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Borah Bergman
Background information
Born	(1926-12-13)December 13, 1926 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	October 18, 2012(2012-10-18) (aged 85) New York, U.S.
Genres	Free jazz
Occupation	Musician
Instrument	Piano
Years active	1975–2012

Borah Bergman (December 13, 1926 – October 18, 2012) was an American free jazz pianist.

Training and influences

Bergman was born in Brooklyn to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. His grandfather Meir Pergamenick was a cantor. Accounts of when he began to learn the piano vary: some assert that he learned clarinet as a child and did not commence his piano studies until adulthood; others, that he had piano lessons from a young age; one of his own accounts is that he took piano lessons as a child, then changed to clarinet, before returning to piano after being discharged from the army. As an adult, he developed his left hand playing to the point where he became essentially ambidextrous as a pianist, and could play equally fast in both hands, and they could act completely independently of each other; Bergman himself preferred the term "ambi-ideation" to "ambidextrous", as it conveyed the added ability to express ideas achieved when both hands were equal. Bergman cited Earl Hines, Bud Powell, and Lennie Tristano as formative influences, although his own style was based on free improvisation rather than song form. Commenting on his other influences, Bergman said that "I was influenced strongly by Ornette Coleman... I was also very influenced by chamber music and Bach and Dixieland or New Orleans, where all of the instruments were playing contrapuntally and polyphonically. So I figured I'd like to do it myself".

Performance and recordings

Until the 1970s he played little in public, concentrating on private practice and his work as a school teacher. He recorded four albums as a soloist, most notably on the European label Soul Note, before embarking on duo and trio albums from the 1990s. A small number of solo and quartet albums were also released from the mid-1990s. The style for which he is best known is described in The Penguin guide to jazz recordings: "His astonishing solo performances recall the 'two pianists' illusion associated with Art Tatum, though in a more fragmentary and disorderly sound-world".

Discography

As leader/co-leader

References

1. Obituary by Christoph Wagner (German)
2. Obituary in Wire
3. ^ Kelsey, Chris (December 2004) Chris Kelsey Borah Bergman: His Fatha's Son. JazzTimes.
4. Borah Bergman: Meditations for Piano
5. ^ Kelsey, Chris Artist Biography. AllMusic. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
6. ^ Borah Bergman: You Must Judge a Man by the Work of His Hands (November 4, 2005) All About Jazz.
7. ^ Polillo, Arrigo. In A New Frontier . Soul Note.
8. Cook, Richard & Morton, Brian (2008) The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.), p. 116. Penguin.

External links

• Borah Bergman: The Long Look
• Borah Bergman at AllMusic

• American jazz pianists
• American male jazz pianists
• 1926 births
• 2012 deaths
• Musicians from Brooklyn
• Tzadik Records artists
• 20th-century American pianists
• Jazz musicians from New York (state)
• 20th-century American male musicians
• Chiaroscuro Records artists
• Black Saint/Soul Note artists
• Knitting Factory Records artists
• FMR Records artists
• Leo Records artists