Music from United States

These three works exist amid an undeniable esthetic spirit of the times—the embracing of pre-compositional principles and structural processes in the service of a highly personal artistic statement. However, John Luther Adams’s recent work tends to transcend his compositional devices—it is simply potent, compelling music that is timeless in its sublimity. This is quietly expressive music in which process never intrudes on the music’s “sounding,” but churns away in the background, while the foreg…

** Original 1979 vinyl edition of the album. Few copies available. Sealed copies ** A fantastic album recorded in Italy, but with all the soulful roots of Kalaparusha's earlier years with the AACM – an incredible balance of tone and timing, handled by a quartet - this obscure set features passionate blowing by Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre (heard on tenor, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet and percussion) along with the little-known Longineu Parson on trumpet, flugelhorn, flute, sopranino and record…

**Original 1982 vinyl edition of the album. Few copies available**  Four Pieces (recorder in November 1981) documents a long lost studio collaboration between pianist Giorgio Gaslini and Anthony Braxton. Alto and Soprano Saxophone and Piano, beautifully together in a set of free improvisations – really letting us hear the imagination that drives the duo. Two real masters of free music - the two exchanging lines that race beyond personality on an extended version of Braxton’s “Composition 191” an…

In the Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note box set series, Steve Lacy's Solos, Duos, Trios volume is a standout. These recordings are not arranged chronologically, but according to the number of personnel involved on their individual dates. The set commences with 1985's Only Monk and is followed by More Monk from 1989. These are both brilliant recitals by the man who was one of the Thelonious Monk's greatest interpreters. The programs are a balance of canonical and lesser-k…

The legendary jazz recordings made by Black Saint/Soul Note make a welcome return to the active catalog with this series of specially-priced boxed sets that highlight some of the label's finest artists. Roscoe Mitchell - The Complete Remastered Recordings features nine discs in slipcases with original album artwork housed in a clamshell box. Included are Mitchell's 3x4 Eye, Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound and Space Ensembles, The Flow of Things, Live at the Knitting Factory, Duets and Solos, This …

The story of the founding of AACM is repeated often enough that it’s codified into legend: pianists Muhal Richard Abrams and Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall and trumpeter Phil Cohran, having come together in Abrams’ Experimental Band, met to lay the groundwork for what would be an independent organization for the production and promotion of creative jazz on Chicago’s South Side. As an organization committed to egalitarianism and self-determination, Abrams’ clear role as the spiritua…

Femenine, composed by Julius Eastman in 1974, stands as a landmark for American experimentalism - bringing minimalist structure together with exuberant, open-form collaboration. In their intensely engaged rendering, Apartment House conjures music that listens as much as it declares. Simon Limbrick’s insistent vibraphone motif and a persistent field of sleigh bells anchor the performance, as piano, strings, winds, and keyboard join, layering intricate phrases, timbral color, and nuance. The music…

Colour vinyl edition of 500 copies, housed in a screen printed polythene bag. Includes a download dropped to your account. Following last year’s acclaimed 'Sleep Like It's Winter’ album and a steady supply of releases via his own Steamroom, Jim O’Rourke returns with a rare vinyl outing; a reworking of source material provided by Alessio Natalizia a.k.a. Not Waving. Spread across two longform pieces, O'Rourke channels Popol Vuh on the spiralling, synth-heavy 15 minute A-side, while the flip sound…

Vinyl edition is strictly limited to 1,000 copies. Audio has been Remastered from the original, pre-mastered digital tape transfers. Unlike previous reissues of this LP (both vinyl and CD), remastered for Wergo's 1994 CD edition and narrowing the recording's stereo field, our reissue has been remastered maintaining the full stereo field of the original recording. Brand new liner notes by Morton Subotnick.The original, iconic liquid-light cover artwork by Tony Martin has been re-scanned for full-…

CD Edition. "Considering the monumental depth of Sun Ra's recorded oeuvre, there are surprisingly few solo piano albums. Monorails & Satellites Volumes 1 and 2 were the first commercial LPs of the artist's solo keyboard excursions. Recorded in 1966 and released on his Saturn imprint in 1968, Volume 1 featured seven idiosyncratic originals and one standard ('Easy Street') delivered in Sunny's singular manner. Volume 2 was released the following year, and contains five compositions, all originals.…

Complete Communion was Don Cherry's first Blue Note release. One of the groundbreaking pieces of work from the mid-sixties Jazz scene, and here is the same great line up caught live in Hilversum (Holland) in May 1966, just five months after the studio recording session. Don Cherry - cornet, Gato Barbieri - tenor sax, Henry Grimes - bass and Ed Blackwell - drums, a marvelous quartet based on four of the most distinctive Free Jazz voices of the time. This highly energetic performance consists of a…

Wax Love present a reissue of Ornette Coleman's Change Of The Century, originally released in in 1960. The second album by Ornette Coleman's legendary quartet featuring Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins, Change Of The Century is every bit the equal of the monumental The Shape Of Jazz To Come (1959), showcasing a group that was growing ever more confident in its revolutionary approach and the chemistry in the bandmembers' interplay. When Coleman concentrates on melody, his main themes …

Wax Love present a reissue of Dorothy Ashby's self-titled album, originally released in 1962. Dorothy Ashby was perhaps not Detroit's most famous female jazz harpist as that distinction belongs to Alice Coltrane but she was notably the first and a trailblazer who overcame massive setbacks throughout her nearly 30-year recording career. Playing on an instrument not usually associated with jazz, in a male dominated field, Ashby is a true and amazing original. Originally released in 1962, and…

Composer-performer Julius Eastman (1940-90) was an enigma, both comfortable and uncomfortable in the many worlds he inhabited: black, white, gay, straight, classical music, disco, academia, and downtown New York. His music, insistent and straightforward, resists labels and seethes with a tension that resonates with musicians, scholars, and audiences today. Eastman's provocative titles, including Gay Guerrilla, Evil Nigger, Crazy Nigger, and others, assault us with his obsessions. Eastman tested …

Morning Trip is a new imprint under Telephone Explosion dedicated to releasing ambient, experimental and generally optimistic sounds. Originally released on cassette in 1986, Celestial Realms is a collaborative album from new age figurehead and Brian Eno-collaborator Laraaji, and fellow cosmic traveller Jonathan Goldman (aka Lyghte). Laraaji conjures his typically vivid soundworld of shimmering electric zither, while Goldman inhabits that world with pulsing guitar and droning synthesizer.…

Sultry Tjader jazz! Vibraphone legend Cal Tjader’s fusion of different genres and styles was an acute influence on Carlos Santana (and Latin rock as a whole). On Solar Heat he stirs in tastes of Exotica, Funk, and of course Latin and Jazz elements on this 1968 set of jazzed-up pop chestnuts and original bossas like the delicious “Fried Bananas.” Pressed at RTI, on colored vinyl

**First ever CD reissue, containing three Pathways session recordings left off the original, one never before issued** Intrinsic energies of mythic worlds! Pathways was originally issued on LP in 1975 as part of Sun Ra’s ill-fated and short-lived ABC/Impulse! partnership. This Modern Harmonic edition has been exquisitely mastered from the four-track session reel. The Impulse! LP was formatted as “Quad Compatible”—short for “quadraphonic”—which you could enjoy if you had four speakers, a custom q…

One-time edition of 480. Eleh's Home Age series was composed and recorded over a period of five years and it reflects a search for color, form, connection, and growth. The handmade artwork contained in each package was created during the same period of time the music was composed and is an integral part of the meaning of Home Age. For this release, Eleh plays modular and analog synthesizers, piano, organ, bass, and symphonic chimes. Although Home Age is a two-part set, Eleh's upcoming Living Spa…

2019 repress. Recorded in 1955, released on his own short-lived Moondog label. 4 tracks of manic saxophone and snare drum mayhem. You will not find an original of this anywhere. Blind from the age of 17, classically trained in music, Moondog aka Louis Hardin left the countryside in the late 1940s to busk on the streets of New York, playing percussion instruments of his own creation. He later became the darling of the NY arts and music set. He also recorded for Folkways, Woody Herman's Mars label…

2019 repress. Originally released in 1953, this collection of very early Moondog pieces features the same tribal rhythmic impulse as his famed Prestige recordings, but there's an impressive line in chamber music running through these compositions. It's a fantastic collection of recordings from the eccentric genius that was Moondog. This mini-album features Moondog's pioneering techniques in tape overdubbing -- he harmonises with himself on voice, double bass and home-made drums. Touches of h…