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Jeff Berlin

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#21
"I remember watching a video of both he and Jaco giving a master class at some college, "battling" eachother. Needless to say Jeff knocked the socks off Jaco."

I love Jeff Berlin's playing, but I have to disagree about that.
That footage was shot at the end of Jaco's career, and Jaco was not in his top form. Jeff seemed to tack that on his video with that silly wrestler wasting time. It seemed like a cheap shot to me :eyebrow:
 
#22
LM Bass said:
Better than Jaco!
:hyper:


?



:ninja: :hiding: :o
Click to expand...

>>> Not in the area of composing...I'd put some of Jaco's compositions right up there with Mingus..I've seen Jeff many times over the years and his chops are the only thing I really remember. Maybe Jeff is a better technician than Jaco was, but Jaco had heart, and he had soul..Jaco was organic, a natural, the real deal. What Jaco had, you cannot get from
practicing or going to Jeff's school..Jaco's been dead for going on 20 years now, but what the guy left was a musical legacy...

Slug
 
#24
Obviously, comparing different bassists is pure stupidity...but that said, I can't help being stupid as well.

I think the comparisons here between Jeff and Jaco, Jeff and Willis seem to resonate with a certain commonality; clinical vs. organic

First, before anyone thinks I'm taking sides, or bashing Jeff, I'd like to say that I have always loved his playing, and have all the old Bruford, Holdsworth and Berlin stuff...but I think that Jeff tends to play more scales...arpeggios. More techincal stuff that, while amazing and highly proficient, lack that certain lyrical beauty that Jaco and Willis show in their playing. Jeff's stuff often sounds a bit more rigid, and even "classical" at times.

Can I blow half as silly as any of these cats? Ha. Not a chance. I have room to talk...but that's my silly ass $.02 on the "comparisons" made here.
 
#26
One of my favorite albums with Jeff Berlin is Kazumi Watanabe's The Spice of Life (the first one, not Spice of Life Too). It also has Bill Bruford on drums! Check out the track "City" - it features Jeff at his "Rocco Prestia" best! Awesome solo too. They also just released a DVD of a concert the Spice of Life band did in Tokyo in 1987. It's available here in Japan, but it might not be out in the States yet. You can clearly see Mr. Berlin's left hand vibrato - more cello/violin style, i.e., back and forth between nut and bridge, rather than blues guitar style - and his tone is immaculate.

I'm really glad to see so many positive comments about his personality here - I was starting to worry that he had turned into a complete curmudgeon! I remember the column he had in in Guitar Player magazine back in the early-mid '80s - he always had funny titles for the exercises that he gave, and struck me as generally positive. But then it seemed like he just became bitter and negative. So, it's good to see that it isn't the case!
 
#27
Violin, not 'cello, if I recall. ..

Glad we're getting out of the "better than" stuff. Jaco is 78.3% better than Jeff, or at least 78.2% anyway. . .rolleyes:

Jeff has always been one of the greats. In the late 70's, when I started playing bass, I really dug Marcus, Jeff, and Jaco for electric players. :
I like his triadic concept, his legato sound, and his creative melodic ideas.

LM
 
#28
I took some private lessons with Jeff at the Bass Centre in N.Hollywood in the late 80s. He taught me phrasing, time, and most importantly, how to teach. He is a genuinely nice guy who gets a bad rap because of his passion. I may be one of the few people I know of who has actually seen the man slap. He is a monster! He speaks in absolutes, which throws people off in this world of lies and shades of the truth. He also teaches out of trombone books, which gave me some phrasing. Great link, BTW! On a side note, he gave a clinic at Mars Music in Houston a few years back. I went early and was surprised when I saw him that he actually remembered me about 18 years later, even remembered my name! We talked for a while, it was good to see him, one of the sales guys accompanying him walked up and said to him "Jeff, have you heard this cat play? He's a burner! He plays awesome!" To which I blushed, and Jeff said "Yeah, I heard him play 15 years ago in LA. He's not bad, huh?" not telling the sales guy I was a former student. LOL...I told the sales guy later that I took lessons with Jeff, you should have seen the look on his face!
 
#30
Lackey said:
You rabid fans, what's his best work for a prog and fusion fan to dig into ?
Click to expand...

His work with Bruford was great, plus Allan Holdsworth was in that band :bassist: I really like the Lumpy Jazz album...you can hear how great he is at burning through changes, with a real going for the throat tone :cool:
 
#31
See if you can find "Champions"- it's a solo cd he did. Also, "Pump it" is really cool as well. My buddy and one of my old drummers from my California days played on that album, Tris Imboden. He plays with Chicago now. Badass drummer, he broke his bass drum one night in the Sail Loft in Laguna, took a ten minute break, went to his car and got a floor tom, attached his pedal to it, and was back in business in a couple minutes. And the sound was SO PUNCHY! :D
 
#32
:cool:
Jeff's a monster.
I seen him with Allan Holdsworth on the Road Games tour.
Unbelieveable!!!
Also seen him with John McLaughlin, subbing for Jonas Hellborg.
A first i was bummed, because I never seen Jonas.
But after one song everything was fine.
It's great to see what someone can do, with only 4-strings.
One of the greats.
 
#33
nonsqtr said:
Yeah, there's one killer solo in "Road Games" that's well worth purchasing the whole CD for. I've worn out about three copies of that CD learning all the intricacies of Jeff's solo. There were a bunch of great players coming out right around that time, of course Stanley and Jaco, Andy West of the Dixie Dregs, Gerry Carboy that used to play with David Sancious, Alfonso Johnson, and so on, and of all those people, I'd have to say Jeff's licks were the hardest to cop. And, I probably learned the most from the exercise. :D

Jeff is nuts. Totally out there. Definitely a great player. :bassist:
Click to expand...

Oh yeah. The solo is on "Water on the Brain part II". Plus, Jeff plays bass while his hero, Jack Bruce sings on a couple of songs. I must've worn out 3 copies of that EP trying to cop that solo. Allan Holdsworth's site sells the "Road Games" disc.

Another one I like is "Players".
Scott Henderson, Steve Smith, T Lavitz, and Jeff. It's too bad they only released one album. One side is studio cuts, the other side is live stuff. "10,000 Prayers" off of Jeff's "Champion" album is one of the live cuts; what a solo!

I like Jeff's work on Bruford's "Gradually Going Tornado", although I'd been happier had Holdsworth been playing guitar on it. John Clark is the guitarist on the album, he's a fine guitarist, but I really love how Jeff and Allan play together.

Bruford's "Feels Good to Me" and "One of a Kind" are fantastic.

The live "Bruford Tapes" has some great playing, but IMO at times Dave Stewart's keyboard dominates the mix too much.

But that can also be said of the mix on "Feels Good to Me"; Jeff himself mentioned in a GP interview that he felt the same way about the mix, his bass was buried at times.


-Art
 
#34
Mojo-Man said:
:cool:
Jeff's a monster.
I seen him with Allan Holdsworth on the Road Games tour.
Unbelieveable!!!
Also seen him with John McLaughlin, subbing for Jonas Hellborg.
A first i was bummed, because I never seen Jonas.
But after one song everything was fine.
It's great to see what someone can do, with only 4-strings.
One of the greats.
Click to expand...

I saw the "Road Games Tour" too, but Jimmy Johnson was playing bass. Jimmy played his butt off; It was a great time. :cool:
 
#36
I did a year at BIT when both Jeff and Gary Willis were teaching there. Although I never had a full-on multi-week class with Jeff, there were many clinics (Willis was my ear training teacher). He is a great guy, very generous with his time. I am tempted to do a week at Players.

I once sat in a practice room at school with Jeff, Billy Sheehan and one other student and watched Billy and Jeff jam together for about an hour. Billy was a visting instructor that day. I happend to be in the hall when the two ran into each other, both carrying their basses. After talking a bit they decided to sit down and mess around. I slipped in the room after them and, after an hour of watching them play, I was alternating between never picking up a bass again and having one permanently grafted on to my hands. Much fun. I have photos. I will scan them and post them here, they are pretty cool.
 
#37
Here's a pic of Berlin and Sheehan jamming (actually its a digital photograph of a glossy snapshot print, so it's not that great):
 

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#38
hieronymous said:
One of my favorite albums with Jeff Berlin is Kazumi Watanabe's The Spice of Life (the first one, not Spice of Life Too). It also has Bill Bruford on drums! Check out the track "City" - it features Jeff at his "Rocco Prestia" best! Awesome solo too. They also just released a DVD of a concert the Spice of Life band did in Tokyo in 1987. It's available here in Japan, but it might not be out in the States yet. You can clearly see Mr. Berlin's left hand vibrato - more cello/violin style, i.e., back and forth between nut and bridge, rather than blues guitar style - and his tone is immaculate.
Click to expand...
The Spice Of Life is one of my Fusion favourites from that era...interesting about the vibrato(on a fretted bass, right?); on that recording, Berlin does get a fretless vibe.
What bass is he using on that DVD?
 
#39
JimK said:
The Spice Of Life is one of my Fusion favourites from that era...interesting about the vibrato(on a fretted bass, right?); on that recording, Berlin does get a fretless vibe.
What bass is he using on that DVD?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's all fretted bass. I think that a lot of what a "fretless" is supposed to sound like is tied up with Jaco and the sound he got, and while a lot of that is connected to the fact that he mainly used fretless basses, a lot of it is pickups and playing techniques. I think that Jeff Berlin's subtle use of vibrato and playing near the bridge is what gets that "fretless" sound.

In the video I think he's playing some kind of Frankenbass - no name on the headstock, Precision-style body but with humbuckers, and spaces for four control knobs but it looks like only one is installed and the other three are just holes! I'll have to watch the DVD again and make sure I got the description right!

BTW, the sound quality and mix on the DVD is amazing - I made an audio recording of it on my MD player and it sounds great - like a live album.
 
#40
i could be wrong, but i don't think jeff berlin has ever played fretless on a recording. i seem to remember him saying something along the lines of not wanting to seem like a jaco-wannabe. he felt that jaco was the primary voice of the instrument, and he didn't want to be lumped in as the jaco-bies. something like that.

on another note, neil peart from rush plays some on champions, iirc, as does steve smith.
 
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