An accomplished jazz pianist and highly regarded educator, Cliff Korman likes to say that a his eighteen year immersion in the musical universe of Brazil sheds a different light on the way he looks at American jazz. His in-depth has enabled him to absorb the components of the musical language of Brazil and make them part of his own aesthetic universe, in a personal and well structured semantic system. As a jazz pianist he performed and recorded with Millie Jackson, Morgana King, Susannah McCorkle, Jon Lucien and Jeannie Bryson; saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, drummer Bob Moses; bassist Milt Hinton. Korman has developed numerous Brazilian jazz projects featuring Brazilian and American musicians and presenting a variety of original compositions and arrangements. His understanding of the diversity of sound, instrumentation and harmonic patterns of Brazilian music of the 20th century enables him to continuously explore the complex interconnections that link the musics of the Americas.

He trained with Roland Hanna, Ron Carter and Kenny Barron, and performed as a soloist and co-leader in venues such as Aaron Davis Hall, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. He participated in important Brazilian projects such as the "Tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim" at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Cesar Camargo Mariano and a two-piano production with Wagner Tiso and Milton Nascimento at the International Festival of MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira) in Sao Paulo. In 2001 he toured Brasil with a trio project featuring Steve Johns and Ray Drummond. His duo record "Mood Ingenuo: Pixinguinha Meets Duke Ellington" with 2000 Grammy Award winner Paulo Moura represents one of the first cross-cultural explorations of jazz and choro. An adjunct professor at the City College of New York, he regularly teaches courses on Jazz Piano, Jazz Theory, Improvisation, and Brazilian Instrumental Music at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, the Escola de Musica of Brasilia, UniRio, and leads a rhythm section seminar at the Drummers Collective in NYC. His tutorial book "Inside the Brazilian RhythmSection" in collaboration with Brazilian guitarist Nelson Faria is published by Sher Music. Korman's work as an independent scholar in the fields of Jazz and Brazilian music has received prestigious recognition, including a Fulbright Lecture/Research grant in Brazil, the invitation by the Society for American Music to deliver a paper on the music of Thelonious Monk, the publication of an article on the same topic in the Annual Review of Jazz Studies, and the invitation to present his lecture "Jazz & Brazilian Instrumental Music: Common Roots, Divergent Paths" at the Jazz Research Rolundtable at Rutgers University.