a nonprofit presenter of jazz artistic and education programs

SFJAZZ Spring Season 2006 • March 17-June 17, 2006

Shelly Berg Trio

Sunday, June 11 • 2pm

Florence Gould Theatre, Legion of Honor
  • venue info
  • $25 GA
    • “A great jazz pianist who seems to have total command of his instrument.” —Dave Brubeck

    Be prepared for a racing pulse when piano daredevil and USC music professor Shelly Berg takes the stage, for, in the Los Angeles Times’ words: “Berg burns hard, his fingers flying over the keyboard while his body nearly levitates off the bench. Exhilarating…filled with breakneck parallel runs, sudden rhythmic shifts and harmonic modulations that leave the crowd breathless.”

    Program Notes

    Shelly Berg is, in the words of the great Dave Brubeck, “a great jazz pianist who seems to have total command of his instrument.” The Los Angeles Times has described him as “a whirlwind of motion on the piano bench,” adding, “Berg burns hard, his fingers flying over the keyboard while his body nearly levitates off the bench.

    Exhilarating...filled with breakneck parallel runs, sudden rhythmic shifts and harmonic modulations that leave the crowd breathless.”


    Berg is also a highly accomplished composer and arranger, and has orchestrated for artists as diverse as Chicago, Richard Marx, Bonnie Raitt, Elliott Smith, and the Japanese superstar Yoshiki. He has written works for the Royal Philharmonic and American Symphony Orchestras, and was commissioned to compose “Japan Concert” in commemoration of the Emperor of Japan’s 10th Anniversary Coronation. He also wrote the official theme song of the 1986 U.S. Olympics Festival, “Turn It On.” His writing credits also include feature films like Almost Heroes (1998), Three to Tango (1999), and Men of Honor (2000), and television programs including NBC’s The 60s miniseries, HBO’s Dennis Miller Live, and CBS’ A League of Their Own.


    Currently professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California’s prestigious Thornton School of Music, Berg is past president of the prestigious International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), and was named one of three “Educators for the Millenium” by the Los Angeles Times’ Sunday Magazine. At the forefront of improvisation, he has published Jazz Improvisation: The Goal-Note Method and The Chop-Monster Jazz Series, widely regarded as groundbreaking educational methods in the field, and he serves as the IAJE Resource Chair for Improvisation.


    — Drew Foxman
    Shelly Berg piano
    Chuck Berghofer bass
    Gregg Field drums