Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Martin Pyne’s new release, the double album Trios, focuses on his unique approach to the vibraphone. The album places his playing in the context of two contrasting trio lineups. In Vampire Coast Trio Martin is joined by one of his favourite drummers, Johnny Hunter, along with the extraordinary double bass player Michael Bardon. Together they make music with a truly transparent texture, full of both space and sonic detail together with richly lyrical melody and counterpoint. Martin says, “Michael…

A Delicate Stiletto comprises of 10 songs from Herb’s ‘vintage years’. Only 4 of the songs have been officially released before, back in 2006 and the other 6 have been hiding out in Herb’s lounge cabinet for 25 years. Imagine an even more whiskey soaked Dean Martin walking out of the cinema after watching a David Lunch marathon. Entering the nearest seedy night club and going hell for leather on the carpeted stage as a disco ball shines and glistens in the bloodshot eyes of a hundred seated goth…

After a nine-year hiatus, Marteau Rouge  — Pauvros, Foussat, Sato — made a comeback for a one-off concert, this time alongside Daunik Lazro, one of their long-standing friends.

Hidefumi Toki's 1975 album Toki offers a deeply personal journey into the realms of jazz, showcasing his expressive prowess on alto and soprano saxophones. Backed by a stellar quartet including Kazumi Watanabe on guitar, Nobuyoshi Ino on bass, and Steve Jackson on drums, Toki creates a stunning sonic landscape filled with gentle, raspy tones. The album's ambiance is laidback and mellow, yet infused with a profound sense of spiritual depth reminiscent of Coltrane's work. Original compositions lik…

A memorable first album by the very accomplished yet restrained artist, Naosuke Miyamoto. Thrilling straight-ahead jazz with Takashi Furuya and other Kansai-based members!

Original release completely reproduced as faithfully as possible. Pressed and printed in Japan. Mind-blowing reissue of Kosuke Mine Quintet's first release, Mine, originally released on Three Blind Mice in 1970. This is the terrifying debut album from saxophonist Kosuke Mine, with a sense of tension that seems to burst throughout, and is a monumental work that marked the historic beginning of the prestigious three blind mice label Completely original reproduction specification (reproduced as f…

At the age of 14, Ayako Hosokawa was already performing in the American military clubs in Japan, picking up the English language by singing international pop songs of that time. Now, she represents feeling and soul within her songs, no matter whether she sings in English or Japanese. After her marriage, she moved to the United States and was discovered and sponsored by Earl "Fatha" Hines. She found enthusiastic fans touring San Francisco, Las Vegas, Montreal and lots of places in California, per…

First meeting of two incredible talents - Tyshawn Sorey on drums and Pat Thomas on piano.

Magnus Granberg, piano. Angharad Davies, violin. Leo Svensson Sander, cello. Erik Carlsson, percussion. John Eriksson, vibraphone & crotales. Petter Wstberg, electronics. Henrik Olsson, bowls and glasses. Anna Lindal, violin. Toshimaru Nakamura, no input mixing board. “Ist gefallen in den Schnee is a single, hour long composition scored by Magnus Granberg and performed by the group Skogen, which on this occasion consisted of nine musicians, seven of them Swedish and two of them (Toshi…

On Playtime, Piero Umiliani spins jazz, bossa nova, lounge and funk into a kaleidoscopic library music suite, now restored by We Are Busy Bodies from the original 1968 Omicron tapes with all the playful, genre‑hopping invention that made him one of Italy's most prolific soundtrack architects.

*200 copies limited edition. First repress* All compositions by Tahmela Six. Recorded on December 29, 2023, at Tahmela’s Villa, Tampere. Session produced and engineered by Jarno Alho

All songs composed, arranged, recorded and mixed by Lauri Kallio. Recorded in Kiikala Church & C.O.W. Kiikala Studio Complex

Viive debut album ‘Sen Jälkeen Kun’! The debut album, “Sen jälkeen kun”, explores themes of growth and the intrinsic need for connection. It ultimately took shape as a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist (yet). The album was recorded at Mutka studios, the duo’s own creative space in a mid-century wooden house located in Jyväskylä, Finland. The piano and drums were set up facing each other, fostering a deeper connection between the players. The naturally imperfect and lively acoustics of the…

Kadi Vija’s new album, Tiny Hands Gathering Wonder, The World Becomes Magic, is a narrative jazz suite released in October 2025 that explores the tactile, the playful, and the vividly imaginative, blending synth colors, hand claps, and intimate vocals into a singular rainbow-hued sonic journey. The album’s ten tracks move through shifting moods that conjure both childlike awe and jazz sophistication, opting for miniature landscapes over grand statements.​

Way To, the debut album by Eero Savela, released August 2025, marks a persuasive, understated move into the spotlight for the Helsinki trumpeter. Blending the sinuous pulse of '70s jazz-funk with a modern Scandinavian restraint, the album—clocking in at just 37 minutes—opts for dialogue over display, its six tracks assembled as layered conversations between empathetic musicians and understated lyricism.

Tahmela Six returns with Alight, a bold new release that ignites the senses from the very first note. Blending atmosphere, energy, and emotional depth, Alight is a journey through motion and feeling—where brightness and tension coexist, and every track moves like a spark catching fire. With its distinctive sonic palette and tightly crafted songwriting, Tahmela Six explores themes of transformation, momentum, and the moment before something changes forever. Alight doesn’t just play—it draws you i…

Two side-long improvisations recorded in a spring evening beneath a 1908 shot tower. That is the whole record, and it is enough. Fysiikka ja Kemia - Physics and Chemistry - surfaced in late 2025 with Biologia, a debut LP on Tampere's Ultraääni Records that the label summed up in a single line: rural psych-jazz improvisations by the Finnish bastard sons of Arbete & Fritid. Three hundred copies, each sleeve screen-printed by hand by the band, gone quickly. We Jazz picked a track for their Friends …

*2026 stock* A sharp, theatrical and darkly playful new record about glamour, absurdity and the collapse of appearances. Katie Smokers Wedding Party unveil their striking new album, Karl Lagerfeld stirbt in seinem Jogginganzug—a provocative title for a record that turns fashion, fame and social performance into a vivid, unpredictable musical world. Blending wit with unease, elegance with chaos, the album explores the tension between public image and private reality. Its songs move through scenes…

*2026 stock* Katie Smokers Wedding Party presents Six Ordinary Songs, a new album that turns the familiar into something unexpectedly vivid. Across six carefully shaped tracks, the record explores the emotional weight hidden inside ordinary moments—small encounters, private thoughts, passing memories, and the quiet spaces between one day and the next. There is nothing ordinary about the way these songs linger. Six Ordinary Songs is intimate without being fragile, direct without being predictable…

In the years leading up to 1971, Sun Ra wrote many compositions and poems specifically inspired by the ancient African Kingdoms and many others with associated mythological and heliocentric connotations. As such, a visit to Egypt and the opportunity for the Arkestra to play there was a matter of necessity. Ra’s first ever concerts outside of the US had occurred in late summer and autumn of 1970 with performances in France, Germany and the UK and a second European tour was arranged for late 1971.…

2017 release ** Monkey Dog present a reissue of Affectionate Fink from Harold McNair With Ornette Coleman's Sidemen, originally released in 1965. An incredible record from reedman Harold McNair - one of the key Jamaican jazz players who hit the London scene in the same post-colonial wave as Joe Harriott and Shake Keane - and a standout of the bunch. Harold's a hell of a talent on both tenor and flute. Although he might be best known for his background work on late '60s Donovan albums, he really …

2010 release **

Recorded 3rd June, 1971 at the Jazz Workshop, Boston. Sam Rivers - tenor and soprano saxophones, flute, piano, Cecil McBee - bass and Norman Connors - drums. "Musician discographies are like icebergs. Commercially released recordings often only represent a surface-visible and procurable fraction of actual output; a reflection of those comparatively few instances when resources, fortitude, and good fortune aligned to yield salable product. Samuel Carthorne Rivers situation was no different. Despi…

*100 copies limited edition* Bishu Chattopadhyay’s Fragments is a collection of nine compositions shaped by movement, memory, improvisation, and the passage between worlds. Born and raised in Kolkata and now living in New York, Chattopadhyay has spent much of his life moving between musical and cultural landscapes. The album reflects that experience without attempting to resolve it: fragments of a life, fragments of a time, fragments of a world in which beauty and uncertainty exist side by side.…

1996 release (light wear) ** 1965: Conrad Rooks commissions Ornette Coleman to score his film Chappaqua, then declines to use the music - reportedly because it was too beautiful and would overwhelm the images, which may be the most flattering rejection in the history of commissioned art. The unused score, with Pharoah Sanders in the ensemble and orchestral textures surrounding the trio, became this sprawling four-part suite: Ornette at his most expansive, the alto soaring and grieving over mass…

1992 release (light wear) ** July 1964: the soundtrack to Michael Snow's film, and one of the great collective improvisations ever recorded - a record whose influence runs so deep that entire schools of music stand on it without always knowing. Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, John Tchicai, Roswell Rudd, Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray, with no leader, no themes, no solo order, no safety net of any kind - just six master musicians building form out of pure attention. The blueprint for everything from the…

1992 release (light wear) ** 1958, and a perfect match: Thelonious Monk sits in with Art Blakey's Messengers - Johnny Griffin and Bill Hardman in the front line - for a full program of Monk compositions. Blakey understood Monk's rhythm like few drummers ever have; the two go back to the foundational 1947 Blue Note sessions together, and that deep history is audible in every bar. Monk's angles and Blakey's shuffle lock together like old machinery that never rusted. Griffin, soon to join Monk's ow…

1990 release (light wear) ** The second ESP-Disk' statement, 1966: Marion Brown with a killing band including Stanley Cowell at the piano, deepening everything the debut promised. The writing is stronger, the group interplay more spacious, and Brown's alto - that singing, speech-like sound, closer to a voice than almost any horn of the era - moves through the material with total assurance, balancing fire and lyricism phrase by phrase. The mid-sixties ESP sessions caught a whole generation at the…

1990 release (light wear) ** December 1960: Eric Dolphy and Booker Little's first recorded meeting, with Jaki Byard, Ron Carter and Roy Haynes completing a frighteningly good band - the Five Spot partnership taking its first documented steps, seven months before the club residency made it legend. The Charlie Parker tribute sequence - "Mrs. Parker of K.C.", "Ode to Charlie Parker" - shows exactly where Dolphy came from and how much love he carried forward; "Tenderly", solo alto saxophone, shows w…

1994 release (light wear) ** February 1964: the most ferocious Messengers record ever made, and one of the most intense hard bop sessions in the whole Blue Note vault. Wayne Shorter's title track is eleven minutes of controlled fury - Art Blakey playing like a man possessed, pushing wave after wave of pressure under the horns, with Freddie Hubbard answering everything at full burn. Shorter's "Hammer Head" and Hubbard's "The Core" keep the temperature high. Recorded right as the new thing was bre…

1992 release (light wear) ** The 1961 sextet masterpiece: Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton, Jymie Merritt - and Art Blakey detonating Walton's title track, one of the great set-openers in the hard bop repertoire. This edition of the Messengers was a compositional powerhouse: nearly everyone in the band wrote, and wrote brilliantly, giving the records of this period a richness that goes far beyond blowing-session logic. Shorter's pieces already carry that unmistakable s…

1992 release (light wear) ** The 1957 Columbia session with a split personality, and both halves are excellent. One side belongs to the Art Blakey Percussion Ensemble - Art Blakey surrounded by Latin percussion masters, exploring African and Afro-Cuban drumming in extended, ritualistic pieces years before such projects became fashionable. The other side is a hard-swinging Messengers date, business as usual at the highest level. Blakey's lifelong fascination with the drum as a global instrument, …

This long-awaited LP reissue of a European jazz treasure released in 1969 and led by multi-reedist Sahib Shihab!

Son-Icon Music - orchestra and choral works by Charlotte Hug Music notation and conducting form the basis of the classical Western tradition of composition and performance. As early as the 1960s, alternatives to this system were sought again and again – a system which implies a lack of maturity in the individual performer. With her “Son-Icons” Charlotte Hug developed a medium and compositional technique, which integrates the imagination and artistic resources of the individual into a guided whol…

Ming Bau Set is a collective of three improvisers who began meeting regularly in 2018 to deeply explore improvisation and song form. Over the next three years this process yielded a shared language and vision of music realization that led to their first publication, Yakut's Gallop. They utilized both acoustic and electronic resources to carve a personal sound as well as a sense of place with their inventions. The trio, as it has matured, is notable for its cross generational constitution. Gerry …

"In November 2024 (for reasons that we all understand) I recharged the meaning and value of my commitment to play Free Music many years ago. Everyday since I’ve been guided by its inherent support for the rights of all people, non-violence, peace, equitable, moral, ethical justice for everyone, the health of the planet, and the certainty that music might comfort us, enlighten us and even elevate our thinking.
The current criminal world spectacle requires billions of individual and collective cou…

*In process of stocking.* “Well, isn’t it always now?” Joel Futterman’s audible smile, in response to my simple query about the time during a phone conversation, bespeaks and accentuates the deeper truths embodied in his creativity. Grounded, sometimes adrift, forced to live in the world of duality, we capitulate too willingly to the whims and whiles of intervals, to their capricious grip on our intersecting realities, to their encapsulation of alternating mood and ebb-and-flow vitality. Doors o…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly announces the release of SOM-HI!, a breathtaking new album capturing the raw, telepathic interplay of four European free jazz visionaries: pianist Agustí Fernández, trumpeter Artur Majewski, saxophonist Albert Cirera, and drummer Ramon Prats. This recording erupts with the unbridled joy and ferocity of spontaneous creation, pushing the boundaries of improvisation into exhilarating new territory. Recorded live in Barcelona, SOM-HI! distills the quartet's collective fire i…

2024 stock. Saxophone player Albert Cirera one of the most important Spanish improvisers works with Ramon Prats fascinating drummer from many years. They both are one of the shinest points on the European musical scene. On the other hand ZARM Ensemble. ZARM Ensemble is an award-winning string quartet started by legendary Portugal violin master Carlos "Zíngaro”, David Magalhães Alves (Violin), Ulrich Mitzlaff (Cello), and Alvaro Rosso (Double bass).From an almost compulsive fascination with sound…

2024 stock. Trumpeter Russ Johnson is a recent Midwest transplant after spending 23 years as an important member of New York City’s jazz community. He has seven recordings as a leader or co-leader and performed on more than 75 recordings as a sideman. Russ has worked alongside many of the legendary figures in jazz including Lee Konitz, Steve Swallow, Bill Frisell, and Joe Lovano. In addition, he has recorded and/or performed with a long list of the most prominent musicians currently on the inter…