Jazz Articles

Josh Berman Trio: A Dance And A Hop

by Mark Corroto
October 18, 2015

There is a permanent exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago of 68 miniature rooms. These dollhouses for adults recreate American, French, and English rooms from last century and three centuries ago at a scale of 1 inch to a foot. Visitors lean in to marvel at the amazing detail. Drapery, carpets, and tea cups are reproduced with uncompromising skill. Same can be said for A Dance And A Hop from cornetist Josh Berman. His vest-pocket music approach invites you ...

Josh Berman & His Gang: There Now

by Mark Corroto
July 22, 2012

Josh Berman is a gambler. There Now initially gives the impression that the cornetist's reversion to the music of Eddie Condon and Pee Wee Russell is only a bluff. His gang of young Chicago improvisers weaves in and out of the 1920s, inserting free jazz passages and improvised duos that could not be anticipated in the early part of 20th century.On There Now, it is as if he raises the musical ante with, “I call your Lincoln City, ...

Josh Berman: Old Idea

by Jerry D'Souza
October 16, 2009

Cornetist Josh Berman is no stranger to the improvised music scene. He not only leads his own bands--Josh Berman's Old Idea and Josh Berman and His Gang--he has played with some major improvisers including Bill Dixon, Ken Vandermark and Ab Baars. Berman goes beyond performance in his involvement as co- founder of the Umbrella Music Group and the co-curator and vice president of the Emerging Improvisers Organization.

Berman is a thinker, an approach that pays rich dividends in ...

Josh Berman: Old Idea

by Nic Jones
July 17, 2009

If it really is about old ideas, as the title of this album by cornetist Josh Berman states, then the ones expressed here are done so in collective tongues fresh enough to be transformative, from mouths breathing new life into them. Berman has been a stalwart of the Chicago improvised music community for awhile now, and he brings his experience to bear on his first date as a leader, in a manner that others would do well to observe.

This ...

Josh Berman: Old Idea

by Troy Collins
May 31, 2009

As co-leader of the Emerging Improvisers and Umbrella Collective with drummer Mike Reed, cornetist Josh Berman has been a pivotal force in the Chicago jazz scene. A regular member of Jason Adasiewicz's Rolldown, Jeb Bishop's Lucky 7's, Keefe Jackson's Project Project and Fast Citizens and Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra, Berman has proven to be a strong new voice of the post-Vandermark generation. A richly textured and delicately nuanced record, Old Idea is Berman's long awaited debut as ...