ABOUT

Hi there--my name is Phil Berman, I'm a singer-songwriter based in Somerville, MA. My original music re-weaves the tapestry of Western popular song, marrying early jazz, French chanson, Golden-Age musical theater, and bluesy, radio-ready Americana. My song lyrics usher the tight, internally-rhymed structures of Great American Songbook composers like Porter, Berlin, Hammerstein, and Gershwin into our hyper/dis-connected 21st century reality. As a storyteller, I'm committed to crafting unabashedly queer songs to navigate, question, and affirm the human heart in an increasingly absurd digital world.

And then we play.

Phil and the Flying Leap is me on vocals and guitar, Sue Buzzard (Cambridge, MA) on violin, and Forrest Pettengill (Somerville, MA) on upright bass. As a trio, we’ve performed intimate house concerts, bawdy breweries, landmark courtyards, and large-scale public festivals. The deep musical understanding we share between us erupts in our live performance, supporting and deepening our collective ownership of these tunes through dynamic, connected singing and playing.