Rik van den Bergh
baritonesaxophone
<<< home

"Jazz is music made by and for people who have chosen
to feel good in spite of conditions."
- Johnny Griffin -
biography
Rik was 10 years old when he started playing clarinet. As a teenager growing up in Breda, he had the opportunity to perform with Dan Barrett and Tom Baker.
1990 - 1994 After studying Medicine for two years he went to the Royal Conservatory in The Hague to study alto saxophone. He took lessons from John Ruocco, Frans Elsen, Jan Menu and Ack van Rooijen. Fellow students were Simon Rigter, Erik Kooger, Michael Varekamp, Raymond Nijenhuis and Peter Beets to name just a few. During this period he played in clubs and on jazz festivals in Holland, Scotland, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Spain, England and Syria.
1995 - 1999 He was playing alto saxophone in 'The New Thundering Swingmates' with whom he recorded the CD 'Good Enough To Keep'. In 1997 Rik formed with Raymond Nijenhuis (guitar), René Rooimans (organ) and Erik Kooger (drums) a quartet: SWINGMATISM. With them he makes his first CD under his own name ('Swingmatism' - 1999) . Rik switched to baritone saxophone a year later and won the Japanese Kobe Jazz Award. He performed on the Kobe Jazz Festival and in Tokyo. His quartet swingmatism toured with saxophonist Teddy Edwards (Clifford Brown/Max Roach, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon).
2000 - 2004 Rik performed on the Kobe Jazz Festival again - he played with Bill Berry (Duke Ellington, Mel Lewis/Thad Jones) - and made a tour through Japan. The second and last (live) recording of swingmatism is released in 2002 - Live Update - at A-records (a division of Challenge Records). In April 2002 they were playing with 'Sax' Gordon Beadle and in July the quartet performed on the famous North Sea Jazz Festival. He was asked to join Peter Ypma and his eleven and the Frits Landesbergen's Baileo Big Band (with Ruud Breuls, Simon Rigter and Ferdinand Povel, among others). Regularly Rik plays with the Young Sinatras. After seven years of joy Swingmatism splits up for musical reasons in 2004. Every now and then the musicians are still playing with each other in various combinations.
2005 - 2007 Rik is playing with the Young Sinatras Theater Tour 2005/2006 - this time with the upcoming vocalist Wouter Hamel.
In March 2006 Rik and trombone player Dan Barrett did a 'Mulligan-Brookmeyer Tribute Concert'. Since Januari 2005 he has been joining the Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra conducted by Johan Plomp. They recorded their first album Introducing Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra the same year.
In november 2007 his new album RESERGE was released. It's a tribute to Serge Chaloff and he recorded it with The Reeds. Sofar the CD has got great response from press and audience alike.