Nomo

Elliot Bergman, a University of Michigan jazz studies graduate and multi-instrumentalist on tenor sax, keyboards, and electric mbiri, joined several acquaintances in 2003 for jamming sessions inside an Ann Arbor, MI house occupied by many of the participants. Those sessions produced NOMO, which cut its self-titled EP for Ypsilanti Records the same year after producer Warn Defever challenged Bergman to assemble the largest possible studio contingent. The band, whose album and live appearances together have involved more than 60 contributors, released a full-length album of the same name in 2004. Its combination of African beats, avant-garde jazz, and funk attracted California’s Ubiquity Records, which signed the group. With a core lineup of Bergman, Erik Hall on guitar and Nu-Tone cymbals, Jamie Register on bass and vocals, Dan Piccolo on drums, Dan Bennett on baritone sax, Justin Walter on trumpet, Olman Piedra on congas, cajon, and shekere, and Ingrid Racine on trumpet, NOMO issued New Tones in 2006, Ghost Rock in 2008, and Invisible Cities the following year.