Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Sing a song fighter is proud to release this amazing debut album hand in hand with our Italian label friends Black Sweat Records: Spiritual Jazz paths always open up unexplored dimensions, this is the clear impression revealed by this superb and ambi…

50th Anniversary Reissue on Igbo Smoke Vinyl. Fela Kuti (1938-1997) was a Nigerian musician, producer, arranger, political radical, outlaw and the originator of Afrobeat. A titanic musical and sociopolitical voice, Fela’s legacy spans decades and gen…

Recorded live in concert with an acoustic string quartet in a colonial-era gaol during Vivid Festival in Sydney 2022. Godtet is: Godriguez: guitar. Andrew Bruce: keys. Dominic Kirk: percussion. Jan Bangma: bass. Tully Ryan: drums. Strings: Novak Mano…

"Perhaps the distinguishing factors of records like Open & Close and some of Fela Kuti's other '70s releases are that as much as he liked to ride a groove, he also liked to disrupt it, twist it and turn it, reshape it, only to bring it back to its or…

During the late 1950s, the iconic tenor saxophonist John Coltrane was exploring different milieus with various associates, most notably reconnecting with Miles Davis during a time when the latter was working with pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Cha…

Recorded in Paris during a prime period, tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon jams on four basic group originals, including his own "Fried Bananas" and "Dexter Leaps Out." The medium- to uptempo numbers clock in between 9½ and 12 minutes apiece, giving De…

**500 copies** It is always a treat to see some major musical innovators in action. Especially in a mind-blowing line-up, at the top of their game and unrecorded until now on this impressive new Dropa Disc release.Evan Parker might be a member of som…

"Voted “Best of 2021” by the critics of “The New York City Jazz Record,” the reaction to Remedy’s debut on the FSR label was not only a welcome boost to our morale but also confirmed the musical strategies we have been developing as a band: three equ…

In late winter of 2021, four improvisers convened in a Chicago studio. This rare event united UK pianist Alexander Hawkins, midwestern bassist Tatsu Aoki, stalwart drummer Michael Zerang, and me, sleepless Oakland guitarist Karl Evangelista (who had …

The title of this new work for the Blue Shroud Band comes from Samuel Beckett’s “what is the word“, his last poem and an elegiac meditation on language. Additionally to “what is the word”, I have also used one of Beckett’s late poems “Brief Dream” wh…

Three masters in their respective instrumental fields. Wybithy trombonist Steve Swell, one of Germany's most active percussionists Klaus Kugel and Mark Tokar, a Ukrainian double bassist who swapped his double bass for a rifle for the duration of the …

Let's move to Montreal in 2006, when Francois Carrier's ensemble performed on the La Chapelle festival stage with an unusual and astonishing line-up. The leader recalls that time: "In late 2005, I was putting together my annual series of concerts wit…

In the early- to mid-'60s, Gene McDaniels was a successful singing star. He hit the charts with the singles "A Hundred Pounds of Clay," "Tower of Strength," and "Chip Chip". However, McDaniels was a more thoughtful and politically conscious man than …

"Zombie: Fela in his life time was never ‘a good bed-fellow’ of the military institution. As a political activist, he believed the army should operate under the mandate of a civil government. If national interest compels the armed forces to intervene…

Fela Kuti deplores the fashion among African women for skin-whitening creams, an example of the post-colonial inferiority complex he believed was holding back the country's development. The song addresses the fashion much as 1973’s “Gentleman” berate…

"Johnny Just Drop is talking about Africans who travel abroad only to return home with new values and mannerisms. Since the advent of colonialism in Africa, the education system left Black people with an inferior perception of their culture. Those wh…

What a record! The outstanding Solar Plexus, the much-loved third album from Ian Carr and Nucleus, was first released on Vertigo in 1971. Inevitably, original copies are now very tricky to score and, like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculous…

"A largely unsung classic, originally released in 1969, and featuring the most purist of all the followers of Cool School guru Lennie Tristano's ascetically linear method of jazz improvising. West Coast saxophonist Warne Marsh (like all the Tristanoi…

Reissue by Giotto Music of the legendary bossa album recorded in 1962 by the Basso-Vartambrini Quintet.

This is a live album performed by a band of college students from the Governor's State University in Chicago under the direction of Warwick L. Carter. Although there were many college bands that existed at the time, this is one quite unlike any other…

A truly stunning accomplishment on the part of Otoroku, "Collected Solos" is easily one of the most exciting reissues of the year. Gathering all four of Evan Parker’s seminal solo releases for Incus, plus a cassette featuring extra cuts from the sess…

Pharoah Sanders’ Moon Child from 1990, which bookended a decade of musical soul searching for Sanders. The acclaimed free jazz player is known to have a raw and abrasive sound, but reinvented himself on this album as a more traditional improviser cap…

Siapiau is Welsh for 'Shapes', as the four members of the band create shapes in the air out of apparently nothing. The beauty of improvisation is that, at its best, it creates something perfectly fitted to the moment it was created in. Siapiau is a n…

Tip! A superb and under-recognized recording, Crisis is one-third of a trilogy of extraordinary albums -- the others being Broken Shadows and Science Fiction -- by Ornette Coleman's small groups of the late '60s and early '70s. A rendition of the pie…

Avant-garde jazz drummer Rashied Ali played with John Coltrane up until his death in 1967, appearing on final recordings like The Olatunji Concert and Interstellar Space. After Coltrane's death, Ali soon formed his own quartet, with Fred Simmons on p…

Koto virtuoso Michiyo Yagi joins the longstanding Norwegian duo of drummer Paal-Nilssen-Love and electronics wizard Lasse Marhaug for a session of extended improvisations. Galvanized by Nilssen-Love’s arsenal of sounds and textures, Yagi drives the m…

Considered one of Nathan Davis’ best albums, and long a collector’s item, The Hip Walk was recorded in 1965, a time when the Afro-American Davis lived in Europe, working with such legends as Kenny Clarke, Eric Dolphy, and Art Blakey. Nathan’s Kansas …

This is an unusual album in the catalogue of Ornette Coleman, and one that passes by most critics. It is however a unique insight into the ‘free jazz’ pioneer’s way of working in the early 70s. Recorded at his large loft space in downtown New York wh…

Featuring Nate Morgan on piano, Jesse Sharps on reeds, Danny Cortez on trumpet, Rickey Kelly on vibes, Joel Ector on bass and Derek Roberts on drums. This music was recorded in Santa Barbara in July of 1987. Since the passing of the great pianist/com…

"Here, then, are three men who have, if you will, won the argument already. They don’t need excess volume or headline soloing to get their message across. Their message is inscribed in elegant lower-case and rarely used aural fonts. You will find you…

** Art Edition with exclusive 2-color silkscreen printed wraparound numbered & signed by visual artist Stefan Thanneur - Pressed on ultra clear vinyl. Stricly limited to 175. no repress. Few copies available ** Carefully remastered and restored by Gi…

This is the third issue of the new We Jazz Magazine, 128 pages, 174 x 250 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. Stories include Joe Henderson by Daniel Spicer, International Anthem by Tina Edwards, Tokyo J…

This is the second issue of the new We Jazz Magazine, 128 pages, 174 x 250 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. Includes inspiring stories on music including John Coltrane by Ashley Kahn, Irreversible Ent…

2LP Quality reissue, Includes 12-page full size booklet. First ever commercial releases of New Orleans' legend Alvin Batiste's Spiritual Jazz albums created with the college band he instructed and led in Baton Rouge -- Goes To Africa With Love and Li…

First ever commercial releases of New Orleans' legend Alvin Batiste's Spiritual Jazz albums created with the college band he instructed and led in Baton Rouge - Goes To Africa With Love and Live at The 1971 American College Jazz Festival. Originally …

**Limited edition, numbered** Sensational early-seventies funk bomb by Muhavishla Ravi Hatchud and The Indo Jazz Following. Super-rough organ funk, like a dream combination of Mingus, Jimmy Smith, and Zigaboo Modeliste from The Meters -- plus Ravi's …

“Enjoy Foat's rhythmic mastery, jazz-infused mood, and cosmic synths, accompanied by Finland's finest, including the legendary saxophonist Eero Koivistoinen.”

On their 5th studio album, Connection, Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog have pushed their long-brewing tension between traditional pop songcraft and avantgarde improvisational music to the breaking point, bridging their customary genre-agnostic approach with…

Not funk music but a demanding, innovative piece of chamber music and psychedelic avant-garde jazz, Think-Tank-Funk is an unusually daring album to appear in 1973 in Finland. Half-impossible to find on vinyl, the Svart reissue comes added with a fres…

2023 repress. "The Tribe co-founder's debut, remixed from the original mutli-track master tapes under the direction of its creator and lacquered by Bernie Grundman. Now-Again presents the defi¬nitive Tribe Records reissues. Deep, spiritual jazz of th…