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OkkaDisk
Okka Disk is an independent American jazz record company and label founded in Chicago by Bruno Johnson in 1994. Okka began as a rock music label, but Johnson soon changed direction to record free jazz.Bruno Johnson interview
at Delmark Records

at NPR
'' Vintage Duets'' are the unreleased tapes recorded in 1980 by saxophonist Fred Anderson with drummer Steve McCall, and ''

Kent Kessler
Kent Kessler (born January 28, 1957) is an American jazz double-bassist. Career Although born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Kessler grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He began playing trombone at age ten. When he was thirteen, he moved with his family to Chicago and a few years later became interested in jazz. While attending St. Mary Center for Learning High School, he took lessons in bass guitar and jazz theory from Kestutis Stanciauskas. In 1977 he formed Neutrino Orchestra with percussionist Michael Zerang and guitarists Dan Scanlan and Norbert Funk. He spent three months in Brazil during 1980–81 and intermittently attended Roosevelt University in Chicago. He and Michael Zerang also formed a group called Musica Menta, which played routinely at Link's Hall. Kessler began playing double bass in the 1980s. It became his primary instrument in 1985 when he was asked to join the NRG Ensemble, which toured Europe and recorded for ECM Records, ECM under the leadership of Hal Russel ...
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Michael Zerang
Michael Zerang (born November 16, 1958) is an American jazz percussionist and drummer. Career Zerang's parents both emigrated to the United States from the Middle East; his father is Iranian and his mother Iraqi.Biography
, Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians. Jazz.com.
He began playing professionally in 1976 with Kent Kessler and studied at Wilbur Wright College from 1977 to 1978 and Roosevelt College from 1978 to 1982. Zerang has played with Dave Rempis, < ...
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Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the global music industry, after Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME). Formerly part of Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery), WMG was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange from 2005 until 2011, when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries. It later had its second IPO on Nasdaq in 2020, once again becoming a public company. With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG employs more than 3,500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world. The company owns and operates some of the largest and most successful labels in the world, including Elektra Records, Reprise Records, Warner Records, Parlophone Records (formerly owned by EMI), ...
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Mats Gustafsson
Mats Olof Gustafsson (born 29 October 1964) is a Swedish free jazz saxophone player. Career Gustafsson came to the attention of lovers of improvised music as part of a duo with Christian Munthe (started in 1986), as member of Gunter Christmann's Vario project and the band Gush (started in 1988). He later played widely with Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Paul Lovens, Barry Guy, Yoshimi P-We, Derek Bailey, Magnus Broo, Otomo Yoshihide, Pat Thomas, Jim O'Rourke, Thomas Lehn, Evan Parker, Misha Mengelberg, Zu, The Ex and Sonic Youth. Since the early 1990s Gustafsson has been a regular visitor to the United States, forming a particular affinity with Chicago musicians Hamid Drake, Michael Zerang, and Ken Vandermark and recording for Okka Disk. He was awarded the 2011 Nordic Council Music Prize. Gustafsson has worked extensively with artists from the worlds of dance, theatre, poetry and painting. He has lived in Nickelsdorf, Austria since 2011. Festival curator Gusta ...
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Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, and was a key early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He received great acclaim for his 1969 double- LP record ''For Alto'', the first full-length album of solo saxophone music. A prolific composer with a vast body of cross-genre work, the MacArthur Fellow and NEA Jazz Master has released hundreds of recordings and compositions. During six years signed to Arista Records, the diversity of his output encompassed work with many members of the AACM, including duets with co-founder and first president Muhal Richard Abrams; collaborations with electronic musician Richard Teitelbaum; a saxophone quartet with Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett; compositions for four orchestras; and t ...
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Chicago Solo
''Chicago Solo'' is an album by the British jazz saxophonist Evan Parker, recorded in 1995 and released on Okka Disk. After eight records of solo soprano saxophone, it was his first unaccompanied tenor sax record.''Chicago Solo''
at


Reception

In his review for , Thom Jurek states: "This is a fascinating and very listening disc of solo improvisations, one that is likely never to find a wide enough audience for its brilliant accomplishment on tenor saxophone." ''

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Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation. He has pioneered or substantially expanded an array of extended techniques. Critic Ron Wynn describes Parker as "among Europe's most innovative and intriguing saxophonists...his solo sax work isn't for the squeamish." Early influences Parker's original inspiration was Paul Desmond, and in recent years the influence of cool jazz saxophone players has again become apparent in his music — there are tributes to Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz on ''Time Will Tell'' (ECM, 1993) and ''Chicago Solo'' (Okka Disk, 1997). He soon discovered the music of John Coltrane, who would be the primary influence throughout his career. Other important early influences were Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler and Jimmy Guiffre. Early career ...
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A Meeting In Chicago
''A Meeting in Chicago'' is an album by trumpeter/saxophonist Joe McPhee, reedist Ken Vandermark and bassist Kent Kessler, which was released in 1997 on Eighth Day Music and reissued the following year with new artwork by Okka Disk. The album documents trio, duo and solo improvisations recorded all in a single take with no rehearsal, before playing their first concert later that night at The Empty Bottle. Vandermark cites McPhee’s solo recording ''Tenor'' as a major influence.''A Meeting in Chicago''
at


Reception

In her review for , Joslyn Layne states "Ranging fr ...
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Joe McPhee
Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone. McPhee grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and is most notable for his free jazz work done from the late 1960s to the present day. Life and career McPhee was born in Miami, Florida, on November 3, 1939. He began playing trumpet when he was eight, before learning other instruments. He played in various high school and then military bands before starting his recording career. His first recording came in 1967, when he appeared on the Clifford Thornton album entitled ''Freedom and Unity''. McPhee taught himself saxophone at the age of 32 after experiencing the music of John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and Ornette Coleman. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, McPhee lectured on jazz music at Vassar College. In 1975, Werner Uehlinger started the Swiss label Hathut Records with the specific int ...
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The Wels Concert
''The Wels Concert'' is a live album by German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, Moroccan guembri player Mahmoud Guinia, and American drummer Hamid Drake. It was recorded in November 1996 at the Schlachthof cultural center in Wels, Austria, and was released in 1997 by Okka Disk. In an interview, Brötzmann expressed his admiration for Guinia, and for Moroccan Gnawa music, stating: "In my way about thinking of the timing of tunes or pieces you play... after a time, you have to come to an end. But they never do - they get in a kind of trance... it goes on for hours and hours and hours." After Guinia's death in 2015, Brötzmann and Drake would go on to record the album '' The Catch of a Ghost'' (2020) with his brother, Moukhtar Guinia. Reception In a review for AllMusic, Joslyn Lane described the album as "a powerful interaction of three musicians from different countries, each of whom have extraordinary improvisational abilities and deep, grounded technique." He stated that the music i ...
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Mahmoud Guinia
Mahmoud Guinia ( ar, محمود ﯕينيا, and rarely or ; also spelled Gania, Guinea or Khania; 1951 – 2 August 2015) was a Moroccan Gnawa musician, singer and guembri player, who was traditionally regarded as a Maâllem (), i.e. master. The family name is Gania, which also was the spelling in the passport of the artist. He recorded for both domestic and foreign labels, and collaborated with numerous western musicians. Life Mahmoud Gania (or Guinia) was born in 1951 in the city Essaouira on the Atlantic coast. He was the second son of the master of Gnawa music, Maâllem Boubker Gania (1927–2000) and the famous clairvoyant and "moqaddema" A'isha Qabral. His brother Mokhtar Gania - as well as his late brothers Abdellah Gania and Bilal "Lahcen Zitoune"- is a gnawa Maâllem too, and their sister Zaida Gania - and the late Jmeia Gania - is another moqqaddema. Mahmoud Guinia was married to Mallika Al Machhour from Marrakech, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. H ...
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Baraka (album)
''Baraka'' is an album by the DKV Trio, composed of drummer Hamid Drake, bassist Kent Kessler and reedist Ken Vandermark. It was recorded in 1997 and released on Okka Disk.''Baraka''
at
The DKV Trio was assembled by Vandermak in the summer of 1994 for the recording project '' Standards''. The band's first album was the limited edition CD ''DKV Live'', recorded on December 26, 1996, at the Lunar Cabaret and also released on Okka Disk.
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