Richard Alan "Dick" Berk was an American jazz drummer and bandleader.



Dick Berk was born in San Francisco, California in 1939. At 17, Dick Berk was the drummer in Billie Holiday's band. He turned down a scholarship to Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work the jazz clubs. Dick eventually went on to study for a year at Berklee College of Music with Alan Dawson, another respected jazz drummer, and played in the Boston area early in the 1960s.



In 1962 he moved to New York City and played there with Ted Curson and Bill Barron in a quintet from 1962 to 1964. Following this he played with Charles Mingus, Mose Allison, Freddie Hubbard, and Walter Bishop, Jr., among others.



Dick Berk moved to Los Angeles late in the 1960s, where he played with Milt Jackson, George Duke, Cal Tjader, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Blue Mitchell.



Dick Berk founded the Jazz Adoption Agency in the early 1980s, playing into the 2000s; among this group's alumni are trombonists Andy Martin and Mike Fahn, baritonist Nick Brignola, vibraphonist Jon Nagorney, pianists Keith Saunders and Tad Weed, and bassist John Patitucci.



Factoid: Dick Berk played a jazz drummer in the 1977 musical drama 'New York, New York',� starring Robert De Niro (right) and Liza Minnelli. Berk worked in several Hollywood productions during his career as a musician, both on screen and on sound tracks.