Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Pioneering be-bopper and unorthodox pianist Thelonious Monk was largely underacknowledged for the role he played in changing jazz forever. The Unique Thelonious Monk, the second of his LPs for Riverside, was recorded in 1956 with bassist/cellist Osca…

In Motions, Vol. 1, Francisco Mela and Shinya Lin create an album of improvised textures and thrilling exploratory sounds. Using drum sets and prepared piano, they create a lush soundscape of textures, imagining a scene reminiscent of a jungle, full …

'Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) spoke the truth (and the truth under his tongue was sometimes a hammer, sometimes an anvil, sometimes a sickle, sometimes just a breath or a blast). Baraka had no tongue in cheek. Sometimes he drew his language (his though…

'The Uproar in Bursts of Sound and Silence is a sort of emergent collage that came together over four years of composition, improvisation, and production. The foundations for this album were initially recorded in 2018 by producer/engineer Jack Endino…

Live was mostly recorded on November 1st, 2019, at Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin, Germany, during the 2019 edition of JazzFest Berlin. For Angel Bat Dawid and her band Tha Brothahood – which includes Deacon Otis Cooke, Viktor Le Givens, Xris…

Earthly Delights is a forgotten 1978 free-jazz masterpiece by bass player, composer and improviser David Wertman, alongside his Sun Ensemble. Born in 1952 and raised in Queens NY, Wertman’s distinctive upright playing style was entirely self-taught. …

**700 copies** We are proud to introduce this new Superfly reissue, produced in collaboration with Universal Music Japan and Production Dessinee. Japanese modal jazz rarity originally released on Philips Japan in 1970. Dream line-up (Yoshio Ikeda, Ma…

The Sea Is Rough is only a single (released as a 12’’ EP, played in 45 rpm) that features 2 pieces, recorded by the Russian power-pree jazz outfit Brom (Бром) with Japanese legendary trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, known for his collaborations with innova…

'Fred Anderson is from Chicago, a city like Detroit known for the strength of its music scene. High time that he was shown in the light of this great quartet session, Birdhouse. Anderson’s association with Hamid Drake has germinated here with Anderso…

AALY Trio (Gustafsson, Nordeson, Flaten) on left channel; DKV Trio (Vandermark, Kessler, Drake) on right channel.Recorded September 23, 1999 at Airwave Studios, Chicago.Track 2 is a long performance with an index point at the start of the Awake Nu th…

'Recorded live during the “Women of New Music” festival in Chicago, [this] OkkaDisk set is marred — Crispell-wise — only by having the piano mixed down too low and occasionally swamped by saxophone and percussion. Otherwise it finds her in thoroughly…

Fred Anderson & DKV Trio is an excellent jazz album that captures the high level of musicianship possessed by these top Chicago players. Heard here are saxophonist Fred Anderson (founding member of the AACM), percussionist Hamid Drake, bassist Kent K…

"The rhythm section is thunderous in general with Nilssen-Love providing polyrhythmic barrage fire to Brötzmann’s assaults. It is a vortex of sounds – some shrieking, others almost torn, spat, even puked – owing credits both to hardcore and to Dadais…

Recorded when Johnny Walker was touring Worldwide with Veteran Jazz Star Lionel Hampton in 1982 and originally released on his own Private Press label: Walk On Productions. This neglected underground classic LP has been off the radar since then excep…

'Both bassists had made regular appearances in Victo over the past two decades, but no one in the audience could have guessed that it would be Kowald's last. The German improviser died in New York City four months later. The French-Canadian radio was…

Anthony Braxton and Fred Frith each have about as close a relationship to the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville as just about any non-Canadians. The first release on Victo, the label run by the producers of the annual Canadi…

Spectacular mystical jazz infused psychedelics from Canary islands cult band GAF. Adopting a series of different addendums to their names (Love Supreme Arkestra, La Estrela de la Muerte, etc) to illustrate what mutation or influence they are feeding …

“We’re improvisers first and we’re bringing “moment music” into these other zones of hip hop and electronic music, drum-machine music, sound-system culture… Acoustic musicians sun-kissed by electro-magnetism, flowing out into everything. This is the …

"There is no doubt - Serpentes is the first serious candidate for the list of the best albums of 2019" — Spontaneous Music Tribune JJ Duerinckx, sopranino saxophoneJohn Russell, guitarMatthieu Safatly, cello

“the music has kept me at the edge of my seat each time I’ve listened.” — The Free Jazz Collective "absorbing and vivid... guitar and piano in a beautiful collision... astonishing" — a Jazz Noise John Russell, guitarPaul G. Smyth, piano

"Operating at an extremely high level, Smyth and Corsano share a special connection. One can almost see their thoughts syncing together and their bodies merging into one four-armed monster. Several moments are reminiscent of the best work from Cecil …

“a brisk but free-flowing dialogue with phrases and ideas being batted back and forth between them ... in effect, they are soloing simultaneously with each being aware of the other's playing and responsive to it. Even when Parker gets locked into one…

"'Proprioception' initially focuses on his acoustic improvisations, studio recordings with a startlingly vivid and intimate sound, so near that one feels like an occupant of the clarinet itself. When he adds amplification to the clarinet he presses i…

4-disc boxset with 20-page booklet documenting Mopomoso's triumphant UK tour in 2013. disc 1 – Evan Parker / John Russell / John Edwards – Chasing The Peripanjandra disc 2 – Pat Thomas – Naqsh disc 3 – Alison Blunt / Benedict Taylor / David Leahy – K…

"Noir" is the first studio album of the bleakly imaginative trio Marteau Rouge (French for "Red Hammer"), consisting of Makoto Sato on drums, Jean-Marc Foussat on VSC 11 and vocals and the talented guitar player Jean-Francois Pauvros (former collabor…

** 200 copies ** Oiro Pena moves out of the bedroom. I, like many others I’m sure, was very much blown away after hearing the first Oiro Pena 10” released by Ultraääni in 2019. From where did this Finnish flute phantasm appear? Part of the fun was th…

Since 2016 Sfyria Trio is the Chicago/NY free improvising trio of tenor saxophonist Sam Decker (Shorve, Logan Strosahl Team, Green and Grass), bassist Charlie Kirchen (The Few, Rooms, Charlie Kirchen Quartet), and drummer Matt Carroll (Ohmme, Typical…

**Last Copies** Edition of 300. A long and profound relationship between two radical improvisors has transformed into a multiverse of sound in three pieces. On a curious day in Paris, John Butcher fell into his saxophone and ventured deep into its fa…

Matthew Halsall to release Oneness. A triple vinyl set of archive recordings featuring three sessions of deep meditative spiritual-jazz in a deluxe edition, designed by Ian Anderson of The Designer's Republic. The recordings on Oneness date from Jan,…

* 2LP Box, with a 12-page booklet * Archimedes Badkar was started by Per Tjernberg in 1972 and between 1975 and 1979 released four LPs. Recently, three of the original members plus four newcomers gathered in Silence's legendary studio in Koppom. Ther…

Recently rediscovered while digging through our vaults, this is the original 1984 vinyl edition of the album. It doesn't get any better than this! This is an album featuring octet led by the Milanese musician Giorgio Gaslini.

For this heavy duty reissue of Koivistoinen’s 1977 album we went back to the original multitrack tapes and discovered a heap of alternate takes that were left unmixed at the time. Koivistoinen selected the best and most interesting alternate versions…

Lefto presents Jazz Cats volume 2, features a balance of known and obscure artists. From the thrilling frenetic grooves and innovative soundscapes of Bandler Ching and the electronic influenced Stellar Legions (Andrew Claes from (STUFF.), to the jazz…

Definitely one of Nucleus' lesser known albums, Alleycat nonetheless maintains the exceptionally high standards that Ian Carr & Nucleus had set for themselves over the course of numerous albums before this one. It's true that there's little here whic…

Under The Sun is the follow-up to the astonishing Roots and contains yet more absolutely essential Nucleus material. Originally released on Vertigo in 1974, Under The Sun was never re-pressed and of course those original copies are now very tricky to…

“Orbit of Sound” is the new release from composer/double bassist Max Johnson’s newest trio, with Anna Webber on tenor saxophone/flute, and Michael Sarin on drumset. Formed in 2018, the trio traverses tightly knit composed music and patient, sprawling…

The music on this album was not preconceived or premeditated in any way whatsoever. The ensemble's method of collaboration has been to begin playing without any discussion of what is to be played or how the music should be approached. The group was f…

'Well here is Max Johnson's picture, his snapshot of three men in a room making music, and as with any great composed shot, here would be his law of thirds for creating a great image. First Law: Max Johnson (bass) has the ability to search out the be…

'The musical lineage within the small circle of bassist Max Johnson's trio is unquestionably among the finest in cutting-edge jazz. The leader has played with bassist William Parker, alto legend Anthony Braxton, trombonist Steve Swell and drummer Tys…

Max Johnson may be the only musician to have worked with legendary improvisers Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Muhal Richard Abrams & William Parker, bluegrass royalty Sam Bush & David Grisman, in addition to rock pioneers Adrian Belew, Vernon Reid & the…