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Beyond Quantum
Anthony Braxton, Milford Graves and William Parker are quite literally three of the most important virtuoso instrumentalists in new music, each a vivid conceptualist as well an influential composer/perf o rm e r. This intense improvisational outing features them at their best: excited, inspired and in complete communication. Recorded and mixed by musical alchemist Bill Laswell, sparks fly in this important and historic meeting of creative music masters.
Standards
In early 2002 Derek Bailey astounded the free music community with his gorgeous album Ballads, a radical and steely interpretation of the standard repertoire. It became an instant classic, hit a dozen best-ten lists and remains his best selling cd of all time. The recordings here were made just weeks after the idea was first born at an intimate Christmas gathering in New York—and two months before the recording of Ballads. Here Derek is working out his personal approach to the standard song repe…
Pieces For Guitar
Private recordings of incredible historical importance (practically the holy grail to fans of free improvisation), Pieces for Guitar presents the earliest known solo recordings of guitar innovator Derek Bailey. Dating from 1966 (possibly 1965) these pieces were recorded for personal study during a transitional period and include some of the only instances of him performing his own written compositions!! Under the influence of the music of Anton Webern, Bailey began working through a variety of t…
Con-Struct
When M=Minimal asked Andreas Reihse to produce a Con-Struct album for them, he didn't hesitate to accept. Andreas Reihse, member of Kreidler and solo artist is one of the most important representatives of the post-Kraut generation, he also knows and loves the music of Conrad Schnitzler. The result is this second Con-Struct album. The composition "Con-Struct 9" opens this work with epic spheres -- deep electronic music that only can be produced being an admirer of Conrad's sound aesthetics. …
Red Sulphur Sky
The first solo recording in over thirty years by the brilliant composer/performer Wadada Leo Smith. Born in Leland, Mississippi, Leo was a founding member of the AACM in Chicago, and has been performing his music all over the world since the mid-1960s. His compositions for solo trumpet, highly acclaimed yet rarely documented, are some of his most personal and delicate creations. Red Sulphur Sky is the music of one of the true masters of creative music at the height of his powers.
Pacifica
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Pacifica is a major new composition by the world-famous guitarist, improvisor and composer, Fred Frith. Over an hour in length and composed for a large ensemble of winds, strings and percussion, Pacifica sets the poetry of Pablo Neruda into a seductive and hypnotizing sound world that slowly metamorphoses into something altogether different. Lyrical written passages, inspired improvisations, sensual vocals and provocative sound effects all come together into…
Kabell Years: 1971-1979
From 1971-1979 Wadada Leo Smith released four albums on his own, privately pressed label Kabell. Under the supervision of the composer, this material has now been collected, remastered and coupled with over two hours of unreleased bonus tracks, including the second set of the influential Reflectativity concert and the legendary Mapenzi solo concert from 1976. Complete with a twenty-eight page booklet featuring session photos and tributes from musical associates such as George Lewis, Alvin Single…
Luminous Axis (The Caravans Of Winter And Summer)
Luminous Axis (subtitled The Caravans of Winter and Summer) is an album by American jazz trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith recorded in 2002 and released on Tzadik Records' Composer Series. This adventurous recording marks one of Smith's most exciting forays into electronic music, featuring an extended suite for four laptops and trumpet, two duets with Ikue Mori, and a composition featuring percussionist William Winant. A relentless musical innovator since his early days in the Chicago AACM (Association…
Reflectativity
Reflectativity, first released on Leo Smith's own label in the early 1970s is one of the most important extended compositions blending improvisation and composition, and one of Leo Smith's masterpieces. This exciting new version features the brilliant pianist/composer Anthony Davis (who performed on the original recording) and longtime friend and colleague Malachi Favors—the legendary monster bass player from the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Coupled with several new compositions, this CD brings toge…
The Shamanic Principles
Teiji Ito's The Shamanic Principles explores spiritual dimensions of sound - fourth Tzadik release documenting composer's journey into sacred music and ritual performance
Back To Life
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Anyone who thinks of multifaceted composer/performer Fred Frith primarily as a guitar player with Henry Cow and for his 1974 album Guitar Solos is way out of touch with what he's been up to in, say, more than 30 years. The 2008 release of Back to Life on Tzadik represents a good opportunity to reconnect with Frith and summarize what he has been doing since the heady days of his scrambling, intense electric guitar improvisations like "Alienated Industrial Sea…
Sands
2025 stock Tzadik is proud to release a new recording by Steve Lacy, MacArthur Fellow and for 40 years the undisputed master of the soprano saxophone. Recorded at his home in Paris from February to April 1998, Sands is Steve Lacy's most personal and remarkable solo document, and explores a wide variety of musical and dramatic subjects. Portraits of close friends Barney Wilen and William Burroughs; collaborations with the texts of Allen Ginsberg and Samuel Beckett; and of course his own peculiar…
Music For Maya
Teiji Ito (January 22, 1935 – August 16, 1982) was a Japanese-born American composer and performer best known for his scores for the avant-garde films by Maya Deren. This comprehensive collection, Music For Maya, presents the film music of one of the most innovative composer-filmmaker partnerships of the 20th century, showcasing Ito's revolutionary approach to cinematic sound. Ito was born in Tokyo, Japan to a theatrical family. His mother, Teiko Ono, was a dancer and his father, Yuji Ito, was a…
The Sugar Factory
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Dynamic and astonishing music from two of the world’s greatest musical pioneers, this is another special project from multi-instrumentalist/composer/improviser Fred Frith who has been bravely crossing musical borders since the early 1970’s. These remarkable duo sessions were recorded during the filming of Thomas Riedelsheimer’s exquisite documentary Touch the Sound about Scottish virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Combining the unpredictability of an imp…
House Full Of Floors
Evan Parker is one of the world's greatest saxophone virtuosos, a revolutionary innovator who has almost single handedly changed the language of the instrument. House Full of Floors is the exciting follow up to his incredible studio composition Time Lapse, released to great acclaim on Tzadik in 2006. Working with three of London's most accomplished improvisers, Evan has fashioned a new world of sound in this exciting new recording. Radical soundscapes from one of the most important musical figu…
Life Field
David Rosenboom is a composer/performer of unprecedented range and experience. He performed at the Electric Circus in 1969, on the original recording of In C with Terry Riley, with La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music as well as with Anthony Braxton, Jim Tenney, Richard Teitelbaum and countless others. This exciting CD showcases four decades of compositional activity, embracing minimalism, electronics, indeterminacy, improvisation and more. Life Field is an essential document of one …
To Sail, To Sail
One of the most profound solo statements to date from a musical master who has been crossing musical borders for over three decades! Concentrating exclusively on the acoustic guitar, Fred Frith stretches himself and the instrument like never before, performing with the eloquence and grace of a master in peak form. With a prodigious technique and elegant sense of maturity he draws upon a lifetime of study and experience to bring together influences as diverse as classical, blues, folk, gypsy and …
Golden Quartet
A longtime dream project of Wadada Leo Smith, one of creative music’s most original voices, Tzadik is proud to present the first recording by a modern jazz supergroup. The four instrumental giants that comprise the Golden Quartet are veterans of some of the most influential bands in jazz history and here they are at the height of their powers. Five new compositions bring together lyricism, groove and fireworks in this exciting recording destined to become a classic of new jazz.
Tenshi No Gijinka
Keiji Haino's ritualistic 1995 album features nine untitled pieces of voice and percussion. The Japanese avant-garde master creates meditative spaces through drones, cymbal crashes, and gargled vocals, building esoteric rituals that explore the inner sounds of existence on Tzadik.
One Atmosphere
An original member of the legendary Black Artists Group (St. Louis' counterpart to the AACM), and founder of the World Sax Quartet, Julius Hemphill was one of the most important composer/performers in creative music. His work is marked by a sharp, edgy melodicism steeped in the blues, contrapuntal complexity and a striking formal logic. One Atmosphere presents the full range of his compositional talents: a long, epic work for seven woodwinds (one of his greatest compositions, here receiving its …