PRE-ORDER: Want List (Novel)
PRE-ORDER ONLY. RELEASES NOVEMBER, 2026.
Pre-Echo and Soberscove present the debut novel from John Corbett. Joining his prominent, decades-long body of work in writing, publishing, curating and producing a breadth of projects centered on contemporary art and music, Want List follows the exploits of two music fans stationed in different camps—a record collector and a tape trader—whose friendship is predicated on charting a vast network of artists and recording sessions, as well as exchanging the stories that haunt each of their beloved media. A unique form of fact-fiction with nods to classic noir, Want List brims with references to jazz and improvised music rarities (some real, some invented), while touching on deeper questions of love and loss, the phantasmagoria of the archive, and various flavors of freedom.
The novel presents Corbett's deep research in music to a wide audience, as a work to be both appreciated by jazz and improvisation aficionados and accessible to readers new to the genres. Much of this is shared by way of anecdotes and stories exchanged by the characters in the way music fans often do, while listening to music, inspired in the moment to remember a tale they’ve heard or a situation they’ve experienced. In this way, Want List is also a narrative about narratives, about storytelling and hagiography, about musical mythologies.
Releasing as a loose sidecar to the novel is the Want List double-LP, available November 2026. This collection of rare recordings will include tracks referenced throughout the novel, many presented here for the first time.
John Corbett is a writer, curator, and co-owner of Corbett vs. Dempsey, an art gallery and record label in Chicago. He is the author of several books, most recently Bullets for Dead Hoods: An Encyclopedia of Chicago Mobsters, c. 1933 (Soberscove Press, 2020), Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music (University of Chicago Press, 2019), A Listener’s Guide to Free Improvisation (University of Chicago Press, 2016), and Microgroove: Forays Into Other Music (Duke University Press, 2015). Corbett contributes a regular column to Jazz Forum.
There are freaks about many things, but I share with John Corbett’s characters a freakiness about music. Music is how I explore virtually everything, including music itself. I can’t recall reading a book that presented the beautiful hows and whys of our relationship to recorded music in such a thorough, unique, and inspiring way. And pleasurable. A wonderful few mystery-genre books are explorations of finesse and philosophy disguised as pulp. The whole microcosm Want List paints is a vibe. The dialogue is top-shelf comedy noir à la Nick and Nora Charles, and the environs the characters inhabit are almost (but never) painfully recognizable geographic and psychological settings. Want List is as valid a hybrid philosophy/ ethnomusicology textbook—and a great one—as it is a (gently-paced) thriller.
—Will Oldham, musician and actor
Brilliant! Who doesn’t dig a whodunnit? I had never thought of diggers as detectives, but there’s a deep truth there. Corbett’s use of the detective story is double-edged, suspended between reality and myth, leading the reader on a passionate, obsessive journey through a secret history of jazz. Want List is an existential investigation into why we collect, a love letter to the search for the perfect beat, for the heart-rhythm of life itself.
—Gilles Peterson, disc jockey, broadcaster, and record producer
Co-published by Pre-Echo Press, New York and Soberscove Press, Chicago.
Designed by Mike Dyer, Remake.
Distributed by D.A.P.
Perfect bound softcover with flaps
5 x 7.5 inches, 208 pages
ISBN: 9798994833919
PE-27
Release date: November, 2026
Cover image: Co Westerik, Gramophone Player, 1971. Oil and tempera on canvas. 1110 × 1455 mm. Collection of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Courtesy of the Estate of Co Westerik.
PRE-ORDER ONLY. RELEASES NOVEMBER, 2026.
Pre-Echo and Soberscove present the debut novel from John Corbett. Joining his prominent, decades-long body of work in writing, publishing, curating and producing a breadth of projects centered on contemporary art and music, Want List follows the exploits of two music fans stationed in different camps—a record collector and a tape trader—whose friendship is predicated on charting a vast network of artists and recording sessions, as well as exchanging the stories that haunt each of their beloved media. A unique form of fact-fiction with nods to classic noir, Want List brims with references to jazz and improvised music rarities (some real, some invented), while touching on deeper questions of love and loss, the phantasmagoria of the archive, and various flavors of freedom.
The novel presents Corbett's deep research in music to a wide audience, as a work to be both appreciated by jazz and improvisation aficionados and accessible to readers new to the genres. Much of this is shared by way of anecdotes and stories exchanged by the characters in the way music fans often do, while listening to music, inspired in the moment to remember a tale they’ve heard or a situation they’ve experienced. In this way, Want List is also a narrative about narratives, about storytelling and hagiography, about musical mythologies.
Releasing as a loose sidecar to the novel is the Want List double-LP, available November 2026. This collection of rare recordings will include tracks referenced throughout the novel, many presented here for the first time.
John Corbett is a writer, curator, and co-owner of Corbett vs. Dempsey, an art gallery and record label in Chicago. He is the author of several books, most recently Bullets for Dead Hoods: An Encyclopedia of Chicago Mobsters, c. 1933 (Soberscove Press, 2020), Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music (University of Chicago Press, 2019), A Listener’s Guide to Free Improvisation (University of Chicago Press, 2016), and Microgroove: Forays Into Other Music (Duke University Press, 2015). Corbett contributes a regular column to Jazz Forum.
There are freaks about many things, but I share with John Corbett’s characters a freakiness about music. Music is how I explore virtually everything, including music itself. I can’t recall reading a book that presented the beautiful hows and whys of our relationship to recorded music in such a thorough, unique, and inspiring way. And pleasurable. A wonderful few mystery-genre books are explorations of finesse and philosophy disguised as pulp. The whole microcosm Want List paints is a vibe. The dialogue is top-shelf comedy noir à la Nick and Nora Charles, and the environs the characters inhabit are almost (but never) painfully recognizable geographic and psychological settings. Want List is as valid a hybrid philosophy/ ethnomusicology textbook—and a great one—as it is a (gently-paced) thriller.
—Will Oldham, musician and actor
Brilliant! Who doesn’t dig a whodunnit? I had never thought of diggers as detectives, but there’s a deep truth there. Corbett’s use of the detective story is double-edged, suspended between reality and myth, leading the reader on a passionate, obsessive journey through a secret history of jazz. Want List is an existential investigation into why we collect, a love letter to the search for the perfect beat, for the heart-rhythm of life itself.
—Gilles Peterson, disc jockey, broadcaster, and record producer
Co-published by Pre-Echo Press, New York and Soberscove Press, Chicago.
Designed by Mike Dyer, Remake.
Distributed by D.A.P.
Perfect bound softcover with flaps
5 x 7.5 inches, 208 pages
ISBN: 9798994833919
PE-27
Release date: November, 2026
Cover image: Co Westerik, Gramophone Player, 1971. Oil and tempera on canvas. 1110 × 1455 mm. Collection of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Courtesy of the Estate of Co Westerik.