Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

The first half of the decade has seen cornet virtuoso and composer Rob Mazurek through significant achievements and personal losses, often linked inextricably through his creative processes. In and around the passing of his mentor and colleague, the …

A new release on Hideaki Shimada (Agencement) label. It is new title after 13 years! Double CD of subtle-Tokyo Group improvisations by Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar), Junji Hirose (tenor sax), Hideo Ikegami (contrabass), Ko Ishikawa (sho), Kazushige Kinoshi…

Recorded at Tonic, Norfolk St., New York, 17 & 19 April 2001Alto Saxophone – John Zorn (tracks: 6)Cello [Violoncello] – Mark WastellDouble Bass – Simon H. FellHarp – Rhodri Davies

This marvellous release from Mark Wastell’s Confront label documents a meeting of these three heavy hitters convened at Dalston’s Cafe Oto, last March. This was the first time all three had played together, although, as John Eyles remarks in his l…

The trio of Chris Corsano (drums), Okkyung Lee (cello) and Bill Nace (guitar) performing live at John Zorn's NYC improv club The Stone in 2014, three free improvising titans of the modern age in a very limited LP

Found in the archives of FMP! The very first - never released - recordings of the Schlippenbach Trio! Alexander von Schlippenbach, piano, Evan Parker, tenor and soprano saxophone, Paul Lovens, drums. Recorded by an unknown engineer april 2nd 1972 d…

Never-heard studio music from the legendary Sun Ra – material recorded right around the same time as the unique Strange Strings session – and which really stands as a "part 2" to that amazing record! The sound is very loose and open, but quite spir…

If anybody deserves to be called a living legend in Norwegian free jazz it must surely be saxophone, flute and clarinet player Frode Gjerstad. Born in 1948 in Stavanger, he has since the early 80s been central on more than fifty records and played…

"Det Flygande Barnet" is a theatre piece that has its premiere performance on 7th February at Orionteatern in Stockholm, Sweden. The piece will run through March and Fire! will be performing live as an important part of the piece. This 7" is being…

Schlippenbach Trio's magic chemistry is founded on years of working together, both on intuitive listening and interaction – the ability to respond in an instant – andon the match between their characters, each adding to the whole as well as challe…

The brilliant sax player John Butcher continues to expand the boundaries of free improvisation. This is his latest solo release. An inexhaustible outpouring of ideas blends with phantasmagoric, wondrous technique to create a richly colored, dynami…

A superb collection of modern jazz, recorded in 1973 and available for the first time. The pressing is limited to only 35 copies on a one-sided picture disc with a paste-on back (photos & notes).

Previously only available on CD, these amazing jazz compositions with a '60s vibe were recorded at NYC's Air Studio in 1981. The musicians are Charles Tyler (alto & baritone sax), Wilber Morris (bass) and drummer Denis "Jazz" Charles. The pressing…

Available for the first time, this LP offers two beautiful side-long compositions, recorded live at th Jazztage in Leverkusen, Germany 1986. The musicians are Billy Bang (violin), Roy Campbell Jr. (trumpet), Oscar Sanders (guitar), William Parker (b…

Matsuli Music continues its reissue program of rare indigenous afro-jazz sounds from South Africa with the release of Sowetan group Batsumi's self-titled debut from 1974. The reissue has been lovingly re-mastered from the original tapes and features …

Recorded mostly in the early'60s with Ra, Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, James Jacson, Nimrod Hunt and Thea Barbara, Space Probe explores stripped back forms and colour combinations that are far from jazz Ð or that attempt, very successfully, to take…

Live recordings from Sun Ra Solar-Myth and Intergalactic Arkestras performing live at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival from 1972-74, well-recorded and great performances in this first issue of these great concerts.  "Recorded live at the Ann Arbor…

A Saturn release from the 1960's featuring a wide-range of pieces from studio recordings, rehearsals, and live concerts that are all heart-felt and made in the traditional Sun Ra style, starting with eight delirious minutes of kora and piano frame -…

In 1996, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Joe McPhee's first solo release, McPhee recorded this remarkable album of solo reeds, pocket cornet, and electronics, using overdubbing to create gripping music including an homage to Miles Davis and uniq…

"Reissue as part of the 40th anniversary of Hat Hut Records. What we have here is a one-nighter by the Steve Lacy Quartet at Paris' Sunset Club...The four members of the quartet get a chance to stretch out and you can feel the club energy clearly in …

"The enthusiasm of the Paris audience, the strong following the Aylershad in France does not come as a total surprise, For, as the musician and his brother explained in the Down Beat story: if you really understoodthe message of Sidney Bechet, you sh…

Dale Cooper Quartet and The Dictaphones are back with their third album called "Quatorze Pièces de Menace". This new full-length of the cult French Dark Jazz collective is the follow up of the highly acclaimed 2011 output "Métamanoir" - the second re…

"Is there a better all-around bassist with a bow than Barry Guy? That query may scream sycophantic hyperbole, but in taking stock of the British improviser's discography it's an interrogative that can't help but manifest repeatedly. On Guy's end t…

One of two different sets, along with "Two City Blues 1", recorded on one intense night at Tokyo's Shinjuku Pit Inn. A trio of three towering figures, German free jazz legend Peter Brötzmann, Japanese avant-garde wizard Keiji Haino, and wildly versa…

For their 3rd album together, the trio of saxophonist Peter Brotzmann, bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble are caught live at the 2013 Ljubljana Jazz Festival for three blistering works of free improvisation. This is the second album by the …

housed in a thick, embossed gatefold sleeve. Subtitle: Esoteric, Modal and Deep Jazz from Around the World, 1961-79. Until it was swept aside by the pop explosion of the 1960s, jazz was the most popular modern sound on earth. From the New World and…

Outstanding!! A confirmation of their ascension to the highest level of improvising ensembles, Konstrukt recently shared the stage with such names as Evan Parker, Marshall Allen, Joe McPhee and Peter Brotzmann showing their great ability to adjust …

Paal Nilssen-Love has been one of the world's most prolific and active musicians that came out of Norway for the last 20 years. With thousands of gigs and hundreds of recordings the drummer is known for bands like The Thing, OffOnOff, Ballister, H…

Boxset with the six Perigeo original RCA albums ("Azimut", "Abbiamo tutti un blues da piangere", "Genealogia", "La valle dei templi", "Non è poi così lontano", "Live at Montreux"), the double album "Live in Italy 1976", released on Contempo label and…

Cross-pollinating the wants lists of art/jazz/print and architecture enthusiasts this seldom sighted 45 single is regarded as the rarest “lost” recording by American jazz trumpeter and global communal music missionary Don Cherry as he collaborates wi…

Limited to only 35 hand-numbered copies on black vinyl with a paste-on cover. Great previously unissued recordings from Mr. Roy Brooks and his Artistic Truth, live at the Detroit Jazz Fest!. Available here for the first time.

The high impact duo of Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Ken Vandermark (reeds) has been working together at an accelerated rate since 2001, and they have put out seven albums of high octane improvised music together since then. Released now- their ei…

A collection of solo pieces from forward-thinking French soprano saxophonist Michel Doneda, using extended techniques and utilizing every inch of the horn, creating unconventional and captivating sonic expressions from the instrument. M. Doneda, s…

Guitarist Fred Frith and saxophonist John Butcher are titans within the world of improvised music. Over the last four decades, each of these two men has permanently altered the way in which his instrument is heard: Frith with his (at times literal…

"In 1972, Sun Ra inked a high-profile deal with ABC / Impulse, bringing his recorded work to the widest audience he’d had to date. A slew of Saturn back catalog titles and two newly-recorded albums (Astro Black, Pathways To Unknown Worlds) were i…

"One of Cecil Taylor's earliest recordings, Looking Ahead! (1959) does just that while still keeping several toes in the tradition. It's an amazing document of a talent fairly straining at the reins, a meteor about to burst onto the jazz scene and …

Jazz Advance is the debut album by pianist Cecil Taylor recorded for the Transition label on September 14, 1956. The album features performances by Taylor with Buell Neidlinger, Dennis Charles and Steve Lacy. "Though many did not understand his appr…

Jazz Advance is the debut album by pianist Cecil Taylor recorded for the Transition label on September 14, 1956. The album features performances by Taylor with Buell Neidlinger, Dennis Charles and Steve Lacy. "Though many did not understand his appr…

12-string alchemy from the wilderness of Western MA, Pasquarosa's compositions trans¬x with hypnotic ¬finger picked melodies of a true occult nature. Known for his work under the Crystalline Roses moniker, his acoustic playing resounds with mysticism…

Ethnic Expressions by Roy Brooks & the Artistic Truth is one of two recordings drum master Roy Brooks cut for the tiny Afrocentric New York imprint Im-Hotep. Released in 1973, it has been one of the most sought-after "Holy Grail" recordings on the co…