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.[1]
Genres	Free jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	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.^[2][3] His grandfather Meir Pergamenick was a cantor.^[4] 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;^[5] others, that he had piano lessons from a young age;^[3] 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.^[6] 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,^[5] and they could act completely independently of each other;^[7] Bergman himself preferred the term "ambi-ideation" to "ambidextrous", as it conveyed the added ability to express ideas achieved when both hands were equal.^[6] Bergman cited Earl Hines, Bud Powell,^[3] and Lennie Tristano^[7] 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".^[6]

Performance and recordings

Until the 1970s he played little in public, concentrating on private practice and his work as a school teacher.^[3] 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".^[8]

Discography

As leader/co-leader