(Post-Bop, Modern Creative) Josh Berman Trio (Jason Roebke, Frank Rosaly) - A Dance and a Hop - 2015, MP3, 320 kbps

http://joshberman.net/josh-berman-trio-a-dance-and-a-hop/
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 for presenting improvised music, and performing in a variety of highly collaborative formats. He’s a co-founder of critically acclaimed Umbrella Music, as well as co-curator of the Emerging Improvisers’ Organization. He’s performed as bandleader of his own groups, Josh Berman Trio, Josh Berman’s Old Idea, and Josh Berman and His Gang, and as co-leader of Chicago Luzern Exchange.
In addition to his work as bandleader, Berman has performed and recorded with some of the most internationally respected musicians and composers in jazz and improvised music: Bill Dixon, Ab Baars, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Rob Mazurek, Jeb Bishop, and Paul Lytton. He is also a frequent collaborator with dance artists; his collaboration with dancer Ayako Kato and musician Jason Roebke was awarded a CROSSCUT grant for New Collaborations in Sound/Movement from Experimental Sound Studio and Links Hall. Berman was named in the DownBeat critics’ poll among Rising Stars, Trumpet. He has toured the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan.
In 2009, Berman and his group Old Idea released their first full length CD/LP, Old Idea, on Delmark. Josh Berman and His Gang’s There Now, also on Delmark Records, came out in 2012. And 2015 saw the release of Josh Berman Trio’s A Dance and A Hop on Delmark. The albums have garnered critical acclaim in publications including The New York Times, DownBeat, Jazz Times, the Chicago Reader, and the Chicago Tribune.

As this new album A Dance and a Hop makes clear, jazz cornetist Josh Berman's music has grown by leaps and bounds (or hops). It's only his third as leader; the first two, also on Delmark, were Old Idea (2009) and There Now (2012). Berman is accompanied by labelmates Jason Roebke, bass and Frank Rosaly, drums. Berman points out that the eleven original tunes "are directly related to content that I play on cornet; I rarely write without it. I think these trio pieces aren't from different planets when compared to music of Old Idea or There Now. The main difference here might be an interest in concision. I am very interested in the way Jason plays the bass and Frank plays the drums, and how the tunes live without space being filled by reeds, vibraphone, other voices. I think I wanted to hear what 'my idea' sounds like without everything else."
http://www.delmark.com/delmark.newjazz.htm
Cornetist Josh Berman has long been one of the most thoughtful musicians on Chicago’s diverse jazz and improvised music scene, a player who steadily digests a world of influences to craft something more original with each passing year. But he reaches new heights on A Dance and a Hop(Delmark), a gorgeously conceived trio outing that shows him reveling in sound qua sound as never before. His bond with bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Frank Rosaly goes back a long time, and you hear how locked-in they are. In fact, it’s that connection that makes the trio go—the members seem to be wired to make rubato a lingua franca. Berman continues to savor tart melodic shapes as he twists and works over elegant little phrases, but just as important is how he manipulates his horn, shifting between full-bodied cries and extended techniques that transform it into a noisemaker a la Axel Dörner. On “Today’s Date” a halting postbop ballad morphs into a series of groans, scrapes, and spasms as the line blurs between free jazz and sound art. Even more appealing is the earthy warmth all three musicians generate during their dialogue on “Wooden,” a kind of dance for marionette that shows how flexible and nimble the trio is as well as how lyric and inviting. Of the 11 concise pieces most clock in between three and four minutes, with only one exceeding five, but each performance is fully and articulately expressed.
— Peter Margasak
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 to listen at an angle, bent toward his specific musical details.
A key player in the vibrant Chicago jazz scene, his cornet can be heard in vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz's Rolldown, The Chicago Luzern Exchange, Ken Vandermark's Audio One, and the rotating leader ensemble Fast Citizens. This, his third release as a true leader follows the octet recording There Now (Delmark, 2012) and his quintet Old Idea (Delmark, 2009).
The music here, although fully composed, feels off the cuff. That is, until you recognize just how tight this trio is. Berman chose bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Frank Rosaly, two players he has a long history with, as collaborators here. They negotiate the opening track "Hang Ups" with its incongruous jagged-to-serpentine course with an attention to detail that supposes Berman's slurred cornet and trot to gallop lines are the norm. Each piece here is miniaturized shout from Ornette Coleman enunciated through a Bill Dixon filter. Berman has the knack for making sense of an extended trumpet technique within a melody. He brings it home via familiar forms, as in "Blues," or the lazy coolness of "Today's Date."
From thirty thousand feet this music is nondescript. But close up, the physicality of Roebke's bass and the engaged swing of Rosaly's drums ignite the cornetist's language. His dances included not just a hop, but a dash, a bolt, a scurry and a slide. The details here make for an intoxicating experience.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/a-dance-and-a-hop-josh-berman-delmark-records-review-by-mark-corroto.php

Josh Berman: cornet;
Jason Roebke: bass;
Frank Rosaly: drums.