| +1 on the transcribing solos. (Or wait, are we up to +2 already?) Jeff learned to be a brilliant jazz musician by developing his ear without worrying about what his particular instrument was supposedly capable of doing, or what other bassists had done before.
IMHO that's the thing that makes Berlin singularly unique: his improvisation is completely unhindered by the physical constraints of the bass guitar. He hears things with the sophisticated ear of the best improvisors in jazz (eg, John Coltrane, Michael Brecker, Keith Jarett, Mick Goodrick, Gary Burton, etc.) and can execute them with an immediacy, fluidity, and musical connectedness that seems to elude many other electric bassists. If Berlin was a trumpet player or a sax player he would still be considered an excellent jazz musician; the fact that he's capable of executing his ideas on a comparatively difficult instrument (physically) is what makes him one of the best, period. | 
