Chris Bergson – East River Blues
A reflection on 30 years of playing music in New York and pays tribute to some of Bergson’s biggest blues and jazz influences
Chris Bergson – East River Blues
Format: CD – Digital
Label: Continental Record Services
Release: 2026
Release date: May 15, 2026
‘East River Blues,’ the forthcoming CRS release from internationally acclaimed guitarist/singer Chris Bergson is a reflection on 30 years of playing music in New York and pays tribute to some of Bergson’s biggest blues and jazz influences including Muddy Waters, Ray Charles as well as heroes from the classic 60s Blue Note era like Grant Green, Lou Donaldson and Herbie Hancock. The album features Bergson in trio with premier bassist Larry Grenadier (John Scofield), master drummer Herlin Riley (Dr. Lonnie Smith) and on three selections, quartet with longtime bandmate saxophonist Jay Collins (Gregg Allman.)
For guitarist and singer Chris Bergson, the early months of 2025 were auspicious in more ways than one. In January, he completed his 30th year of living in New York City. His Big Apple residency, which started in the mid-’90s amid pre-dawn jams at Smalls, lessons with jazz guitar great Jim Hall and classes at the Manhattan School of Music, had gradually made him a professional musician, as well as a husband, father and deep explorer of the blues. He felt the need to commemorate this anniversary in the best manner he knew how—with the recording of a special album.
That same month, Bergson decided who he wanted in the studio with him: acoustic bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Al Foster. He knew that the two had a history going back more than three decades to their time in saxophonist Joe Henderson’s quartet. And in 2002, Foster and Bergson had played together for a few nights at the Fat Cat on Christopher Street, an experience that Bergson calls “life-changing. Playing with Al was the closest I’ve ever come to flying. On those trio gigs, I sang a blues in each set”—then a new development for Bergson after years of being a guitarist only—“and Al was really encouraging of my singing. It meant a lot to me.”
Calls were duly placed, schedules were calibrated, and a studio date was booked for June at NRS Recording in Catskill, NY. Then fate intervened. On May 28, three weeks before the session, Foster passed away at 82. It was a devastating blow that called everything into question. Grenadier was still up for recording, but who else could take the drum throne at short notice? Bergson performed the logistical equivalent of a hail-Mary pass, reaching out to one of New Orleans’ finest, Herlin Riley. Three months earlier, they’d shared the stage as part of a Jazz at Lincoln Center blues jam weekend. “That was the first time I’d played with him,” Bergson notes, “and he’s another absolute master.”
Amazingly, Riley had a gig in nearby Connecticut the night before the session date—a gig for which the bass player was none other than Larry Grenadier. “So he and Larry could both make the session, and they ended up playing together for the first time the night before,” Bergson recounts in disbelief. “I was like, ‘Well, this seems like it was meant to be.’”
You can now hear the happy results on East River Blues. Grenadier and Riley’s solid, empathetic support of Bergson’s guitar and voice is apparent from the second they enter the album’s opening cut, a down-and-dirty run through Muddy Waters’ Mean Disposition. Playing without a pick, Bergson coaxes strikingly vocal timbres from his Ric McCurdy thinline Tele-style axe, while his own unpretentious growl is at times reminiscent of his former employer, the late great Levon Helm.
For Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s Little Girl Blue, Bergson switches to a Gibson ES 335, and his luscious unaccompanied chord-solo arrangement of the verse quickly indicates that we’ve moved into jazzier territory. His smoke-infused vocal harks back to classic Ray Charles. “I don’t think Ray ever recorded this tune,” Bergson comments, “but if he had, how might he have interpreted it? That was my way in, which was helpful.”
Funky instrumental East River Blues is the first selection of three to feature saxophonist Jay Collins, with whom Bergson spars in a playful lick-trading section. “I love boogaloos,” the tune’s author says, “like the stuff on Lou Donaldson’s Midnight Creeper, where blues and funk and jazz and soul come together. I wanted to write a new tune like that. I love the way Larry and Herlin play on this—the groove is really special. And that was a first take. I don’t think we did more than three takes of anything.”
Sad Strains is a fetching jazz waltz that Bergson composed back in his college days. “That was one of my dad’s favorite tunes,” he reports, “and he passed away in March, so I’m thinking about him. Larry takes an amazing solo here.” Kindless Villain is an archetypal shuffle co-written with Bergson’s wife Kate Ross. As Bergson puts it, “A classic blues shuffle should feel like an ass-whooping. Some jazz drummers don’t get that feel right; they’re too busy. But Herlin’s feel is just ridiculous. I knew I had to play a shuffle with him on this album.”
Mission accomplished, Bergson cranks the tremolo on his vintage Fender Vibrolux, invites Jay Collins back in, and leads a soulful take on one of his all-time favorites, Brother Ray’s What Would I Do Without You. The full quartet then reconvenes for Herbie Hancock’s Driftin’, giving it a hard-swinging treatment. In the spring of ’25, Bergson had been looking forward to playing this tune with Al Foster. Such was sadly not to be, but Riley more than holds his own, and the album that almost wasn’t has become a vibrant reality, exemplifying creative flow. Much like the East River. —Mac Randall, December 2025
Mac Randall is a New York-based writer and musician, former editor of JazzTimes and author of two books, Exit Music: The Radiohead Story and 101 Great Playlists.
Website: http://www.chrisbergson.com
Chris Bergson – guitar, vocals
Larry Grenadier – bass
Herlin Riley – drums
Jay Collins – tenor sax (tracks 3, 6, 7)