Borah Bergman

Borah Bergman at the Vision Festival 2010

Borah Bergman (born December 13, 1933 in Brooklyn , New York City , † October 18, 2012 in New York City) was an American jazz pianist . Alongside Cecil Taylor , according to Wolf Kampmann , he became "the second mainstay of the American free jazz piano in the 1980s ."

Live and act

Bergman, who comes from a musical family, played the clarinet as a child. After completing his military service, he studied English and music at New York University and then worked as a teacher. Although he did not begin to play the piano until he was around 20, he became a jazz pianist of exceptional technical and improvisational skills. As early as 1954 he appeared occasionally in public. After intensive training, especially the left hand, he released four solo albums between 1975 and 1985, first two on Chiaroscuro , then two on the Soul Note label . He developed his personal style with equality of both hands and the cross game.

From 1992 Bergman recorded albums in a duo with alto saxophonist Thomas Chapin , drummer Andrew Cyrille and soprano saxophonist Evan Parker . He later worked in trio formations with Roscoe Mitchell and Thomas Buckner , with Peter Brötzmann and Thomas Borgmann, and with Peter Brötzmann and Andrew Cyrille.

Bergman counted Lennie Tristano , Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell among his influences.

Discographic notes

Burst of Joy (1976) solo
A New Frontier ( Soul Note , 1983) solo
Upside Down Visions (1984) solo
The Fire Tale (Soul Note, 1990) with Evan Parker
The Human Factor (Soul Note, 1992) with Andrew Cyrille
First Meeting (Knitting Factory, 1994) with Roscoe Mitchell and Thomas Buckner
The Italian Concert with Roscoe Mitchell, 1994–95
Reflections on Ornette Coleman and the Stone House (Soul Note, 1995) with Hamid Drake
Ride Into the Blue with Thomas Borgmann and Peter Brötzmann ( Konnex Records , 1995)
Eight by Three (Mixtery, 1996) with Anthony Braxton , Peter Brötzmann
Blue Zoo with Thomas Borgmann and Peter Brötzmann (Konnex Records, 1996)
Exhilaration (Soul Note, 1997) with Peter Brötzmann, Andrew Cyrille
New Organization (Soul Note, 1999) with Oliver Lake
Toronto 1997 ( Boxholder , 1997) with Thomas Chapin
The River of Sounds (Boxholder, 2001) with Conny Bauer , Mat Maneri
The Double Idea (Boxholder, 2002) solo
Meditations for Piano ( Tzadik , 2003) solo
Borah Bergman / Kidd Jordan / William Parker / Michael Wimberly : Vita Brevis (2014)
Left (Not Two, 2018), with Peter Brötzmann , Frode Gjerstad
Borah Bergman / Frode Gjerstad NY -95 (Circulasione Totale, ed. 2019)

Lexical entries

Richard Cook : Jazz Encyclopedia London 2007; ISBN 978-0-141-02646-6
Wolf Kampmann (Ed.), With the assistance of Ekkehard Jost : Reclams Jazzlexikon . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010528-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Different date of birth 1926 for Cook
↑ Tzadik label , cf. also feature section of the Süddeutsche Zeitung from October 22, 2012.
↑ Borah Bergman: His Fatha's Son JazzTimes 2004

personal data
SURNAME	Bergman, Borah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH	December 13, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brooklyn , New York City
DATE OF DEATH	October 18, 2012
Place of death	New York City

[1] Different date of birth 1926 for Cook

[2] Tzadik label , cf. also feature section of the Süddeutsche Zeitung from October 22, 2012.

[3] Borah Bergman: His Fatha's Son JazzTimes 2004