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Ben Zwerin

Born to an American father and French mother in Nimes, France, Ben grew up in Paris. He was introduced to music at a very early age by his father, Mike Zwerin, a famous trombonist and writer for the “International Herald Tribune" who played with the likes of Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy and Maynard Ferguson

In the fall of 1995, he left France to accept a scholarship at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music where he was fortunate to study with great teachers such as Hal Crook, Bruce Gertz and Phil Wilson. Ben also extended his musical family, which led him to perform in many European music festivals including “Montreux Jazz Festival", “Jazz a Juan" and “Jazz a Vienne".

After graduating in the fall of 97, he performed all over the East coast and taught at Northeastern University in Boston until he moved to New York in 2000. Ben then started touring nationally and internationally as well as working in the local NYC venues (Carnegie Hall, Roseland, Bowery Ballroom, Bitter End, Joe’s Pub, Mercury Lounge) with talented and diverse artists like Angelique Kidjo, Lila Downs (Sony), Nouvelle Vague (EMI), Claudia Acuna (Marsalis Music/Universal), Kellylee Evans (Universal France), Yannick Noah (Sony/BMG), Lionel Loueke (Blue Note recording artist, Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard), Otis Clay, Ycare (Sony France), Oliver Mtukudzi, the Revelations feat. Tre Williams (song in the RZA/Tarantino movie "the Man with the Iron Fists"), Mino Cinelu, Daisy Jopling, JJ Appleton (with whom he opened for Hootie and the Blowfish, Edwin McCain and Sister Hazel and appeared on “Last Call with Carson Daly" and “Wild on E!"), Brendan James (Decca/Universal recording artist), Tammany Hall (has had songs on HBO, MTV, NBC as well as WB11), Souldiggaz (Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige), Frenchie Davis (of The Voice, Rent and American Idol), Ellen Greene (of The Little Shop of Horrors), Antonique Smith (of Rent and Notorious BIG), Forro In The Dark (Nublu/Nat Geo), Running Still (East/West/Atlantic) as well as an amazing collection of local NY artists. Ben also played in the Off-Broadway shows “Bat Boy" and “A Broadway Diva Christmas".

Since moving to New York, Ben has been focusing on writing songs and producing various artists as well as writing music for TV shows (such as All my Children, One Life to Live and American Pickers) and scoring films.

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Album Review

Will Bernard: Freelance Subversives

Read "Freelance Subversives" reviewed by Doug Collette


A native Californian currently headquartered in Brooklyn, Will Bernard's geographical touchpoints mirror the expanse of solo and collaborative projects to which he's contributed over the course of his career. Just a few of the names appearing in his discography are also indicative of the guitarist's broadly eclectic approach: eccentric singer/composer Tom Waits, drummer extraordinaire Stanton Moore and guitar wunderkind Charlie Hunter. And dating back to Will's membership with the latter in T.J. Kirk (with drummer Scott Amendola), there's been a ...

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