Edition XL (Berman, Dessel, Finnigan, Macri, McDonald, Vandermark)

Edition XL is a new ensemble built on the foundation of Ken Vandermark’s critically acclaimed band, Edition Redux (with Erez Dessel: keyboards, Lily Finnegan: drums, Beth McDonald: tuba/electronics); which has toured both the States and Europe two times, was a featured group on the Festival Internacional Jazz Madrid and Music Unlimited 38 festival in Wels, Austria during November of 2024, will be performing at the Sound & Gravity music festival in Chicago this September and the OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival in Shenzhen, China in October; the quartet has released two albums, both with many accolades from music journalists: Better A Rook Than A Pawn (2023) and Broadcast Transformer (2025), both on Audiographic Records.

This larger group adds Josh Berman (cornet) and Nick Macri (acoustic & electric bass) to the fold, and is much more than an expanded version of the quartet. Vandermark has created a completely new compositional system for this band; music that has been influenced by the histories of free jazz, funk, and post-punk. In addition, all the musicians involved have extensive history with each other as improvisers, working together in many different configurations through the years. That experience and knowledge is brought to the table with Edition XL.