Jazz /
Jazz Mood
*2024 repress* A multi-instrumentalist who reconfigured jazz many times during his long career, Yusef Lateef came to prominence in the late 1950s, after having toured with Dizzy Gillespie. Jazz Mood dates from 1957, when his Quintet had some of Detroit's finest, including Alice Coltrane's brother Ernest Farrow on bass and future Jazz Messengers Curtis Fuller on trombone. The use of an argol on 'Metaphor' and a rabat and finger cymbals on 'Morning' point to Lateef's Islamic grounding and his beli…
Town Hall 1972
Tip! *2024 stock* If Anthony Braxton were to be judged on the basis of his oeuvre alone, he would stand completely apart from any modern composer, bar none. He has an enormous body of work, written for every conceivable permutation and combination of ensemble, from two to over a hundred and also for practically all the modern instruments known to musicians. As a reeds and winds player, he has a staggering technique, but not only this: he dives deep into the soul to extract the most subtle emotio…
Solo
*2024 stock* Cecil Taylor's masterwork is captured on this Japanese CD (reissue of the eponymous album released on LP in 1973) that dates back to his zenith of performance, when he was pushing the envelope of improvisational music to unprecedented heights of intensity and precision. While Taylor's work in the 1960s was impressive, his performance in the 1970s, and this particular track in particular, is absolutely breathtaking. With a style that may appear chaotic upon initial listen, Cecil's f…
Payan
*2024 stock* Lovely 1972 solo work by one of the most influential European avant-garde pianists of the last half-century; a player whose improvisational flexibility puts him in the same league as Cecil Taylor, but whose ability to concentrate at moments and knowledge of jazz history make him much more remarkable! One of Alexander Von Schlippenbach's finest albums; it's beautiful all the way through, with an unfaltering inventiveness that occasionally leads to Monkish moments or Herbie Nichols wh…
In Europe
2024 reissue This is Texas-born tenor sax giant Billy Harper captured on tour in Europe in 1979. Mr Harper's gorgeous tone drives a highly energetic quintet featuring a young Fred Hersch on piano, Everett Hollins on trumpet, Louie "Mbiki" Spears on bass and Horace Arnold on drums. Billy Harper's seminal masterpiece, which gained more widespread recognition in the 70s, is a scorching and powerful record that exudes righteousness from start to finish. At this stage of his career, Billy has develop…
Black Saint
Billy Harper is one of the great tenor saxophonists in the post-Coltrane mold. Originally from Houston, TX and with a degree from the venerable University of North Texas College of Music, Harper emerged on the New York City jazz scene in the late 1960s performing with Art Blakey, Max Roach, Lee Morgan and others. Known for his soulful and propulsive tone, Harper was already a highly regarded and prolific session man before the release of his debut album as a leader on the cult favorite Strata-Ea…
Flores para Verene / Cantos para Caramina
"27-year-old Tomin Perea-Chamblee is a brass- and reed-centered multi-instrumentalist, the composer and arranger of pieces with excellently thorny harmonies, an at-times reluctant musicker and enthusiastic Brooklynite (born and raised, so his admiration primarily concerns the borough’s pre-gentralification qualities), who, by day works as a bioinformatician. If you're in New York, there’s an ok chance that you’ve heard him play before, with young (jazz-adjacent) bands and musicians of some renow…
Smoke-Blackened Walls & Curlews
‘Surprisingly enough, program music is not all that common in jazz. For example, unlike their classical counterparts, not many jazz composers have set out to evoke particular places. Duke Ellington’s 'Tone Parallel To Harlem' is one of the great exceptions. Britain has been even more neglected, unless you count Billy Strayhorn’s 'Chelsea Bridge', and that was about Whistler's painting rather than the actual bridge itself. But the British jazz composer Graham Collier is one who is doing something…
Blue Piccolo
*2024 stock* A trumpeter who played in the Charles Mingus Group and other groups. This album is somewhat unique in the Whynot catalog, which is lined with works overflowing with blackness. The bop style is orthodox, but the one-horn style of playing original compositions is truly poignant. Cecil Mcbee and drummer Steve McCall join the band.
Morning Prayer
*2024 stock* Chico Freeman wrote all the originals and arranged it for the septet. The music is an excellent documentation of what was going on in Chicago during the avant-garde period. The tunes and performances make challenging and rewarding listening. It is now thirty three years since this important, pioneering recording was made and it a testament to it's value that the music has matured so well and to this day remains vital, challenging and fresh. Chico Freeman - tenor & soprano saxophone,…
In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor (Book)
Cecil Taylor’s life was a string of mysteries that made a beautiful necklace of precious sounds, dances, and poetry he called music. Philip Freeman’s book In the Brewing Luminous gives us a wonderful glimpse of Cecil’s life and music. Hopefully this book will inspire us all in ways we can’t imagine.” (William Parker) For 60 years, Cecil Taylor’s music marked the farthest boundary of avant-garde jazz. His volcanic piano improvisations, delivered with astonishing technical command and unrelenting …
We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite
*2024 stock* One of the major statements in the history of Jazz and African American liberation movements. Originally released in 1960 on Candid Records, Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite consists of five original compositions and performances staging and celebrating different moments and aspects of the African American history and culture. Here is a wonderful cast of musicians reunited around Max Roach – drums and Abbey Lincoln – vocals. Throughout the album you can find great contributions from th…
Shirasagi
*2024 stock* "I think we've created something that can be called 'Japanese jazz.' I want to take it to the world." With these words, Oki Itaru left Japan in 1974. This album is a live recording of a concert he held just before leaving for France. The sound, which is filled with the achievements he had made up to that point and his determination for the future, is still vivid when listened to today. This album captures one of Oki's peaks.
Revolutionary Ensemble
*2024 stock* Recorded live in Australia in 1977 by the Revolutionary Ensemble, the famous loft jazz unit formed by violinist Leroy Jenkins, bassist Sirone, and drummer Jerome Cooper. This is the only Enya disc by these three exciting and unique members of the New York loft scene!
Air Above Mountains (Buildings Within)
*2024 stock* A solo performance by Cecil Taylor at the peak of his powers at a jazz festival in Austria in 1976. The insane keyboard rampaging that he performed with devilish concentration is only possible with the genius Taylor, who has reached a height that no one else can reach! This is the Cecil Taylor of the 70's!
Dark To Themselves
*2024 stock* Dark to Themselves is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival, Yugoslavia, on June 18, 1976, and released on the Enja label. The album features Taylor on piano with alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, tenor saxophonist David S. Ware, trumpeter Raphe Malik, and drummer Marc Edwards. (The album documents the only occasion on which Ware and Edwards recorded with Taylor.) The original LP release presented the music in edited form, while the CD reissue contains the…
Trinity
*2024 stock* Enja has released the live recordings of Masahiko Sato, one of the most famous pianists in Japan, at a broadcasting station in Germany in 1971, and this is a rare item that has only been released on CD once in the past in 1992.The performance by Sato, who came to Munich in 1971 at the invitation of Horst Weber of Enja, Peter Warren on bass, and Pierre Fabre on drums is truly a triumvirate of greatness!
Music From The Source
*2024 stock* Cecil McBee, the famous bass player behind many great recordings, teamed up with Don Moye, Steve McCall and Dennis Moorman's black jazz rhythm in 1977 to inspire Joe Gardner, Chico Freeman and others on this white-hot hidden black jazz masterpiece! First CD release in Japan!
Distant Thunder
*2024 stock* The Yamashita Trio on tour in Germany in 1975 had a miraculous encounter with free improv genius Manfred Shcoof! This is a too hot live recording of the live performance with Yosuke Yamashita, Akira Sakata, Takeo Moriyama, and Manfred Schoof, who responded aggressively with their whole heart and soul!
Metasediment Rock
The Norwegian jazz scene is like the hat of a magician: when you think nothing more can get out from its mysterious hole, there’s something else emerging to amaze us. Snik is such a case. The compositions are from two of the members of this quartet, trombonist Kristoffer Kompen and double bassist Ole Morten Vagan. Vagan is one of the most respected names of the Scandinavian jazz, with his membership of Joshua Redman Trio and his quintet Motif, writing scores for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra or p…