IN A DAY WHEN GUITARISTS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR A “NEW” SOUND EFFECT IN WHICH TO PLUG IN, PETER BERNSTEIN LETS HIS GUITAR SPEAK FOR ITSELF ON HIS OWN.
NO PEDALS, NO DIALS OR TAPES. BERNSTEIN LETS HIS STRINGS AND FINGERS DO ALL OF THE WORK. AND SPEAKING OF WORK, HIS LONG TIME WORK WITH DRUMMER BILL STEWART AND KEYBOARDIST LARRY GOLDINGS IS GOING ON 3 DECADES, AND STILL SOUNDING AS FRESH AS EVER.
THEY’LL BE PLAYING AT SMOKE JAZZ CLUB STARTING OCTOBER 12, AND PETER GAVE US A BIT OF INSIGHT AS TO HIS WORK WITH THE MANY DRUMMERS HE’S TEAMED UP WITH IN THE PAST
YOU’VE BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH MANY GREAT DRUMMERS, INCLUDING JIMMY COBB, AL FOSTER AND BILL STEWART. THEY ARE ALL DIVERSE. WHAT DID YOU LEARN FIRST FROM COBB?
Jimmy Cobb is the elder; he was born in the 20s. Foster is a good 12 years younger than Cobb, and he came up in another time.
Al Foster was a more recent association, and I’m thrilled that he’s willing to do some gigs with me. I did do one with him a few years ago with Jorge Rossy, and did a few gigs after that. Playing night after night with him it was wonderful to hear what an original voice that he is on the drums, and how he personalizes everything that he plays. But it was still in the service of the music.
HOW ABOUT BILL STEWART?
I go way back with Bill Stewart, back when I was a student at William Patterson College in 1986. He was already very far along as far as having his own identity. He was coming through all of those drummers before him; Roy Haynes, Tony Williams and Jack DeJohnette. He’s a real student of the music.
He came up in it; his dad was a trombone player. He’s just one of the most mature, together musicians that I have ever met of my own age. He’s a year older, but had so much experience and already had his own thing.
So we just started playing together in a group with another friend, Larry Goldings. He’s also way mature beyond his years, and sounded like an old guy when he was 15.
We were able to get together as a trio, and luckily have been able to keep going and keep playing together, playing records and doing gigs. We’re playing more than ever as a touring band. That’s just an incredible blessing
Bill’s just great. Hearing him every night, he always has surprises; he’s an incredible improviser.
I met Jimmy Cobb a little bit after that, when I was a student at The New School. Arnie Lawrence was running the school, God bless him. He wasn’t about having a traditional jazz academy, just giving people information about scales. He wanted to have the greatest musicians that were around to come and interact with the students.
He got Jimmy Cobb to be a teacher, but he wasn’t a teacher in the conventional way. There were no homework assignments, handouts or power point presentations; he just sat and played with us.
What we got from Cobb was “That’s the size of the beat. That’s the width of the beat, and he’s swinging. If you can get along with that ride cymbal and hold on with it and get in with it, you’re getting better.”
Every time that I got to play with Jimmy Cobb, I just felt like I was aspiring to get the feeling of the pulse, his quarter note, the way he played time and drove the band.
Luckily, we young guys, like my and Brad Mehldau, got him to do some gigs outside of school. We got to play at the Village Gate. Then, in 1992 I got to make my own album for Criss Cross records, so I asked Jimmy Cobb and John Webber, the great bass player that Jimmy loved to play with, as he was coming out of the Paul Chambers school.
We got to play some gigs every year, and it really became his band, Cobb’s Mob. His attitude was, “If I know it, we’ll play it; whatever you guys want.” So we figured out tunes he’d like to play. It was his band, but he gave us a lot of freedom to decide what we wanted to play.
I got to play a few times at the Vanguard with Cobb and Harold Mabern. Earlier we had Richard Lyons on piano, who’s just incredible, and even a couple years older than Cobb. The elders came up from a different time, so when you’re playing with them, you’re playing with the guys that were around when it was coming to be.
Jimmy was a beautiful guy; he gave so much to us. Every night he gave it all, 100%
BERNSTEIN PROMISES TO GIVE 100% AT HIS UPCOMING GIG AT SMOKE AS WELL