Bernie Worrell has passed

[David Houck]

I just saw that Bernie Worrell died yesterday, and wanted to share it here.  From Parliament-Funkadelic to Talking Heads, his influential keyboards are on a lot of music.

[David Houck]

Here he is with Talking Heads in a great performance of Crosseyed and Painless.

[edwardofhuncote]

"the kind of sideman who is as influential as some bandleaders."

What a nice thing to say.

[pauldo]

Sad, Bernie was like the Jerry Douglas of keys.
His sound/ playing was so distinct and identifiable.

[edwin]

Amazing, iconic player, who played with the Seattle symphony at age 12. I saw him many times, from Talking Heads, to PFunk to Bootsy Collin's Rubber Band.

I also got to hang with him. Utterly random backstage at Cervante's in Denver. We ended up sitting next to each other and just talking for about 45 minutes. Completely humble and genuine. In the last few years, a number of friends have gotten to play with him a bunch. A real musician's musician and a player for the people.

Dawn and I have had Flashlight as our song since the beginning (we just celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary yesterday, but Flashlight had already been a thing for years by the time we got married), so Bernie has been a part of our connection forever.

One of the biggest losses of the year in a year that has taken too many.

[funkyjazzjunky]

Insurance Man for the Funk and Flashlight are two of my favorite bass lines even though they were performed with Moog Synths

VMG