By Quentin Yarolem
Legendary jazz composer and pianist David Berkman and his sextet will close the Iowa City Jazz Festival with a performance at 8 p.m. July 3 on the festival’s Main Stage.
Berkman has been playing jazz nearly his entire life, since his father instilled in him as a boy a passion for the music that would later blossom into a lengthy and decorated career.
“In my case, jazz is the music that I grew up with. Of course I was exposed to other music: funk, pop, folk various music of other cultures and classical music, but jazz was the style that spoke to me most directly,” Berkman said. “My father was an amateur jazz pianist, and he was the person who first got me interested in the music.”
Berkman’s career really took off after he moved to New York in 1985. After diving into the local scene — an environment populated with some of the most talented jazz musicians of the age — Berkman and his cohorts began to make a name for themselves.
“There are great musicians everywhere in the world. I’m often in Japan or Europe, and there are great players that I hear and play with,” he said. “However, there is a density of great players in New York that is like nowhere else I’ve been to. Also there’s a connection to the jazz tradition that is very special. It’s why I’ve lived there for over 30 years.”
As his career has progressed, Berkman has started to become more of a bandleader than a player, and he has formed a trio, a quartet, a quintet, and a sextet.
“I love all of it,” he said. “It’s all different and it brings out different responses.”
In these ensembles, Berkman has been able to headline festivals all through the world, including Brazil, Britain, and Spain.
Outside of playing jazz, Berkman has also written three books about the genre, published by Sher Music Co. The Jazz Musician’s Guide to Creative Practicing (2007), The Jazz Singer’s Guidebook (2009), and The Jazz Harmony Book (2013) are all instructional texts created in hopes of teaching the next generation of jazz musicians.
When Berkman is not writing or performing in one of his various ensembles, he spends his time gathering the materials to record new music. Throughout his lengthy career, he has recorded and released nine albums, some of which have landed on the Album of the Year list of the New York Times, Village Voice, Downbeat, and others.
“I’m always working on new music, so usually it’s more of a question of gathering material and arranging it for the given project,” Berkman said. “However, one of the tunes on the recording, ‘Strange Attractions and then Birds,’ was written the day before we recorded.”
Having been in the business for the greater part of his life Berkman said there are no plans to stop anytime soon. His love of the music has taken him all over the world and continues to take him to new places.