Bob Berg
Berg playing in Cedar Walton's quartet at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society (The Douglas Beach House), Half Moon Bay, California, November 30, 1980
Berg playing in Cedar Walton's quartet at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society (The Douglas Beach House), Half Moon Bay, California, November 30, 1980
Background information
Born(1951-04-07)April 7, 1951
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedDecember 5, 2002(2002-12-05) (aged 51)
Amagansett, New York, U.S.[1]
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Saxophonist

Robert Berg (April 7, 1951[2] – December 5, 2002)[1] was an American jazz saxophonist.

Biography

Berg was born in Brooklyn, New York.[2]

Berg started his musical education at the age of six when he began studying classical piano. He began playing the saxophone at the age of thirteen. He studied at the High School of Performing Arts and Juilliard before leaving school to tour.[2] Berg was influenced by the late 1964–1967 period of John Coltrane's music.[3]

A student from the hard bop school, Berg played from 1973 to 1976 with Horace Silver and, from 1977 to 1983, with Cedar Walton.[2] Berg became more widely known when he joined Miles Davis' band in 1984.[2] After leaving Davis's band in 1987, Berg released a series of solo albums and also performed and recorded frequently in a group co-led with guitarist Mike Stern. On these albums he played a more accessible style of music, mixing funk, jazz and even country music, with many other diverse compositional elements to produce albums. He often played at the 7th Avenue South NYC club. He worked with Chick Corea, Steve Gadd and Eddie Gómez in a quartet. Berg's tenor saxophone sound was a synthesis of rhythm and blues players such as Junior Walker and Arnett Cobb with the lyricism, intellectual freedom and soul of Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson and John Coltrane.

Berg was killed in a traffic accident in East Hampton, New York, while driving near his home with Arja, his wife.[1] The person who crashed into his car was driving a cement truck that skidded on ice.[1]

Discography

As leader

  • New Birth (Xanadu, 1978)
  • Steppin' Live in Europe (Red, 1982)
  • Short Stories (Denon, 1987)
  • Cycles (Denon, 1988)
  • In the Shadows (Denon, 1990)
  • Back Roads (Denon, 1991)[2]
  • Virtual Reality (Denon, 1992)
  • Enter the Spirit (GRP, 1993)
  • Riddles (Stretch, 1994)
  • Another Standard (Stretch, 1997)
  • The Jazz Times Superband (Concord 2000)
  • The Meeting (Sound Hills 2009)[4]

As sideman

With Tom Harrell

  • Aurora (Adamo, 1976)
  • Stories (Contemporary, 1988)
  • Visions (Contemporary, 1991)

With Sam Jones

With Horace Silver

With Leni Stern

  • Clairvoyant (Passport, 1986)
  • The Next Day (Passport, 1987)
  • Secrets (Enja, 1989)

With Mike Stern

With Cedar Walton

With others

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ratliff, Ben (December 7, 2002). "Bob Berg, 51, Tenor Saxophonist". The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 44. ISBN 0-85112-580-8.
  3. ↑ Ian Carr and Digby Fairweather; Brian Priestley; Charles Alexander (October 5, 2001). The Rough Guide to Jazz. Penguin Group. p. 80. ISBN 1-84353-256-5.
  4. ↑ "Bob Berg | Album Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
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