Okka Disk

Last updated
Okka Disk
OkkaDisk logo.gif
Founded1994 (1994)
FounderBruno Johnson
Genre Jazz
Country of originU.S.
Location Chicago, Illinois
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Official website www.okkadisk.com

Okka Disk is an independent American jazz record company and label founded in Chicago by Bruno Johnson in 1994.

Contents

Okka began as a rock music label, but Johnson soon changed direction to record free jazz. [1] [2] Vintage Duets are the unreleased tapes recorded in 1980 by saxophonist Fred Anderson with drummer Steve McCall, and Caffeine , a trio featuring Chicago scene instigator Ken Vandermark. These were the albums that started the label. [3] Okka Disk released many key early works by Ken Vandermark and was partly responsible for Fred Anderson's late-career renaissance. [4]

The label also recorded European free jazz musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, documenting his transatlantic Chicago Octet and Tentet over ten albums. Since 2009, it organizes the Okka Fest, held in Milwaukee, where Johnson moved in 2002. [5]

Releases

Limited edition releases

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Brötzmann</span> German jazz musician (1941–2023)

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".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe McPhee</span> American jazz musician

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Vandermark</span> American composer and musician

Ken Vandermark is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamid Drake</span> American jazz drummer and percussionist

Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mats Gustafsson</span> Swedish free jazz saxophone player (born 1964)

Mats Olof Gustafsson is a Swedish free jazz saxophone player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Lonberg-Holm</span> American cellist based in Chicago (born 1962)

Fred Lonberg-Holm is an American cellist based in Chicago. He moved from New York City to Chicago in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeb Bishop</span> American jazz musician

Jeb Bishop is an American jazz trombone player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kent Kessler</span> Musical artist

Kent Kessler is an American jazz double-bassist.

<i>Fred Anderson / DKV Trio</i> 1997 studio album by Fred Anderson

Fred Anderson / DKV Trio is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Fred Anderson with the DKV Trio, composed of drummer Hamid Drake, bassist Kent Kessler and reedist Ken Vandermark. The album was recorded in 1996 and released on Okka Disk. The DKV Trio formed in the summer of 1994 and started performing at Anderson's Velvet Lounge very early in their career. Those meetings led to the idea of doing a record with Fred. "Black Woman", a classic Anderson composition that appears on several of his other recordings, is a tenor sax duet.

<i>Deep Telling</i> 1999 studio album by Joe Morris DKV Trio

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.

<i>A Meeting in Chicago</i> 1997 studio album by Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Kent Kessler

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.

Discography for jazz reedist Ken Vandermark. The year indicates when the album was first released.

<i>Baraka</i> (album) 1997 studio album by DKV Trio

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.

<i>Live in Wels & Chicago, 1998</i> 1999 live album by DKV Trio

Live in Wels & Chicago, 1998 is a double album by the DKV Trio, composed of drummer Hamid Drake, bassist Kent Kessler and reedist Ken Vandermark. The first CD was recorded live at the "Music Unlimited 98" Festival in Wels, while the second was recorded a few days later at the Velvet Lounge, the Chicago club owned by saxophonist Fred Anderson. The album was released on Okka Disk. All the music is improvised but the first disc is a six pieces suite based on Don Cherry's "Complete Communion'".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Zerang</span> American jazz percussionist and drummer (born 1958)

Michael Zerang is an American jazz percussionist and drummer.

Jeb Bishop is primarily known as an improvisational jazz trombonist. However he occasionally plays other instruments on both jazz and rock recordings as noted.

<i>Live at the Empty Bottle</i> 1999 live album by Peter Brötzmann, Hamid Drake, and Kent Kessler

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.

<i>Stone/Water</i> 2000 live album by Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet

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.

<i>The Chicago Octet/Tentet</i> 1998 live album by Peter Brötzmann

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.

<i>American Landscapes</i> 2007 live album by Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet

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.

References

Notes