OTBKB Music Closeup: Adam Bernstein

If someone is in the center of the various musical currents swirling around the neighborhood, that someone would be Park Slope resident Adam Bernstein.  Originally from New Jersey, where he was in the 14 piece folk/rock/klezmer/funk band All God's Children, Adam moved to Park Slope in 1998.

The reason for that move was to  become the Jazz Program Director at the Berkley Carroll School.  Adam says that the purpose of that program was to make sure that middle school to high school kids "could learn to play the music." Although Adam left that position at the end of the last school year, he plans to keep pursuing education.

Adam is also a member of the Laurie Berkner Band, a family and kids' band.  He's known Laurie for 20 years and once, while the two of them were living in the same building in Union City, NJ, Laurie needed a bass player for an appearance on the Today Show.  She called upon Adam, and the two have been working together since.

One of Adam's musical loves is jazz, and he plays music in that idiom with the David Driver Quartet and with the band Solar, which now is at least on hiatus.  Adam's bandmate in Solar, Eli Yamin, recently played at the White House.

And like most musicians, Adam is working on a new record.  He has a home studio, which, Adam explained "in a normal person's house would be the living room."

Although Adam says doesn't tend to hang out these days, he does seem to know many musicians.  He asked me if I ever heard of a musician named Leslie Mendelson.  Of course I had (as you steady readers of OTBKB Music know).  Adam explained that she was in a songwriters' circle with her many years ago and she came in every week with really good new songs.

Even Borough President Marty Markowitz has recognized Adam's talents; in 2005, Marty presented Adam with a proclamation recognizing his accomplishments in jazz education.

 --Eliot Wagner