Jazz /
Sun Beans of Shimmering Light
Astral Spirit presents Sun Beans of Shimmering Light by Wadada Leo Smith, Douglas R. Ewart, Mike Reed. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Dave Zuchowski. Photos by Michael Jackson. All compositions by Smith, Ewart, and Reed (Kiom Music, ASCAP; Nikoranza Publishing Company BMI; Reedmicj Publishing, ASCAP). "Commercial Improvisation", Cover Art Image (c) 2020 Sonnenzimmer, Nick Butcher & Nadine Nakanishi. Layout by Nick LaRoche.
The Glass Delusion
Astral Spirit presents The Glass Delusion by Kuzu. Recorded October 13th, 2018 at Elastic Arts in Chicago and October 14th, 2018 at The Sugar Maple in Milwaukee, WI. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Dave Zuchowski. All compositions by Rempis/Dorji/Damon. Special Thanks to Adrienne Pierluissi and Bob Szocik. Artwork & Layout by Robert Beatty.
Dave Rempis - alto/tenor/baritone saxophonesTashi Dorji - guitarTyler Damon - drums
Nights on Saturn - Communication
Astral Spirit presents Nights on Saturn (Communication) by [Ahmed]. Recorded live at Cafe OTO, London, December 5th, 2019. Recording: Shaun Cook. Mixing: Billy Steiger. Mastering: Mikey Young. Inner-sleeve text: ' Origins Revisited' by Pat Thomas (2004). Cover photo of Ahmed Abdul-Malik at the Cabana Club, New York City, 1965. "The journey of self-discovery, communing with the eternal sound. A musician steeped in multiple worlds; oceans apart yet closely connected in ancestral memory. Musicians …
The Other Side of Time
** Repress. Double LP on 140g black vinyl housed in a Tip-on Stoughton Gatefold Jacket with amazing artwork by Damon Locks ** Astral Spirits presents The Other Side of Time by Quin Kirchner. Recorded at Minbal & Future House in Chicago, IL. Engineered by Nick Broste, Benjamin Balcom & Quin Kirchner. Mixed by Nick Broste at Shape Shoppe. Mastered by Peter Andreadis at All City Mastering. Produced by Quin Kirchner. Artwork by Damon Locks.
All compositions by Quin Kirchner (BMI) except: Limbo wri…
Where We Come From
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…
The Oracle
Composer, clarinetist, singer and spiritual jazz soothsayer Angel Bat Dawid descended on Chicago's jazz and improvised music scene just a few years ago. In very short time, the potency, prowess, spirit and charisma of her cosmic musical proselytizing has taken her from relatively unknown improviser to borderline ubiquitous performer in Chicago's avant-garde. On any given night you can find Angel adding aura to ensembles led by Ben LaMar Gay, or Damon Locks, or Jaimie Branch, or Matthew Lux, or e…
Live at the BBC
14 CD set containing 27 complete radio programmes constituting 14 hours of music Over 100 remastered and restored tracks from 1969-1990 together for the first time on one release Featuring contributions from many legends of British jazz including Jack Bruce, Jon Hiseman, Don Rendell, Harry Beckett, Kenny Wheeler, Henry Lowther, Ian Carr, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Gary Husband, Frank Ricotti and Chris Spedding
This previously hidden treasure trove of Barbara Thompson recordings amounts to 14 CDs cont…
Beautiful Bamboo-Flute
** In process of stocking ** Seminal Japanese jazz album from 1971. Journeys through jazz fusion, soul and big band moods. Impossible to obtain in its original format, these days. Hozan Yamamoto was recognised as a "living national treasure" by the Japanese government in 2002. This highly sought-after album from the Japanese wood flute player is more upbeat and swinging than some of his other records. The big band he recorded this album with (Sharps & Flats) played a big part in the genesis of t…
Dream Disobedience
** 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!…
Streams
** 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 …
Stone Jump
** 2021 Stock ** Not Two presents Stone Jump by Michael Marcus. Denton Darien – piano, John Austria – Fender Rhodes piano, Tyler Mitchell – acoustic bass, Warren Smith – drums & percussion, Lawrence Feldman – alto flute, Michael Marcus – soprano sax.
Voila la Tendresse
** 2021 Stock ** Pianist Carlo Morena leads this lyrical and energetic piano trio with bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Félix Lecaros Herrera, performing 6 Morena compositions and one piece by Emil Boyd, recording at the Firehouse 12 studio in Connecticut for the 3rd album under the Step In name, and the first with drummer Herrera; upbeat but never cloying, a very compelling album.
Spiracle
** 2021 Stock ** A truly unique duo album of sax and drums from Chicago reedist Mars Williams and Spanish percussionist Vasco Trilla, using their immense technical skills to pivot reflective and meditative playing around exuberant free jazz spirit, maintaining a sense of journey and sonic introspection through unusual and extended technique; a beautifully balanced album. "Both American reedman Mars Williams and Spanish percussionist Vasco Trilla show themselves well grounded in the duet configur…
The Purity of Desire
** 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…
The Center Will Hold
** 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…
Free Jazz Manifesto
** Texts in English and French ** 169 fundamental free jazzrecords recommended in 180 pages by Maurizio & Roberto Opalio (My Cat Is An Alien) and Philippe Robert, from must-have classics to indispensable curiosities. Free Jazz Manifesto is not simply a list of 169 recommended records, but a poetic vision, a parallel universe based on a personal aesthetics of perception and an in-nite love for the most creative, incendiary, spiritual music. If Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman or Anthony Braxton are well p…
Stigma
When in 1970 Jerzy Milian was developing his regular cooperation with the Berlin radio, which was launched a few months earlier by recording music for the television ballet “Rivalen”, he was at the peak of his creative possibilities. He could boast of three years of success with his own trio, along with cooperation with Gustav Brom and an ongoing adventure with the Belgian big band BRT. He also had an abundance of ideas and energy that could be devoted not to one, but two projects. In July 1970,…
Die Unwucht
Neither musician has to be dominant to prove that he has something to say. Instead of trying to outdo each other, they develop a compelling, very soulful world of their own. In the history of jazz they are two more rhapsodists continuing the tradition, while changing the context of the stories and thus making them plausible. What is amazing is their calm maturity that does completely without the frills of elec- tronics. Dense and compact but at the same time transparent and delicate the music pr…
Free Fall Clarinet 1962, Revisited
Temporary Super Offer! The trio of Jimmy Giuffre, pianist Paul Bley, and Steve Swallow on acoustic bass, through their previous recordings and live concerts in Europe, had reached the precipice of complete improvisational freedom. The leap came with Free Fall. What I feel to be the more revealing and revolutionary aspects of this album, however, are to be found in the five unaccompanied clarinet pieces. – Art Lange
With this release we like to celebrate Jimmy Giuffre at 100. (26. April 1921 – 24…
Some Jellyfish Live Forever
** 2021 Repress ** A great reunion of the Jeff Parker/Rob Mazurek duo – a pair who've only continued to grow strongly in the years since their Chicago Underground classics – and who bring all that sense of energy to play in their music! The sounds here represent the deeper, more mature styles that both musicians have hit – a way of almost being more powerful by being less aggressive – especially from Mazurek, who's got this wonderfully gentle touch on his horn at times – wrapped up in these wave…