Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

**2016 revised edition** Utterly essential!!How did Free Improvisation, aka Free Music emerge? And how has this most arcane of musical forms survived so long and gained such loyal adherents? Trevor Barre seeks to answer these questions in Beyond Ja…

The newly formed quartet is making its debut performance at the gallery. Alan Wilkinson (alto saxophone), Olie Brice double bass,Dominic Lash (double bass), Mark Wastell (cello). Mark Wastell Quartet is combining the unavoidable and reverential infl…

Amazing and strong vintage synth and keys duo improvisations by free jazz pioneers Alan Silva and Burton Greene, still exploring and pushing boundaries after half a century of no compromise careers. Burton Green says: “It’s not about the latest (e…

Reissue of Anthony Braxton's second album for Delmark Records, originally released in 1969. Featuring Leroy Jenkins (violin and percussion) Leo Smith (trumpet) and Richard Abrams (piano, cello, alto clarinet). "...is there a McDonalds nearby?... reme…

This is a holy grail of an album not many people actually seem to know about. I heard about 1978 as initial release date but it could be some archive material as well because the music sounds more vintage. Strange drum patterns, cool jazzy melodies a…

Landmark work from the Finnish scene of the 60s – one of those ultra-rare European jazz records that collectors have dug for decades! The set's got a stark, modern sort of feel – but also a nice soulful swing, too – a balance that few of the othe…

To kick off their new “Jukebox Series”, Trost Records provide us with a single pairing up the jubilarian with German painter Albert Oehlen. It’s certainly a somewhat unexpected collaboration; but then again, Gustafsson is a restless soul, constantly …

Trost continues its Trost Jukebox Series of 7"s. Raymond Boni is a French jazz guitarist and composer. Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone…

Duo of Kazuhisa Uchihashi (daxophone) and Junji Hirose (tenor saxophone) excerpt from two live performances in 2014 and 2015.Kazuhisa Uchihashi is a japanese guitarist  involved in free improvisation music. Born in 1959 in Osaka, Uchihashi began to p…

Improvised pieces for tracker action organs and strings recorded in five English churches. Because these organs are entirely mechanical, there is a more direct physical relationship between the instrument and the player. When each stop is very carefu…

Edition of 150 copies only "Spine-tingling free improv fire-blast from an international quartet with deep underground roots. Italian reeds player Genta and drummer Vanzan form the basis for all Jooklo aktion (Duo, Golden, Stellar, et al.). Norwegian …

British free improvising guitar master John Russell's 60th birthday gig at London's Cafe Oto is celebrated in a duo with Phil Minton, a trio with Henry Lowther & Satoko Fakuda, in a trio with Evan Parker and John Edwards, and in a duo with Thurston M…

CD edition. This album features Peter Brotzmann on tenor saxophone and Peeter Uuskyla on drums, they are longtime collaborators and this album was recorded back in 2006 in Uuskyla’s home base of Sweden. Parts of the music on this album was previou…

Entirely recorded at Tunefork Studios on the outskirts of Beirut, Burj al Imam's five tracks include three largely improvised numbers, a loose reworking of early Sun City Girls track "The Imam," and a cover of traditional Americana song "Gently Johnn…

Concert recording from Jazzatelier, Ulrichsberg, Austria - 12 June 2009. In co-operation with Linz09 - European Capital of Culture 2009.

A reissue of the first LP by the exceptionally fine improvising trio of John Russell (guitar), Phil Durrant (violin and trombone) and John Butcher (saxophones). This group came into being in 1984 after Russell and Durrant had spent the previous two y…

Marcio Mattos has been an important member of the free improvisation and free jazz scenes since moving to London in the early 1970s. This, however, is his first solo album. There are six short solos on cello, three of which also use electronics, and …

Milestone reissue! Evan Parker's monolithic 1978 solo record Monoceros was originally released on Incus in 1978, and distinguishes itself in several respects: first, because it was recorded by the direct-cut process, whereby the sound pathway went d…

Ndikho Xaba was born in 1934 in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. For thirty-four years —  1964 –1998 — he lived in exile in the US, Canada and Tanzania. Originally issued by Trilyte Records out of Oakland, California, this 1970 recording is braci…

CD comes in a silkscreened gatefold cover. Le Jardin Bizarre (the odd garden) is the follow up to the album 'Outside Darkness', released in 2011 by PSF. It is a hollow album, stretching out long rests in which a sticky melancholy, an infinite sadness…

About a week after September 11, 2001 I flew into New York City to be a grant panelist for the Rockefeller Foundation's arts program. Flying into New York the aftermath of the destruction of the Twin Towers could still be seen as an eerie cloud an…

Founded in the Italy centre town of Ancona, Agorà curiously debuted with a live album instead of a studio one: they played an almost-instrumental typical jazz-rock, and they were invited to play at the famous Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland (a …

Music From Tomorrow's World is a fascinating document and a boon to Sun Ra collectors. It gathers previously unheard tapes from two sources: one from the Wonder Inn club and one from Majestic Hall, probably a rehearsal. Both were recorded in 1960, to…

A fascinating live document that captures Sun Ra & his Arkestra performing an eclectic set for a Cleveland audience in 1975. Though the recording quality leaves something to be desired, this remains an inspired performance and includes a chaotic take…

A very "jazzy" performance of uninterrupted Sun Ra's standards diluted with "Prelude to a kiss" by Duke Ellington and "Blue Lou". An excursion into the history of jazz encouraged by an ecstatic crowd.

"Cosmos" is a hard-to-find, alternately chaotic and tightly organized mid-'70s session that was issued on the Cobra, and then Inner City labels. Sun Ra provided some stunning moments on the Rocksichord, while leading The Arkestra through stomping ful…

The Sun Ra Arkestra looks both forwards and backwards in time on this obscure small label LP. Ten years earlier, one could not have imagined Ra and his men romping through "On the Sunny Side of the Street" or reinventing "Flamingo." However, those ve…

The excellent Live at Montreux set from 1976 was released on vinyl by both Saturn and Inner City before disappearing from print for many years. In 2003, the set was reissued by both Universe/Akarma and P-Vine. A full 20-member Arkestra (plus dancers)…

More stuff from Sun Ra's archives, this time focusing on his work with doo wop groups. Sun Ra had a home tape recorder early on, and most of these are previously unissued home rehearsals. The sound is generally excellent given that these are '50s hom…

Gatefold double LP version. It can't be easy gathering 28 of Northern Europe's finest jazz and improvising musicians in one place at the same time, which is why Sweden's Fire! Orchestra has been one of the continent's best-kept secrets so far. Aft…

Produced in the twilight of the '80s in London and originally released on white-label LP with homemade rubber stamp impression, Witch is the mysterious and powerful debut from poet, artist, and musician Leslie Winer. It's an infectious patchwork of d…

Violinist Coombes explains things perfectly in his hilarious liner notes. Beethoven, he says, realized that the piano and violin sound horrible together, the instruments literally hate each other, and gave up after ten sonatas. "For us to try and …

Michel Doneda (saxophones), John Russell (guitar) and Roger Turner (percussion). Recorded at Studio Honolulu in France (2009). 'What story can a non-figurative music tell if not that of the men that made it ? The memory is adjusted to the shape of th…

An excellent Sun Ra session from 1959! Ra and the Arkestra are playing in a fine mix of straight jazz and spacey styles, with Ra on electric piano throughout the entire set. A few tracks have some great chanted vocals – and we're not sure if they're …

Recorded in New York in 1962, this out-there disc sees Sun Ra and drummer / recording engineer Tommy Hunter experimenting to the max with wild use of home-made tape-loop echoes on the percussion pieces "Cluster Of Galaxies" and "Solar Drums". Also in…

Saturn Research has just reissued one of the more harder to find LP’s in the massive Sun Ra catalogue that is pilling from reissue labels all over the world. With Saturn being the first label and Ra’s personal imprint, whenever a title gets pulled fr…

Thierry Maucci, tenor and sopranino saxophones. Jean-Marc Montera, guitars. Gérard Siracusa, drums & percussion. Bruno Chevillon, doublebass. Recorded in 1986.

Jean-Marc Montera, guitar, Yves Robert, trombone, Gérard Siracusa, percussion. Recorded by Daniel Deshays at Théâtre Dunois in 1983.

Percussion solo recorded in Marseille in 1983. Gérard Sicarusa (born in 1957)was a founder member of GRIM in 1978 and played with André Jaume, Raymond Boni, Bernard Vitet, Sylvain Kassap, Jean-Marc Montera and Yves Robert.

Coxhill was a noted figure on the UK underground jazz and rock scene, his saxophone playing gracing recordings by Kevin Ayers (with Coxhill being a member of Ayers group The Whole World) and later on acts such as Caravan. Recorded between July 1970 a…