Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Recorded in November 1957 and released in 1960 on Prestige Records, "Soul Junction" is the highly celebrated Red Garland's release featuring the young John Coltrane on tenor sax and Donald Byrd on trumpet. Garland's ultra-relaxed piano fits perfectly with the steady groove provided by George Joyner on bass and Art Taylor on drums, while Coltrane and Byrd often steal the show with outstanding solos. This is a marvelous quintet digging deep into the Blues idiom and the soulful side of Jazz.

The American tenor saxophonist Steve Grossman flew to Japan to record this studio session that features an incredible line up of four local musicians: Takehiro Honda is on the piano with a rhythm section of Hideo Kawahara, Yasushi Yoneki, and Masahiro Yoshida, all working together with a tremendous energy. The recordings are dated February 1986, and include the eponymous Katonah, Afternoon in Paris(J. Lewis), and Friday the 13th (T. Monk).It is worth remembering that Grossman started his journey…

Nice, and official reissue of the rarest LP at cult Strata East label! John Gordon’s ‘Erotica Suite’ is one of the holy grail for deep and spiritual jazz fans, check the superb ‘Neleh’! A great later label effort under the leadership of trombonist John Gordon, with work by James Spaulding on alto and flute, John Miller on piano and keyboards, Waymond Reed on trumpet, Lyle Atkinson on bass, and Frank Derrick on drums and bells

After the stunning success of last year's New American Songbooks, Volume 1, Sound American is proud to present another chapter in their attempt to find new points of view on the concept of the American Songbook. Last year's release found three distinctive voices--Mary Halvorson, Ron Miles, and Greg Saunier--working together to arrange works from mass media. Their collaboration, only a few days in total, culminated in a recording that felt equal parts wild and warm; intimate and revolutiona…

“Fetén” brings together a selection of recordings made in Spain between 1961 and 1974. The tracks selected were originally released on records that have become impossible to find, and which, in most cases, have never been reissued. These are unique recordings spanning modal jazz, hard bop and even avant-garde jazz by Spanish musicians such as Mantequilla, Juan Carlos Calderón, Ricard Roda and Vlady Bas, as well as by international jazzmen like Dusko Goykovich, Lou Bennett and Tino Contreras. Th…

In 1970 Miles Davis unleashed “Bitches Brew”. It sold a million and launched a new style of music: jazz rock. It was the culmination of the work of Miles and his musicians over the previous two years. “Directions In Music” illustrates its conception and immediate aftermath.

Strut present the first ever compilation bringing together classics and rarities from the seminal spiritual jazz and conscious soul label Black Fire, spanning 1975 to 1993. Formed by DJ and record producer Jimmy Gray in Richmond, Virginia, and following in the footsteps of other influential black-owned independent labels like Strata-East and Tribe, the foundation of Black Fire coincided with saxophonist James “Plunky” Branch returning to Richmond from New York to form Oneness Of Juju. The band’s…

** Original 1984 copies ** GRRR presents La Mise En Plis by Michele Buirette. Artwork – Patrice Roger. Recorded By, Mixed By – Jean-Jacques Birgé. Michele Buirette - accorden. Helene Sage - flute. Bernard Vitat - trumpet. Didier Petit - violancello. Ge Cabannes - contrabass.

Azumah was the coming together of a group of talented young dancer-musicians from Soweto (South Africa) with musician and instrument-maker Smiles Mandla Makama of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland). Long Time Ago is the surprising and enticing, resultant album from 1985, recorded in the house of theatre stalwarts Des and Dawn Lindberg in Johannesburg. Produced by David Marks (3rd Ear Music, Hidden Years Music Archive Project), Des Lindberg and Smiles Makama, this album takes us back to a priceless mu…

Tip! Despite the title of the album, it is the Tullio De Piscopo's third work, recorded in 1976. Comprising nine tracks in total across its two sides, “Vol. 2” falls somewhere between fusion and prog, straddling darker, brooding temperaments with joyous, funky lines. Predictably, as is nearly the case with music of this sort, the playing and artistry is top-notch, the band locked together with remarkable precision, but the journey that “Vol. 2” takes is far from expected. Interspersed throughout…

"Pianist / composer Giovanni Di Domenico formed this trio because of the extremely special quality of the sound he wanted to achieve within a musical group, and the choice of the musicians involved in it is extremely related to that special quality. Clinamen, in ancient roman philosopher Lucretius’s 'De Rerum Natura’, is the magic force that makes an atom to change direction during it’s fall and thus be able to hit other atoms and ‘create’ Energy and Life. It’s not a law, it happens by ‘chance’……

Using prepared piano (Anthony Pateras), prepared guitar (David Brown) and drums (Sean Baxter) this live concert of two improvisations was captured at l’Usine in Geneva, Switzerland in 2006, an exploratory conversation of dynamic structures and sound that implicitly references modern compositional approaches to keyboard, strings and percussion. Formed in 2002 Pateras-Baxter-Brown have performed countless concerts throughout Australia, New Zealand and Europe, developing a worldwide reputation for …

*Limited edition of 200 copies.* A trio of violinist Alex Cunningham, drummer Thom Nguyen and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi delivers a new release titled "Basket of Knives" on Astral Editions.

CD edition, tri-panel digipack. The Collective Orchestra was a visionary, short-living creative music collective led by Gaetano Liguori, who was one of the main protagonists of Italian free jazz since the early 70s. It was an important attempt to put together young musicians from the two main towns in Italy, and its respective leading figures: Giorgio Gaslini in Milan and Mario Schiano in Rome. Previous attempts to set up anything similar were, in fact, either frustrated by rivalries betwe…

CD version. Listening to the music of Al Doum & The Faryds is always like staying in the pristine nature of an exotic island, in the sacred harmony of a new organic society; imaging all brothers and sisters singing and dancing in the unity of the brotherhood. This is the message of love and joy that pervade this fourth album, Spirit Rejoin. Moving towards accents of jazz ancestry, the Faryds absorb and re-elaborate -- with remarkable insights -- disparate elements and influences of electric jazz…

**Strictly limited to 500 copies. Digipak with bonus tracks and liner notes by Richard Williams** Jazz in Britain presents Forget To Remember: Live Vol​.​2 1970 by The Ray Russell Sextet featuring Harry Beckett. Previously unreleased live session recorded at the Aeolian Hall 2, New Bond Street, London on the 2nd January 1970. All tracks from the Ray Russell tape archive.

**CD Edition** “Peter Brötzmann has made no secret of the fact he doesn’t especially dig playing with pianists, citing a few notable exceptions including Fred Van Hove, Pat Thomas and Masahiko Satoh. Recorded in Dublin in 2015, this adventurous set extends the honour to Irish pianist Paul G Smyth. As Brötzmann locks into a characteristically savage mutter, Smyth responds with hyperkinetic leaps up the keyboard but, when the tenor briefly drops out, he’s able to employ a more deft touch, generati…

*2022 stock* “exceptionally huge stylistic variety, marvellous and impressive instrumentation and evocative musical language ... remarkable, bright, intensive and original ... creatively made by two innovative and original improvisers.” — Avant Scena Rachel Musson, tenor saxophoneOlie Brice, double bass

Cosmic righteousness from Brother Ahh – an enigmatic musician who worked briefly with Sun Ra, and continued an exploration of the sonic heavens on his own! This rare 1975 album features Ahh's Sound Awareness ensemble – a 25 piece group that features a host of voices set to percussion, flutes, and other intimate and evocative instrumentation. The feel's quite hard to describe – kind of a cross between Sun Ra and Moondog, with the righteous style of vocalization that you might find on some of the …

Labyrinth is dark, brooding, beat-heavy, melancholic mood music courtesy of Ian Carr and the Nucleus crew. A favourite of Madlib, it goes without saying that this is one magnificent record. Originally released on Vertigo in 1973, Labyrinth was never re-pressed and of course those original copies are now very tricky to score. Like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be bac…

*2022 stock.* Tetterapadequ is formed by Italian Daniele Martini (tenor sax) and Giovanni di Domenico (piano), and Portuguese Gonçalo Almeida (double bass) and João Lobo (drums). This quartet creates improvised music, mostly subdued, introverted and restrained, where the four musicians create small creative aural environments, with scarce sounds and making use of empty space. Their first release"And the Missing R" (2008) has appeared on the acclaimed Portuguese label Clean Feed. After some years…

*2022 stock.* Italian piano player Giovanni di Domenico and  Catalan drummer Oriol Roca, have been musical partners for fifteen years. They started playing in duo in 2010 to explore the sound possibilities of their instruments, focusing on silence, density and space in music, through improvised fragments and some original compositions. Their first studio album is now released on Belgian label Spocus Records.

*2022 stock.* Alexandra Grimal goes in her own way, elegant but robust, through the territories of jazz and improvised music over recent years. It was only natural she would meet and regularly play in duet settings with Giovanni di Domenico, as versatile an adventurer as Alexandra is, both in his musical choices and collaborations. Three years after their first recording together (2011's Ghibli on the Sans Bruit label), Chergui was recorded over two nights at the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris, Fran…

*2022 stock.* “Family Drug” is the premiere recordings of M(h)ysteria, a new trio founded by Giovanni Di Domenico. While featuring the instrumentation of a classic organ trio, M(h)ysteria charges a rather darker path. Not a swinging session, this is an expression of coping with the chronic tensions of modern daily life, with its inherent distractions and mounting stress, as well as a larger feeling of foreboding. Its sound a symptom of a future glittering with menace. Keeping the roles of the in…

*2022 stock.* Not exactly prolific this band: their first album "And The Missing R" dates from 2008 already, and now, seven years later we get their sophomore album, and that is many years too late, but their music is great. The band still consists of Belgian-Italian Daniele Martini on tenor sax, Belgian-Italian pianist Giovanni di Domenico, Portuguese bassist Gonçalo Almeida who resides in Rotterdam, and Portuguese drummer João Lobo.  The first track, "Non Negative Python", is a slow intimate a…

*2022 stock.* The band consists of Italians living in Belgium - Daniele Martini and Giovanni di Domenico, as well as two Portuguese residing in Netherlands - Gonçalo Almeida & João Lobo. Tetterapadequ is a free-jazz quartet firmly rooted in the traditions of European improvised music. It is no accident, that their first album released in 2008 was pressed by Clean Feed label. On "Pangatuna" we can hear the band enlarged to an octet, which enriched their music with brand new, almost orchestral dim…

Since their meeting in the Hague in the Netherlands in 2002, Alexandra Grimal and Giovanni di Domenico have been playing together regularly. Since 2011 they have been offering several subtle and inspired tête-à-têtes: Ghibli, Chergui and Down the Hill, which was released on January 19th, 2020. Ghibli, around a repertoire composed by the Italian pianist, released on the Sans Bruit label in 2011, the music navigates on the mineral lines of Alexandra Grimal's saxophones that come to rest and intert…

Steve Day, poet, writer, percussionist has been around Discus Records for several years contributing sleeve notes for Keith Tippett recordings as well as reviews and other wordplay. Although he and comrades Peter Evans, Julian Dale, Mark Langford, have recorded for other labels, the Day Evans Dale Ensemble is a completely new venture with regular live dates in a range of venues. This seemed like an appropriate time to bring their 'new thing' to Discus Music; a mix of spoken word and spontaneous …

Delivery Health is the highly idiosyncratic trio of Giovanni Di Domenico, Jim O'Rourke and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto. The recording was done in Tokyo's great GOK Sound, directly on 24 tracks tape recorder, and was mixed at Steamroom, Tokyo, by Jim O'Rourke himself. The blend of early 70's ECM drumsound, long unfolding travelogues and the great trasparency of the mix, give to this record a breadth and deepness that will give hard times catagorizing it's music, where jazz (the one of Abercrombie's Gatewa…

Giovanni Di Domenico (piano, Rhodes), With Norberto Lobo (acoustic guitar), Tetuzi Akiyama (acoustic guitar) and Jim O'Rourke (electric guitar). Recorded during the course of 3 years (from 2011 to 2013) in various locations in Brussels and Tokyo, this double LP puts together 3 of the most uncompromising and original guitar players of the globe (there should have been a fourth great guitar player, the late Hans Reichel, but unfortunately he passed away days before asking him to join the project),…

**Numbered edition of 200** Silent Water presents Peachinguinha by Peachfuzz, who are João Almeida: trumpet, Norberto Lobo: electric guitar, João Lopes Pereira: drums. recorded by João Almeida at Fonte Santa, Alandroal, march 2021

*In process of stocking.* The Roadburn Festival has, in recent years, expanded from a metal-oriented set of concerts to include classical, jazz, and ambient / drone music as well. What’s more, Roadburn typically books outside-leaning artists in these additional styles of music. Enter the Martina Verhoeven Quintet, consisting of an all-star lineup with Verhoeven on piano, Gonçalo Almeida on bass, Onno Govaert on drums, Dirk Serries on guitar, and Colin Webster on sax. Driven is a near 50-minute, …

** 2021 Stock. In process of stocking ** Craftman Records presents "Ryuhyo" – Sailing Ice by Motohiko Hino Quartet. Art Direction – 西沢勉, Bass – 井野信義, Drums – 日野 元彦, Engineer [Assistant] – Shigeru Kadowaki, Toshiaki Kanazawa, Engineer [Recording] – Masayoshi Okawa, Executive-Producer – A. Fukutomi, K. Saga, Guitar – 渡辺香津美, Liner Notes – 森田俊一, 藤井健夫, Photography By [Cover] –佐々木政勝, Producer – 藤井 武, Tenor Saxophone – 山口真文, Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone – 清水靖晃.

** 2021 Stock. In process of stocking ** Craftman Records presents 2nd Album by Kosuke Mine Quintet. Recorded November 29 and December 2, 1970. Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Kosuke Mine, Art Direction – Ben Nishizawa, Bass – Yoshio Suzuki, Drums – Hiroshi Murakami, Engineer [Assistant] – Kenji Kurota, Engineer [Recording] – Yoshihiko Kannari, Guitar – Yoshiaki Masuo, Liner Notes – Shoichi Yui, Producer – Takeshi "Tee" Fujii, Producer [Associate] – Kazumitsu Saga, Trombone – Takashi Imai.

** 2021 Stock. In process of stocking ** Craftman Records presents Blues For Tee by Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio. Recorded live in concert on December 25, 1974. Art Direction – Ben Nishizawa, Bass – Akira Daiyoshi, Drums – Toshio Osumi, Mixed By – Yoshihiko Kannari, Photography By – Akira Aimi, Piano – Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, Producer – Takeshi Fujii.

Pianist Imada Masaru was 42 years old when he recorded this album in 1975. His adventurous spirit led him to use the electric piano for the first time in a recording, and thanks to his musicianship, he made it sound like he'd been playing the instrument for years. The program opens with the title track, a sophisticated urban funk. Guitarist Kazumi Watanabe plays a big role here. It is followed by a more intricate, fusion-like "Straight Flash." The all-original-composition program switches gear o…

Gondwana Records present ‘Next Time Could Be Your Last Time’ – the debut album by Forgiveness, AKA Jack Wyllie, JQ and Richard Pike. Described as “not really jazz, not really new age, not really ambient or electronica”, instead they welcome you into a synaesthesia-inducing technicolour fantasy, full of wondrous emotive beauty. This genesis began with the sharing of music, burgeoning friendships, and the mutually-inspirational benefit of the collective power of a group dynamic, with each spurring…

Earlier in 2017 Everland Jazz presented a reissue of Danser's Inferno's - Creation One, originally released in 1973. Now we present the even more obscure release The Danser Revolution by The John Danser Octet, almost impossible to find in original format. The ultra rare funky jazz LP from 1977 contains the killer funky fusion tune "Cool" known for being sampled by Gangstarr, Blackalicious and J.Dilla. At age 14, John Danser emigrated from London and established himself in New York City where he …

Recorded on 24/07/2021 in Buenos Aires, Argentine.  In Argentina, improvised music or free music (here, choose the label you like) is not something new. As early as the mid-sixties, Juan Carlos Cáceres, fine arts student, pianist and trombonist left his sound experiments recorded. Thus the scene, fed by musicians who come from free improvisation, jazz and even rock, has developed strongly in the last twenty years. In this context, Osvaldo La Porta, Darío Dolci and Omar Grandoso are, at the same …

This is a wonderful rediscovery, and one of the great lost sessions of the 60s. Drummer Pete LaRoca made only three albums as a leader during his heyday in the 1960s and now this long forgotten session is available once again. Although best known for his Blue Note debut Basra in 1965, LaRoca recorded two albums for Douglas Recordings in 1967, the previously released Bliss! and this obscure date. This session is a fascinating slice of late-60s modally influenced Jazz featuring an especially welco…