Sven-Åke Johansson

Born in Sweden, Johansson has lived in Berlin since 1968. Johansson was one of the first European free jazz drummers; he played in saxophonist Peter Brötzmann's trio with bassist Peter Kowald in 1965 and played on Brötzmann's albums For Adolphe Sax (1967) and Machine Gun (1968). In 1972, Johansson recorded and released Schlingerland, one of the first solo free jazz recordings by a drummer. Johansson met pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach while both were members of trumpeter Manfred Schoof's group in the '60s; the two formed a long-running duo in 1976. Most of Johansson 's recordings were issued on small labels and many are out of print; much of his work for the German FMP label and the Swiss hatOLOGY label is available, however. In the '90s, some of his notable collaborators included Axel Dörner, Andrea Neumann, Rudiger Carl, and Hans Reichel. ~ Chris Kelsey