JazzJam@Smederij presents DAVID BERKMAN piano, JASPER BLOM saxophone, JORIS TEEPE bass, WOUTER KUHNE drums
Entree 12€, Students 10€
Supported by Kunstraad Groningen
Last set JazzJam Session
About David Berkman…….
Berkman doesn’t rely on old formulas and he isn’t risk-averse. In his tunes, harmonies flow in unanticipated directions, silences open suddenly like trap doors, and quirky rhythmic displacements keep both listeners and bandmembers on their toes (His) music is also full of romance, mystery and good spirits.” — Ed Hazel, JazzIz magazine
Biography (short)
David Berkman has been an essential part of the New York jazz scene for over 30 years, as a creative and swinging voice on the piano and as a gifted composer, arranger and bandleader. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he currently divides his time between teaching in N.Y. and performing with world renowned jazz artists at home and abroad. Berkman has performed with numerous jazz luminaries including: Sonny Stitt, Tom Harrell, Brian Blade, the Vanguard Orchestra, Cecil McBee, Dave Douglas and Chris Potter. His 10 recordings as a leader have appeared on numerous “Critic’s Best” lists. Berkman is a tenured professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music, C.U.N.Y. in New York and has published three books on jazz with Sher Music Publishing which are used in jazz schools worldwide.
Jasper Blom (1965) is a pivotal tenor and soprano saxophonist of the Dutch jazz scene and winner of the Boy Edgar Prize 2019, the most prestigious award for jazz and improvised music in the Netherlands. Blom has performed with Lee Konitz, Chet Baker, Nat Adderley, Bob Brookmeyer, George Duke, Randy Crawford, David Liebman, Conrad Herwig and many other international renowned artists and is considered to be one of the most versatile players in the Benelux.
Twice he has won the European Jazz Competition and he has played at major jazz festivals and clubs throughout the world.
Blom has received compositions assignments from the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Jazz International Rotterdam Festival and the international Saxophone festival SAX14.
Jasper Blom leads a quartet that has been allowing him for the past 20 years to accommodate his wide range of stylistic influences. The Jasper Blom Quartet features Monk award winning top guitarist Jesse van Ruller and European star drummer Martijn Vink. Concert venues of the JBQ include North Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam International Jazz, BIMhuis Amsterdam, ELBjazz Hamburg, Bohemia Festival (Czech Rep), Borusan House Istanbul, Trondheim Jazz Festival, Birdland Hamburg, Unterfahrt Munich and many others…
The band has also released a new album every other year since 2008, each defined by highly eclectic and extraordinarily original compositions.
“METROPOLARITY” the most recent release (Whirlwind Recordings WR 4832), is a coop between the Jasper Blom Quartet and the Metropole Orchestra, the world’s leading pop & jazz orchestra and will be out on all platforms May 9 2025. It features 10 tracks selected from the repertoire of the JBQ, 20 years in existence. It’s the third release of the JBQ on Whirlwind.
The concert on May 28 2025 at the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ in Amsterdam celebrates the JBQ 20 years in existence.
Jasper Blom currently is active as a player and composer of both contemporary improvised music and jazz, can be heard regularly throughout the Netherlands and Europe as an active player in different musical settings and is frequently asked by Hollands top ensembles like the Metropole Orchestra and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw to participate in studio and live sessions.
In addition to his teaching position at the Amsterdam Conservatory, Blom is also helping to shape the next generation of jazz musicians by facilitating improvisation sessions with them and overseeing the annual Rough Diamonds festival at the BIMHUIS. He can regularly be found performing with his students in the more intimate setting of local cafés, an illustration of his growing belief that his engagements with students are likely to serve them better the more often some of these sessions are located beyond the walls of the conservatory. Blom seeks the full realization of his potential as a musician not only as an experimenting jazz artist but also by serving as an unorthodox instructor and organizer in the jazz community.
“Jasper Blom could be considered a philosophical realist, in that he is an original thinker as well as a doer. He is keenly aware of his strengths as an instrumentalist but also of his position in the world.”
“He never does anything for the sake of effect and has been ploughing his own furrow with unwavering integrity in various movements within the jazz idiom for thirty years. His tone is never harsh, but always brims with suspense and excitement, like a warm whirlwind stirring up things that the listener cannot predict.”
“Jasper Blom has long demonstrated the depths of his creativity through his telepathic connection with the fellow members of his superb quartet, the jazz heavyweights Jesse van Ruller, Frans van der Hoeven and Martijn Vink.”
“His work with the Jasper Blom Quartet has produced several recordings over the past decade offering remarkable and ingenious compositions and spanning everything from pop, funk and free jazz to soundscapes and medieval polyphony. Each performance is firmly rooted in instrumental proficiency and sound structure, providing the foundation for playing and exchanging ideas at the highest levels of improvisation.”
“He repeatedly brings out the very best in his fellow musicians, in the studio and on stage, at home and abroad.”
“Jasper Blom has shared his devotion to musical adventure, variety, humour, communion and improvisation and his extensive and richly layered oeuvre with us, the jazz audience, for years and with unbridled enthusiasm.”
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