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David Berkman From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require copy-editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. You can assist by editing it now. David Berkman, born December 28, 1958 has been a significant jazz pianist, composer, arranger and educator for the last 25 years. Berkman came of age in Cleveland, playing in house bands for visiting jazz greats Sonny Stitt, Hank Crawford and Carter Jefferson and local heroes Joe Lovano, Jamey Haddad and Greg Bandy. Since moving to New York in 1985, David Berkman has been an important part of the jazz community. He is an award-winning composer/bandleader (2000 Doris Duke/Chamber Music America New Works Creation and Presentation Grant[1], a recording artist whose 4 Palmetto recordings have appeared on numerous best records of the year critic's lists (the New York Times (Top 10 Records of 1998), the Village Voice (Top 10 Records of 1998) , Downbeat (Best records of the 90s) , JazzIz (Top 5 records of 1998), Jazz Times and others ( Critic John Stevenson wrote in his 2000 review of Berkman's "Leaving Home", "...With Leaving Home, (Berkman) has ascended to a new height of creativity. Tracing the trajectory of mapped out by his earlier CD's we can see a greater level of melodic sophistication and more intense coalescing of compositional elements..." - John Stevenson, CD Reviews.com "Best CDs of 2000 --Jim Macnie, SonicNet, Providence Register) and an award-winning jazz clinician (Homer Osborne Award from the Wichita Jazz Society) who has performed and taught at numerous jazz camps, universities and conservatories around the United States, South America and Europe. He published two books with Sher Music PublishingThe Jazz Musician’s Guide to Creative Practicing (2007) and The Jazz Singer's Guidebook (2009) (http://www.shermusic.com). He has played in countless bands including, most importantly, says Scott Yanow of the All Music Guide to Jazz (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll) those of Cecil McBee (with whom Berkman recorded McBee's 2003 CD "Unspoken" (http://www.palmetto-records.net/cecil-mcbee:unspoken,42,97), Tom Harrell and the Vanguard Orchestra and has performed with and/or recorded and/or arranged for numerous jazz luminaries, including: Sonny Stitt, Brian Blade, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Ray Drummond, Billy Hart, Dick Oatts, Tony Malaby, Chris Potter, Scott Wendholt, Lenny White, Scott Colley, Craig Handy, Steven Bernstein, Bill Stewart, Dave Stryker, Fathead Newman, Hank Crawford, and Jane Monheit. Now appearing more and more often as a bandleader, David Berkman has performed solo and with his quartet, quintet and sextet at festivals and clubs in the United States, Europe and Japan, most recently at the North Sea Festival (http://www.northseajazz.com/en/history/2004.aspx?date=20040711), the Edinburgh Festival, The Glasgow Festival (http://news.scotsman.com/topstories/David-Berkman-Quartet-and-Chris.2341050.jp), the Belfast Festival and the Cork Festival. Recent tours include: clubs and concert performances in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Sao Paulo, Japan and around the United States. Recent projects include piano/trumpet duo performances with Dave Douglas (2006 Jazz Composers Symposium in Tampa Florida and the 2005 International Trumpet Guild Convention in Bangkok) and Tom Harrell (Italy) as well as the cooperatively led New York Standards Quartet (with Tim Armacost, Yosuke Inoue and Gene Jackson). David Berkman is an Assistant Professor in the Queens College Jazz Masters Program in New York and directs the jazz theory program and is a visiting professor at the Prince Claus Conservatory in Groningen, the Netherlands[2].