Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Jim O'Rourke (of Gastr del Sol and Sonic Youth fame) plays a lot with Japanese Free jazz legend Akira Sakata in various formations. Together with Italian composer and pianist Giovanni di Domenico and the drummer Tatsuhisa Yamamoto they form this powerful band. Their second release combines contemporary Avantgarde and Free Jazz in a beautiful way.Line-up:Akira Sakata - sax, clarinet, voiceJim O’Rourke - double bassGiovanni di Domenico – piano, hohner pianetTatsuhisa Yamamoto - drumsRecorded Jim O…

* 180g reissue. One of the rarest to find on the tiny Nimbus Label. The Music is Wonderful and colorful * This superb-sounding Pure Pleasure reissue (remastered by, yes you guessed it. Kevin Grey) brims with propulsive, almost manic energy, exemplified by the opening ‘Distant Vibes’ (a Kelly original). Sometimes, Kelly and his splendidly simpatico quartet let up the pace a little, but things never flag. There are covers of Strayhorn’s ‘Lush Life’, Herbie’s ‘Dolphin Dance’, Kern’s ‘Yesterday’ and…

2021 repress. "Essential spiritual jazz originally issued on the lauded Strata-East label. Magical, mystical, Afrocentric, progressive -- words that could be used to describe any number of musical compositions by Sun Ra or his cosmic brothers and sisters, from John to Alice Coltrane, early '70s projects on record labels like Detroit's Tribe or Houston's Lightin' or the interests of one Washington, DC native named Jimmy Gray that centered under one, perfect moniker: Black Fire. Gray spent nearly …

A dream-like aura surrounds these recordings by Evan Parker and Mathew Wright - Trance Map+ from the Jazz Festival Nickelsdorf: Crepuscule in Nickelsdorf. “Filtered through the silicon of the hard drive, birds and insects often sound electronically generated and some of the synthesized sounds, designed in software, sound like birds and insects with wings of their own,” writes American journalist Bill Shoemaker. The real seems virtual; the virtual seems real – it is the ambiguity essential to the…

Long-awaited re-release at a middle price of this classic and popular album, the last collaboration of Steve Lacy, Masahiko Togashi, and Masahiko Sato. Year of recording: October 15, 2000 / Location: Fukaya Hall Egg Farm

Includes an eight-page booklet with a summary of an interview with Yuji Takahashi (in Japanese; interviewer, Masahiko Sato) and photos. Recorded at Hall Egg Farm, Fukaya, on July 31, 1988.

Part of his 80th Anniversary celebration and subtitled "The Art Of The Trumpeter And Drummers", this 5-CD box set brings legendary improviser Wadada Leo Smith together with four long-time collaborators and masterful drummers--Andrew Cyrille, Jack DeJohnette, Pheeroan akLaff and Han Bennink--with Smith performing on both piano and trumpet.  5-CD BOX SET. Includes 60 pages booklet. The Emerald Duets is a crowning achievement among Wadada Leo Smith's many recorded duo collaborations with drummers/p…

*Includes a 80 pages booklet.* The trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith from Leland, Mississippi, started his career in the late sixties as a member of the legendary jazz trio Creative Construction Company, which also included Leroy Jenkins and Anthony Braxton, and has since advanced to become one of the most renowned representatives of contemporary (avant-garde) jazz - with more than thirty album releases to date. On the occasion of the 80th birthday of the internationally renowned composer and trumpeter…

2023 Stock. Kukuruz Quartet started 2014 their involvement with Julius Eastman and his musical works. In 2017, their performance at documenta 14 in the Megaro Mousikis concert hall in Athens earned a standing ovation. They performed works by Julius Eastman: 'Evil Nigger', 'Gay Guerrilla', 'Buddha' and 'Fugue No. 7'. The recording of these compositions followed in November 2017 on four Steinway D pianos in the main hall of the historic Radiostudio Zürich. Composer, trombonist and scholar George E…

Andrew Cyrille’s longtime companion Oliver Lake praises the master of African-American rhythms in his poem The Real Cyrille – “making the real magic … the real rhythms … the real sounds … expanding his African/Haitian roots … surfing the drums for masterful lyrical snippets … a master of color … painting coloring riffing always stretchin’ searchin’lookin’ for that next sound color sound!” Lake’s words astutely describe the artistry of Andrew Cyrille and the music that he makes on this record. Un…

Aki Takase and Han Bennink love the art of dialogue. Bennink is paired for life in a duo with the pianist Misha Mengelberg. Intakt Record also offers a duo recording of Han Bennink with the Zurich pianist Irène Schweizer. After having released five duo CDs at Intakt Records with Silke Eberhard, Lauren Newton, Rudi Mahall, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Louis Sclavis, Aki Takase is now presenting a breathtaking and very entertaining recording with Han Bennink. Every tone reveals enjoyment and de…

Jazz as the art of dialogue: two of the great musicians of today's jazz from different continents and generations make music sparkle. Born in Osaka in 1948, Aki Takase moved to Berlin where her musical partners included Han Bennink, Evan Parker, Rudi Mahall, David Murray, Louis Sclavis and Fred Frith as well as her husband and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. Ingrid Laubrock, born in 1970 in Stadlohn in North Rhine-Westphalia, moved to London at the age of 19 where she studied with the saxop…

Aki Takase, the Berlin-based pianist, is one of the great personalities of modern jazz. Moments of freedom, form and humour characterize this stylistically versatile avant-gardist, the stubborn virtuoso who toys with jazz traditions. In the year of her 70th birthday, Aki Takase was honoured with The Berlin Jazz Prize. Recorded over two days at the Sendesaal Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, the album includes some pieces captured live during the award ceremony, and some recorded in a studio setting i…

Leaney's lyrical and multi-textured tenor and alto saxophone playing is featured throughout, as is his playing on the Zimbabwean mbira and west African flulani flute. The record comprises equally of planned and deeply rehearsed compositions by both Leaney and Thouin, each with their own flavour brewed together to form a uniquely organic music. This is the first documented studio recording of 83 year old Thouin's lifelong exploration in sound and rhythm featuring his folkloric, DIY hybrid setup b…

** Ltd. 100 copies ** "Supergolden" is the name of Petter Asbjørnsen’s debut album featuring Kjetil Møster on saxophone and bass clarinet, and Øyvind Skarbø on drums. Møster and Skarbø are prominent figures in the Norwegian jazz community, known from ensembles such as Zanussi 5, 1982, Skarbø Skulekorps, Møster! and the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. Stints living in Bergen, Copenhagen, Berlin and New York informed Asbjørnsen’s work as a composer and performer in projects with Molecules and Erlend Sko…

After a creative break of more than 10 years the Contemporary Noise Ensemble returns with the brand new album called "An Excellent Spiritual Serviceman”. With the band’s line-up reduced and the sound of the brass section replaced with programmable synthesizers comes an entirely new sound of the band’s music. Leaning towards composition instead of improvisation the music is now less jazzy sounding - with electric bass being used instead of double bass and drums actually being the only strictly ac…

*150 copies limited edition* Music For Zoe is the result of the encounter between two masters of free improvisation, Edoardo Ricci (soprano saxophone and bass clarinet) and Lucio Bonaldo (drums) with Gianluca Favaron (computer), a prime mover of electronic sounds often pushed beyond the limits. What emerges from this encounter is a kind of European-style free music, with open structures, sometimes close to radical contemporary improvisation. The acoustic sounds of percussion and wind instruments…

* Edition of 300 * Free Jazz pioneer, Evan Parker returns to Walthamstow to record an album taking inspiration from the renowned designer and activist, William Morris at the home of the socialist campaigner, which now houses the William Morris Gallery. The original working title for the album was 'Barbarism Once More', taken from a longer quotation from Morris, which reflects the passion, spontaneity and iconoclastic nature of Evan's playing. However, in light of the death of Evan’s friend and l…

"Is it the fall of Icarus, whose vertiginous stridulation we hear from the very first notes of this album, to which Jean-Marc Foussat once again mixes his AKS synth and his voice? A sharp whistle has just pierced the atmosphere and is lost in the urban bustle where the police sirens can easily be distinguished. It is with this scene worthy of a Michael Mann or Christopher Nolan film that this trio recording opens, bringing together saxophonist Urs Leimgruber, who has already signed a magnificent…

*100 copies limited edition* Originally issued in 1972, the first side, recorded in 1966, is devoted to Seamen talking and playing drums and the narrative covers his beginnings in the music business and his time on the road in the last years of the big bands in this country up to his time with Jack Parnell in 1953. Side 2 features two sets recorded at the Hope & Anchor in Islington, London, (at Phil's Friday Place session) and the Bulls Head in Barnes London (with Dick Morrissey and the great US…

The Jazz Doctors or the Billy Bang Quartet toured Europe in the early 80s, featuring spiritual jazz pioneer saxophonist Frank Lowe and Vietnam vet turned free jazz violinist Billy Bang, the group recorded in 1983 in London. With legendary rhythm section Rafael Garrett and Dennis Charles, they recorded an album for Cadillac that fast became a sought after classic. This is the first time this rare LP has been reissued - remaster for vinyl release and direct cut from tapes at Gearbox studio.

At the time of release Ebony reviewer Phyl Garland said "One needn't be a "piano freak" to appreciate a truly new recording. First of all imagine seven gifted and talented pianists sitting down to seven grand pianos and proceeding to tear up these instruments - musically, that is. ...the torrent of sound springing from their 70 fingers is so powerful and majestic as to be unlike anything one has ever heard."

Sudden Happiness is a live recording by Triot, which includes the leading young Finnish saxophonist Mikko Innanen and two of Denmark´s most in-demand young jazz musicians, bassist Nikolai Munch-Hansen and drummer Stefan Pasborg, with the saxophone legend John Tchicai as their special guest. The album was recorded during their joint tour in Denmark and Sweden in 2002. The music of Triot is an amalgamation of the introverted and melancholy Finnish character and the more extroverted Danish personal…

Prayer for Peace is the first recording by violinist Billy Bang´s regular working quintet of the past five or so years. Featured with Bang are trumpeter James Zollar, pianist Andrew Bemkey, bassist Todd Nicholson and drummer Newman Taylor-Baker. Billy Bang has long been recognized as a true master on his chosen instrument and as one of the undisputed leaders of his generation of improvising musicians. This recording again demonstrates the reasons for this presenting Bang at his strongest both as…

Da Bang! was recorded in February 2011, just two months before the master violinist Billy Bang (1947-2011) succumbed to cancer. In this final session, the Billy Bang Group featured one extended composition by Bang, "Daydreams," as well as compositions by some of Bang´s favorite musicians, including Barry Altschul, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins. For Da Bang!, the Billy Bang Group featured legendary trombonist Dick Griffin as well as Bang´s regular accompanists in his …

Wadada Leo Smith, a trumpet player born in Mississippi in 1941, was an early member of the Chicago-based AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) but has remained somewhat lesser known than such collaborators as Abrams, Mitchell, and Braxton. He reached new audiences in the late 1990s and early 2000s when he joined guitarist Henry Kaiser in the Yo Miles! projects, reinterpreting music from the Miles Davis electric period. Smith’s 21st-century recordings with his Golden Quarte…

Wadada Leo Smith´s new album Najwa features four compositions in tribute to past masters of creative music, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Ronald Shannon Jackson and Billie Holiday, as well as the title composition "Najwa" in remembrance of a love lost. Compared to Smith´s prior recordings, the presence of four guitarists and Bill Laswell´s electric bass create a unique sound world and fluidity for the music. Although Wadada Leo Smith has worked with electric guitars in the past, including in h…

*Including a 52 p. booklet.* Sacred Ceremonies represents a meeting of three true giants of contemporary creative music. On this three-CD boxed set, Wadada Leo Smith joins forces with the barrier-breaking electric bassist Bill Laswell and the late, great master drummer Milford Graves in three separate one-day sessions. The boxed set comprises a duo CD featuring Smith and Graves, a duo CD featuring Smith and Laswell and a trio CD featuring Smith, Laswell and Graves. Sacred Ceremonies brings toget…

Occupy the World features the legendary composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith together with Tumo, a new improvising orchestra that is assembled specifically for each project, in its first appearance. The 22-piece orchestra performs five extended compositions by Smith, including "Occupy The World For Life, Liberty and Justice," his most extensive recorded composition to date, that was originally inspired by the Occupy movement. The four other compositions included on this double-CD were also re…

*Including a 44 p. booklet.* Trumpet is a unique extended collection of solo trumpet music. Fourteen new compositions by Wadada Leo Smith are included on this recording and spread over three CDs. The Album was recorded during a beautiful summer week in July 2016 at St. Mary's Church in the town of Pohja on the southern coast of Finland. it is a culmination of Smith's solo trumpet work to date, which totaled six albums prior to Trumpet. That legacy begins with his very first album as a leader, 19…

*2022 stock* Blue Marge presents In Paris / Live at the Sunside by Ted Curson ensemble.Ted Curson (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn & vocals), with Alain Jean-Marie (piano), Gilles Naturel (double bass), Philippe Soirat (drums), Pierrick Pédron (alto saxophone), Guillaume Naturel (flute), Julie Saury (percussion), Ferhat Öz, Evrim Özsuca, Daiva Starinskaite, Jaanika Ventsel (vocals & backing vocals), and guest on one track (Blues Medley): Sylvia Howard (vocals). Recorded live on 30 and 31 Au…

From 1960 to the present day, from Georges Arvanitas to Laetitia Shériff, or from Manu Dibango to "Mama" Béa Tékielski, everyone has wanted to include François Jeanneau in their team at some point. This, his first album under his own name, was recorded for Jef Gilson’s Palm label in 1975, a few months after ‘’Watch Devil Go’’ by Thollot, with more or less the same cast: Jeanneau on saxophone, Jenny-Clark on double bass and percussion, Lubat replaces Thollot on drums and Michel Grailler is added …

*2022 stock.* Futura Marge presents Some Jive Ass Boer / Live at Jazz Unité by John Dyani (double bass, piano & vocals) & Mal Waldron (piano) - Guest on one track : Pablo Sauvage (percussion)Recorded live on 16 April 1981 at Jazz Unité (Paris-La Défense)

Beautiful solo work from Anthony Braxton -- recorded live in Paris at the start of the 70s, and a fair bit more sensitive than some of his earlier work on that scene! Side one features a beautiful take on Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday" -- one that runs for 25 minutes, and which features Braxton blowing straight, and almost with some of those Lee Konitz-inspired modes he was using around the time. The tune's still got some of the darkness you might expect from Braxton -- but things really go out …

Never broadcasted and unreleased sessions by Dutch keyboard players Rob Franken and Jan Huydts alongside Scope drummer H. Zomer. Session which took place in Feb. 1976 and were stored in VPRO archives untill discovered by journalist Frank Jochemsen who searched for material to use for a radio special about Rob Franken..Check soundbites and discover these unheard and never broadcasted dope jazz funk sessions which will in particulary appeal to fans of the Fender Rhodes piano. Rob Franken was a tal…

Huge Tip! First LP reissue in 50 years! A cutting-edge collage of the Muhammad Ali vs. Mac Foster documentary held at the Budokan in April 1972, with performances by the Yosuke Yamashita Trio (w/ Takeo Moriyama and Seiichi Nakamura). An incredible album, and an incredible cultural moment as well – as Japanese avant piano legend Yosuke Yamashita pays tribute to the great Muhammad Ali – on the occasion of his visit to Japan for the World Heavyweight match in 1972! Half the record features instrume…

The tape recorded in a studio by Yuji Takahashi (synthesizer, sampler) and Masahiko Togashi (percussion) on November 23, 1988 was found for the first time in 34 years, and is now available for download. This album is the culmination of the Takahashi-Togashi duo that began in the spring of 1988 at the Shinjuku Pit Inn, and is an improvisational performance in which Togashi responds to Takahashi's lead. Each member's different musicality is inspired by the other's, and the music is built up in dia…

Reissue of this Japanese early '70s performance group. The group's name is literally the icons for a "circle," "triangle" and "square," with "Maru Sankaku Shikaku" substituting as a translation for those images. Circle Triangle Square were a painted bunch of commune rockers and percussion tribe second to none, whose random bells, flute and remedial tea-tray flailings were still more like the Godz or Nihilist Spasm Band than the deep theta-space obliterations of Taj Mahal Travellers. Led by futur…

Originally issued as El Saturn 101679, recorded on 10/16/79, this incredible album is a mixture of live recording and studio post-production: 'On Jupiter' sounds unique to any other album Sun Ra made. The arkestra reflects a disco pulse right back on itself, and delivers one of the most cohesive albums of their career. The title track is a masterpiece of gentle atonal harmony, while 'Ufo' pushes along at a cracking disco-ish pace with fierce brass and spacey dub effects. On Jupiter uses more tha…

** 180-gram vinyl pressed by Pallas in Germany. Deluxe high-gloss flipback album jacket. 2-page insert with photos from the concert by Warren Berman, lyrics and credits.** This previously unreleased concert recording by the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra of pianist-composer-bandleader Horace Tapscott and a chorus under the direction of vocalist Dwight Trible is a wonderful example of how Tapscott channeled the political and cultural aspirations of a community into music of deep beauty and lasting …