John Corbett

John Corbett is a writer, curator, and producer based in Chicago. He is co-owner of the art gallery Corbett vs. Dempsey. Corbett is the author of several books, including Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music (University of Chicago, 2019); Vinyl Freak: Love Letters to a Dying Medium (Duke, 2017); A Listener’s Guide to Free Improvisation (University of Chicago Press, 2016, translated into French, Japanese, and Spanish); Microgroove: Forays into Other Music (Duke, 2015); and Extended Play: Sounding Off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein (Duke U. Press, 1994). As an essayist and reviewer, Corbett has written for numerous academic and commercial publications, including DownBeat, The Wire, The Chicago Reader, The Chicago Tribune, NKA, Bomb, LitHub, Blank Forms, Sound American, and Lapham’s Quarterly. He has edited or co-edited many books, including several on the musicians Sun Ra, Peter Brötzmann, and Roscoe Mitchell, as well as the 150 books and catalogs that his gallery has produced. Corbett’s work as a music producer includes his label, the Unheard Music Series, which existed from 1999–2006, and Corbett vs. Dempsey, an ongoing label issuing CDs of new and historical jazz, experimental, and improvised music. In 2002, Corbett was invited to be guest artistic director of JazzFest Berlin. He co-produced the Empty Bottle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music as well as a weekly series of concerts at a club of the same name.  As a curator, Corbett has worked with the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL; the Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY; Sullivan Galleries, the School of the Art Institute, Chicago; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA. Corbett taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1988–2014.