Tuesday 20 October 2026, 7.30pm
Excited to host a first-time quartet of Evan Parker (saxophone), Steve Swell (trombone), Mark Tokar (double bass) and Klaus Kugel (drums).
Evan Parker should, of course, need no introduction at this point, providing some of the most incredible performances (and releases) at OTO since our inception. For the uninitiated, Steve Swell is one of the most distinctive trombonists of his generation, treating the technical peculiarities of his instrument not as limitations but as invitations – howling glissandi, chattering chromaticism, and a playfulness that pushes his instrument to its limits and beyond.
The quartet's foundation is provided by Mark Tokar on double bass and Klaus Kugel on drums – two musicians who have understood each other intuitively for years. Tokar plays with a concentration and devotion that takes every moment of interplay seriously; his full, unmistakable tone forms the sonic backbone of the quartet. Kugel, in turn, ranks among the most defining drummers in contemporary European jazz: precise, alert, and always in dialogue with his fellow musicians, moving confidently between structural clarity and complete freedom.
Evan Parker has been a consistently innovative presence in British free music since the 1960s. Parker played with John Stevens in the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, experimenting with new kinds of group improvisation and held a long-standing partnership with guitarist Derek Bailey. The two formed the Music Improvisation Company and later Incus Records. He also has tight associations with European free improvisations - playing on Peter Brötzmann's legendary 'Machine Gun' session (1968), with Alexander Von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens (A trio that continues to this day), Globe Unity Orchestra, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, and Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO).
Though he has worked extensively in both large and small ensembles, Parker is perhaps best known for his solo soprano saxophone music, a singular body of work that in recent years has centred around his continuing exploration of techniques such as circular breathing, split tonguing, overblowing, multiphonics and cross-pattern fingering. These are technical devices, yet Parker's use of them is, he says, less analytical than intuitive; he has likened performing his solo work to entering a kind of trance-state. The resulting music is certainly hypnotic, an uninterrupted flow of snaky, densely-textured sound that Parker has described as "the illusion of polyphony". Many listeners have indeed found it hard to credit that one man can create such intricate, complex music in real time.
Born in Newark, NJ, Steve Swell has been an active member of the NYC music community since 1975. He has toured and recorded with many artists from mainstreamers such as Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich to so called outsiders as Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor and William Parker. He has over 50 CDs as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artists on more than 125 other releases. He runs workshops around the world and is a teaching artist in the NYC public school system focusing on special needs children.
Swell has worked on music transcriptions of the Bosavi tribe of New Guinea for MacArthur fellow, Steve Feld in 2000. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers" (CIMP) ranked number 2 in the 2004 Cadence Readers Poll. He has also received grants from USArtists International in 2006, MCAF (LMCC) awards in 2008 and 2013 and has been commissioned three times for the Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006 and at Roulette in 2012 and 2017...[more]
Mark Tokar originally studied classical guitar at S. Lyudkevych Music College. During this time he began to play double bass, which became his main instrument.
During 2002-2004 he repeatedly participated in the Krakow Jazz Workshop, directed by M. Parkinson (USA).
In 2006, via the “Gaude Polonia” scholarship program, Mark studied at K. Szymanowski Jazz Academy under the direction of Professor Jacek Niedzela. The program was granted by the Minister of Culture in Poland.
Mark Tokar has performed with Ken Vandermark, Bobby Few, Perry Robinson, Steve Swell, Michael Zerang, Tim Daisy, Dave Rempis, Roberta Piket, Fred Frith (USA), Klaus Kugel, Arkadij Shylkloper (Germany), Petras Vishniauskas (Lithuania), Mirchea Tiberian (Romania), Mazzol, Mikolaj Trzaska, Waclaw Zimpel, Piotr Baron, Kazimierz Jonkisz (Poland), Jurij Jaremczuk (Ukraine), Magnus Broo, Per-Ake Holmlander (Sweden), and Mark Sanders (England).
"Drummer Klaus Kugel is one of Central Europe's busiest and most articulate modern jazz drummers ... he treads the boundary between inside and outside playing in a particularly incisive way; always listening and never getting caught up in his own considerable chops." - Dave Wayne, AllAboutJazz, USA
Klaus Kugel studied at the School of Jazz in Munich. Since 1989 he attracted attention worldwide through projects with Petras Vysniauskas, Karl Berger, Tomasz Stanko, Charlie Mariano, Kent Carter, Michel Pilz, Theo Jorgensmann, Kenny Wheeler, Vyacheslav Ganelin, Bobo Stenson, Glen Moore, Steve Swell, Sabir Mateen, Robert Dick, Peter Evans, Connie Crothers, Perry Robinson, Hilliard Greene, John Lindberg, Gerd Dudek, William Parker, Bobby Few, Roy Campbell, Jemeel Moondoc, Marco Eneidi, Mars Williams, Charles Gayle, Conny Bauer, Ken Vandermark, Joe McPhee, John Edwards, Jaimie Branch, Knox Chandler, Mark Tokar, Christopher Dell, Herb Robertson a.m.o..
Over the past 30 years, he gave numerous concerts and appeared at festivals throughout Europe, the Baltic States, Canada, USA, Syria, Japan, Mexico, Russia, China, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Israel.
