jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

Crawfordsville, Indiana Crawfordsville () is a city in Montgomery County, Indiana, Montgomery County in west central Indiana, United States, west by northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,306. The c ...

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

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.Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university enrolls arou ...

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. Kessler began playing double bass in the 1980s. It became his primary instrument in 1985 when he was asked to join the

NRG Ensemble NRG Ensemble was an American free jazz ensemble founded in the late 1970s by saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Hal Russell.Margasak, PeterThe Undiminished Power of Hal Russell's NRG Ensemble''at Chicago Reader'' The group's personnel was somewhat ...

, which toured Europe and recorded for

ECM ECM may refer to the following: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Lenstra's Elliptic curve method for factor ...

under the leadership of

Hal Russell Hal Russell (born Harold Russell Luttenbacher, August 28, 1926 – September 5, 1992) was an American free jazz composer, band leader and multi-instrumentalist who performed mainly on saxophone and drums but occasionally on trumpet or vibrapho ...

until his death in 1992. In 1991 he worked with Zerang and guitarist ; in need of a hornist, they called

Ken Vandermark Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964) is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered composit ...

, who had been considering leaving Chicago. Kessler and Vandermark worked together in the Vandermark 5, the DKV Trio, and the Steelwool Trio. In the 1990s and afterwards he worked with

Hamid Drake Hamid Drake (born August 3, 1955) is an American jazz drummer and percussionist. By the close of the 1990s, Hamid Drake was widely regarded as one of the best percussionists in jazz and improvised music. Incorporating Afro-Cuban, Indian, and Af ...

, Fred Anderson, and

Joe McPhee Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who plays the tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, the flugelhorn and the valve trombone. Although born in Miami, Florida, McPhee grew up in Poughkeepsie, ...

and with

Peter Brötzmann Peter Brötzmann (6 March 1941 – 22 June 2023) 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 m ...

,

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 Chris ...

,

Misha Mengelberg Misha Mengelberg (5 June 1935 – 3 March 2017) was a Dutch jazz pianist and composer.Feather, Leonard & Gitler, Ira (2007) ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'', p. 459. Oxford University Press. A prominent figure in post-WWII European Jazz ...

, and Luc Houtkamp. In 2003

Okka Disk 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.

released his solo album '' Bull Fiddle''. As of 2021, Kessler has occasionally accompanied Chicago country-music singer-songwriter

Jane Baxter Miller Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name including list of persons and characters with the name * Jane (surname), related to the given name including list of persons and characters with the name Film and television * ''Jan ...

, in performance and on record. In the 1990s, Baxter Miller, who is also Kent Kessler's wife, had performed and recorded with his sister Kelly Kessler, as the Texas Rubies country-music duo.

Discography

As leader

* '' Bull Fiddle'' (Okka Disk, 2002)

As co-leader or sideman

With Boneshaker (

Mars Williams Marc Charles "Mars" Williams (May 29, 1955 – November 20, 2023) 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 Psyched ...

,

Paal Nilssen-Love Paal Nilssen-Love (born 24 December 1974) is a Norwegian drummer and composer in the jazz, free jazz and free improvisation genres. (in Norwegian) Early life Nilssen-Love was born in Molde, Norway. His parents ran a jazz club in Stavanger, and h ...

, Kent Kessler) * ''Boneshaker'' ( Trost, 2012) * ''Unusual Words'' (Soul What, 2014) * ''Thinking Out Loud'' (Trost, 2017) * ''Fake Music'' (Soul What, 2019) With

Peter Brötzmann Peter Brötzmann (6 March 1941 – 22 June 2023) 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 m ...

* ''

The Chicago Octet/Tentet ''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 S ...

'' (

Okka Disk 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.

, 1998) * ''

Live at the Empty Bottle ''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-editi ...

'' (Okka Disk, 1999) * ''

Stone/Water ''Stone/Water'' is a live album by the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, led by saxophonist Brötzmann, and featuring a ten-piece ensemble. Documenting a performance of a single 39-minute work, it was recorded on May 23, 1999, at the Festival de Mus ...

'' (Okka Disk, 2000) * ''Broken English'' (Okka Disk, 2002) * ''Short Visit to Nowhere'' (Okka Disk, 2002) * '' Tales Out of Time'' (hatOLOGY, 2004) * ''Signs'' (Okka Disk, 2004) * ''Images'' (Okka Disk, 2004) * ''Be Music Night'' (Okka Disk, 2005) * ''

Guts The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The tract is the largest of the body's systems, after the cardiovascular system. ...

'' (Okka Disk, 2005) * '' American Landscapes 1'' (Okka Disk, 2007) * '' American Landscapes 2'' (Okka Disk, 2007) * ''At Molde 2007'' (Okka Disk, 2008) * '' 3 Nights in Oslo'' (

Smalltown Superjazzz Smalltown Superjazzz is an independent record label based in Oslo, Norway, that concentrates on new forms of jazz. It is a subsidiary of the label Smalltown Supersound. The catalog includes albums by Free Fall (band), Free Fall, Mats Gustafsson, ...

, 2010) * ''Walk, Love, Sleep'' (Smalltown Superjazzz, 2012) With DKV Trio * ''Baraka'' (Okka Disk, 1997) * ''DKV Live'' (Okka Disk, 1997) * ''Live in Wels & Chicago 1998'' (Okka Disk, 1999) * ''Trigonometry'' (Okka Disk, 2002) * ''Double or Nothing'' (Okka Disk, 2002) * ''Collider'' (Not Two, 2016) * ''Latitude 41.88'' (Not Two, 2017) With

NRG Ensemble NRG Ensemble was an American free jazz ensemble founded in the late 1970s by saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Hal Russell.Margasak, PeterThe Undiminished Power of Hal Russell's NRG Ensemble''at Chicago Reader'' The group's personnel was somewhat ...

* ''

Calling All Mothers ''Calling All Mothers'' is an album by American jazz group the NRG Ensemble, their first after the death of bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist Hal Russell, which was recorded in 1993 and released on the Quinnah label. Reception The AllMusic ...

'' (Quinnah, 1994) * ''

This Is My House ''This Is My House'' is an album by American jazz group the NRG Ensemble, their second with saxophonist Ken Vandermark in place of the bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Hal Russell, which was recorded in 1995 and released on Delmark. Recept ...

'' ( Delmark, 1996) * ''Bejazzo Gets a Facelift'' (

Atavistic In biology, an atavism is a modification of a biological traits structure or behavior whereby an ancestral genetic trait reappears after having been lost through evolutionary change in previous generations. Atavisms can occur in several ways, ...

, 1997) With

Hal Russell Hal Russell (born Harold Russell Luttenbacher, August 28, 1926 – September 5, 1992) was an American free jazz composer, band leader and multi-instrumentalist who performed mainly on saxophone and drums but occasionally on trumpet or vibrapho ...

* '' The Finnish/Swiss Tour'' (

ECM ECM may refer to the following: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Lenstra's Elliptic curve method for factor ...

, 1991) * ''

The Hal Russell Story ''The Hal Russell Story'' is the final album by the Hal Russell NRG Ensemble, recorded in Switzerland in July 1992 and released on ECM the following year—Russell's final recording before his death, five weeks later.Hal on Earth ''Hal on Earth'' is an album by American avant-garde jazz composer, bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist Hal Russell recorded in 1989 which was originally released on cassette and released on CD on the Abduction label in 1995.Territory Band Territory bands were dance bands that crisscrossed specific regions of the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Beginning in the 1920s, the bands typically had 8 to 12 musicians. These bands typically played one-nighters, six or seven n ...

* ''Transatlantic Bridge'' (Okka Disk, 2001) * ''Atlas'' (Okka Disk, 2002) * ''Map Theory'' (Okka Disk, 2004) * ''Company Switch'' (Okka Disk, 2005) * ''New Horse for the White House'' (Okka Disk, 2006) * ''Collide'' (Okka Disk, 2007) With

Ken Vandermark Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964) is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered composit ...

* ''Big Head Eddie'' (Platypus, 1993) * ''Solid Action'' (Platypus, 1994) * ''Standards'' (Quinnah, 1995) * Steelwool Trio (Ken Vandermark/Kent Kessler/Curt Newton): '' International Front''(Okka Disk, 1995) * ''Utility Hitter'' (Quinnah, 1996) * ''Steam: Realtime'' (Jim Baker/Kent Kessler/Tim Mulvenna/Ken Vandermark) (Eighth Day Music, 1997/Atavistic, 2000) * ''Single Piece Flow'' (Atavistic, 1997) * ''Target Or Flag'' (Atavistic, 1998) * ''Simpatico'' (Atavistic, 1999) * ''Straight Lines'' (Atavistic, 1999) * ''Burn the Incline'' (Atavistic, 2000) * ''Acoustic Machine'' (Atavistic, 2001) * ''Airports for Light'' (Atavistic, 2003) * ''Elements of Style, Exercises in Surprise'' (Atavistic, 2004) * ''The Color of Memory'' (Atavistic, 2005) * ''A Discontinuous Line'' (Atavistic, 2006) * ''Beat Reader'' (Atavistic, 2008) * ''Collected Fiction'' (Okka Disk, 2009) * ''Annular Gift'' (Not Two, 2009) * ''The Horse Jumps and the Ship Is Gone'' (Not Two, 2010) * ''Impressions of PO Music'' (Okka Disk, 2013) With others * Fred Anderson, '' Fred Anderson / DKV Trio'' (Okka Disk, 1997) * Jane Baxter Miller, ''Harm Among the Willows'' (

Bloodshot Records Bloodshot Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, which specializes in alternative country music. History Bloodshot Records was founded in 1994 by Nan Warshaw, Rob Miller, and Eric Babcock, who knew each other from ...

, 2010) *

Jeb Bishop Jeb Bishop (born 1962) is an American jazz trombone player. Biography Bishop grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and attended Jesse O. Sanderson High School. He has studied music (classical trombone performance) at Northwestern Universit ...

, ''Jeb Bishop Trio, Kent Kessler, Tim Mulvenna'' (Okka Disk, 1999) * Jeb Bishop, ''Afternoons'' (Okka Disk, 2001) *

Guillermo Gregorio Guillermo Gregorio (born May 1, 1941, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine jazz and free improvisation clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer. Biography Gregorio was born into a musical family. He became interested in experimental music in the early 19 ...

, ''Degrees of Iconicity'' (hatART, 2000) *

Peter Kowald Peter Kowald (21 April 1944 – 21 September 2002) was a German free jazz and free improvising double bassist and tubist. Career A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with many European f ...

, ''Flats Fixed'' (Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2014) *

Wayne Kramer Wayne Stanley Kramer (''né'' Kambes; April 30, 1948 – February 2, 2024) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, and Film score, film and television composer. Kramer came to prominence in the 1960s as the lead guitarist of t ...

, ''Adult World'' (Diesel Motor/MuscleTone 2002) *

Fred Lonberg-Holm Fred Lonberg-Holm (born 1 October 1962) is an American cellist based in Chicago. He moved from New York City to Chicago in 1995. He refers to himself as the anti-cellist. Lonberg-Holm is most identified with playing free improvisation and free j ...

, ''At the Hideout Kuro'' (Neko Music, 2009) * Fred Lonberg-Holm, ''Two Lightboxes'' (Locust Music, 2004) *

Joe McPhee Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who plays the tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, the flugelhorn and the valve trombone. Although born in Miami, Florida, McPhee grew up in Poughkeepsie, ...

, '' A Meeting in Chicago'' (Eighth Day Music, 1997) * Joe McPhee, ''The Damage Is Done'' (Not Two, 2009) *

Misha Mengelberg Misha Mengelberg (5 June 1935 – 3 March 2017) was a Dutch jazz pianist and composer.Feather, Leonard & Gitler, Ira (2007) ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'', p. 459. Oxford University Press. A prominent figure in post-WWII European Jazz ...

, ''Two Days in Chicago'' (hatOLOGY, 1999) * Joe Morris, '' Deep Telling'' (Okka Disk, 1999) * Paul Rutherford, ''

Chicago 2002 ''Chicago 2002'' is a live album by trombonist Paul Rutherford. It was recorded on April 26 and 27, 2002, at The Empty Bottle in Chicago, and was released later that year by Emanem Records. The album features an extended Rutherford solo followed b ...

'' (Emanem, 2002) *

Mars Williams Marc Charles "Mars" Williams (May 29, 1955 – November 20, 2023) 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 Psyched ...

, ''Mars Williams Presents: An Ayler Xmas'' (Soul What, 2017) * Mars Williams, ''Mars Williams Presents: An Ayler Xmas Vol. 2'' (Soul What, 2018) *

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.Musicians from Chicago American jazz double-bassists American male double-bassists 1957 births Living people Jazz musicians from Illinois 21st-century American double-bassists 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians NRG Ensemble members Okka Disk artists