Jeff Berlin was born January 17, 1953, in Queens, New York, to a father who sang opera and a mother who played piano. A child prodigy, he studied violin from age five to fifteen and performed with New York orchestras before being inspired to switch to bass guitar after seeing the Beatles. He attended Berklee College of Music before returning to New York, where for a short period he played in a trio with guitarist Allan Holdsworth and drummer Tony Williams, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile.

One of the major fusion bassists to emerge in the mid-1970s, Berlin first worked with artists including Gil Evans, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile, Ray Barretto, Pee Wee Ellis, and Don Pullen. He came to wider prominence as a member of Bruford, the band led by English drummer Bill Bruford, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile, appearing on the albums Feels Good to Me (1977) and One of a Kind (1979), work that gave him substantial international exposure.

Known for a "lead-bass" concept that treats the instrument as a primary melodic voice rather than a purely supportive one, Berlin emerged at the intersection of progressive-rock precision and modern jazz improvisation.

Berlin's lead-bass concept, elevating the electric bass to a melodic voice on par with a horn or guitar, made him one of the defining fusion bassists of his generation, and his work with Bill Bruford placed him at the crossroads of progressive rock and jazz fusion during the genre's most fertile period.