Jeff Berlin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jeff Berlin | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jeff Berlin |
| Born | January 17, 1953 |
| Origin |  Queens, New York, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Jazz fusion Progressive rock |
| Occupation(s) | Bassist |
| Instrument(s) | Electric bass |
| Years active | |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Dean Guitars MarkBass Amps |
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Jeff Berlin (born January 17, 1953) is an American electric bass player. Since the mid-1970s, he has been known for his virtuosic jazz fusion and prog rock bass playing.
Jeff Berlin's bass playing has a distinctively "fusion" sound, that is somewhat similar to that of Jaco Pastorius, though Berlin plays a fretted bass and has stated his distaste for Jaco imitators[1].
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[edit] Childhood
Jeff Berlin was born to parents who were both musically inclined (his father an opera singer and his mother a pianist). As a child he was considered a prodigy on the violin, but switched to bass guitar at 14 years old. His early bass training included time at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
[edit] As a musician
Beginning in the 1970s, Jeff Berlin's career has been primarily as a sideman to more well-known musicians, but he has also released several solo albums. Notably, he played for some years with Bill Bruford and turned down an offer to join Van Halen.
[edit] As an educator
Jeff Berlin is also well known as a particularly outspoken advocate of (formal) music education. He was a founding member of the Bass Institute of Technology in Los Angeles and later founded the Players School of Music in Clearwater, Florida. Additionally, he regularly writes articles and columns for Bass Player Magazine.
[edit] Signature' Equipment
Jeff Berlin earlier had Dean Guitars make a Jeff Berlin signature model electric bass. Before that, Peavey made a Jeff Berlin signature bass dubbed the "Palaedium". Jeff's current gigging bass is the Dean Jeff Berlin Signature Model.
He also has a signature amplifier combo made by MarkBass, the CMD 151P. This consists of one 15" speaker powered by an integrated solid state head (with power output of 300 watts @ 8 ohm or 500 watts @ 4 ohm). Of interest is the fact that this combo lacks a tweeter, which Berlin prefers not to use. Jeff is also involved with the development of MarkBass equipment (manufactured in Italy).
