Karl Berger's Improvisers Orchestra returns to El Taller

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Following 18 months of performances downtown, Karl Berger's Improvisers Orchestra will come to Manhattan's upper west side to perform at the beautiful El Taller space at 2710 Broadway ( corner of 104th St ) on Thursday, July 26. Following a critically-acclaimed run at The Jazz Gallery, and before that at The Stone, Karl Berger's Orchestra of 20 or more professional string, horn, and percussion soloists continues to turn improvisational ideas developed in the 7:30 pm workshop/rehearsal into a fully formed 9:00 pm orchestral performance. Using his "Music Mind" concept, Karl introduces a new approach and experience of harmonizing improvised sound.

Conducted in Karl's inimitable style, developed at the legendary Creative Music Studio, this orchestra of extraordinary improvisers explores original themes, melodies from the world's folk traditions and compositions written by legendary improvisers such as Don Cherry or Ornette Coleman, as well as musical ideas that arise spontaneously. One of the orchestra's trademarks is Ingrid Sertso's uncanny vocalization and poetry.

Karl Berger's Improvisers Orchestra has a rotating cast of soloists, with a solid core of regulars. Players for this El Taller performance are: Warren Smith, drums, Hollis Headrick, percussion, John Pietaro, percussion, Hill Greene, bass, David Perrott, bass, Harvey Valdes, guitar, John Ehlis, guitar, mandolin, Sylvain Leroux, African flutes, Ken Ya Kawaguchi, shakuhachi flute, Frederika Krier" violin, Sana Nagano, violin, Judith Insell, viola, Tomas Ulrich cello, Brian Groder, trumpet, Thomas Heberer, trumpet, Blaise Siwula, clarinets, Avram Fefer, bass clarinet, David Schnug, alto sax, Welf Dorr, alto sax, Bill Ylitalo, alto flute, baritone sax, Mossa Bildner, vocals, Ingrid Sertso, vocals, poetry, and Karl Berger, keyboards/conducting.

The El Taller performance space has a long history of being the musical home in New York for musicians from all over the Americas. Artistic Director Bernardo Palombo has brought some of the greatest names in American music to El Taller including, Mercedes Sosa, Philip Glass, David Byrne, and Pete Seeger.

The Creative Music Foundation, Inc was founded by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman as a not-for-profit support for the vision of a world view and common ground of music beyond styles and categories. Out of this vision grew the now legendary Creative Music Studio (CMS). For nearly two decades, the Creative Music Studio was considered to be the premier center for the study of creative music.

All net proceeds support the Creative Music Studio's Archive Project, the preservation and re-mastering of over 400 historic CMS recordings from the 70s and 80s of some of the finest innovators in jazz, improvisation, and world music. The Archive Project is in collaboration with Columbia University. More information can be found at:

Karl Berger is an award-winning composer/arranger, winner of six Downbeat Critics Polls as a jazz soloist, the mastermind behind the legendary Creative Music Studio and the emergence of spontaneously arranged confluences of individual improvisational expressions and world musical traditions that is the CMS trademark. His recordings and world-wide performances included musicians from the jazz tradition such as Dave Holland, Ed Blackwell, Graham Haynes, Bob Stewart, Kenny Wessel, and from world musical backgrounds such as Steve Gorn, Nana Vasconcelos, Ismet Siral, Hozan Yamamoto. He collaborated with Don Cherry, Gunter Schuller, the Mingus Epitaph Orchestra, just to name a few.

Karl Berger now records for the Tzadik label.His writing credits include orchestral arrangements for recordings by Jeff Buckley, Angela Kidjo, Better Than Ezra, The Cardigans, many collaborations with producer Bill Laswell and the groundbreaking orchestral composition "No Man Is An Island". Karl Berger and Friends continue to present residencies world-wide, notably in Italy, Germany, Istanbul and Brazil.

During the '70- and '80's, the Woodstock-based Creative Music Studio was considered the premier study center for contemporary creative music. Founded in 1971 by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman, CMS brought together leading innovators in the jazz and world music communities. Unprecedented in its range and diversity, CMS was an acknowledged phenomenon in the international music world, providing participants with the rare opportunity to interact personally with the musical giants of improvisation and musical thought on a daily basis.

CMS is credited as the birthplace of Worldjazz - the improvisational and compositional expansion of the world's musical traditions. Now one of the main driving forces in many styles of music, this concept was pioneered very early at CMS, guided by authentic leaders. Hundreds of live concerts were recorded, many heralded as landmark performances. Thousands of workshops, master classes, concerts and colloquia inspired a generation of musicians who took with them the ideas, concepts and practices developed at CMS. The CMS community still exists in a remarkable network of creative musicians, many of whom came to CMS from Asia, Europe and South America.

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