Jazz /
Ultraman vs. Alien Metron
Tip! In the first years of its existence, starting in 1997, the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet worked as a collective, inviting all and any of its participants to contribute compositions to the band's repertoire. Eventually, the Tentet would jettison scores and pre-planned structures altogether, opting for free improvisation, but on their early tours and initial recordings they played pieces written by the various band members. A marathon set of summer studio sessions in 2002, just off a U.S. …
McPhee Marker
Chicago-based saxophonist and clarinetist Ken Vandermark was invited to arrange a set of seventies music for a concert in 2019, and among the pieces he chose were tracks by funk legends Parliament and post-punk iconoclasts DNA. On this 12-inch 45rpm EP, Vandermark's band Marker presents a unique take on "Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples," drawn from Parliament's 1975 LP Mothership Connection, and DNA's "Egomaniac's Kiss," which first appeared on the classic 1978 Brian Eno-produced collection No …
Free Distance, Vol. 2: Poems are Opening
'During the first lockdown of the Covid era in spring 2020 my creative fire was still burning. All concerts were cancelled, but I still wanted to play and improvise. That's were the idea for long-distance improvisation came up. I sent emails to some of my friends and other musicians who I admired and hoped that they might be interested in doing such a project. I'm really happy that some of the best improvisers in Europe were happy to participate in this project. I'm such a fan of all these playe…
Applecores
*2022 stock* Exact repro, originally released in 1978. One of the hippest, tightest sessions ever recorded by drummer Sunny Murray – a large group set recorded with his Untouchable Factor group – a great ensemble that includes Frank Foster on soprano sax, Oliver Lake and Arthur Blythe on alto saxes, Hamiet Bluiett on baritone, Don Pullen on piano, and Cecil McBee and Fred Hopkins on bass! The sound is somewhat straighter than Murray's free jazz of a few years before – almost in the mode that Fos…
Seikatsu Kōjyō Iinkai
Ferocious JP / US free jazz bomb. A rare meeting between the NYC free jazz scene and the Japanese free music scene. Old-style Gatefold LP, with rare photographs & liner notes by Alan Cummings.
Complete "La Grima"
Famed free jazz concert registration of an early New Direction for the Art performance. Recorded in 1971. Old-style Gatefold LP, with rare photographs & extensive liner notes by Alan Cummings.
Water Babies
*2023 stock. Blue Transluscent Vinyl* 'Every morning, about an hour before sunrise, the day breaks gradually, with little noticeable fanfare. It’s the best time of day outdoors. The nighttime goblins have gone to their hiding places, loud day creatures have yet to rise, and it’s just us with the cool morning mist and that dim kind of landscape that lets us see only what we want to see.When Water Babies was recorded in 1967 and 1968, Miles Davis had with him one his best working units. His and Wa…
Early-Mart
Gideon Nxumalo was a key figure during the formative years of South African jazz in the 1950s, helping shape the emerging South African jazz sound as a pianist and composer and contributing to the scene as a radio presenter, music teacher and arranger. His recorded output as bandleader/composer is comprised of three iconic albums from Jazz Fantasia (1962) to Gideon Plays (1968) to Early-Mart (1970). Early-Mart was Gideon Nxumalo's tribute to his friend and musical compatriot, drummer Early Mabuz…
The Power Of Feeling
'A lost bit of jazz funk from the 70s! This set is a lot more obscure – issued on the short-lived Encounter imprint, who gave us a handful of albums – all of them great! Sir Edward, we've been told, is really Harold Vick (although we've also heard that it might be Edward "Sonny" Stitt) – although we're not sure, and the album cover never gives a clear picture of Sir Edward's face. It does show the other players, though, like bassist Wilbur Bascomb, vibist Omar Clay, percussionist Jumma Santos, a…
....... Being Astral And All Registers – Power Of Two......
A live (first class quality) recording of the duo from 2002 - from the personal archives of Tony Oxley.
Hi Res Heart
When I proposed this trio it was intentional to create an instrumentation which closely matched that of the classic Leo Smith Trio of the 1970s – a line up which allows space and fire to co-exist. Of course, the fact that Martin Pyne doubles on both vibraphone and drums gives us a few extra sonic possibilities, and these have all been exploited by the suite of 12 compositions which the 3 of us have created together. While my own music output veers off into a wide range of bands and territories, …
Mycorrhiza
Mycorrhiza is the term describing the symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and a plants root system. The fungi forms networks between the trees, allowing them to communicate. Often nicknamed the ‘wood wide web’, the network allows trees to send each other nutrients and warn each other about predators such as bugs, deer, or harmful pathogens. This album is inspired by natural systems like this and is concerned about the human impact and the corruption surrounding it. The album flows l…
Rising Up
"Talk about your dynamic duos. Drummer/bassist Tony Bianco and violinist/violaist Faith Brackenbury have pooled their talents to come up with one of the best such meetings in recent memory." - Darren Bergstein, DMG NYC A no holds barred free jazz duo equally balancing fire / momentum with space / texture. Faith – “Everything is first takes and no edits, and so captures some raw feelings. It feels to me that all my learning and training, and unlearning and exploration has come to this point in a …
Free Radicals At Dom
Recorded by Maxim Khaikin at Dom Cultural Center, Moscow, on November 6th 2017
Visitation
This 1983 recording, originally issued on Sackville LP, features jazz trumpeter Joe McPhee with the Bill Smith Ensemble.
” …a stimulating set of avant-garde music. The interplay between these masterful improvisors on group originals and Albert Ayler’s classic ‘Ghosts’ is consistently impressive and worthy of a close investigation by the more open-eared segment of the jazz audience.” — Scott Yanow, Allmusic
“Vistation breathes as if it were music that was recorded yesterday. Joe McPhee…
Kiedy Wilki Zawyja?
"This giddy avant pop affair is rather more avant than pop, with a large backing band of musicians steeped in the stylings of early 1970s psychedelia, mutant prog, free jazz saxophone solos, slinky blues (particularly on “Red White And Blue”) and moody spy soundtracks in the vein of John Barry’s score for 1965’s The Ipcress File. “Last Exit To Lublin” has a spoken word interlude in which the Cold War language of such films is remapped for the era of Brexit: “Papers, please/How long have you been…
The Long View
Orfeo 5 formed in 2002 out of a series of text/music projects curated by The Word Hoard artists’ co-op. They’ve composed and toured a number of commissions in different line-ups, and released two CDs, a year on the ice from The Word Hoard in 2009, and in the green castle from Discus in 2017. The core of the group’s sound comes from longstanding members Shaun Blezard on electronics and Keith Jafrate on saxophones, with other players from an extended family of musicians and poets joining them from…
Zeitgeist2
This duo, and the resulting album developed out of conversations between Robert and Shirley whilst working on Robert’s Invocation project in 2014. Their discussions explored the varied paths of their respective backgrounds, and different relationships of all aspects of those musical paths to improvisation. Both have a shared classical training, in which the absence of an improvisation became both a frustration and source of inspiration. Part of the story of this album lies in their different for…
Anthropods
Anthropods is the new band from American drummer and composer, Mark Holub. Holub, known mainly as bandleader of the acclaimed and Mercury Prize nominated Led Bib has with ‘Anthropods’ created his first project as a leader since starting Led Bib in 2003. While some of Holub’s trademark Led Bib style is evident here, the album is full of contrasts, from pastoral beauty to dense free improvisation to heavy grooves, showcasing sides of Holub’s work well beyond his work with Led Bib.
Holub has been b…
Kiedy Wilki Zawyja?
"This giddy avant pop affair is rather more avant than pop, with a large backing band of musicians steeped in the stylings of early 1970s psychedelia, mutant prog, free jazz saxophone solos, slinky blues (particularly on “Red White And Blue”) and moody spy soundtracks in the vein of John Barry’s score for 1965’s The Ipcress File. “Last Exit To Lublin” has a spoken word interlude in which the Cold War language of such films is remapped for the era of Brexit: “Papers, please/How long have you been…