKulti" (A&M 1989).
Since then Will has been involved with a host of boundary stretching groups, ranging from jazz, hip hop and world music to experimental music, with many stops in between. He has performed and recorded with Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, Peter Apfelbaum’s various band incarnations, Beth Custer, The Coup, and Pothole to name a few. The most successful of these projects was the group T.J. Kirk (with Charlie Hunter) whose 2nd record for Warner Bros. "If Four Was One" was nominated for a Grammy in 1997. Shortly thereafter Will Bernard released his debut CD as a leader, "Medicine Hat", in 1998 on Verve/Antilles.
Subsequently Will self-produced two Albums "Will Bernard and Motherbug" (2001) and Will Bernard Trio "Directions to my House" (2005) both on his own label, Dreck to disk. The Will Bernard band has performed at The Monterey, North Sea, SF Jazz, Bumbershoot, Be- Bop and Brew, Montreal, Vancouver and The High Sierra festivals, as well as clubs across the country and through Canada. They have opened for Herbie Hancock and the Head Hunters, Jimmy McGriff, The Funky Meters, John Scofield, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Ziggy Modeliste and the Charlie Hunter Quartet.
More recently Will has been seriously expanding his musical associates and has been working with a range of musicians that include Robert Walter, Stanton Moore, Dr Lonnie Smith, Idris Muhammad, Adam Deitch, Zigaboo Modeliste, and John Medeski. Between 2002 and 2005 he toured extensively in the US with Robert Walter’s 20th Congress. Sit-ins and all-star bands have included Trey Anastasio, Ruben Wilson, Johnny Vidacovitch, Melvin Seals, Living Daylights and Mike Clark’s Prescription Renewal.
In 2006 Will recorded with Stanton Moore for his Telarc debut and is touring the country with Stanton’s Trio, on their own and opening for Galactic. During the same year Will and Sonoma County’s Groundation began a side project with Leroy Horsemouth Wallace (of reggae cult movie "Rockers" fame) and Will continued his collaborations with Fully Loaded (members of RW20th Congress, Greyboy All-stars and John Scofield) and MG5 (members of Galactic and Greyboy Allstars).
In 2007 Will Signed the the New York based Palmetto Records label and released PARTY HATS on February 20 of that year. Matt Balitsaris, President of Palmetto Records, welcomes Will: "We're psyched to have Will Bernard in the Palmetto family. He's a soulful player who writes groovy tunes with a distinctive point of view. PARTY HATS wants to live in your car." In Fall of 2007 Will left the West Coast and now lives in Brooklyn NY.
Comments
Hey ! Toujours agréablement supris de lire des billets intéresssants :)
Qu'est-ce que tu sous entendais dfans cette parenthèse : "members of rw20th congress, greyboy all-stars and john scofield" ? je te souhaite une bonne continuation !
Fully Loaded et MG5 sont des noms de groupes. Il n'y a pas eu de disques, mais des concerts. voici les infos pour Fully Loaded :
FULLY-LOADED is the latest All-star outfit from San Francisco's BOOM BOOM ROOM PRESENTS (BBRP). This band is made up of some of the brightest talents on the music scene today:
The PLAYEZ:
COCHEMEA GASTELUM - Sax (20th Congress, Fantastic Four)
WILL BERNARD - Guitar (Frequinox, JT Kirk, Motherbug)
CHRIS STILLWELL - bass (Greyboy Allstars)
ERIC LEVY - keys (Garage Mahaj)
CHUCK PRADA - percussion - (Black-Eyed Peas, Breakestra)
ADAM DEITCH - Drums (John Scofield, Lettuce)
Also appearing with this lineup on the 2006 tour will be REGGIE WATTS (Maktub, Soulive) on Vocals & Samples for several of these dates.
"Out of Great Intentions Comes Great Music"
The 'FULLY-LOADED' Band was formed in October 2005 when these musicians decided to get together and play a benefit festival to support their fellow musicians in New Orleans affected by Hurricane Katrina. This group of musicians was so well-received that they immediately sold out several weekends of shows at the Boom Boom Room in San Francisco.
Powered by a general need to stretch their musical talents by like-minded artists, the band now embarks on its first tour in Colorado.
"FULLY-LOADED is a Greasy Soul Funk all star band which features what are considered some of the hottest musicians on the Jam-Jazz-Funk scene today."
This band was brought together by Cochemea Gastelum and Boom Boom Room (S.F.) for its first manifestation as a group in October 2005 for Boom Boom Room Presents Katrina Benefit Festival ("Frequinox Music Festival").
It is an evolved creation drawing its members and origin from the band 'MOTHERLODE' which had originally began in the mid nineties as part of a D.J. night at the original Casbah in San Diego. What started out as an underground hang for local hipsters and vinyl junkies, quickly became a collective of young (some too young to drink), punk rock/funk musicians playing solos to 60's and 70's funk and boogaloo records. Soon after, Motherlode was formed as the house band, playing live versions of rare, classic soul and funk. Soon, they were packing the club and gaining recognition quickly. The members, at one time or another, included: Robert Walter, Zak Najor, Cochemea "Cheme" Gastelum, Chris Stillwell, Printz Board and Brian Jordan.
AND now... 'FULLY LOADED' is an evolution of MOTHERLODE which has quickly surfaced and made a huge splash with an ever escalating 'buzz' surrounding their recent shows in SF. They are necessarily the band to see if you are a fan of solid groove music and electric Funk Rhythms that don't stop comin' at ya! Without hesitation in dropping into its eclectic mix of fiery tunes by legendary forefathers of Funk and Soul-Jazz such as Dr. Lonnie Smith, Jimmy Smith and David Fathead Newman, 'FULLY LOADED' absolutely took the crowd by its ears and propelled these elated revelers into an awe induced trance that brought the entire audience of over 600 revelers to its feet in a dance frenzy that lasted the entire show!
To say that this band "nailed it" is a massive understatement of accolades. Blending Soul-Jazz, Funk and Afro-Beat with Rock and Fused with an endless onslaught of perfectly placed solos which the band trades effortlessly from one outstanding body-moving groove to the next, FULLY LOADED has already earned top marks with the S.F. music community and has launched itself into the realm of the modern greats of these genre-blending bands such as GALACTIC, GREYBOY ALLSTARS and OZOMATLI.
This sensational group of musicians which hail under the name 'FULLY LOADED' dazzles its crowds with a blend of songs, musical styles and sounds uniquely their own. Linked to such bands as GREYBOY ALLSTARS, ROBERT WALTERS 20th CONGRESS, BLACK-EYED PEAS, TJ KIRK, JOHN SCOFIELD, GARAJ MAHAL and ANDERS OSBORNE, the individual members of 'FULLY LOADED' are at the top of their game. Collectively this band of musicians is a wonder to see and should you be so lucky to do so, it is adamantly advised that you catch this band now: As they are on a fast –track upwards towards stardom. "This is an Old-school Funky-Ass All-Pro Groovin' Unit, 'FULLY LOADED', throwin' it down in the pocket so tight: you can't even begin to fathom what energy they emit from the stage with their music...but you certainly dare not miss it.
THE GIGZ in 2006 :
The tour dates in COLORADO are as follows:
March 15 - Club 8150 - Vail, CO www.club8150.com
March 16 - Sherpa's - Breckenridge, CO www.sherpaandyetis.com
March 17 - Quixote's - Denver, CO* www.quixotes.com/ *Feat. Reggie Watts and DJ Apollo
March 18 - Dulcinea's 100th Monkey - Denver, CO* www.quixotes.com/*Feat. Reggie Watts
March 19th - the D-note - Arvada, CO - www.dnote.us
There's a website for Fully Loaded : fullyloadedfunk.com
MG5 were formerly called Frequinox
They have a rather empty MySpace page with tracks to listen to at myspace.com/mg5theband
The band featured Robert Walter, Stanton Moore, Robert Mercurio, Will Bernard, Donald Harrison, Jeff Coffin