Paul Berner

Born in California, Paul Berner spent his youth in a small town on the Great Plains. There he started playing guitar at age 13 and was soon playing in a local rock band. The double bass followed a couple years later, coinciding with his developing interest in jazz.

At 18, after three years but only a few lessons on bass, he passed the audition for entrance to the University of Iowa School of Music. Intent on developing his technique and his musical horizons, he chose to study classical bass playing, though he always was involved with jazz music outside of school. After receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance, Paul moved to Bloomington, Indiana for post-graduate studies at the Indiana University School of Music, also in classical bass. Here he came in contact with musicians such as Peter Erskine, Kenny Aronoff, Todd Coolman, Jim Beard, and John Clayton.

In 1990 Paul made a “quality of life” decision and moved his base of operations to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. To paraphrase Bill Frisell, he wanted a house with a room where he could just sit and think! After arriving in the Netherlands he soon found his talents much in demand, and consequently he has worked with many well-known Dutch and Belgian artists such as Cees Slinger, Toots Thielemans, Dré Pallemaerts, Jesse van Ruller and Laura Fygi. In addition international artists such as Shirley Bassey, George Coleman, Michael Moore and Monty Alexander call upon his bass playing.