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Bernie Bierman: 101 Years Young!
May 5, 2010 5:30 PM

Yesterday, my high school music teacher, Bill Evans, and I had the honor and privilege to spend three glorious hours with Bernie Bierman, 101 year-old composer and pianist!

We met him for lunch at the Silver Spurs diner around the corner from where he lives in The Village. Afterwards, he invited us back to his apartment where he played the piano for us, sang a little, spun some CDs of old recordings of his, and basically just hung out.

Bernie has led an amazing life, starting the day he was born August 26, 1908! We tried to get him to reminisce about his life, but he fought us off valiantly, telling us that it's much more interesting to look forward, not backward. Half-way through the visit, Bill and I figured out that if you put together both of our ages, it didn't add up to Bernie's single, long lifetime!

From his website:

He went through the public school system, pre-law at NYU and Brooklyn Law School. In 1930, he passed the bar and practiced law from 1931 to 1942. He served in the US Army from 1942 to 1945.

Just before entering the service, Bernie was working on a children's operetta with two young men named Jack Manus and Al Sells. It was completed by the time Bernie was discharged, and was sold and recorded. Titled "The Love of Two Cabbages," it did quite well, and Bernie and Jack Manus brought it to publishers Shapiro and Bernstein, who were sufficiently impressed to sign them as staff writers. In the 3 years that followed, over 60 of their songs were recorded by Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Harry James, Guy Lombardo, Sammy Kaye, Xavier Cougat and many others. "Midnight Masquerade" had 11 different recordings and was number 3 on the "Hit Parade," competing with "Because of You." "Vanity" was another big hit of his.

Yesterday, he played one of his songs for us - "What More Can I Ask For?" - that he wrote back in 1946. It's based on a Chopin Etude and just might appear on a future CD recording of ours...:)

Bill sang along, which made the afternoon especially priceless. How often do you get to hang out with a special soul like Bernie and your high school music teacher?

Simply amazing!

~~ Vinson Valega

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