Sven-Ake Johansson

Having originated in Sweden, Johansson has maintained a Berlin residence since 1968. As one of the earliest European practitioners of free jazz drumming, he joined saxophonist Peter Brötzmann’s trio featuring bassist Peter Kowald in 1965 and appeared on Brötzmann’s albums For Adolphe Sax (1967) and Machine Gun (1968). Johansson issued the solo recording Schlingerland in 1972, an early instance of unaccompanied free jazz drumming. During the 1960s he first encountered pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach as fellow members of trumpeter Manfred Schoof’s group, and the pair launched a long-running duo in 1976. Although most of Johansson’s discs came out on small labels and many have since gone out of print, substantial portions of his catalog for the German FMP label and the Swiss hatOLOGY label remain obtainable. In the 1990s his notable associates included Axel Dörner, Andrea Neumann, Rudiger Carl, and Hans Reichel.