Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Kent Kessler was born January 28, 1957 in Crawfordsville, Indiana and grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He began playing trombone at age ten and when his family moved to Chicago when he was 13, he became intensely interested in jazz. While attending St. Mary Center For Learning High School, he began taking electric bass lessons and jazz theory in the middle of the 1970s.

In 1977 Kent formed the ensemble Neutrino Orchestra, spent a year in Brazil in 1980, took time studying off and on at Roosevelt University in Chicago; and formed a group called Musica Menta, which played regularly at local Chicago venue Link’s Hall.

Kessler began playing double bass in the 1980s and it became his primary instrument when he was asked in 1985 to join the NRG Ensemble, toured Europe, recruited Ken Vandemark, recorded for ECM Records and the two would go on to collaborate extensively on free jazz and improvisational projects such as the Vandemark 5, DKV Trio and the Steelwool Trio.

From the 1990s on Kent would work with the leading Chicago musicians such as Hamid Drake, Fred Anderson and Joe McPhee as well as several European musicians. In 2003, Kessler released a solo album, Bull Fiddle, on OkkaDisk. Kessler performs alone on nine of the twelve tracks and with Michael Zerang on three. The double-bassist who remains active is best known for his work in the Chicago jazz and avant-garde scene.

Dose A Day – Blues Away

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