Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Double bass legend Joelle Leandre and young Catalonian drummer virtuoso Nuria Andorra together. Two generations of the improvised music world, two different approaches to improvisation, and one incredible world of music!

Originally released in May 2006 through the German label Karaoke Kalk, »Osaka Bridge« was an album that captured the joyful amateurism of Tori Kudo's free-spirited Japanese collective Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Bill Wells’ rich, wistful and easy sense of melody. Approaching brass band and jazz music with a knack for making playing imperfectly feel perfectly right, »Osaka Bridge« became nothing short of groundbreaking when it was released to critical acclaim, becoming an instant classic among musi…

**478 page! Texts in English and French ** A polyphonic evocation of the American saxophonist through the testimonies of some forty international musicians. And you, how do you hear him? As we approach the twentieth anniversary of Steve Lacy' death (or the ninetieth anniversary of his birth), Guillaume Tarche asked the question, in English, in French, in Italian, to Steve Adams, Irene Aebi, Guillaume Belhomme, Etienne Brunet, Frank Carlberg, Kent Carter, Andrea Centazzo, Allan Chase, Alvin Curra…

Peter Brötzmann, alto, tenor & baritone saxophone, e-flat clarinet, tarogato. Harry Miller, double bass. Louis Moholo, drums. On Opened, But Hardly Touched, the Brötzmann-Miller-Moholo combination, displays the most accessible approach of the live trio recordings surveyed. An extemporaneous master who puts the spur in the spur of the moment, reedman Peter Brötzmann is surely one of Albert Ayler's most vital sons for his blowing stamina and savage sense of humor. Bassist Harry Miller and drummer …

*2022 repress* Studio Mule present a re-recording of Motohiko Hamase's Intaglio, originally released in 1986. Currently the rediscovery of long-forgotten Japanese electronic, jazz, and new age music is at a peak like never before. Although many reissues have already hit record stores, the large, diverse musical culture of Japan still got some gems in store that are really missing. For example, the work of Japanese bass player, new age and ambient musician Motohiko Hamase. When the now 66-year ol…

**CD edition** Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London’s Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-minute performance, inspired …

Those already familiar with the classic 1970 Lansdowne Recordings album Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises by Neil Ardley, Don Rendell and Ian Carr will immediately recognise the four compositions on this EP from the closing segment of that collection. The versions included here however, are taken from a separate session recorded around the same time and reveal that Rendell had a grander vision for them than simply to round off a collaborative album. Not only are the tracks here nearly 20…

In These Times is the new album by Chicago-based percussionist, composer, producer, and pillar of our label family, Makaya McCraven. Although this album is “new," the truth it’s something that's been in process for a very long time, since shortly after he released his International Anthem debut In The Moment in 2015. Dedicated followers may note he’s had 6 other releases in the meantime (including 2018’s widely-popular Universal Beings and 2020’s We’re New Again, his rework of Gil Scott-Heron’s …

**CD Edition** Live was mostly recorded on November 1st, 2019, at Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin, Germany, during the 2019 edition of JazzFest Berlin. For Angel Bat Dawid and her band Tha Brothahood – which includes Deacon Otis Cooke, Viktor Le Givens, Xristian Espinoza, Norman W. Long, Dr. Adam Zanolini, and Asher Simiso Gamedze – it was the first stop of their first European tour.  Forty-eight hours before the show, Angel and members of the band were on their way to the airport in Chic…

Makaya McCraven’s mixtape is the product of an activist’s intuition, bringing together the brightest stars of the time between Chicago and London. How do we explain this meeting of two cities’ scenes if not via the buzz around each?  Host to the locals on their turf, Makaya McCraven was surrounded by young English treasures (Joe Armon-Jones, Nubya Garcia, Theon Cross, Kamaal Williams, Emma Jean-Thackray) for two concerts at the TRC. Once recorded, they then placed the Chicago drummer in his curr…

This landmark production from the renowned Polish label is finally here! Not Two Records presents, "The Fire Each Time," a 6 CD boxset of recordings from the DKV Trio with Joe McPhee as a guest, and dedicated to James Baldwin. The music was recorded during the quartet's tour in Europe which took place in November of 2017, and at shows in Chicago and Milwaukee from December of that year. These performances are historic in many respects: the DKV Trio (with Hamid Drake [drums], Kent Kessler [bass]…

Dedicated to the memory of reed & wind players Perry Robinson and Mark Whitecage, both of whom have passed since they took part in this tremendous 2015 live recording recorded at the 20th VisionFest in NYC, in a quartet with bassist Ken Filiano and drummer Lou Grassi for three collective free jazz, particularly the extended first improvisation dedicated to late trumpeter Roy Campbell.

*In process of stocking* "Ballister is a transatlantic powerhouse. This free-wheeling trio first came together at a closed session in 2009, and as any fan of improvised music can imagine, the band hit hard from the first note and hasn't looked back since. The unabashed energy of Rempis and PNL, coupled with the electrified cello antics of Lonberg-Holm, make for a powerful listening experience that combines driving grooves with noisy textures and occasional melodic interjections. These sliding an…

Never released outside South Africa, and out of print even there since its original release in 1974, Outernational Sounds presents one of the most sought-after international jazz exclusives ever to appear on South Africa’s famous Gallo imprint – the funky, spiritual and outward bound Habiba. As the archives of South Africa’s premier record labels steadily give up the treasures that were hidden in the darkness of the apartheid era, the incredible heritage of South African jazz is gradually findin…

*In process of stocking* Official Afrodelic reissue of the ultra-rare Tunde Mabadu’s debut album. Originally released in 1978 on Blackspot label (Decca's West Africa division), Bisu, which includes the supergroovy ‘Red Jeans’, differs from the later 1980 ‘Viva Disco’ album by a much more pure African style. A beautiful and soulful production in which Tunde's deep voice and sax move on the excellent horns arrangements, percussions, the wahwah rhythm guitar and weird keyboards and synths (at times…

*2022 stock* Ill considered 8 was recorded live during our tour in the fall of 2018. Once again thanks for your ongoing support

*200 copies limited edition* Recorded live at 'Mu' Dalston London on the 7th of July 2022 Personnel:Bruno Heinen - PianoGene Calderazzo - DrumsJulian Siegel - Tenor SaxophoneLeon Brichard - Double Bass

*In process of stocking* "We Three, recorded in a single session on November 14, 1958, was the first American studio date as a bandleader for the diminutive and legendary jazz drummer Roy Haynes, although with pianist Phineas Newborn on board (along with bassist Paul Chambers), it really is a set dominated by Newborn, whose busy, two-handed technique here works in tandem balance with Haynes' cool refinement. Newborn was all about amazing and dazzling piano runs that on some dates created simply …

*In process of stocking* ZZAJ: Jazz from the 23rd Century, is a thrilling new collection of music featuring 34 new songs – all previously unreleased – from artists from all over the world. The brainchild of producers/multi-instrumentalists Jerry King (Cloud Over Jupiter, Moon X, John Shirley & Jerry King) and Dave Newhouse (The Muffins, Manna Mirage, Moon X), ZZAJ asked musicians to interpret jazz from various conceptual viewpoints, particularly avoiding traditional jazz sounds. Says King, “It’s…

A sprawling meditation for afro-cosmonauts, a reminder of the forms and traumas of the past, and the shape and vision of Afrotopian sounds to come

Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Sun Ra Discipline 27-II, originally released on El Saturn Records in 1973. Arguably the last great original-era Saturn LP to be reissued on CD, Discipline 27-II has long deserved to be more familiar to Sun Ra fans and layfolk alike. Recorded during the same sessions in 1972 at Chicago's Streeterville Studios that produced Ra's most popular and best-known record, Space Is The Place (1973), it's got much the same vibe, from the 24-minute four-part suite of …

Gondwana Records and Portico Quartet announce a strictly limited edition collectors-item. Featuring an expanded version of their long-form composition Terrain and re-arranged for the Portico Quartet Ensemble and recorded live in Studio One

The first Wandering The Sound album in 2018 was the trio of Argentinian reedist Guillermo Gregorio, Spanish drummer Ramón López and Polish bassist Rafał Mazur, here extended to a quintet with pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura for a 2019 concert at Alchemia in Poland, a masterful example of free improv based on a poem by Ikkyu Sojun, a Zen master from the 15th century.

Taking its album title and the titles for three compositions from poems by Laura Winter, the German jazz quartet led by clarinetist Theo Jörgensmann with Christopher Dell on vibes, Christian Ramond on double bass and Klaus Kugel on drums present an advanced example of modern creative, chamber-oriented collective free jazz with a stunning level of communication.

** 2021 Stock ** Tenor sax savant Ivo Perelman has made an endless number of recordings just on the idea of instantaneously creating music with only one to three partners. It’s an idea he could probably mine forever because of his inspired choice for partners and the equally inspired tactic of making no type of instrument off limits to spar with his sax. Perelman’s ability to adjust to any situation and still be very much himself is unsurpassed. The Purity of Desire inserts Perelman into a decid…

** 2021 Stock ** To say that pianist Marilyn Crispell, who turns 74 this month, has charted new territory would be an understatement. It would be just as accurate to say she has redrawn maps of old territory. At her hands, the keyboard leaps like a compass gleeful over its sentience, directing notes with the same force of intention that a seafarer would a ship carrying precious cargo. Whether solo or, as in the two discs presented here, in combination with others, she brings a reverent sense of …

** 2021 Stock ** Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik seems to thrive in duo settings. Michael Zerang, a Chicago-based drummer, is with her on Dream Disobedience, a live recording made at Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2019. The conversation, unabated for 35 minutes, is rather subdued, Harnik usually initiating each new topic, alternating traditional approaches with more unusual in-the-box techniques while Zerang eschews straight timekeeping for a more reactive role, adding the musical equivalents of ‘Hmm!…

** 2021 Stock ** "Not to burden trombonist Steve Swell with titanic comparisons, but it is safe to say that he is a logical heir to the worldly, cutting-edge personship of Roswell Rudd. Swell studied under Rudd and also with masters Jimmy Knepper and Grachan Moncur III (like Rudd, an associate of Archie Shepp in the '60s). Swell possesses a hearty, rippling, vibrant, somewhat vocalized tone, one of the most distinctive around, and like Rudd, is strongly rooted in the past with an eye on the oute…

Subtitled' Tribute to Eric and Chris Stern' by the creative pairings of Natsuki Tamura (trumpet) and Satoko Fujii (piano) creating music distinctive in character and surprising in form, at times emerging from raw sounds and cycling assymetrical events. Their two voices contrast and converge over a wide terrain occupied by unusual elements including unorthodox scales and microtones, extreme timbral contrasts and off-balance dialogue.

Recorded live in concert by Iztok Zupan at tube’s, Graz/Austria on 24th March 2019

Marilyn Lerner (piano), Ken Filiano (bass & effects) and Lou Grassi (drums & percussion) extend their trio work after their previous two NoBusiness releases — "Live At Edgefest" and "Arms Spread Wide" — with this album of profound collective improvisation, recorded live in the studio before an audience. The band blends lyrical and abstract work in energetic but never frenetic conversation, eliciting a range of moods as only such familiarity and history can. Asisted with incredible technical and …

Polish label Not Two presents a new release by Alexander von Schlippenbach and Dag Magnus Narvesen recorded live at Spor 5 in Stavanger, Norwey on 3rd March 2018.Featured tracks include:1. Relay Extempore – Trackside Duologues I / Kinga2. Reveries in Monochrome – Trackside Duologues II / Strings and Barrels3. Morphing Monk – Variations over Light Blue, Work, Trinkle Trinkle and Skippy / Sic Transit4. Brass Tacks – Vantage Ad Lib / All The Things You Are / Trackside Duologues III / Something Swee…

Agrakal is the trio of Marco Colonna (clarinet), Augusti Fernandez (piano), and Zlatko Kaucic (percussions), three musicians able to cross cultures and attitudes and develop a new language of abstract collective jazz, Fernandez being the pivot point between the trio, having previously recorded and toured as a duo with both Colonna and Kaucic.

"If ever a group deserved the title of “free jazz power trio”, it would be this one. Legendary reedist Brötzmann, American trombonist Steve Swell and the mighty Nilssen-Love have been playing together since early 2015, and have two masterful live sets under their belt, Krakow Nights and Live in Copenhagen.Live in Tel Aviv, which documents an October ‘16 performance by the trio, is the perfect entry-point for those who might be intimidated by the relatively long lengths of those prior albums - at…

Ears Are Filled With Wonder, the debut release from the duo of pedal steel player Heather Leigh and reedist Peter Brötzmann, blows the old adage about improvised music somehow not being best appreciated via the recordings to beautiful pieces. This is a music that demands re-visiting, that seems to alter, slightly, every time it is played, with new details emerging, new relationships of tone and style, new romance, even. Recorded during a mammoth stint in Kraków, Poland, where Brötzmann and…

2012 release. The great German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brotzmann (also playing clarinet and tarogato on this album) is joined by Masahiko Satoh on piano and Takeo Moriyama on drums on this exciting and frequently thrilling album which was recorded in November of 2011 in Krakow, Poland. The title track “Yatagarasu” leads off the album with wailing saxophone, piano and drums. It’s interesting to hear Brotzmann perform with a pianist, something that I have rarely heard him do. He even drops out…

2013 Release. Recorded live in front of a small audience on May 15th, 2011 at Eklisia - an old chapel built in the 17th century in Gümüşlük, a small village near Bodrum - this improvisation features the Konstrukt collective - which is Korhan Futacı (tenor & soprano saxophones), Umut Çağlar (electric guitar), Özün Usta (double bass, djembe, gong, bells), Korhan Argüden (drums) - incredibly enriched by the presence of Peter Brötzmann (on tenor), Hüseyin Ertunç (acoustic piano, küstüfon, gong), Doğ…

Pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuka Tamura performing in the studio in Krakow, Poland, for a duo of sublime power and great dynamic, modern jazz with a wealth of influence and performed with technical prowess.

Not Two Records presents Beauty / Resistance by Joelle Leandre. Recorded live at the Krakow Jazz Autumn Festival 2019, in Club Alchemia, in Krakow, Poland, Fall, 2019, by Rafal Drewniany. Joelle Leandre, bass. Zlatko Kaucic, drums, percussion. Mateusz Rybicki, clarinets. Zbigniew Kozera, bass. Rafa Mazur, acoustic, bass guitar.

*2022 stock. In process of stocking* Sun Ra said he came from Saturn, because white America treated him like an alien, like a creature from outer space, so he became one, an anarcho-emperor of the fantastic, who made it to the moon before America or Russia, because the moon was nowhere near as far out as he could really go.“ – Paul Morley Strut and Art Yard join forces for a special release to mark what would have been Sun Ra’s 100th birthday with ’In The Orbit Of Ra’, a new collection presented…