David Berkman (born December 28, 1958) is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger and educator.
Berkman grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, playing in house bands for visiting jazz musicians Sonny Stitt, Hank Crawford, and Carter Jefferson and established musicians living in New York but hailing from Cleveland Joe Lovano, Jamey Haddad, and Greg Bandy.
Tracing the trajectory of mapped out by his earlier CD's we can see a greater level of melodic sophistication and more intense coalescing of compositional elements.
Recent projects include piano/trumpet duo performances with Dave Douglas, at the 2006 Jazz Composers Symposium in Tampa, Florida, and the 2005 International Trumpet Guild Convention in Bangkok,[9] and with Tom Harrell in Italy, as well as the cooperatively-led New York Standards Quartet (with Tim Armacost, Daiki Yasukagawa and Gene Jackson).
Berkman's latest, Six of One, was released on Palmetto Records April 5, 2019, and features Dayna Stephens, Adam Kolker, Billy Drewes and Tim Armacost on saxophones, clarinets and EWI, Chris Lightcap on bass and Kenneth Salters on drums.