Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Reissue of this long lost funky Afrobeat/Reggae classic from 1978. For fans of Fela Kuti, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Segun Bucknor. The year is 1978 and one hot thing from the musical underground is Reggae music from Jamaica, the USA or the UK, where most of the acts had musicians of Caribbean descent. Reggae had the groove, the rebel spirit, and the relaxed attitude all in one, to enchant a big part of the world’s inhabitants. And while at least Jamaica as a relatively poor and so-called "Third Wo…

Here it is, naked to the bone, free jazz in all its glory, loose, intense and furious, not in hanger but with "joie de vivre." A sax-drums duo like comprised of Thomas Beaudelin on saxophone and Erwan Cornic on percussion, makes you anticipate an essentialist approach to the communicative powers of improvisation. The music is dense and intense, seeming to drag everything that happens to be in their path with vehement free sounding and shamanic interplay. Don't miss this one

2018 repress; double LP version. For the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, the voyage to where they are now -- whether tearing up festivals from Glastonbury to Melbourne, or touring with Gorillaz, or recording their first album on Honest Jon's -- has involved a necessary stepping away from their father's shadow. Phil Cohran is the first to recognize this, happily allowing their sound -- heavy on the funk, with the urgency of hip-hop never far away -- to blossom. But likewise this album is for all of them…

Stunning! **300 copies** Pianist and composer Fred Van Hove (°1937) was involved in the Big Bang of European free improvisation (Machine Gun by the Peter Brötzmann Octet), but also became one of Europe’s finest and most underestimated improvisers. Mostly known for his 70’s trio with Brötzmann and Han Bennink, Van Hove’s trajectory over the past four decades has been one of the brilliant, but unsung stories of the music.The new Dropa Disc release Fred Van Hove At 80 is an effort to rectify this i…

Pioneering percussionist Solomon Ilori was one of the first Nigerian artists to record with American jazz musicians, travelling to New York in 1958 to introduce African music to American audiences. After appearing on Art Blakey’s 1962 LP The African Beat for Blue Note; he recorded African High Life with members of Blakey’s ensemble, including guitarist Jay Berliner, bassist Ahmed Abdul Malik, Hosea Taylor on alto sax and flute, and percussionists Montego Joe, Robert Crowder and Garvin Masseaux. …

"Moon Piano" is the second in Laraaji's trilogy of piano albums, and follows the spiritual "Sun Piano", released earlier this summer. The piano was the first instrument the esteemed ambient idol learned, and his return to the keys feels generous and open-hearted. Laraaji's focus here is more melancholy and contemplative than on the album's predecessor, and while the same process was used - “I’d sit down, touch the piano and through free association, also blending it with my prepared mental state…

* First Release. Includes 12-page 8" x 8" booklet with photos, essays and credits, as well a 12-page 5.25" x 8.25" replica concert program by the Palo Alto High School International Club, and 16.5" x 10.5" replica concert poster. * Palo Alto is a previously unknown and unreleased live Thelonious Monk recording. After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, racial tensions across the country rose. Palo Alto, a largely white college town in California, was not immune to the event…

**CD version** "A sublime trio set from drummer Charles Rumback – a record that has us really appreciating the special touch the leader can bring to a date, as this album may also be one of the best that we've heard from pianist Jim Baker in years! Baker has this great way of sounding soulful and lyrical, yet also moving towards the freer side of his spectrum too – working with the subtle drums of Rumback and the careful bass of John Tate, all with energy that almost takes us back to the groundb…

**180 gram audiophile vinyl** When driving a band with his upright bass, Charles Mingus looked -and was- gigantic, in more ways than one. He had huge creative appetites (as well as being hot tempered), creating his own combination of hard bop, blues, and avant-garde jazz. There was no one more multi-faceted than Mingus between the 1950s and 1970s and of his many albums, Mingus Ah Um (1959) is considered to be a jazz classic.

* A remastered, deluxe 180g 2-LP, each with the original album plus a bonus disc of alternate takes and versions – including rehearsal and incomplete tracks, as well as False Starts – only previously included in The Heavyweight Champion: The Complete Atlantic Recordings of John Coltrane boxed set. 2-LP configuration features a 12” x 12” 12pp booklet, packaged in a replica of the original 1969 stereo pressing, with a 12” x 12” album cover insert included * John Coltrane is one of the most renowne…

Icepick is the super-power trio of some of the busiest musicians on this planet – American, Brooklyn-based trumpeter Nate Wooley, Norwegian, Austin-based bass player Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and American, Upstate New York-based drummer Chris Corsano. «Hellraiser» is already the third album of this trio and was recorded live in February 2018, on the occasion of a gathering supporting the Option series at Experimental Sound Studios (ESS) in Chicago. Originally, this performance was slated for anoth…

“Sometimes it’s dumb fun to think up impossible supergroups. Maybe they help you imagine a sound you’ve never considered, a combination of histories and vectors that contradicts those that might be steered by normal forces, such as geography or genre or circle of colleagues. A parlor game designed to transcend time and place.Here’s one: John Carter, Bernard Parmegiani, Mike Ratledge and Tony Williams. Think of the possibilities, Ratledge offers fudgy bass keyboards, circa 1970, Soft Machine’s Th…

On May 13, 2000 the Chicago Underground Quartet played one of the most searing and transcendent sets of music I’ve ever witnessed, as part of the Empty Bottle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music. Cornetist Rob Mazurek, guitarist Jeff Parker, drummer Chad Taylor, and bassist Noel Kupersmith performed with a fiery singularity of purpose, ripping through its set like a bulldozer, albeit a machine marked by nuance and soulfulness. The following year the same line-up—which had previously made two alb…

* Second edition. Each cover have individual artwork, different from the 1st edition * Modern Free / Experimental Jazz with heavy Brazillian rhythms and thundering electronics from the mysterious (but obviously very experienced) group. "Make it like starring at the shadows in plato's cave . Oblique and mysterioso - in a ponderous kind of everything and nothing puff of peppermint tinged smoke kind of a way"

The planets align this October as the mighty Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of the maestro Marshall Allen, release their first studio album in over twenty years, ‘Swirling’. Recorded at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia, the new recording represents the continuation of a heartfelt rebirth of the Arkestra under Allen’s guidance since Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, gaining new generations of followers from their regular touring across the globe. With a big band line-up featuring long-s…

Mass Hysterism: In Another Situation, a 1983 record by the late Japanese noise-guitar hellion Masayuki Takayanagi (1932–1991) is one of those albums that always going to be lurking in my attic, so to speak. I can put it away for a while, but it never goes to sleep—it's always calling me. Even if it takes a few years, I'll be back. (As an illustration of this, I obsessed over Takayanagi in a February 2007 post as well.) It's a bashing, clanging exorcism: two electric guitars (the other played by …

LP version. Recording of the stunning first set performed by the trio of Peter Brötzmann, Steve Noble and John Edwards at Cafe OTO in January 2010 during Brotzmann's first residency at the venue. This was also the first time the trio had played together. Recorded at Cafe OTO by Shane Browne, mixed by John Edwards and Mastered by Andres [LUPO] Lupich at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. "Does the world need another Brötzmann album? Probably not, but as the inaugural release on Cafe OTO's in-house hi…

Outside of the 2CD release ‘Never Too Late But Always Too Early’ (Eremite, 2003) there has been scant documentation of one of the most dynamic pairings in all free jazz. Featuring unique material on each format Song Sentimentale rectifies this anomaly with a full blown audio account of the breathtaking communicative heights obtained by these three legends of the living. Over 3 nights in January 2015 the trio seduced a winter worn crowd with the kind of organic interplay only these three can conj…

**This version also includes a bonus Action Direct CDr** Jinya Disc presents a live concert by New Direction. The album includes 2 tracks performed by Masayuki Takayanagi - Guitar, and Kaoru Abe - Alto Saxophone. The first album track: Thursday / Gradually Projection, was recorded on June 18, 1970 at Tokyo. The second one: Jha / Mass Projection was recorded on May or June, 1970 at Tokyo. Masayuki 'Jojo' Takayanagi was a Japanese jazz / free improvisational musician. He was active in the Japanese…

**Finally repressed by popular demand.** Black Jazz Signature is a compilation album by American artist Theo Parrish. It was originally released through Snow Dog Records in 2013. The album features tracks from the 1970s record label Black Jazz Records, including "My Favorite Things" by Gene Russell, "Those Who Chant" and "Blue Bossa" by Walter Bishop Jr., "Jupiter" and "Convulsions" by The Awakening, "Trance Dance" by Doug Carn, "Time & Space" by Rudolph Johnson, "Criss Cross" and "BE" by Calvin…

Since their 1988 duo album Sonic Explorations and through a number of group collaborations, the duo of alto saxophonist Rob Brown and pianist Matthew Shipp have extended and evolved their uniquely astute and confident dialog, as heard in this magnificent 8-part studio album, a reflection on their compatibility and perceptive artistry. "What they have lost are the rough edges or, more precisely, they have been able to incorporate them into what they have learned over the past 30 years. The depth …

Matthew Shipp (piano), John Butcher (saxophones) and Thomas Lehn (electronics) in a studio album recorded in France in 2017, a uniquely voiced collective trio of transformative improvisation, Lehn's additions and modifications blending perfectly with Shipp's solid foundations and Butcher's advanced technical expression, for an engrossing and expressive set of recordings. "They manage to perfectly combine the many elements of the music while always keeping their individual identities intact."- Ro…

* 2020 Stock * An authoritative meeting between two of New York City's strongest players - Matthew Shipp on piano and Nate Wooley on trumpet - distilled to their essence after work with saxophonist Ivo Pereleman, here performing a set of 12 Shipp compositions brilliantly captured in the studio, illuminating Shipp's solid mastery of the keys and Wooley's remarkable technique and creative drive.

* 2020 Stock * Six compositions by pianist Matthew Shipp for his String Trio with violist Mat Maneri and double bassist William Parker, their first Trio record since 2001's "Expansion, Power and Release" (Hat), their long history of working together in a variety of configurations creating a near-telepathic link between the players over Shipp's sophisticated frameworks.

Seminal NYC ensemble Zs present their first release on Social Noise: the label dedicated to documenting a career in telepathic collaboration. Noth was recorded live at Cafe Oto in London in April 2017 and, in their usual maximalist (un)convention, features Sam Hillmer on tenor sax, Patrick Higgins on guitar and electronics, Greg Fox on drums and electronics, and Michael Beharie on electronics. Frenetic, impassioned, intentional and above-all connective improv explorations intended to cause neuro…

Cam Jazz reissue the complete Black Saint and Soul Note works of Sun Ra in hisexemplary series of boxed sets dedicated to the catalogues of the legendary Italian labels. This set contains four albums in slipcases with original album artwork, housed in a sturdy box.Reflections in Blue“One of the finest Sun Ra recordings from his final years, this effort is particularly recommended due to the many Ra keyboard solos and John Gilmore features, the latter of which include a tenor showcase on "Opus In…

*Exclusive edition of 100. 180g Colored Vinyl * Nowadays Arica exists only as the ‘Arica Institute’, a school of spiritual development formed and led by Chilean mystic Oscar Ichazo…however, the collective also produced several musical albums in the US (presumably to increase awareness of the school), this resulted in the release of four totally eclectic masterpieces: Arica & Audition (1972), Heaven (1973) and Music In The Nine Rings (2002). Both the Arica school and its musical output had a big …

**Bundle edition, LP + 7"** Souffle Continu Records present a reissue of Baroque Jazz Trio's self-titled album, original released on Saravah in 1970. Mixing Baroque, free-jazz, and world music, the unique album of the Baroque Jazz Trio (which is in fact 3/5 of the Bach Modern Quintet) is a difficult-to-label sound object which is far from being typical of the psychedelic sounds associated with the early 1970s. Because, although fusion with Indian music (amongst others) and jazz (but also pop) wa…

This is the 20th Sun Ra release from Transparency and possibly the very best. A complete 2 1/2-hour concert showcasing all dimensions of the group: free jazz, psychedelic, the beautiful vocals of June Tyson and a one-way ticket into space with several astounding Sun Ra synthesizer solos. The bonus DVD is a short interview with Sun Ra filmed the same day as the concert broadcast, aired only once on Finnish television and never seen since... until now. The concert and interview are licensed from Y…

**Triple CD edition** "The latest release in Now-Again's Reserve series is Michael Cosmic's Peace In The World and Phill Musra Group's Creator Spaces, packaged as a triple CD featuring unreleased music by The Phill Musra Group and World's Experience Orchestra. Also includes extensive liner notes featuring rare photos and much more. Free improvisation, first touched on by messengers like John Coltrane, Sun Ra and Albert Ayler, gives us an exuberant maelstrom that rejoices in life while it sh…

* Edition of 500 * An amazing loft tape find of a Norwegian Jazz concert suite taped at Molde Jazz Festival 1973, Christian Reim’s sextet Mona Lisa features Norway's top jazzmen at the time and it’s a rollercoaster post-bop showcase with influences from modal and spiritual jazz with folk undertones and pop psychedelia, one of a kind, never previously released and in great sound quality!

On October 14th 1989, Horace Tapscott, founder of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, performed alongside his close friend and musical partner Michael Session at the Théâtre du Chêne Noir in Avignon, France. This was during a tour in which they traveled across Europe. The duo presented compositions by Leimert Park musicians Jesse Sharps, Nate Morgan and Tapscott himself. The stark instrumentation of this concert led to minimal arrangements of compositions typically performed by much larger ensembl…

Every once in a while, a record presents itself so defiant in its refusal of categorization that it becomes the bane of those poor vinyl archaeologists whose business it is to file and classify. The aptly-named The Naked Truth (1975) is one such artifact; a wayfaring stray of an album that weaves its insouciant magic through the edgelands of sound. The musical provenance is palpable -- an electric blend of spiritual jazz, rhythmic black psychedelia and far-out exotica -- but where it's he…

The immaculate mess of Blunder originates from a three-piece impro group consisting of Mads Forby (drums), Kristian Poulsen (guitar) and Lars Greve (saxophones and clarinets). Their debut album Blunder presents a music that's hazy and patient, struck by a disarming sense of attentiveness. It's a slow dance around a malformed energetic forcefield, it's the pull of the vortex, sucking the listener into an elastic sound world of repetitive rhythmic structures and shamanistic summoning.

Legitimately available again on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1983, Outernational Sounds proudly presents a major statement from a crucial figure on the Los Angeles jazz underground – pianist Nate Morgan’s spiritualised deep jazz classic, Journey Into Nigritia. How many 16 year olds would have the confidence to walk up to a revered bandleader at a gig, and inform him that one day they’d be playing together? As improbable as it sounds, this is how pianist Nate Morgan intr…

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Marc Schots in January 10th 2018 at Splendor, Amsterdam. Performed by Hupata! : Ada Rave - tenor saxophone, clarinet, Marta Warelis - piano, Yung-tuan Ku - percussion + objects, preparations, voices; featuring Marc Schots on track no.8. All compositions by Marta Warelis, Ada Rave, Yung-Tuan Ku. Special thanks to: Michael Moore.

Recorded at Static Age Records in Asheville, NC, June 10, 2018 by Dylan Jordan. Performed by Tatsuya Nakatani - percussion, Shane Parish - nylon string guitar, Zach Rowden - double bass. Mixed by Tatsuya Nakatani in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Summer 2019.

After "Divertimento for tenor saxophone and small ensemble" (Alien Transistor) and "The Anatomy Of Melancholy" (Disko B) the two members of the Tied & Tickled Trio, Johannes Enders and Carl Oesterhelt, now publish their third collaboration Heart Of Darkness (Themes and Variations). 16 compositions, variations / improvisations for duo or chamber music ensemble; "Extremely interesting blend of jazz and non-jazz; Great ad hoc jazz improvisations on jazz-informed patterns " - Thomas Meinecke

A special bundle that includes the latest 4 CD releases published in late October 2020 by Belgian label A New Wave of Jazz. Includes works by John Russell, Stefan Keune, Kris Vanderstraeten, Colin Webster, AndrewLisle, Rubicon Quartet, Cath Roberts, Dirk Serries, Martina Verhoeven, Tom Ward. This bundle includes the following CDs: - John Russell, Stefan Keune, Kris Vanderstraeten "On Sunday" (NWOJ036) - Colin Webster, Andrew Lisle "New Inventions" (NWOJ037) - Rubicon Quartet "Crosscurrents" (NWO…

Taking their name from a Thelonious Monk quote, I Like To Sleep are three young Norwegian musicians, all 22 years old. "Nicolas and Øyvind first met in high school in Trondheim before they joined up with Amund in a youth big band. It soon became apparent that they shared the same musical background centered around 70s progressive rock, jazz, improvisation and classical music. Soon after the trio was formed, first for fun, but soon with higher ambitions, they won the prestigious "Young Jazz Music…