JOSH BERMAN

For more than ten years, cornetist, improviser, composer, and music presenter Josh Berman has been an essential contributor to Chicago's active improvised music scene. His work encompasses both developing opportunities and forums for presenting improvised music - as co-founder of the critically acclaimed Umbrella Music Group and as vice president and co-curator of the Emerging Improvisers' Organization - and performing in a variety of highly collaborative formats - including as bandleader of his own groups, Josh Berman's Old Idea and Josh Berman and His Gang, and as co-leader of the Chicago Luzern Exchange. In June 2009, Berman and his group Old Idea released their first full length on Delmark Records. It received four stars in Downbeat Magazine and Ben Ratliff in The New York Times wrote, "I like the stylish cleanness of Old Idea… It's a record with generous learning but no big attitude. There's space in it, as well as read more...