David Berger is a composer, arranger, bandleader, author, educator, and former trumpet player. He was the original conductor of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and has led his own jazz orchestra for the past 50 years.

In addition to many other jazz composers and arrangers, he has transcribed nearly 500 Ellington and Strayhorn pieces and is currently writing The Ellington Effect, a 5-volume set of books analyzing 75 Ellington scores with the goal of understanding the depth and breadth of the Maestro’s genius. Mr. Berger is simultaneous conducting monthly zoom workshops that take apart one Ellington masterpiece per 2-hour session.

At Ellington 2022, he will talk about Duke Ellington, The Arranger. Here is the abstract of his presentation.

“The presentation will be focusing on how Duke transforms others’ work into his own through his unique rhythms, melodies, harmony and orchestration. I will illustrate this in discussing four Ellington arrangements of other composer’s work – The Sheik Of Araby, Ebony Rhapsody, Volga Vouty and Java Pachacha.”