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Josh Berman

Josh Berman


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Josh Berman is a cornetist, improviser, composer, and music presenter. An essential contributor to Chicago’s active free jazz and improvised music scene, his work encompasses performing in a variety of highly collaborative formats, while also creating performance opportunities for musicians, having produced hundreds of shows in Chicago over the past 25 years. He has participated in over 40 recordings, with his own projects, Old Idea, Josh Berman and his Gang, and Josh Berman Trio receiving critical acclaim in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, DownBeat and many other publications. His recordings can be found on Chicago’s legendary Delmark Records, Austin’s Astral Spirits Records and most recently on Corbett Vs Dempsey.

Berman/Abrams Duo & Brandon Seabrook Trio

Thursday | 04 October 2018
Elastic - 9:00pm


Journeymen Chicago improvisers Berman and Abrams open up tonight’s proceedings.

9 PM : BERMAN/ABRAMS DUO

Josh Berman – cornet
Joshua Abrams – bass

10 PM : BRANDON SEABROOK TRIO

Brandon Seabrook- Guitar
Henry Fraser – Bass
Daniel Levin – Cello

From the idiosyncratic musical mind of guitarist/composer Brandon Seabrook comes his latest album Convulsionaries (Astral Spirits, September 2018). In his close to two decades in NYC, Seabrook has garnered international acclaim for his sui generis approach to the electric guitar, one which astounds with tremolo pyrotechnics and an entropic sensibility. While those elements are in full effect on Convulsionaries, they’re met with a mature and thorough sense of dynamics, pace, groove, and feeling. Joining Seabrook on this release are the young upright bassist Henry Fraser (Anthony Coleman, The Full Salon) and Daniel Levin (Tony Malaby, Mat Maneri), two revolutionary string players who have been working in various creative ensembles in Brooklyn for years. Together, the string trio tackles Seabrook’s thorny compositions, which perpetually surprise and unseat the listener throughout the album’s trajectory. The trio’s frightening rhythmic precision oscillates between ominous repeating ostinatos; cathartic, angular, and intricate counterpoint; and a massive dynamic range which can change in a nanosecond. Convulsionaries is the sound of three restless virtuosos, making a bold statement, guiding listeners through a gauntlet of emotional spaces with the aid of these structural assemblages, turning impending doom into a deep cathartic release.