Michael Zerang | |
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Background information | |
Born | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | November 16, 1958
Genres | Jazz |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Drums |
Michael Zerang (born November 16, 1958) is an American jazz percussionist and drummer.
Zerang's parents both emigrated to the United States from the Middle East; his father is Iranian and his mother Iraqi. [1] 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. [1]
Zerang has played with Dave Rempis, Edward Wilkerson, Fred Anderson, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jeff Parker, Joe McPhee, Josh Berman, Kent Kessler, Luc Houtkamp , Elisabeth Harnik , Kevin Drumm, Scott Fields, Mars Williams, Tatsu Aoki, and Hamid Drake. He has also played with international musicians such as Axel Dörner, Fredy Studer, Hannes Bauer, Jaap Blonk, Mats Gustafsson, Mazen Kerbaj, Peter Brötzmann, and Tobias Delius. He has been a jazz educator at the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University in addition to founding and directing the Link's Hall Performance Series from 1985 to 1989. [2]
Peter Brötzmann was a German jazz saxophonist and clarinetist regarded as a central and pioneering figure in European free jazz. Throughout his career, he released over fifty albums as a bandleader. Amongst his many collaborators were key figures in free jazz, including Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton and Cecil Taylor, as well as experimental musicians such as Keiji Haino and Charles Hayward. His 1968 Machine Gun became "one of the landmark albums of 20th-century free jazz".
William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist. Beginning in the 1980s, Parker played with Cecil Taylor for over a decade, and he has led the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra since 1981. The Village Voice named him "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time" and DownBeat has called him "one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz".
Joe McPhee 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.
Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist.
Mats Olof Gustafsson is a Swedish free jazz saxophone player.
Fred Lonberg-Holm is an American cellist based in Chicago. He moved from New York City to Chicago in 1995.
Jeb Bishop is an American jazz trombone player.
Marc Charles "Mars" Williams was an American jazz and rock saxophonist. He was a member of the American new wave band The Waitresses from 1980 to 1983, and a member of the British post-punk band The Psychedelic Furs from 1983 to 1989 and again from 2005 until his death in 2023. Williams also was a founding member of the acid jazz group Liquid Soul, and a member of the free jazz-oriented NRG Ensemble.
Kent Kessler is an American jazz double-bassist.
Okka Disk is an independent American jazz record company and label founded in Chicago by Bruno Johnson in 1994.
Deep Telling is an album by American jazz guitarist Joe Morris with the DKV Trio recorded in 1998 and released on Okka Disk. The DKV Trio is a band composed of drummer Hamid Drake, bassist Kent Kessler, and saxophonist Ken Vandermark. The whole quartet plays together only on three collective improvisations, on the other five tracks the musicians split off into a variety of duo and trio lineups.
Discography for jazz reedist Ken Vandermark. The year indicates when the album was first released.
Tales Out of Time is an album by Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler and Michael Zerang recorded in 2002 and released on the Swiss HatHut label in 2004.
Guts is an album by Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann, Kent Kessler and Michael Zerang recorded in 2005 and released on the Okka Disc label in 2007.
Jeb Bishop is primarily known as an improvisational jazz trombonist. However he occasionally plays other instruments on both jazz and rock recordings as noted.
Live at the Empty Bottle is a live album by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, drummer Hamid Drake, and bassist Kent Kessler. It was recorded on July 22, 1996, at The Empty Bottle in Chicago, and was released in 1999 by Okka Disk as a limited-edition CD.
Stone/Water is a live album by the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, led by saxophonist Brötzmann, and featuring an ten-piece ensemble. Documenting a performance of a single 39-minute work, it was recorded on May 23, 1999, at the Festival de Musique de Actuelle Victoriaville in Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada, and was released on CD in 2000 by Okka Disk. On the album, Brötzmann is joined by saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and Ken Vandermark, trumpeter and electronic musician Toshinori Kondo, trombonist Jeb Bishop, violinist and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, double bassists Kent Kessler and William Parker, and percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang.
The Chicago Octet/Tentet is a live album by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann on which he is joined by two large ensembles known as the Chicago Octet and Tentet. Six tracks were recorded live at The Empty Bottle in Chicago on January 29, 1997, and September 17, 1997, while the remaining six tracks were recorded at AirWave Studio in Chicago on September 16, 1997. The album was released in 1998 as a limited-edition three-CD set by the Okka Disk label, and, in addition to Brötzmann, features saxophonists Mats Gustafsson, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, and Mars Williams, trombonist Jeb Bishop, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, double bassist Kent Kessler, and drummers Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang.
American Landscapes, volumes 1 and 2, is a pair of live albums by the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, led by saxophonist Brötzmann, and featuring an ten-piece ensemble. Documenting performances of two large-scale works, they were recorded on May 28, 2006, at Le Weekend in the Tolbooth at Stirling, Scotland, and were released on CD in 2007 by Okka Disk. On the albums, Brötzmann is joined by saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and Ken Vandermark, trumpeter and saxophonist Joe McPhee, trombonist Johannes Bauer, tubist Per-Ake Holmlander, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, double bassists Kent Kessler and William Parker, and drummers Paal Nilssen-Love and Michael Zerang.
3 Nights in Oslo is a five-disc live box set album by the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet + 1, led by saxophonist Brötzmann, and featuring an eleven-piece ensemble. It was recorded during February 19–21, 2009, at Victoria, Nasjonal Jazzscene in Oslo, Norway, and was released on CD in 2010 by the Norwegian Smalltown Superjazzz label. On the album, Brötzmann is joined by saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and Ken Vandermark, trumpeter and saxophonist Joe McPhee, trombonists Jeb Bishop and Johannes Bauer, tubist Per Åke Holmlander, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, double bassist Kent Kessler, and drummers Paal Nilssen-Love and Michael Zerang. The entire ensemble is heard on discs 1 and 5, while the remaining discs feature duo, trio, and quartet combinations.