Meet: Bernie

Meet the Creator: Bernie

Recently, Plenty spent the morning at Capilano University with a local musician, Bernie Arai who has graced Vancouver’s music scene with his extraordinary talent. Bernie Arai’s musical career as a performer, educator, composer, and recording artist spans styles through jazz, improvised music, traditional Japanese, and electronic and computer music. On the drum set, percussion and electronics, he works with some of Canada’s most accomplished musicians. Born, raised and based in Vancouver, Bernie has performed across the country with various ensembles, and has also toured across the United States, Japan and Europe.

Bernie Arai: A Local Vancouver Jazz Music Educator

As a graduate of Capilano University Jazz Studies program, Bernie’s musical career has come full circle, as he is now a dedicated and experienced educator. Bernie continues to teach based in Vancouver, including work as an instructor at the Vancouver Community College School of Music. He has served as director of jazz bands at the University of British Columbia Summer Music Institute, and as instructor in the Capilano College Jazz Studies program, the Phil Dwyer Academy of Music and Culinary Arts, the Douglas College Summer Jazz Intensive, North Shore Summer Jazz Intensive and the Vancouver Creative Music Institute. Bernie also teaches workshops and clinics in local schools for jazz bands and drum set. He works with large jazz ensembles of different levels, leading workshops with community big bands and adjudicating at high school jazz festivals including Surrey Schools Jazz Festival, Kiwanis Jazz, Vancouver District Jazz Festival. He has presented on rhythm section pedagogy at the BCMEA conference, and in 2015 was the director of the BCMEA Honour Jazz Band.

Over the years, Bernie has amassed a great debt to the educators who helped shape his musicianship during the course of his studies, including Fred Stride (UBC); Brad Turner, Ken Moore, Dave Robbins and Dylan VanDerSchyff (Capilano); Ian Froman (NYC).

Vancouver’s Musical Ensembles: New Diversions, Densabi, and Ugetsu

Beyond his teaching career, Bernie's own ensembles include his most recent quartet featuring Skye Brooks (also on drum set), Tommy Babin on bass and Chad Makela on saxophone, a reunion of an electronic/acoustic trio with Chris Gestrin and Jon Bentley (on keyboards, woodwinds, and electronics) called New Diversions. Electronic and acoustic ensemble Densabi features Bernie using digital sound synthesis and feedback with Chris Gestrin and shakuhachi master Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos to create improvised ambient music. Along with saxophonist Jon Bentley, Bernie co-led a hard bop sextet called Ugetsu for over 15 years.Thanks to Vancouver’s supportive scene, Bernie also works with many of the country’s finest musicians as a member of ensembles such as: the Brad Turner Trio, Bill Coon's bc double quartet, the Bill Runge quartet, the Hard Rubber Orchestra, the Jennifer Scott Trio, the Ihor Kukurudza Trio, Fred Stride Jazz Orchestra, Sharon Minemoto Quintet and Quartet, the Paul Keeling Trio and Quintet, Tommy Babin's Sendero Luminoso, Altered Laws, Mimosa, and many others.

Bernie remains in demand as an accompanist and band member for many legendary musicians from across Canada and around the world, appearing in concert at numerous music festivals worldwide, and on CBC radio jazz shows. He has had the opportunity to guest host CBC's long running radio show Hot Air on two occasions, once to spotlight the powerful musicianship of Claude Ranger, and once to explore the influence of Canadian jazz on Canadian jazz musicians.

We learned more about Bernie’s inspiration behind his musical career as we spent the morning in the studio with him at Capilano University. Read the full interview below.

Q&A with Bernie

Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in music?

A: Definitely having support from a great music teacher when I was a kid. Also in university, I had real mentors that really encouraged and supported me and made me realize it was something I could do for a living.

Q: What is a favourite memory you have in your music career?

A: Both with teaching and performing, I think I am more of an experiential person and I like to live in the moment and enjoy what’s happening right now, and I don’t think I keep too many things in memory. I love getting to work with students, I love being on stage and creating, and I try my best not to dwell on them too much.

Q: Who are the musicians that have inspired you?

A: Having mentors that have encouraged me to pursue a career in music, I think they were my inspirational figures. Not just as educators but as musicians as well. One of my mentors, Fred Stride who recently retired from UBC really showed me how to be a member of the musical community and how to contribute creatively.

Q: What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

A: Being a musician and a music teacher and a dad and a family member, I see all these different things that I get to do and it’s not like there’s my job and my life. They are all put together. I think that the idea that I can think about all those things as a part of who I am is probably the most rewarding thing. Rather than thinking I have to punch the clock and earn this money so I can do all the things that I love.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you would give someone else looking to start a music career?

A: I would say that you don’t choose a career in music, it chooses you. If you have any other choice then it would probably be a smarter idea. But if you are destined for it, you’ll know it. You will know there’s just no other option for you.

Q: What's your favourite genre of music to listen to?

A: Well, it’s hard to pick a favourite, especially now because music is so easily accessible to everyone. I would say that most of the work I do is playing jazz music. Actually, Duke Ellington had a really nice quote and said that "there are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind."

Q: What are your favourite spots to dine out in the city?

A: I think Vancouver is such a great food destination. You can go to Richmond for food. You can go to East Van for food. There’s just so many places. I think you can go deep into a particular cuisine in so many places, it’s hard to pinpoint one.

Q: What’s your favourite place you’ve travelled to?

A: Well, my family is from Japan and I like to be able to bring my family to Japan to see my extended family and expose ourselves to the culture. So that’s a trip we definitely look forward to.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Accidental and thoughtless.

Q: Any upcoming shows you would like to share with us?

A: I play regularly at the local jazz venues, places like Frankie's Jazz Club and La Fabrique St-George Winery. So you can find me there, sometime soon.