Sean Bergin Has Left Us

Sean Bergin in Amsterdam, 2008

Belated sad news that Amsterdam tenor saxophonist Sean Bergin passed away on September 1. Sean was a great player and I got to know him a bit back in 2008. That year I was working in Nigeria and had a regular transit through Amsterdam Schiphol on my journeys back to Malaysia. One trip through, I stopped off for a lesson with composer and former Willem Breuker Kollektief tenor saxophonist Maarten Van Norden, and Maarten told me about this great locally-famous tenor player who had a regular Sunday afternoon gig. He suggested that I stop by to hear him after our lesson. 

I walked from Maarten's place to De Engelbewaarder (translation: The Guardian Angel), a lovely little canal-side bar at Kloveniersburgwal 59. Sean Bergin was playing with a piano-bass-drums trio and he sounded fantastic on his beat-up bare-brass Mark VI tenor. Great beer and great music. Blue Monk sticks in my mind, with a couple of local horn players sitting in. I chatted a bit with Sean; I recall that he was having reed problems and I offered him a reed out of my case, a 2-1/2, which was too soft for him so he declined. Sean played at De Engelbewaarder every Sunday and I stopped by a couple more times through the coming months to hear him. I brought Jackie by to listen during the summer of 2009 when she was in Holland riding with Coby and Marlies Van Baalen, but unfortunately Sean was on hiatus that Sunday and we missed out. 

Sean was one of those unsung local heroes who didn't build much of a following outside of his hometown but sure was a great, no, world class, player. He had recorded with Mal Waldron, a piano player who at one point had called Eric Dolphy as a sideman, so his musical abilities put him up there in good company. When I saw Sean, it didn't look to me like his music career had been too remunerative, though. Deep in my mind I had hoped to schlep my tenor to Amsterdam some Sunday afternoon and jam with Sean along the canal, but now that chance is foregone. Sean Bergin, RIP.

I'm getting tired of writing regrets and obituaries.