Karl Berger

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Karl Hans Berger (March 30, 1935 – April 9, 2023) was a German-American jazz pianist, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. He was a leading figure in jazz improvisation from the 1960s when he settled in the United States for life. He founded the educational Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York, in 1972 with his wife and Ornette Coleman, to encourage international students to pursue their own ideas about music.

Life and career

Berger was born on March 30, 1935, in Heidelberg.<ref name="West" /><ref name="LarkinJazz">Template:Cite book</ref> He started playing classical piano when he was ten and worked in his early twenties at a club in his hometown.<ref name="West" /> He learned modern jazz from visiting American musicians, such as Don Ellis and Leo Wright. During the 1960s, he started playing vibraphone.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> He studied musicology and sociology at the Free University of Berlin, achieving a doctoral degree in 1963 with a dissertation on music in Soviet ideology.<ref name="SWR">Template:Cite news</ref> He worked as a member of Don Cherry's band in Paris.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/><ref name="West" /> When the band went to New York City to record Symphony for Improvisers, he recorded his debut album as a leader.<ref name="West" /><ref name="Kelsey">Template:Cite web</ref>

Berger worked with drummers Ed Blackwell and Jack DeJohnette, bassist Dave Holland, and saxophonists Ornette Coleman, Lee Konitz and Ivo Perelman.<ref name="West" /> He worked further with Michael Bisio,<ref name="West" /> Anthony Braxton and Baba Olatunji,<ref name="HV1" /> as well as with Carla Bley, Bill Laswell<ref name="Laswell">Template:Cite web</ref> John McLaughlin and Roswell Rudd,<ref name="West" /> and with the Mingus Epitaph Orchestra,<ref name="DNB" /> As musical arranger and conductor, he contributed to albums by Better Than Ezra,<ref name="Ezra">Template:Cite web</ref> Buckethead,<ref name="Buckethead">Template:Cite web</ref> Jeff Buckley,<ref name="Buckley">Template:AllMusic</ref> Angélique Kidjo, Natalie Merchant and Rich Robinson, among others.<ref name="SWR" />

With Coleman and Ingrid Sertso, Berger's wife, he founded the Creative Music Studio (CMS) in Woodstock, New York, in 1972,<ref name="West" /> to encourage students to pursue their own ideas about music.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> Berger considered Coleman his friend and mentor, and like Coleman he was drawn to avant-garde jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation.<ref name="West" /><ref name="Kelsey" /> The focus of CMS was "teaching improvising musicians to develop their own aesthetics, and to draw and mesh ideas from across genres, traditions, and international borders".<ref name="West" /> Among the teachers were John Cage, Steve Lacy, George Russell and Richard Teitelbaum.<ref name="SWR" /> They closed the facility in 1984, but held masterclasses internationally, called World Jazz. Berger and Sertso founded Sertso Recording Studio in Woodstock in 2004.<ref name="West" />

Berger also taught at the New School,<ref name="West" /> and at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts from 1994 to 2003.<ref name="SWR" /> He then led the department of music of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth to 2005.<ref name="SWR" /> He and his wife revived CMS in 2013, and retired in 2017.<ref name="West" /> He remained active in music for the rest of his life, releasing his final album in the fall of 2022.<ref name="West" /><ref name="Heart is a Melody">Template:Cite web</ref>

Berger died at a hospital in Albany, New York, on April 9, 2023, at age 88, from complications after surgery.<ref name="West">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="HV1">Template:Cite news</ref>

Discography

Berger's recordings include:<ref name="jazz">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Brady">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="DNB">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="All About Jazz">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="TIDAL">Template:Cite web</ref>

As leader

  • From Now On (ESP Disk, 1967)<ref name="jazz" /><ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • Tune In (Milestone, 1969)<ref name="jazz" />
  • We Are You (Calig, 1972)<ref name="jazz" /><ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • With Silence (Enja, 1972)<ref name="jazz" /><ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • All Kinds of Time (Sackville, 1976)<ref name="jazz" /><ref name="All About Jazz" /><ref name="TIDAL" />
  • Interludes (FMP, 1977)<ref name="jazz" />
  • Changing the Time (Horo, 1977)<ref name="jazz" />
  • Just Play (1976) (Quark, 1979)<ref name="jazz" /><ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • New Moon (Palcoscenico, 1980)<ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • Live at the Donaueschingen Music Festival (MPS, 1979)<ref name="Brady" />
  • Transit (Black Saint, 1987)<ref name="jazz" /><ref name="All About Jazz" /><ref name="TIDAL" />
  • Karl Berger + Paul Shigihara (L+R/Bellaphon, 1991)<ref name="TIDAL" />
  • Around (Black Saint, 1991)
  • Sudpool Jazz Project II: Moon Dance (L+R/Bellaphon, 1992)
  • Crystal Fire (Enja, 1992)<ref name="All About Jazz" /><ref name="TIDAL" />
  • Conversations (In+Out, 1994)<ref name="All About Jazz" /><ref name="TIDAL" />
  • No Man Is an Island (Douglas Music, 1997)<ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • Stillpoint (Double Moon, 2002)<ref name="jazz" />
  • Strangely Familiar (Tzadik, 2010)<ref name="jazz" /><ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • Synchronicity (Nacht, 2012)<ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • After the Storm (FMR, 2012)<ref name="jazz" /><ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • Gently Unfamiliar (Tzadik, 2014)<ref name="jazz" />
  • Moon (NoBusiness, 2015)<ref name="jazz" /><ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • Live at the Classical Joint (Condition West, 2017)<ref name="jazz" />
  • In a Moment (Tzadik, 2018)<ref name="jazz" />
  • Conjure (True Sound, 2019)<ref name="jazz" />
  • Sketches (Fresh Sound, 2022)<ref name="jazz" /><ref name="All About Jazz" />
  • Heart is a Melody (Stunt, 2022)<ref name="jazz" />

As sideman

With Don Cherry

With Bill Laswell

With Ivo Perelman

  • Reverie (Leo, 2014)<ref name="All About Jazz" /><ref name="TIDAL" />
  • The Art of the Improv Trio Vol. 1 (Leo, 2016)<ref name="TIDAL" />
  • The Hitchhiker (Leo, 2016)

With others

References

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