Dance & a Hop

As this new album A Dance and a Hop makes clear, jazz cornet player 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 label mates 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 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."