He attended high school in Plantation and was active in the clubs of South Florida, starting at age 17.

Bernsen's debut album, Music for People, Planets & Washing Machines (1986), featured numerous greats of fusion jazz, including Urszula Dudziak, Bob James, Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius and Peter Erskine.

After good reviews, Bernsen managed to sign up for the follow-up album, Mo' Wasabi, with Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker, Marcus Miller, Steve Gadd, and Toots Thielemans.

In 2003 he recorded and edited a tribute to Jaco Pastorius, Word of Mouth Revisited, with the Peter Graves Orchestra, followed in 2006 by The World is Out.

[1] He can also be heard on albums by Silvano Monasterios, Dan Bonsanti, Mike Levine, Mark Colby and Jürgen Attig [de].