John Block Bergman is a new found exceptional musical talent.  He is a 55 year cool guy who has been playing jazz piano all his life having been influenced by the wonderful manner of George Shearing.  He organized a jazz quartet years ago when he was an undergraduate at Amherst College. Although he composed a few songs then, his focus was philosophy in college, and then business, as he found himself at Xerox Corporation for 20 years.   Recently he began to write several jazz compositions on his Steinway at home and when he played one of these at an event with the Dick Budson Jazz Quintet, Dick, a clarinetist and pianist Bob Sykes were stunned at its beauty.  John composes very interesting melodies. . .but it is the harmonies that are exceptional!!  John’s harmonies are rich, tight, exotic, lush formulations which are breathtaking to the ear. . .so much so that the Dick asked if his band could orchestrate two of his compositions and play them at its next concert at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC.  In this first set of tunes on the web site orchestrated by Chris Battistone, trumpeter are: Portrait of Laura. . .and Winterlude.