Jeff Berlin
Bass player. Rehearsed with the band at the start of 1981 but the group was disbanded.
Shortly before the start of rehearsals in the U.S., Vinnie Colaiuta and Jeff Berlin called our office
and tried to make secret deals to get their individual salaries raised, saying, "Don't tell the other guys."
quoted in The Real Frank Zappa Book.
"Look, I did Zappa, you know what I mean? I did Zappa's band for a short time,
and he gave me a chart once, and told me to learn it, and Steve Vai came over and helped me out because I didn't know how to read the stuff. He gave me a few hints and then I understood. A week later I went back to the rehearsal, I broke out the music, and we started playing. Frank stopped it immediately and said "What are you playing?" and I said "I'm playing this part you gave to me." It was "Pedro's Dowry." And he looked at it and "Oh man," he says "I gave you the guitar part by accident." So I learned the guitar part, in treble clef, and learned it in a couple days well enough to function in his band. So what are they going to show me now, to complicate my musical life, or give me any kind of tsoris. It's a Yiddish word, means give me a headache. I'm happy with that. It's nice at my age that I don't have to sweat it anymore. And I'm happy with giving a job. They want a job, they got it.
As a leader, it's my ball game. It's my ball, and I call the rules, as any leader will."
