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David Borgo
David Borgo is a jazz saxophonist, composer and improviser, and Professor of Music at the University of California San Diego
About Me
Since placing first in the International John Coltrane Competition in 1994, David Borgo has released 17
albums of original music on a variety of record labels (Cadence Jazz, Resurgent Music, pfMentum, OA2
Records, Circumvention Music). He has concertized widely, including featured performances in Europe, Asia,
Africa, and North, Central, and South America. David is a Full Professor of Music at UC San Diego, and his
book Sync or Swarm: Improvising Music in a Complex Age (Continuum, 2006; revised edition Bloomsbury
2022) won the Alan Merriam Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology as the most distinguished book
published that year.
David has been fortunate to study with and/or perform alongside many of the greatest jazz musicians,
including Herbie Hancock, David Liebman, Billy Higgins, Kenny Burrell, Shunzo Ohno, Gerald Wilson, Harold
Land, David Baker, Snooky Young, George Lewis, Evan Parker, Sam Rivers, John Tchicai, Anthony Davis, and
Mark Dresser. In addition to jazz and improvised music, David performs electro-acoustic improvisation with
KaiBorg and intricate polyrhythmic music with Kronomorfic.
