Like Style, Dig? The Music of John Bergamo

John Bergamo (1940–2013) was a composer and performer at the forefront of the exploration of the timbral possibilities of percussion music. Forging the vocabulary of bowing, harmonics, and unconventional mallets into a body of solo and chamber works, Bergamo significantly expanded the percussion repertoire while performing and recording with a diverse array of artists from Frank Zappa to John McLaughlin to Ringo Starr, and appearing on eighteen film soundtracks. On Like Style, Dig?, percussionist and student of Bergamo, Tim Patterson, presents an authoritative and authentic compendium of his teacher’s most significant works.

“This recording is my tribute to my teacher, mentor, inspiration and dear friend, John Bergamo,” he writes. “My interactions with Bergamo began as a master’s candidate at the California Institute of the Arts. Every week I drove out to Bergamo’s home for lessons that always included lots of entertaining stories, along with discussions regarding many of the percussion works found on this recording.”

Ranging from the twelve-tone transformations of “Interactions” to the explorations of the timbral possibilities of the vibraphone in “Three Piece for the Winter Solstice” to the amplified cymbals of “Blanchard Canyon,” Patterson’s recording of Bergamo’s works is definitive and works as a companion to his written work, A Guidebook to Performing the Percussion Works of John Bergamo, which is available as a free PDF at johnbergamoguidebook.com. The book contains a wealth of knowledge on Bergamo and his music. Taken together, the album and book acknowledge and honor Bergamo’s place in the world of original percussion music.