#stevenbernstein

[sgcruz21-blog]

Get Rich Quick? Steven Bernstein’s Sharp Satire on Financial Illusions

‘GRQ’ is the exciting new novel by Steven Bernstein. Photo: Partners in Crime Book Tours, used with permission. Part of the Partners in Crim

Just posted a new book review! Steven Bernstein’s GRQ is a tense, one-day unraveling of a man chasing salvation through easy money—and paying the price. 💸✨

Read the full review in today's blog post.

[facevinyl]

Facevinyl STEVEN BERNSTEIN   Zebulon

[farnellnewton]

View this post on Instagram

#omahadiner #Vinyl #StevenBernstein #CharlieHunter #Skerik #BobbyPrevite #top40 (at St Johns Neighborhood)

[searchandrestore-blog1]

Three Nights of Sexmob this week!!

At Search & Restore, we pride ourselves in bringing you a concert-going experience that will fill you with enough joy to last the year. The now 18-year old Sexmob is the perfect band to realize that vision with us. They are simply incredibly, undoubtedly fun and fresh with every performance. So three nights in a row of the band is an obvious and exciting prospect. This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Sexmob play at ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn. Each night will be a different set of music, and each night will be opened by a different band, each unique and featuring a vocalist, which should smash nicely against Sexmob's instrumental sound. We interviewed slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein about his firsts and lasts, scroll down to read it but first grab your tickets here: http://www.shapeshifterlab.com/portfolio/sept-12-14-search-restores-presents-three-nights-of-sexmob-with-special-guests/

photo by Greg Aiello

What's the first record you owned?

I’m being literal. There were this 45s, one was 16 Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford and one was Tiny Bubbles by Don Ho, this was way before trumpet, this is distant distant memories. I think it was first grade, maybe kindergarten, I had a little record player with these little 45s. Somehow those got to be mine, we got them for free somewhere and my parents gave them to me. The Don Ho one came with a meal somewhere.

  What’s the most recent record?

The last one I bought and fell in love with the most is this Tyree Glenn record with vocals and brass. It’s called the Trombone Artistry , he's wearing a blue artist smock and a beret on the cover and has an easel with all the artists names on it and a plunger in his hand and the trombone. It’s great, I came home with that a few days ago.

  The first joke you ever heard?

I don’t know about the first joke I ever heard, but the first joke I ever made up, that I was really proud of, I just liked the way it worked…it was that one…you know the knights of the round table? Sir….

  Sir Lancealot?

You’re welcome!             That’s it, that’s the joke.

  That’s exceptional.

 Thank you, yeah I came up with that one when I was about 21. Or maybe 22 because It was when I was with the Flying Karamazov Brothers, you know I did Vaudeville for a long time. I was proud of that one because you could really get people with it. All I say is “you’re welcome.”

  What's the last joke you heard?

The last one I really liked I can’t tell now but I recently told it on stage, it’s aboue “Hitler walking the dog.” Adam Rogers told it to me, and I told it on stage at Club Helsinki with Sexmob, Roswell Rudd & Medeski, it was on the Jewish High Holy Days.

Who was your first role model? 

I think role models are definitely parents. I still love ‘em and they’re both here. All my trumpet teachers were real role models. Mr. Hardymon got me improvising in the 5th grade, and then John Coppola my trumpet teacher in San Francisco, and Jimmie Maxwell, I’ve had so many role models but my teachers have been really important. I’m still involved with John Coppola, he’s 84 or 85, and Jimmie would give me Zen books, I was 21 when I started and I had these moments when I was actually getting able to play and I had those books at the same time, I called it trumpet satori. Because I was never a great natural trumpet player, I always had good tone but I think I never really used my air, I still don’t use it as efficiently as possible, but those moments where you get everything, all the air all the muscles and it all clicks, and then you can actually just play with ease and it’s perfect and you’re not working at it…that was with Jimmie Maxwell, when I was practicing 4 or 5 hours a day and I was saying “Oh this is it! Trumpet Satori…”

  Was trumpet your first instrument as a kid?

Yeah.

  Did you choose it?

It was fourth grade and they had a slideshow saying you could choose different instruments, and I remember seeing the trumpet and saying “Oh man that Louis Armstrong guy is always on TV and he looks really cool, so I might as well try the trumpet.” He was on the Mike Douglas show and that really made a big impression on me.

  What was the first movie soundtrack you fell in love with?

That’s hard because I was a total movie guy as a kid and I’m sure part of it was the soundtrack. I was thinking about when I actually made the switch of paying more attention to the soundtrack than to the movies, and I don’t really remember when that happened. But I do know that at a certain point in my life I just wanted to listen to movie soundtrack, especially when I lived in New York City because you could buy records on the street for a dollar and I would buy movie soundtracks and listen to them.

  Because of the age I am there’s certain soundtracks that are really gonna resonate. There’s the soundtrack to the Golden Voyage of Sinbadby Nicholas Rossa and I heard it and I said “Oh man I remember these soundtracks…” They would show them as matinees, the Adventures of Sinbad movies, those scores were incredible, like when he fights the cyclops and all that kind of stuff.

  And obviously all the James Bond and Planet of the Apes, those were my era of movies and they naturally had an impact on me.

  The most recent soundtrack?

I saw a TV show with a good soundtrack, by the band Big Lazy, they were a knitting Factory band but they never got that famous, they never really toured. It was led by a guitar player Steven Ulrich. And I remember watching Bored To Death on HBO and hearing their music, that was a really good score I gotta say.

  First person I played music with

First person I really liked playing music with was Peter Apfelbaum. The funny thing is he’s on my most recent record, and we were just playing a gig together in the Alps. The first people I improvised with were in fifth grade, and Peter went to a different school than I did, I was in the fifth grade and he was in the sixth grade, and they would bring him into our concerts to guest star on organ.

  Are you and Peter sick of each other at all?

Oh my god no. I’ll definitely have him come by for