Will Bernard - Just Like Downtown (2013)

Tracklist

01. Dime Store Thriller
02. Go West
03. Sweet Spot
04. Dancing Days
05. Little Hand
06. Safety in Numbers
07. Bali Hai
08. Route 46
09. P.M. Gone

Will Bernard is far from a newbie but his debut release from Posi-Tone cuts a fresh new musical path for this virtuoso guitarist that gets no where near the ink he deserves. Nine tracks with seven stellar originals and two incredibly eclectic if not surprising covers add for one of the most solid six string outings for the year. To start, no one covers Led Zeppelin in a guitar 4tet format and if they do then "Dancing Days" is probably not their first pick from their legendary discography. Some artists you don't cover and not because their music is the holy grail or part of what I refer to as the cultural keys to the kingdom but because their music simply does not make the transition to the improvised format found here. "Dancing Days" is turned into an odd metered deceptively funky ditty that stays with you. Bernard is joined by organ phenom Brian Charette who provides the perfect harmonic counterpoint and the tune simmers effortless along. Will Bernard takes the somewhat minimalist approach is his clean angular playing with no notes wasted but a direct lyrical sense of purpose. "Safety In Numbers" is a delightfully syncopated and engaging off metered original featuring veteran reed titan John Ellis, another under appreciated talent if there ever was. Drummer Rudy Royston is one of the best half dozen drummers on the planet and using the tired phrase "in the pocket" would be the classic undersell here. "Bali Hai" from the movie South Pacific is a melodic exploratory with texture and an deceptively haunting modern folk infusion of impressionistic wonder. The bass clarinet work from Ellis serves as somewhat of a virtual second melody line running below the surface at points during this expansive reharm. The tunes is completely reinvented with one of the most skillful arrangements of a cinematic masterpiece that can be found. This is music with meat on its bones. Not the same tired 4tet format where Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall or perhaps Pat Metheny riffs are banged out by a master technician. Instead we find Will Bernard giving a master class on just what modern jazz guitar is about when approached by an artist whose depth is seemingly only matched by his fearlessness as a lyrical free spirit. Will Bernard compositions will stand the test of time as well as any modern jazz guitarist working today. An absolute must. --Brent Black, @ Critical Jazz

Coming over to the Posi-Tone label for his latest creation was bound to mean that the restless funk-jazz guitarist Will Bernard was going to make a different kind of record...again. Bernard s B3 organ fixation continues but not a whole lot else carries over from last year s funky Outdoor Living. Instead of Wil Blades on Hammond, we get Brian Charette. Simon Lott is swapped out for Rudy Royston. And Bernard gains a front line foil by adding saxophonist John Ellis. But in spite of this talent-loaded roster, the big deal about the impending Just Like Downtown is that Bernard doesn t so much want to groove like before. He wants to swing. Even the CD cover of a nattily-attired Bernard topped off with a pork pie hat shouts swing. Unlike a lot of his records, the Grammy-nominated fret master isn t really trying something new; Just Like Downtown is a back-to-my-jazz-roots affair. Given that, he s dead serious in approaching it with not only reverence but also with his own personality. Which means it grooves, anyway, like Dime Store Thriller, that finds Bernard and Ellis playing smoky lines in unison while Charette easily slips between comping and leading. Bernard s single note lines are all about the riding the groove, but he also likes to rub a little bit of dirt on it. Bernard wrote Dime and all but two of the other eight tunes in this batch of recordings, and though much of it is blues-based, the songwriting avoids the predictable twelve-bar fare. Sweet Spot swings hard, with Royston s drums just about jumping out of the speakers. Ellis sax delivery is red hot and smooth at the same time. Safety In Numbers is a hot tune, too, that Bernard stuffed with dense bop articulations. On this song, as well as on the sizzler Route 46, Bernard s linear attack visits Pat Martino territory. Ellis pulls out the bass clarinet for a few numbers, an instrument rarely used in organ jazz but he makes it sound like a natural fit. Little Hand is a hushed number where that lower octave clarinet s tone works great in this setting, especially in the way Ellis applies the right sentiment to it. It s also featured in Bali Hai from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, and the burly tone is nearly that of a baritone sax. Meanwhile, Bernard can be heard playing his trademark swampy, slide-like note bending. The other cover might appear to be a left-field choice, too: Dancing Days, from Led Zeppelin s Houses Of The Holy tune. The Bonham beat is retained as well as the melody, but something about Charette s B3 and Bernard s soft-toned guitar than nonetheless manages to transform the song into a greasy blues-jazz number. Bernard has played a Zeppelin cover or two in Stanton Moore s band, so he already knew his way around the band s repertoire in the jazz sense pretty darned well. Bernard s jazz sense gets in a good workout all over Just Like Downtown. With a supporting cast of Ellis, Charette and Royston, he found yet another way to stoke fans of guitar/B3 jazz. --S. Victor Aaron - Something Else!

Guitarist Will Bernard has been connected to a number of singular groups and individuals, from the Monk-to-funk outfit known as T.J. Kirk to New Orleans drumming giant Stanton Moore to multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum's boundary-pushing Hieroglyphics Ensemble, but a common denominator exists in his strongest work with each one: Bernard's best is always rooted in the groove. He has an no-fuss way of establishing and/or inhabiting the rhythmic currents of a song and he puts that skill to good use, once again, on Just Like Downtown. This quartet date finds Bernard fronting a highly capable and flexible foursome. Together, they tackle original soul jazz ("Dime Store Thriller"), Led Zeppelin ("Dancing Days") and Richard Rodgers ("Bali Hai"). Some pieces are brisk and driving ("Sweet Spot") and others like to linger for a while ("Little Hand"), as Bernard and company simply let the music float on by. Most of these musical offerings get to the point right away, but a sense of mystery is occasionally in the air as things coalesce ("Bali Hai") or blow slowly in the Frisell-ian breeze ("P.M. Gone"). Bernard's buddies deserve a good deal of credit for bringing his music to life. They sound good when working from the same playbook as the leader ("Dime Store Thriller"), but they sound great when one person's contributions are thrown into sharp relief; John Ellis' swaggering bass clarinet riff, for example, enlivens the jaunty "Go West," and drummer Rudy Royston delivers a tornado of a performance on the choppy "Safety In Numbers," which also features a beast-of-a-solo from Bernard. Organist Brian Charette the fourth piece of the puzzle is the one most responsible for adding color to the project. He brings all manner of sound both earthy and alien into the picture. Just Like Downtown possesses an immediately likeable, unforced quality. The music simply flows when Will Bernard and company get going.

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