John Corbett is an author, writer, curator, musician, radio host, teacher, record producer, concert promoter, and, with Jim Dempsey, co-owner of Corbett vs. Dempsey art gallery in Chicago. He has written for DownBeat magazine, edited several books on the musician Sun Ra, co-curated the Empty Bottle Jazz Series in Chicago, and served as artistic director of JazzFest Berlin (2002). Corbett has also curated the Unheard Music Series for Atavistic Records, which reissues both classic and obscure recordings of free jazz and improvisation by artists such as Peter Brötzmann, among others. He is an adjunct associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he has taught since 1988. In 2018, he served as a Center panelist in Performance, and in 2012, he was a panelist for Pew Fellowships.