Guitarist Will Bernard Makes Palmetto Records Debut with Party Hats

Press release
Source: Palmetto Records

Palmetto Records announces the newest addition to their roster – Will Bernard. Will’s Palmetto debut recording, Party Hats, released on February 20, 2007, is avaiable in stores now. Matt Balitsaris, President of Palmetto Records, welcomes Will: “We're psyched to have Will Bernard in the Palmetto family. He's a soulful player who writes groovy tunes with a distinctive point of view. Party Hats wants to live in your car.”

Will comments: “I like being on a small label that cares about music for its aesthetic value and I think it’s a perfect fit for me in this stage of the game.”

JazzTimes magazine recognizes Will Bernard as “…one of the most potent, if under recognized, guitarists on the post-Frisell/post-Scofield scene” and All About Jazz regards Will as “…a player who clearly deserves a wider audience for his imaginative genre-busting aesthetic.”
 
Funky from start to finish and recorded over three years, Party Hats features more or less two rhythm sections including: Will Bernard, guitar; Will Blades, organ; Ryan Newman, bass; Keith McArthur, bass; Jan Jackson, drums; Paul Spina, drums; Josh Jones, percussion; Michael Bluestein, organ and electric piano; and a number of horn players including: Cochemea Gastelum, alto sax; Joe Cohen, sax; Peter Apfelbaum, tenor sax, qarcabas, melodica; Dave Ellis, sax; Mike Olmos, trumpet; and Adam Theis, trombone.

In Billboard magazine, Dan Ouellette heralded Will Bernard as “one of the best-kept jazz-guitar secrets on the planet.”

For Party Hats, Will contributes 11 finger poppin’ originals.
 
Track Listing
1.    Share the Sea
2.    White Elephant Sale
3.    Ripple Sole
4.    Leo’s Cat
5.    Party Hats
6.    Afro Sheen
7.    Chin Up
8.    Newbie
9.    Folding Green
10. Rattle Trap
11. Penske

Besides being distributed to record stores and internet music sites worldwide, the CD will also be available for download in its entirety or by individual track at www.palmetto-records.com.

For information about Will Bernard tour dates visit www.willbernard.com or www.palmetto-records.com.

Artist information
A long time Bay Area musician, guitarist/composer Will Bernard first began playing and recording on an international level through his membership in Peter Apfelbaum’s Hieroglyphics Ensemble, whose first recording was on Don Cherry’s MultiKulti (A&M 1989). Since then he has been involved with a host of boundary stretching groups, ranging from jazz, hip hop and world music to experimental music, with many stops in between. He has performed and recorded with Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, Peter Apfelbaum’s various band incarnations, Beth Custer, The Coup, and Midnight Voices to name a few. The most successful of these projects was the group T.J. Kirk (with Charlie Hunter) whose 2nd record for Warner Bros. If Four Was One was nominated for a Grammy in 1997.
 
Will released his debut CD as a leader, Medicine Hat in 1998. Since then Will has self produced two albums Will Bernard and Motherbug 2001 and Will Bernard Trio Directions To My House 2005 both on his own label Dreck to Disk Records.
 
The Will Bernard band has performed at The Monterey, North Sea, SF Jazz, Bumbershoot, Be-Bop and Brew, Montreal, Vancouver and The High Sierra festivals, as well as clubs across the country and through Canada. They have opened for Herbie Hancock and the Head Hunters, Jimmy McGriff, The Funky Meters, John Scofield, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Ziggy Modeliste and the Charlie Hunter Quartet.
 
More recently Will has been developing his musical associations and has been working with a range of musicians that include Robert Walter, Stanton Moore, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Idris Muhammad, Adam Deitch, Zigaboo Modeliste, and John Medeski. Between 2002 and 2005 he toured extensively in the US with Robert Walter’s 20th congress.
 
As MG5 (formerly Frequinox) bandmate Stanton Moore said of Will (in the San Francisco Chronicle): "He's one of the greatest musicians I've come into contact with." And Robert Walter says: "He's probably the most versatile guitar player I've ever worked with. Anywhere we try to go, he can cover that area better than anyone."
 
Management: Al Evers – A-Train Management
Booking: Phil Simon – Simon Says Booking

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