*Jazz / Funk / Fusion*Palmetto Records recording artist
*2 time Grammy nominee
www.willbernard.com
www.myspace.com/willbernard
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 toured the country with Stanton's Trio, on their own and opening for Galactic www.stantonmoore.com. During the same year Will and Sonoma County's Groundation began a side project with Leroy Horsemouth Wallace (of reggae cult movie Rockers fame). www.groundation.com and Will continued his collaborations with Fully Loaded (members of RW20th Congress, Greyboy All-stars and John Scofield) www.fullyloadedfunk.com and MG5 (members of Galactic and Greyboy All-stars).
2007 brings the February release of Party Hats, Will's debut release for Palmetto Records. Party Hats features Will Bernard's compositions and performances by musicians who?ve been frequent collaborators over the years, notably Peter Apfelbaum, Dave Ellis and Josh Jones along with Wil Blades, Keith McArthur, and Michael Bluestein. Extensive national touring will support the release.
As bandmate Stanton Moore recently said of Bernard (in the San Francisco Chronicle): "He's one of the greatest musicians I've come into contact with."
And Robert Walter says: "He's probably the most versatile guitar player I've ever worked with. Anywhere we try to go, he can cover that area better than anyone."
More praise....
"Will Bernard's "Directions to My House" comes as nothing less than a revelation."
- Eric Snyder, Tampa Weekly Planet
"A player who clearly deserves a wider audience for his imaginative genre-busting aesthetic.
- John Kelman, All about Jazz
"One of the most potent, if underrecognized, 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
"Hanging out with some of Bernard's [songs] is like stepping into a Coen Brothers movie, an Elmore Leonard novel, or any other alternate reality peopled by unforgettable freaks."
- Joe Gore, Guitar Player
www.willbernard.com
www.myspace.com/willbernard
Management:
A-Train Entertainment
401 Grand Avenue, Ste. 300
Oakland, CA 94610
tel: 510.893.4705
fax: 510.893.4807
email: alevers@a-train.com