Josh Berman Old & New Dreams by Michael Jackson

40 DOWNBEAT OCTOBER 2010 downbeat archives downbeat Josh Berman Old & New Dreams By Michael Jackson n a clammy summer afternoon in Chicago, sel Walter inveigled him into his band of fledgling to classical trumpet professor Bruce Briney, who ODownBeat met with cornetist Josh Berman “non-musicians.” took him on “as a project,” as Berman puts it. at his apartment in the bleak West Town district of After jamming with Walter, Berman confesses the city. Teeming with life’s essentials—books and he became a bit square due to an interest in actually erman’s assiduous curiosity for what was out records (including impressive stacks of vintage vi- “learning to play jazz,” as it were; he figured he Bthere, what the benchmarks were, held his ego nyl)—Berman’s boho pad is clearly geared toward was getting away with murder thanks to an atten- in check. Future heavies on the Chicago scene and music practice and artistic contemplation. tive ear and a skill for bluff and arty displacement. beyond, including drummer Chad Taylor, seemed Because it’s cooler in there, the kitchen has Berman lasted a couple semesters at art college, to dig his playing, but Berman still saw himself as become an ad hoc rehearsal space. More CDs but had already begun volunteering at the non-for- a charlatan. He’d sniffed around the Jazz Record of various persuasions from doo-wop to Ornette profit performance space SouthEnd Music Works. Mart as a teenager, and one day writer Peter Kosta- Coleman, Betty Carter and Cecil Taylor popu- “That was amazing,” recalls Berman. “I got to kis gave him a cassette of Dave Douglas’ Tiny Bell late a makeshift table in front of a music stand on hear Fred Anderson, Douglas Ewart, the first time Trio. “It was another life-changer,” says Berman. which ancient etudes, a book of trumpet calisthen- [Peter] Brötzmann and Hamid Drake performed “This was before Douglas broke out. The history ics and sheaves of compositions by Warne Marsh together.” But it was the proximity of two par- of free-jazz trumpet was evident, the gestural ele- are gathered at the ready, perhaps material Berman ticular shows in 1991, by Lester Bowie and Paul ments, the spatters and spits, but there was some- has in mind for his regular Monday trio gig at the Smoker, that proved revelatory. thing fancy and legitimate underneath Douglas’ Old Town Ale House. “I like the discipline of play- “Bowie was with George Gruntz at the Chi- playing, a true virtuosity.” Again, Berman felt the ing standards every week, though it’s not my main cago Jazz Festival, and he and Ray Anderson need for reappraisal. “If not directly via the Haydn bag,” admits Berman, who has risen as a salient stopped by for an afterfest jam at SEMW. It flipped concerto, I felt I’d actually need to learn to play this voice on the improv/creative music scene, as a my shit—he was so stylish, funny and had such instrument if I wanted more choices.” sideman sessioneer, leader, booker and general power and presence,” remembers Berman, who Becoming an employee of the Jazz Record catalyst and abettor. was equally impressed with Smoker. “Smoker had Mart, the world’s largest store of its kind, inevita- Looking like ’50s-era Dave Brubeck in black- another energy, a propelled freedom, more frantic, bly bred Berman as a gangster pedant about a wide rimmed spectacles, Berman is a no-nonsense type, lots of notes, but still the blues was detectable.” An swath of the music. The dichotomy of the JRM’s committed, intense and not likely to suffer fools— air of confidence and initial focus followed by un- sister concern, the Delmark label, with its simulta- least of all himself. The latter comment is quickly premeditated invention drew Berman to Smoker’s neous traditional and avant garde specialisms, also evident when discussing his patchy development style, and he began emulating the onstage gesticu- gave him conceptual perspective. Just as Picasso as a musician. lations of Bowie and Smoker. forged into the avant garde through primitivism, The grandson of a hard-working Maywood As his mission clarity grew, Berman proac- Berman realized that Ornette had come through a paint store owner, things were expected of Ber- tively sought professional guidance but was lot of music to arrive at his sound. “I read in a Ben man growing up, without undue pressure to join crestfallen when hardbop trumpeter Brad Goode Ratliff interview that Ornette had even checked the family business. A formative exposure to mu- had him envisage a decade grinding at the mill- cantorial singer Yossele Rosenblatt,” he points out. sic came from the cantor at his local synagogue stone before he could count himself a player. “I Berman’s merciless misgivings about his and later from hip high school humanities teacher didn’t understand there was such a thing as an playing are adversely proportional to his analytical Richard Kamka, who provided him with an “aes- embouchure,” admits Berman with masochistic intelligence, which becomes emphatically obvious thetic base,” according to Berman. Then a beatnik bashfulness. when, checking YouTube clips on the laptop in his school pal turned him on to Miles Davis, whose Goode suggested Tom Talman, jazz director at kitchen, we dig deeper into his passion for early solos Berman quickly learned to sing and therefore suburban College of DuPage, would screw his jazz pioneers. assumed he’d be able to play. head on straight. Berman learned a lot from Tal- I’d had a jazz epiphany after witnessing Rex But it wasn’t until Berman was 19 that playing man but still felt like a late starter, a long stretch Stewart perform alongside Henry Red Allen and an instrument gelled as a semi-serious option. Into shy of the money. Pee Wee Russell in a film Delmark’s Bob Koes- the nouvelle vague of French cinema and imag- He sidestepped, gaining a degree in social ter once showed. Berman and I revisited the clip ining himself the next Chris Marker, he began work from Western Illinois University in Ma- and my original impression was confirmed, but I art school studies at Columbia College, getting a comb, Ill., a decision that probably didn’t infuriate was less fascinated by Stewart’s statement of the grounding in drawing, painting and film editing, his social worker mother. But within days of hit- melody to Ellington’s “Morning Glory” (a Ber- pulled toward progressive elements. A defining ting WIU, he met music faculty member Dr. John man favorite) until Berman mimicked Stewart’s moment occurred, however, when dorm chum Murphy, who streamlined Berman’s work ethic, articulations for me on his cornet, illustrating in and nascent no-wave/free improv nonpareil Wea- made him more efficient, ultimately directing him syntax, musically and figuratively, what makes his OCTOBER 2010 DOWNBEAT 41 placement of beat and breath special. (Two Cities, 2009). “The sense of rhythm from those days is so For an instance of Berman’s uninhibited ex- distant from us now,” he avers, “how they con- pression, check his gasping Lester Bowie-sanc- ceived of time, because it was before Max Roach. tioned schmears at the close of “The Twenty-Sev- It is so foreign to players now, or even what Lee en” from Two Cities. Morgan or Freddie Hubbard were doing; it’s not Despite Several Lights (Delmark, 2005) with about gliding over the head to “Confirmation.” tubaist Mark Unternährer, Jackson and Rosaly un- (Berman shedded with Jamey Aebersold’s Om- der the banner of the Chicago Luzern Exchange, nibook of Charlie Parker solo transcriptions, by which was a taxonomical triumph of improvi- the by, learning tunes in all keys at the behest of sational conceits, it wasn’t until last year and a hard-ass Chicago saxophonist Richie Corpolongo, couple dozen side sessions later (with everybody during a year’s weekly lessons.) from The Lucky 7s and Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Listening to Ruby Braff play “Thou Swell,” Star Orchestra to Adasiewicz’s Rolldown quintet; Berman can’t resist putting the cornet to his mouth, glam-rock maverick Bobby Conn and alt-country stressing how Braff “throws out” his phrases, in singer Steve Dawson) that Berman finally released the Louis Armstrong manner for sure, but some- a record of his own. how differently. “Even when these guys pay trib- Consistent with his young fogey streak, he ute to their heroes, it’s altered. Braff borrows from called the record Old Idea, much as he dubbed an- Louis, but there is an off-kilter phrase, a turn here, other project “Josh Berman and his Gang” as a nod a leap there; he is a character, in message and ac- to the Austin High Gang, the group of West Side tion. It may sound postmodernist, but when some- musicians, including cornetist Jimmy McPartland, thing genuine has been removed from its context who originated Chicago-style jazz in the 1920s. and placed in a new context, it’s attractive.” The wry self-effacement of Old Idea notwith- That last statement Berman savors in particu- standing, the music therein is fresh and porous, lar with reference to his chief musical beacon, structures designed with flexibility as the core of who, tellingly, isn’t a trumpet player. It remains conceptual strength. Delmark agreed to release one of Berman’s deepest regrets that he didn’t ful- the record as a record (i.e. in 12-inch vinyl format) fill a dream to play with soprano saxist Steve Lacy. as well as CD at Berman’s request. This Luddite But he has studied with him, through absorption of call is one of the charms of the association with Lacy’s book of recommendations, Findings, and Koester’s resolutely unglamorous label but also close listening to his exhaustive collection of the telescopes back to Berman’s artiness, which he at- late saxist’s recordings.

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