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Jeff Berlin

Exclusive VIDEO Interview with FBPO’s Jon Liebman
November 7, 2011

Jeff Berlin is considered by many to be the finest electric bass player in the world. A true master of the bass, Jeff has played with the likes of Bill Bruford, George Benson and Allan Holdsworth and has toured with the original members of Yes. He has also toured with BX3, a conglomeration with fellow bassists Stuart Hamm and Billy Sheehan. Jeff’s playing has been lauded by bass greats no less than Jaco Pastorius, Geddy Lee and Marcus Miller.

Jeff is the founder of The Players School of Music in Clearwater, Florida, and has also been at the forefront of music education for almost 30 years. His columns in Guitar Player and Bass Player magazines were wildly popular and often controversial.

Jeff’s numerous recording credits include seven highly acclaimed solo records: Champion, Pump It!, Taking Notes, In Harmony's Way, Lumpy Jazz, Aneurythms and the just-released High Standards, recorded with pianist Richard Drexler and drummer Danny Gottlieb.

Here is a special message from Jeff, regarding this interview:

You will probably feel my frustration with today’s bass academia in how I explain my thoughts in this interview with Jon Liebman. I sometimes simply have to go for it, as I am the only name bass player at this time who opts for music in music education. Dann Glenn also stands for it, but I don’t know of anyone else in the “name” category that does.

I have to admit that I am frustrated in having to sell music in music education to players and to their teachers who reject it outright. Players claim to want to be better musicians, but don’t want to do the work to get it. And their teachers are happy to accommodate them. So, although I don’t apologize for the content of my chat, I will do so for the tone.

Best from Jeff

FBPO’s video interview with Jeff Berlin

Part I: Thoughts on music education

Part II: On BX3 and the current tour with Scott Henderson and Mike Clark

Jeff Berlin with FBPO’s Jon Liebman, having a little sushi
before Jeff’s show with Scott Henderson and Mike Clark
September 2011

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See our other one-on-one conversation with Jeff, where he covers his musical
upbringing, playing jazz, the (almost) Van Halen gig, latest CD and much more!

Jeff Berlin

Go to interview

Also see the exclusive FBPO interviews of the bassists below, all of whom are mentioned in this interview:


John Clayton	Stu Hamm	Marcus Miller	Billy Sheehan	Rodney Whitaker	Victor Wooten
Read interview	Read interview	Read interview	Read interview	Read interview	Read interview

The following Jeff Berlin DVD is available in the FBPO store:

Bass Logic from
The Players
School of Music

(DVD)

Jeff has also written the foreword to Jon Liebman's hot new book, Bass Aerobics.

Bass Aerobics

by Jon Liebman

(Book/CD)

Bass Club
ForBassPlayersOnly.com is away an Upton double bass
pickup every month to one lucky new Bass Club subscriber!

Subscribing is easy -- and free!

Jeff has recently posted a series of free bass lessons on YouTube
from the Players School of Music. Below is a sampling. Enjoy!

Major 7 chord tones

Getting in the groove

"Short skirt, long jacket"

Visit the FBPO store!


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