Warren Bernhardt born 13 November 1938

Bernhardt was born in Wausau, Wisconsin. His father was a pianist, leading him to have early childhood exposure to piano, and he learned some rudiments of keyboarding from his friends. At the age of five, Warren's family relocated to New York City where Warren immediately began serious study of the classical piano literature with well-known pianists Sascha Gorodonitzki, Miklos Schwalb and Herbert Stessin, as well as with his father. After the death of his father in 1952 he suffered a period of depression and quit music for a time then studied chemistry and physics at the University of Chicago. In that city he was exposed to blues and jazz, which influenced the rest of his career. 

In 1961 Bernhardt met Paul Winter in Chicago and joined Winter’s sextet who ended up winning a jazz competition judged by Dizzy Gillespie and John Hammond. After being invited for a performance at the Kennedy White House in 1961, that group toured the world under the auspices of the State Department. The association with Winter brought Bernhardt back to New York City, where he fell into the exploding jazz and rock scene of the late ‘60s and early 70s. While in New York, Bernhardt befriended his hero Bill Evans and the two roomed together for a time, often playing four-handed piano together in their apartment. 

Despite his ubiquitous presence on the NYC music scene, Bernhardt had moved to Woodstock around 1968. Site of a second home that would eventually become his primary residence, that hallowed Catskills area would be a source of both inspiration and support for him for the rest of his life. It was there that he met his first wife Susan and they had a son Tim, though the two would later divorce. In 1976 Bernhardt married his current wife Jan with whom he had a daughter Nicole. 

Throughout much of the 70s and 80s, Bernhardt kept one foot in the commercial music world and the other in the jazz genre. With his considerable chops he soon became a first-call keyboardist for studio recordings for everything from a Muppets movie to Don McLean’s “American Pie” to an album with Carly Simon. Bernhardt estimated that he played approximately 1,000 studio dates during his long career. Mike Mainieri said that the keyboardist was known as “One-take Warren.” But he also worked as a sideman with various notable jazz players like Gerry Mulligan, George Benson and Clark Terry. 

                   Here’s “Ain’t Life Grand” from above album.

Bernhardt released several solo LPs in the 1970s, and eventually became a member of the jazz fusion group Steps Ahead while continuing to work on solo projects.  In 1971, he provided the piano accompaniment on the song "Crossroads" by Don McLean. Bernhardt had a long career as the leader of his own groups with six recordings for Arista/Novus during 1977-1979. And in keeping with his inclination to play both commercial and non-commercial music, Bernhardt toured with Steely Dan during 1993-1994 and is featured on the group’s Alive in America album. 

He later formed a close relationship with Tom Jung’s DMP label, for whom he released eight albums as a leader, usually with a trio, from 1983 until 2003. He also recorded three albums featuring solo piano and classical music that he released on his own label and is also featured in teaching sessions in both audio and video formats from Homespun Tapes. He recorded and toued with a solo Art Garfunkel from 1995 to 2003 and with Simon & Garfunkel for their reunion shows during 2003-2010. 

In 2009, Bernhardt reunited with his band from 1973, L'Image, featuring Mike Mainieri, David Spinozza, Tony Levin and Steve Gadd. The group performed at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City, toured Japan and Europe, and released the album L 'Image 2.0. Bernhardt’s last recording was Lotus Night with a trio he co-led with Mainieri and guitarist Kazumi Watanabe in 2011. 

Bernhardt had a remarkable memory for dates and statistics around his life in music, annotating all the gigs and recording sessions. For example, the pianist estimated that he had performed for approximately 33 million people, with the largest single audience being 600,000 for a Simon & Garfunkel concert at the Coliseum in Rome. 

In his later years he had been doing occasional concerts with saxophonist David Newman, guitarist Artie Traum and singer Marc Black. Bernhardt died in Bearsville, New York, on August 19, 2022, after battling illness for several years. He was 83 years old. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, WBGO & stevekhan.com)