Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

"Fantastic studio recording, caught by Taylor Hales at Chicago's legendary Electrical Audio, documenting the first full meeting of all the players on this album. Mako Sica, at this point in time revolve around the core duo of Przemyslaw Krys Drazek (…

Recorded at the legendary Van Gelder Studio in September 1965 and released on the prestigious Blue Note label, this remarkable album spotlights alto saxophone virtuoso Jackie McLean leading a powerhouse quintet through five original compositions. Thi…

Born in 1932, Ernest Ranglin stands as one of the most influential session guitarists in the history of Jamaican music. His iconic playing features on countless recordings by legends such as Alton Ellis, Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer, Max Romeo, the Skat…

Marvin Nunez, aka “Uncle Marvin,” was one of the few tenor saxophone players who explored the world of sub-tone music. A world of whispers heralded by vibrations so low and subtle they could not be heard by the naked ear. We don’t hear the bass, we f…

John Blum (piano), Denis Charles (drums), Antonio Grippi (alto sax, alto clarinet), William Parker (bass). Studio recordings from 1998. There are few sessions to rival this one for sheer urgency and gusto. It's as if something pent-up in these four m…

We Don't is a previously unreleased 1981 session pairing Jemeel Moondoc with Denis "jazz" Charles (1933-1998). in the 1970s, Moondoc was a member of ensemble muntu with William Parker. Moondoc's quirky & vivid alto style suggests the influence of Orn…

Sunny Murray's talent is bigger than any category you could use to describe it. he's one of the most original musical minds of the past 50 years, a genuine innovator, the liberator of the drum kit, and an artist of uncompromising honesty. murray's pl…

Sunny Murray is widely credited with being the first drummer to fully liberate the kit, developing a form of omni-directional accompaniment that dissolved the distinction between supporting and leading and helped spark the free jazz revolution that t…

"Don Cherry, more than any other artist in the jazz of his era, pioneered the music's internationalist nature that has now come to be commonly accepted as an integral part of its character. The individuality of Cherry's contribution to the history of…

A legendary recording by tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler with his amazing working band, recorded in Holland for radio play, here digitally remastered with new artwork. Personnel Albert Ayler: tenor saxophoneDon Cherry: cornetGary Peacock: bassSunny Mu…

Joe Morris's recording career began in 1983 and has made him one of the most revered avant-garde jazz guitarists. Down Beat magazine dubbed him "the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation," while The Wire magazine called him "one of the mo…

In 1966 Bernard Stollman sent Sun Ra and his Arkestra, along with audio engineer David B. Jones on a tour of five New York Colleges. When they returned, just 39 minutes of music was chosen to be released as the original ESP 1045 "Nothing Is...". 44 y…

This track is the unreleased beginning portion of this 1973 Frank Lowe concert that was released as Black Beings. This incredible performance is filled with the fire and drive Frank Lowe was projecting on his tenor sax in 1973. This extended track ti…

Originally released in 1965. The Byron Allen Trio was among the first batch of ESP-Disk' jazz LPs. Recorded on the afternoon of September 25, 1964, at Mirasound Studio in midtown Manhattan, it was Allen's debut. He had been recommended to ESP-Disk' b…

When Albert Ayler's band went through Customs in July 1970 on their way to play at a festival in France, keyboardist Call Cobbs got held back and arrived a day late. Minus the keyboards, the band played anyway. The music-making of the resulting ensem…

This version of Black Beings contains of 15 minutes of additional material thought to have been lost. When he started out on ESP-Disk', Frank Lowe was one of those hard-blowing tenor saxophonists we think of when we heard the phrase "free jazz." Born…

It has occasionally been assumed that Henry Grimes got this recording date as a reward for his long service in the avant-garde of jazz. Having already honed his musical conception with a varied range of players, from Benny Goodman and Arnett Cobb to …

New music from Paul Flaherty, with Sam Gas Can and White Limo. Pressing of 500 copies, cover art by Joshua Burkett. Like all of the greatest live "festival" records -- Woodstock II (Cotillion '71), Mar y Sol (Atco '72) & 1968 Memphis Country Blues Fe…

*2022 stock.* After more than three decades with the alto, heavyweight French artist and multi-instrumentalist Jean-Luc Guionnet arrives with his debut solo saxophone recording, a double-LP masterpiece, “l’épaisseur de l'air” (the thickness of air). …

"Hard to believe it has been 18 years since this set was first issued, but that’s what the calendar says. Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano had been playing together for a while before this. I seem to recall rehearsals outdoors in Hartford beneath stre…

At last, the trade edition of Schiamachy has appeared, following the test-press/tour version by more than a couple of months. The album's title is a term used to describe mock battles between warriors. It's a fair description of the music on this rec…

2022 restock, last copies. Recorded on April 18, 2010 at Clemente Velez Center, New York City. German free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist Peter Brötzmann: alto and tenor sax, B-flat clarinet, tarogato. American jazz drummer/percussionist, Hamid Dra…

Repressed "The Chicago-based string genius Joshua Abrams first talked to us about the idea of this album a while back. It took a couple of years to get together, but in a way, it's cool that it's being released in 2018 -- the 50th anniversary of the …

Suddenly, there was a stick to dig a hole. Now countless years into the future, we await, anticipating more than competition and violence. I am drawn in, and ultimately mesmerised. Later that night, I began to clearly see the de-centralised nature of…

The first and only recorded meeting between two absolute giants of the soprano saxophone - Steve Lacy and Joe McPhee - finally sees the light of day after 36 years! On June 9, 1977, Lacy and McPhee shared a double bill in Basel, Switzerland. Lacy inv…

* 200 copies.* The final chapter of Giovanni Di Domenico's mind-expanding trilogy arrives with the force of a philosophical manifesto encoded in sound! After The Ear Cannot Be Filled With Hearing (2017) and Reflection Is Circular (2019), Wesen comple…

“A blissfully ecstatic sprawl of spiritual-jazz explorations of the most transcendent order” – Brooklyn Rail

Big Tip! David Murray emerged in mid-1970s New York at a pivotal moment for jazz. As cultural shifts and urban decay created vacant buildings and low rents, aspiring artists converged on the city from Chicago, California, and St. Louis, drawing inspi…

Super groups are always risky—the potential for disappointing fans or warring musical styles is high—but when longtime friends and masterful improvisers come together, they usually work. Evident in their first collaboration, simply titled Volume 1, J…

3d and final repress. In the intimate confines of a Kortedala apartment just outside Gothenburg, Gustav Horneij has quietly assembled one of 2024's most compelling statements in spiritual jazz composition. Organic Pulse Ensemble's fifth album, Zither…

Mega Tip! Purple Trap, the powerful trio of Keiji Haino (voice, guitar), Bill Laswell on bass, and Rashied Ali (drums), recorded live on stage at The Stone. Recorded in December 2005, this furious live album by what can easily be called a super group…

West and East Baying by Oakland Reductionist Orchestra investigates the porous boundaries between acoustic improvisation and electronic sound, favoring the subtle friction and microdynamics of “lowercase” performance practice. Across two extended pie…

Seeing the Way the Mole Tunnels by James McKain, Damon Smith and Weasel Walter immerses listeners in an unmediated environment of spontaneous improvisation, where baritone saxophone, double bass and percussion fuse into a dense lattice of collision, …

New Conference Call brings together Gebhard Ullmann, Uwe Oberg, Joe Fonda and Dieter Ulrich for an engaging session rooted in deep listening, spirited interplay and exploratory textures. Their varied compositional voices and dynamic rapport yield mus…

100 recordings on 4 CDs; 184-page hardcover book printed on artbook-quality paper; Packaged in a deluxe gloss-laminated box. It begins with a South African choir from 1930 and a song about police brutality; it ends in Cuba with dreamy innuendo. This…

Even without an album out: they have already set the world on fire freaking out audiences all over Europe on their 2019 summer festival tour including Sines in Portugal, WOMAD in UK, Roskilde and WOMEX in Tampere. This young allstar band from Ghana b…

*200 copies limited edition.* On Fathom, we hear the sound of the world mirrored back to us. An improvisational collaboration from legendary British multi-instrumentalist John Butcher, Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on Double Bass, and Steve Noble…

The inspiration for 'Album l' and 'Album Il' began with a performance by Japanese musician Eiko Ishibashi at Cologne's Week-End Fest in 2019. For this appearance the renowned experimental musician and composer of the Oscar-winning film „Drive My Car"…

The inspiration for 'Album l' and 'Album Il' began with a performance by Japanese musician Eiko Ishibashi at Cologne's Week-End Fest in 2019. For this appearance the renowned experimental musician and composer of the Oscar-winning film „Drive My Car"…

Two days after his 100th birthday, Marshall Allen started recording New Dawn, his debut solo album. A member of Sun Ra’s Arkestra since 1958, Allen assumed leadership of the band in 1995. Throughout his nearly seventy-year career, Allen has never rel…