Bengt Berger

Born in Stockholm on 31 August 1942, Bengt Berger was a Swedish avant-garde jazz drummer, percussionist, composer, and ethnomusicologist who became a major figure in Scandinavian free jazz and world-jazz fusion from the late 1960s onward. After early jazz work influenced by Elvin Jones, he studied Indian percussion in India and West African drumming traditions in Ghana, experiences that deeply shaped his music. He played in important Swedish experimental groups including Arbete & Fritid, Rena Rama, Archimedes Badkar, and Spjärnsvallet, while also collaborating extensively with Don Cherry on spiritually and globally influenced improvisational music. His best-known project was Bitter Funeral Beer Band, whose 1982 ECM album Bitter Funeral Beer became a landmark fusion of African rhythms, Indian percussion, Nordic folk, and free jazz. Across later decades he led projects such as Berger Knutsson Spering and Beches Brew, founded the Country & Eastern label, and remained one of the key pioneers connecting Scandinavian jazz with non-Western musical traditions. Bengt Berger died on 15 May 2026, at the age of 83.

Please enable Javascript to view this page competely.