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Nebraska City, Neb. —
Carl Bergman inspires his audience to clap with fragile hands or softly tap a toe. Sometimes they even break a smile.
It is nothing like the roar of the crowd the aspiring jazz musician visioned while voluntarily setting hour after hour of his teen years aside to practice his clarinet.
It's a far cry from his hopes training under a former principal musician of the New York Philharmonic and somewhat alien to the young man's ambition to be the best.
His wife Sue takes the hand of someone in the audience and embraces another.
She knows many of them by name and greets them all with her contagious smile.
Some who don't speak because of Alzheimer's suddenly sing, others listen motionless until they see Sue approach.
“I remember that song,” they say, and there's a connection between musician and audience that transcends a lifetime.
At the age of 76, Bergman knows he is finally at the height of his musical career.
An audience this spring began with four gathered at the Ambassador nursing home, where Carl and Sue perform a monthly gospel program and hold Bible studies.
The room had filled with 17 by time he finished the popular show tune, Thou Swell, and the jazz standard One Note Samba. The room had swelled to 30 to hear “Dear Hearts, Gentle People.”
Bergman has a repertoire of over 1,000 songs and changes each program based on what he thinks will be the right fit for the next audience.
“I've never heard anything like that before,” said Irma Grundman following the April 25 program. “I like Lawrence Welk and the other musical program on Saturday nights, but this is special,” she said.
Bergman, who worked as a professional musician and earned his livelihood as a piano tuner, plays saxophone, three different sizes of clarinet and sings.
He started by joining swing bands and had his own band in the '50s and '60s.
During what he describes as “a stint in the Air Force,” he played at Washington, D.C., with the Air Force Band.
Bergman practiced hours each day just to keep his technical ability up, still trying to reach the top. Encouragement was hard to come by.
“Music was always work to me,” he said. “You see the glory of it, playing with these guys or at that place, but for me it was just work.”
By 1978, Bergman was playing dances on his weekends.
After 35 years, he took offense at a beer bottle carelessly set on his piano. He told his partner he had enough and quit.
Carl Bergman inspires his audience to clap with fragile hands or softly tap a toe. Sometimes they even break a smile.
It is nothing like the roar of the crowd the aspiring jazz musician visioned while voluntarily setting hour after hour of his teen years aside to practice his clarinet.
It's a far cry from his hopes training under a former principal musician of the New York Philharmonic and somewhat alien to the young man's ambition to be the best.
His wife Sue takes the hand of someone in the audience and embraces another.
She knows many of them by name and greets them all with her contagious smile.
Some who don't speak because of Alzheimer's suddenly sing, others listen motionless until they see Sue approach.
“I remember that song,” they say, and there's a connection between musician and audience that transcends a lifetime.
At the age of 76, Bergman knows he is finally at the height of his musical career.
An audience this spring began with four gathered at the Ambassador nursing home, where Carl and Sue perform a monthly gospel program and hold Bible studies.
The room had filled with 17 by time he finished the popular show tune, Thou Swell, and the jazz standard One Note Samba. The room had swelled to 30 to hear “Dear Hearts, Gentle People.”
Bergman has a repertoire of over 1,000 songs and changes each program based on what he thinks will be the right fit for the next audience.
“I've never heard anything like that before,” said Irma Grundman following the April 25 program. “I like Lawrence Welk and the other musical program on Saturday nights, but this is special,” she said.
Bergman, who worked as a professional musician and earned his livelihood as a piano tuner, plays saxophone, three different sizes of clarinet and sings.
He started by joining swing bands and had his own band in the '50s and '60s.
During what he describes as “a stint in the Air Force,” he played at Washington, D.C., with the Air Force Band.
Bergman practiced hours each day just to keep his technical ability up, still trying to reach the top. Encouragement was hard to come by.
“Music was always work to me,” he said. “You see the glory of it, playing with these guys or at that place, but for me it was just work.”
By 1978, Bergman was playing dances on his weekends.
After 35 years, he took offense at a beer bottle carelessly set on his piano. He told his partner he had enough and quit.
Sue said there was silence for a long time.
Then, in 1981, Bergman said he came to the Lord and began to play in worship bands.
“With Bible studies and with people helping us, we came to a knowledge of God. When you are on your back and looking up, that's when you find God,” he said.
“For me, music started to be a pleasure with praise and worship bands,” he said.
“After all the years, playing for these folks has been the most enjoyable time in my musical career. For that, I give them the musical talent that God has given me,” he said.
He and Sue named their band “Joyful Noise,” after Psalm 100, which directs the faithful to “make a joyful noise unto the Lord.”
Mary Gomez, activity coordinator at the Ambassador, said the nursing home is fortunate to have Joyful Noise come to play.
“The residents love it,” she said. “They are really a part of the Ambassador family.”
