Drummer Bernard Davis got his fill of that wedding-band staple, "Celebration," when he was tapped in 1995 to be part of the reunion tour of Kool & The Gang.



Bernard Davis is a veteran musician who has also worked with Steve Winwood, Angela Bofill, Chaka Khan, Mariah Carey, Daryl Hall, Roberta Flack, Ashford & Simpson, Jimmy McGriff, Anita Baker and Whitney Houston, among others.



Bernard Davis, who got his first drum kit at age nine, has been cultivating his groove and pocket for a long time.



In 1962, when his family moved to New Jersey from Harlem (the drummer was six), Teaneck was one of the few integrated suburban communities in the tri-state area. With that mix of people came a mix of musical styles and influences. By the time he attended Teaneck High School (Class of 1974), Bernard Davis was surrounded by an intoxicating brew of sounds — everything from Latin to Frank Zappa to John Coltrane to Chick Corea. He brought all those flavors into the bands he was starting, at the time, to play with: bands with names like The Concepts and Blend of Power.



By the mid-1980s, he was doing regular gigs at The Cellar restaurant in New York and touring with artists like Johnny Kemp, Evelyn "Champagne" King, Glenn Jones and Freddie Jackson. If you didn't catch him there, you might have heard him on television: that's him drumming on the iconic "Ladies and gentlemen, this is rock-and-roll" rocket-launch video that was MTV's early 1980s station identification.



Bernard Davis has toured worldwide and appeared on some 65 albums, two of them Grammy winners.