Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

This vinyl album by Micheal Mantler is new old stock from Ecm archives. Original first pressing – printed in the USA in 1977. The record has never been played and the vinyl is in mint condition. However, the sleeves are sealed but may have slight mar…

Keith Jarrett and conductor-pianist Dennis Russell Davies have been friends and musicalcomrades for forty years. In the mid-70s the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, under Davies’ directionpresented Jarrett’s chamber music. In the 90s Jarrett recorded the M…

The repertoire features original compositions and Norwegian folk themes, balancing lyrical melodies with subtle harmonic exploration. Pieces such as “The Circle” and “Stream” highlight Gustavsen’s ability to let themes emerge organically, favoring pa…

On his second release for ECM New York-based saxophonist Oded Tzur introduces a heightened sense of urgency and a conceptually augmented approach to his distinctive voice, weaving one underlying musical idea through a series of elaborate and impassio…

On Once Around The Room ECM recording artists and key jazz musicians from several generations unite in a small ensemble to celebrate the musical legacy of drum icon Paul Motian in a big way. Joe Lovano and Jakob Bro lead a party of seven through fier…

There is a distinguished tradition of solo bass albums on ECM, but Provenance is the first to be devoted to the electric bass guitar. Björn Meyer, Swedish-born and Swiss-based, has shaped a unique voice for his instrument inside the most diverse cont…

Over the years, Pat Metheny Group's Grammy-winning double live album Travels has earned a singular reputation among jazz aficionados as one of the most distinctive and impeccably recorded live jazz albums of all time. Upon its initial release, it app…

The New York Composers Orchestra is a big band formed in 1986 by its artistic directors Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb with the idea of giving new life to a classic format and to further the tradition of new music bridging the worlds of notated and …

When time pulled the rug from under Earl Hines in 1983, he was still enjoying a comeback that had lasted almost twenty years. That comeback was one of the most important events in recent jazz history and the music included here was recorded when his …

Jay McShann secured a lasting place in jazz history on April 30, 1941, when he became the first bandleader to usher Charlie Parker into a studio for a commercial recording session. For years, that was how McShann was remembered, if at all—as an early…

The Texas Twister is a relaxed, gently probing session; its several highlights begin with the title selection, a thirty-two-bar riff confection with a characteristically willful opening solo by Buddy Tate. His best playing on the date is heard on "Ta…

The fullness and clarity of the six solos and six duets that comprise Mostly Ballads set them apart from the typical encounter of post-Parker jazz musicians with "the tradition." Standard songs, once the improviser's training ground, fell out of favo…

3 Phasis is the companion disc to the Cecil Taylor Unit, both set down over four miraculous days in April 1978. It too is a testament to the perfectionism and unpredictability that are hallmarks of Taylor’'s music. As always, he is the instigator and…

The naive romanticism of the Jazz Age, when, as F. Scott Fitzgerald saw it, "people danced in a champagne haze on the rooftop of the world," was nowhere more clearly reflected than in America's popular music of the 1920s. The banal optimism, the desp…

In this time of charged debate about immigration and the concomitant stereotyping of minorities, this collection of fourteen songs drawn from musicals and minstrel shows reminds us that the habit of stereotyping has been with us longer than we care t…

This record presents further evidence of Cecil Taylor’s genius and awesome ability to work within the group context, in which he furthers his exploration of the piano “as catalyst feeding material to soloists in all registers.” This music at times ge…

Keyboardist-composer Vijay Iyer’s energized sequence of ECM releases has garnered copious international praise. Yet his fifth for the label since 2014 – Far From Over, featuring his dynamically commanding sextet – finds Iyer reaching a new peak, furt…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** "Languishing off-catalogue for many years, McCoy Tyner's Extensions may be the pianist's most unjustly neglected album. Strange days, for not only is the music ineffably vibrant, but Extensions is the only recording e…

Special Time-Limited Offer “Night Dreamer is an album that finds Wayne Shorter in a state of transition as he was still rooted in the hard bop style that started his career, but also starting to lean toward the more abstract style that will serve fo…

Hank Mobley octet session arranged by Duke Pearson, with Lee Morgan, James Spaulding, McCoy Tyner, Bob Cranshaw, Billy Higgins, Kiane Zawadi and Howard Johnson, recorded on 18 March 1966 and first released in 1979 (LT-995). Tone Poet reissue, 180g.

"There was a school of philosophy in ancient China whose core theory stems from a debate entitled “A White Horse Is Not a Horse.” In a book by Gongsun Long (公孫龍 320-250BC, about 200 years after Confucius) in the Warring States Period, two persons arg…

With Call on the old Wise Nitai Hershkovits delivers an entrancing solo album. In this largely improvised solo rendering, the pianist draws from broad influences, ranging from his extensive work in jazz contexts and cutting-edge contemporary explorat…

The Italian jazz label Black Saint was launched with Harper's 1975 album, Black Saint, making this not just a remarkable recording but a foundational document in European jazz history. Recorded July 21-22, 1975 at Barclay Studios, Paris, this album a…

For the follow-up of his ECM-leader-debut La traversée, French saxophonist Matthieu Bordenave expands his trio of German pianist Florian Weber and Swiss bassist Patrice Moret with the unique sensibilities of drummer James Maddren, whose unrelenting p…

We are pleased to announce the upcoming reissue of “Min Bul”, a milestone of Norwegian rock and jazz, included in the renowned Nurse With Wound list, from the band whose leader was a young Terje Rypdal. Recorded in the Rosenborg studio in September 1…

1992 release ** "When it came out in 1992, Firestorm went quite unnoticed. Many missed this very strong, very untypical string-only free jazz date. Cellist Diedre Murray and bassist Fred Hopkins developed a profound musical relationship in the Henry …

Biiig Tip! Edition of 300. Paal Nilssen-Love and Joe McPhee started playing together when Paal was 25. Now he’s 50, so this musical dialogue has been going on for the quarter of a century. It has taken many forms, first with The Thing, then The Thing…

180 gram reissue / Limited Edition 400 copies Includes OBI and 4 pages insert. Text in Japanese / English . Cinedelic presents Jazz in Fabbrica by Enrico Intra. Recorded in Ratti’s Factory in Guanzate (Como) on October 31, 1972. Pianist, composer, ar…

*200 copies limited edition* Technicolor Band is a revolving-cast, cross-genre improv unit based in Bloomington, IN. The group, initially instigated by multi-instrumentalists David Brown and Caleb Hickman as a regular gathering to explore improvisati…

This album captures the debut performance of Billy's 12-piece chamber-jazz ensemble Grande Família, recorded live at London’s Pizza Express Jazz Club. The concert, which sold out two months in advance and received a full standing ovation, features ex…

1993 release (RARE) **  ""This lovely duet between avant guitar kingpin Derek Bailey and drummer/trumpet player John Stevens is a fine example of what Bailey was up to in the early '90s, before he discovered drum'n'bass and Bill Laswell, among other …

1994 release  ** "Affinity consists of Joe Rosenberg on soprano, Rob Sudduth playing tenor, bassist Richard Saunders and drummer Bobby Lurie. They have a very inclusive approach in picking out "nine modern jazz classics," so this inventive CD ranges …

1997 release  ** "The Vinny Golia quintet on this CD is comprised of Golia on every woodwind known to man although he seems to prefer the extremes of range (e.g., piccolo, sopranino and contrabass saxes) alone with Tad Weed on the piano, Rob Blakesle…

1995 release ** “The music on L’âme de l’objet is strongly fed by Côté’s work for theater and dance performances, as it bears a remarkable plastic quality. One can feel the movement. All pieces (initially written by individual members and worked out …

1992 release ** "The first live documentation of this, at the time, three-year-old, hard working trio. A wild romp of different jazz and world music styles connected by intense improvisation." Michael Moore - alto saxophone, clarinet, melodicaErnst R…

1996 release ** "Recorded live in 1995, Italian woodwind specialist Stefano Maltese along with fellow countryman, percussionist Antonio Moncada garner the services of modern jazz/improvising superstars pianist Keith Tippett and saxophonist Evan Parke…

1994 release ** "Although altoist Julius Hemphill gets top billing on this CD, his heart surgery in 1993 forced him to stop playing. However, this saxophone sextet was his regular group; he contributed six of the eight compositions (the other two are…

Tip! Featuring William Hooker (drums), David S. Ware (tenor saxophone), and Alan Braufman (alto saxophone), this recording captures a rare and electrifying moment in time. Recorded live at the New York Jazz Museum on January 14, 1977, the album has b…

Torche! is a Euro-Quebec supergroup bringing together French clarinetist Xavier Charles, Austrian trumpeter Franz Hautzinger, and Quebec musicians Philippe Lauzier (bass clarinet), Éric Normand (bass), and Michel F. Côté (drums). All specialists in e…

Il Giro Del Giorno In 80 Mondi by Enrico Rava is a landmark of early 1970s European jazz, blending burning trumpet invention with eclectic grooves and poetic improvisation. Recorded in 1972, this album stands out for its adventurous spirit, balancing…