1st time I met Will Bernard was on Telegraph in Berkeley. He was sitting in with Alphabet Soup, whose cd I had. I approached him to get their contact info and he said that no one in that set was actually in the band, they were all subs.

2nd time I met Will, his quartet opened for Medeski Martin and Wood at The Cubberley Community Center, July, 1996, which is 25 years ago, nearly 26.

45th or 46th time I met Will Bernard, he and Beth Custer played my music series at Lytton Plaza. We had Thai food after the show.

Today I get word that Will Bernard has released a new album, his 11th*. It’s called Pond Time. I listenened to two sampler tracks, “Lake of Greater Remnants” and “Four Is More” although I may not have gotten the full effect because I am in a cafe and they have their own music going. Actually, I heard three minutes of “Four is More” about three hours ago then a guy came to my table and wanted to talk to me — or us, me and Duffy, a dog on my lap — about the word or concept of “superfan”.  So I just now heard the last minute or two of “Four is More” and then the 2nd song in entirety. Plus the background noise, or more background noise I should say.

This set has a horn section or a reeds player — I will skip my anecdote about he or them. Also, Will will be out west — he goes between Brooklyn and Berkeley — later this year with Jenny Scheinman. He also did something with TJ Kirk, a secret reunion in Berkeley recently. Not sure if I knew much about Monk before “TJ Kirk” — certainly I had never heard of Rashaan Roland Kirk.

This cd is on Dreck to Disk. Which dear reader can assume is a better label than Lions With Wings. Let’s all give a rouse or a roar for Mr. Bernard.

*All Music dot com lists 174 credits but some of those are redundant.