DAVID BERKMAN – LEADER, COMPOSER, PIANO

FEATURING STEVE WILSON – ALTO & SOPRANO SAX , ADAM KOLKER – TENOR & SOPRANO SAX; SAM SADIGURSKY – CLARINET & FLUTE; QUINSIN NACHOFF – TENOR & SOPRANO SAX; MATT DWONZCK – BASS; & ADAM CRUZ – DRUMS

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David Berkman has been an essential part of the New York jazz scene for over 30 years, as a creative and swinging voice on the piano and as a gifted composer, arranger and bandleader.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Berkman is an award-winning composer/bandleader, a recording artist whose 10 recordings as a leader have appeared on numerous best records of the year critic’s lists (the New York Times, the Village Voice, Downbeat, JazzIz, Jazz Times and others)

and an accomplished jazz educator—as both a tenured professor in Jazz Studies at Queen’s College in New York and as a jazz clinician who has taught at numerous camps, universities and conservatories around the United States, South America, Europe and Asia. He has played in countless bands including those of Cecil McBee, Tom Harrell and the Vanguard Orchestra and has performed with and/or recorded with and/or arranged for numerous jazz luminaries, including: Sonny Stitt, Brian Blade, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Ray Drummond, Billy Hart, Dick Oatts, Chris Potter, Lenny White, Bill Stewart, Fathead Newman, Chris Cheek and Hank Crawford. He has published three books on jazz with Sher Music Publishing, “The Jazz Musician’s Guide to Creative Practicing” (2007)

“The Jazz Singer’s Guidebook” (2009) and “The Jazz Harmony Book” (2014).

Now appearing more and more often as a bandleader, David Berkman has performed solo and with his trio, quartet, quintet and sextet at festivals and clubs in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Recent tours include: clubs and concert performances in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and around the United States. Recent projects include the New York Standards Quartet (featuring Tim Armacost, Ugonna Okewgo and Gene Jackson—the group just released their 7th CD) and the David Berkman Sextet. His latest CD—a follow-up to his highly successful 2016 sextet recording “Old Friends and New Friends” (which reunited drummer Brian Blade and producer Matt Balitsaris with whom Berkman had made 3 previous CDs)— “Six of One”was released April 2019 on Palmetto Records and includes nine new Berkman compositions, and features Dayna Stephens, Adam Kolker, Billy Drewes and Tim Armacost on tenor, alto and soprano saxophones, EWI, clarinet and bass clarinet; Chris Lightcap on bass, Kenneth Salters on drums and Rogerio Boccato on percussion.

Berkman’s second solo piano recording, a follow up to his 2012 “Self portrait” was released May 2020 on Without Records. “Berkman plays Music by John Coltrane and Pete Seeger” is probably the only solo jazz piano recording that pairs these two iconic American musicians, but Berkman creates a beautiful album of music fueled by childhood memories and the impact of the 1960s.

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Check out the livestream on the Clement’s Place Jazz, IJS, and on our YouTube channel –

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf8W7q1qlz0yt5Ebcn4tkSQ

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