I started reading Berlin's educational columns when he was wrtining for a long-dead magazine called "International Musician & Recording World". I followed his columns in Guitar Player Magazine too, because I love his no BS approach to education. The whole thing about music rather than the bass being the primary focus still rings true. And I went to a Jeff Berlin seminar a local store had. I found him much more entertaining in person than his written personae- funny, engaging, and smart. He explained his anti-metronome stance. He's right as far as it goes, but I still disagree with him on that one. And I personally challenged his TBL assertion that all fretless bassists sound like Jaco. He agreed that not ALL do (Jack Bruce, Boz Burrell, Freebo, and Rick Danko for example), but asserted that the Jaco influence is pervasive enough to make most post-Jaco fretless players have difficulty NOT sounding like Jaco.
The problem I see wtih Jeff's public image is that there's not much nuance in his writing- and lack of nuance is the enemy of truth. When I got a chance to talk with him one-on-one about fretless players, I found that in most ways we agreed, but his defensive responses in The Bottom Line to the question were just about as reactionary as most of the responses to HIS posts. The guy who said he'd never heard any Jaco, but learned fretless from Pino and therefore didn't sound like Jaco was one of the more ludicrious ones- just because you got it second-hand doesn't mean it ain't there!
And as for his playing? Well, if you only listen to solo wanking then that's the impression you'll have of him. But if you listen to his work with Bill Bruford ("Gradually Going Tornado" was my introduction to his playing) and his more recent jazz work especially wtih Rick Drexler you'll find a great musician.
He's also got bad-ass skills on learning stuff fast- one of his arguments for being a well-rounded musician rather than just a bass player. He got a call to sub for Chris Squire at the last minute years ago. They called him one day, and sent recordings of the songs. He was transcribing them on the flight to England, did a day of rehearsals, and played the tour. He was able to do it because he'd spent time transcribing everything that sounded good to him, and doing it without an instrument in his hands. He's a huge fan of Cannonball Adderley's sax playing and that's a big influence on his soloing.
jte
