First gig?Bernard laughs and answers with a smile. The Golden Terrace Ballroom, 125th Street. I was fourteen years old, did my first gig, got paid five dollars … And you know what I did with it? “I had bacon and eggs for breakfast.”
It’s been 35 years since Mick Jagger asked Bernard to join his band, and Bernard’s been a Rolling Stone ever since.
ON THE RECORD: Soon after releasing Inside Out, the spoken-word recording he made with David Bowie pianist Mike Garson, Bernard Fowler sat down with Rucus Magazine’s Rick Moody, and talked candidly about the jet-setting, globe-trotting life he’s lived the last 40 years on the road with his friends and bandmates, the Rolling Stones.
“New York Time” (video) was made for the song on Bernard’s first solo album, Friends with Privileges, recorded in 2006. Three years later, Bernard, with his Tack>>Head bandmates, calling themselves “Bad Dog,” did a European tour in support of the video’s release.
As a kid in New York City’sQueensbridge Projects, in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge, Bernard was a street (basket)ball stand out in the neighborhood. At school, Long Island (don’t-forget-the-City) High, he played trombone in a school band, not “marching,” not “Jazz,” but as he describes it, a sort of FUSION OF CONTEMPORARY AND POP MUSICS. It was a time when all sounds were colliding freely.
The collision from which “Fusion” emerged.
It was 1978, in New York City, and the choices were many for a young, ambitious musician, and that’s exactly what Bernard was.
As a five-year-old, Bernard heard what his mom was listening to around the apartment. Mahalia Jackson, Jackie Wilson, Motown, and later, when he started to sing and play, everything he heard, on the radio and in the streets of New York. Pop, Rock, Jazz, R&B, Funk. Nothing escaped Bernard’s attentive (musical) ear.
One Saturday afternoon, at a show of five or six “local” bands, Bernard was asked by one, if he’d sit in for its missing bass player. Bernard was playing trombone at the time, but he could play bass, and he fearlessly accepted the offer.
He didn’t know the music, but was told to follow their lead, and improvise at Jazz-like will. The players were five years older (early 20s) than Bernard, and were playing an Electric Jazz that was becoming popular at the time.
Return to Forever(Lenny White). On the Queensbridge side of the Queensboro Bridge, and thinking about crossing, Bernard’s choice of musical direction was from many. First was the bridge, across the East River, and onto the island of Manhattan.
Larry Levan and Grace Jones at the Paradise Garage (1982). It was at the Paradise Garage that Bernard was a member of Levan’s NYCiti Peech Boys, for which he wrote “Don’t Make Me Wait,” a tune that became a popular tune in the emerging “House” music movement.
1981 —New Year’s Eve. The Brecker Brothers live at Seventh Avenue South, the Brecker’s Greenwich Village Jazz club.
Paradise Garage It could be said that Bernard’s first “big” success, after his bacon-and-eggs debut, was on the lower end of Manhattan at the Paradise Garage. With Studio 54, The Roxy, and David Mancuso’s Loft, the Garage was one of the most popular New York City dance clubs, when dance clubs were at their most popular. A time when Disco, Dance, Techno, Hip-Hop, and Funk all ground together in 1980s, on floors all across America. An era of sound, like so many others, born in New York City.
1982 — Late Friday afternoon, outside The Roxy, between its time as a beautiful roller rink by day, and a B-Boy dance club at night. The Roxy is also the set for the (Hollywood) movie Beat Street’s climactic scene, a B-Boy Breakdancing Battle, a religious service led by the original Hip-Hop preacher, Bernard Fowler.
The Roxy also makes a daytime appearance in the movie Six Degrees of Separation, as it was below the apartment of a young couple who’s befriended by Will Smith, the film’s star.
Cause We Ended As Lovers Jeff Beck w/ Doug Wimbish (Bass) 1986 — Live In Japan ((( >>> )))
—yZ.
Joe Satriani, Bernard Fowler, Jimmy Rip, and Doug Wimbish were the young Americans who took Mick Jagger on a post-Rolling Stone ride in 1988. Mick and Stone-mate Keith Richards, after decades playing together, called it quits in 1985. They were called the Brothers of Sodom, and their tour of Indonesia, Japan and Australia was the highlight of their short existence, before The Stones reunited for their legendary Steel Wheels Tour.
The Brothers of Sodom w/ Joe Satriani (The Extremist) Doug Wimbish Simon Phillips Jimmy Rip Susie Davis Tina Turner (TOKYO/ AUSTRALIA). They called it Mick’s “solo” career, but the three years after Keith and Mick announced the end of The Rolling Stones in 1985, represented a short was more a wild ride but we know now, that it was actually just a little longer than usual argument between Mick and Keith. At the time, the Rolling Stones were preparing for their Steel Wheels (reunion) Tour, and most media was saying Mick’s “solo” career had been unsuccessful, and that was made the reunion possible. Of course they weren’t listening. For those who were looking, they saw Mick pushed back in his seat, as a group of Young Americans took him on the most Wild, E-Ticket Rides.
Jazziz editors, David Pulizzi and Larry Blumenfeld, spent two days club-hopping in New York City. From Uptown in Harlem, to the darker side Downtown, Pulizzi and Blumenfeld take us on a journey to the outer regions of where Jazz has taken us.
Rockit Herbie Hancock 1983 — Bernard maintained a musical relationship with Bill Laswell after playing on the bassist’s first Material album. It was Laswell who introduced both Herbie Hancock and Mick Jagger, both of whom Bernard also recorded with. ((( Electric Keys )))
Hollywood’s depiction of the B-Boy Culture that had surfaced in the parks and abandoned buildings in and around New York City’s Five Burroughs.
As a young boy, Bernard would follow his mother around their Queensbridge apartment, listening to MAHALIA JACKSON, JACKIE WILSON, and all things MOWTOWN. Being in New York City, Bernard listened to everything, and he heard it all … The Lost Poets and “Sweet Caroline,” “Spinning Wheel,” Miles Davis. the abundance of Pop Radio. When Bernard got older, time was spent playing BASKETBALL IN THE STREET, and TROMBONE IN THE SCHOOL BAND. After high school, and playing bass guitar in a “Fusion” band, Bernard stepped onto THE BRIDGE, and crossed the East River into Manhattan between 59th and 60th Streets. The year was 1979, and Bernard’s journey was about to begin.
Three years later, with new management, Bernard once again gathered Tack>>Head to do a one off show at the Highline Ballroom in New York City.
FREE TO THE PUBLIC — After being written underground (“Undercover of Night”), the Graffiti painted subway cars rise in the morning and become moving exhibit of art, criss-crossing the five New York City Boroughs. In the (Sun) light … Vivid, Graphic, and Fine Art, Free, for ALL to see.
StyleWars — Graffiti Art or Vandalism? What Does it Matter?
If there’s one thing that signifies summer in New York City, it’s street ball. Known for its high energy and aggressive style, street ball is defined by the Oxford dictionary as an “informal type of basketball played especially in urban areas such as parking lots, playgrounds, parks, etc.” (the same as Hip-Hop music). Some of New York City’s legendary courts, including Rucker Park and the West Fourth Street Courts, also known as “The Cage,” have been a training ground for a number of NBA stars, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kyrie Irving.
1981 — New Year’s Eve. The Brecker Brothers live at Seventh Avenue South, the Brecker’s Greenwich Village Jazz club. Founded by Randy and Michael Brecker, the Seventh Avenue South was a renowned venue that attracted the biggest names in jazz, at a time that it was becoming more electric. The Brecker Brothers’ sound was a “Fusion” of jazz, funk, and rock, and their virtuosic performances showcased the talents of the individual musicians as well as the group’s cohesive sound. The concert was recorded and later broadcast on NPR’s Jazz Alive! program, with introductions and interviews by host Ben Sidran. The recording captures the energy and excitement of the New Year’s Eve celebration, as well as the creative and technical prowess of the Brecker Brothers and their band. The Brecker Brothers show, New Year’s Eve 1981 at Seventh Avenue South in New York City was a defining moment in the group’s history and a testament to their influence on the jazz genre, FUSION. 1982 —
1983 —
1984 — 1985 — She’s The Boss 1986 — Doug Wimbish w/ Jeff Beck 1987 — Mick Jagger Primitive Cool (Columbia)
w/ Bernard Fowler, Doug Wimbish, Simon Phillips Australia and Japan, as the Brothers of Sodom, w/ Joe Satriani, Jimmy Rip
1987/88 —Prince / Miles Davis (New Year’s Eve) Paisley Park
1988 — Mick Jagger and The Brothers of Sodom: Joe Satriani (guitar) Doug Wimbish (bass guitar) Simon Phillips (drums) Bernard Fowler (vocals) Jimmy Rip (guitar) Phil Ashley (keys) Richard Cottle (saxophones/keys) Susie Davis (keyboards) Australia and Tokyo Tina Turner.
“Mother Earth” The Chess Project (Keith LeBlanc) New Moves 2024 — ((( remixing the blues)))
Still Alive And Well (Ailing?)
Chess Records revived … an album of classics reinterpreted by a supergroup.”
— The New Yorker
FOR YOUR GRAMMY CONSIDERATION (Best Contemporary Blues Album) Marshall Chess and Jamar Chess team with producer Keith LeBlanc to reimagine their family’s hallowed Chess Records vault — including favorites by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, and more … (CHESS RECORDS)
2024 — For Adrian Sherwood’s party at The Jazz Cafe, celebrating ON-U SOUND’S 40TH YEAR, all the original Tack>>Head bandmembers took time away from their individual projects (Living Colour, Rolling Stones, Chess Records) to play their English mate’s show.
Dance Funk band in Hartford, Connecticut. Skip McDonald and Harold Sargent at Jackie McLean’s Conservatory. The see Doug at T’s. Recognizing the natural talent, Skip and Harold convince Jackie to let Doug join the Conservatory, free. Later, Keith at T’s (again) with two friends who had played a show at a downtown hotel, and were going to jam with old friends in the Hartford ghetto. Keith is invited, and as always he has a pair of sticks in his back pocket. Noticed by Harold, who puts Keith on the spot. “Are they for show, or are you going to play.
Under Cover of Night
