Experience ...

Tom Bernett has more than five decades of professional experience as a drummer, as a vocalist, as an entertainer, and as a producer of audio, video, and live events.

During that time he has worked in USO shows, traveled with top-40 show bands, played in dinner theater and regional theater pit orchestras, worked in commercial recording studios, toured with the American Cavalcade of Big Bands, backed internationally famous entertainers, and in recent years as a drum teacher, has had students accepted at Berklee College of Music, Indiana University School of Music, Appalachian State University School of the Arts, and University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

His recent jazz drumming credits include shows with Grammy-winning jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan, trumpet innovator Charles Lazarus, jazz vocalists Marlene Ver Planck and Melva Houston, and New Orleans trumpet phenom Shamarr Allen.

His past experience includes:

  • Local Clubs (Indiana, Michigan, Chicago), 1968-1969
  • USO Shows/Navy, 1969-1971
  • Touring Show Groups, 1971-1973
  • College Music Major, 1973-1974
  • Dixieland and Shows (New Orleans), 1974-1975
  • Touring Show Groups and Touring Pop Groups, 1975-1979
  • Celebrity Theater; Dinner Theater; and Studio Work (Chicago), 1979-1981
  • Touring Big Band Review, Las Vegas, 1981-1982
  • Corporate Shows, Studio Work, Club Dates (Minneapolis), 1982-1995
  • Independent Audio and Video Producer, 1995-2002
  • Drummer, Vocalist, Event Producer, Percussion Teacher, 2003-present
Over the years, he has played backup to: Steve Allen, Tiny Tim, Julius LaRosa, Steve Lawrence/Eydie Gorme, Jack Jones, Terry Gibbs, Art Lund, David Allyn, the Lettermen, the Spinners, the Temptations, Rodney Dangerfield, Redd Foxx, Phyllis Diller, Bill Cosby, Rich Matteson, Ray Papai's Nirva Nova Orchestra, Trumpeter Warren Kime, the Russ Morgan Orchestra, Bozo the Clown, Emmett Kelly Jr. Circus Show, the Cat's Pajamas, Fred Steele, Connie Foote, Duke Kane & Company, Skip DeVol, Paul Lennon, and a whole bunch of others that he's forgotten.

(Past member of AFM Minneapolis 30-73 and Chicago 10-208)