Jazz /
Louisiana Variations
"Torben Snekkestad and Barry Guy first worked together on 2015’s impressive Slip, Slide and Collide - that recording, with its labyrinthine improvisations and near-feverish eruptions, proved the duo to be fiercely attuned to one another. Now, on Louisiana Variations, another voice is drawn into the fold - that of Spanish pianist Agustí Fernández, a long-time collaborator with Barry Guy and an excellent composer/improviser in his own right. On this release, the trio lose none of the intensity pre…
The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles
The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles is a 21-CD limited and numbered edition issued as the standard-bearers of Great Black Music prepare to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Both the Art Ensemble of Chicago and ECM Records were founded in 1969, and there have been many shared experiences. As Roscoe Mitchell says, “It has been amazing to have taken this journey together.”With their first ECM album, the widely-acclaimed Nice Guys, the Art Ensemble’s revolutionary and polystylistic …
Celebration
"From the inheritor of John Coltrane's mouthpiece a re-integration of deep South African jazz roots with the Black Atlantic spiritual jazz continuum. Celebration's release trumpeted the emerging dawn of South Africa's epochal changes. Sainted and blessed, Bheki Mseleku appeared as the herald of a new era, a prophet of rebirth and reconnection. This is a work signalling change, a sign of a South African music that was properly reconnected with global currents. Recognizing Bheki as a kindred spiri…
Katonah
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…
Continuity
Last copies. Originally released in 1979 on Love Records a few months before the
label went bankrupt, Joe Davidow's album is a true hidden gem. In the age of the internet the term “hidden gem” has lost a lot of its meaning, as there are very few records of which there is no trace online – no Discogs entries, no Youtube tracks. Joe Davidow’s 1979 album, however, is one of those records. Perhaps one of the reasons for its complete unobtainability is the fact that it was one of the very last recor…
Glass Flowers
Repressed for the first time on LP by Le Très Jazz Club, this fantastic album comes with an insert documenting the story of The Elysian Spring and the recording of this true masterpiece. « Glass flowers », recorded in 1969, and only pressed by 500 copies at the time, is an unclassifiable album, overtaking the jazz outlines. Can words really describe music? It may be hard when music is as fantastic as on this LP. « Glass flowers » is an unclassifiable album, overtaking the jazz outlines, recorded…
Kaitai Teki Kokan, 1970
CD Edition. Replica reissue of one of the rarest free jazz LP ever made: Masayuki Takayanagi & Kaoru Abe's earthshattering Kaitai Teki Kōkan. Supposedly released in a limited run of 100 copies in 1970, this incredibly rare record igot finally its first vinyl reissue via Craftman Records. The album features a recording of the duo’s live performance at the Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan concert hall in Shinjuku on June 28th, 1970. The reissue also includes a replica flyer that advertised the original event.…
Disco 3000
Few copies back in stock, totally sold-out at source. Originally released in 1978 on El Saturn Records. Disco 3000 is one of Sun Ra's greatest from the '70s. Recorded in Italy in 1978, it features some incredibly otherworldly keyboards that are some of his most enigmatic on record. Original tracks from the album include "Disco 3000", an incredible workout on synthesizer, with a tiny bit of drum machine, a little "Space Is The Place" breakdown, and all of the wild sound you'd expect from a Sun Ra…
A Philosophy Warping (Live) LP
Second album by Turkish free jazzers Konstrukt and the Japanese avant-garde/noise icon Keiji Haino, this time recorded live in concert. Celebrating their tenth anniversary these days, Konstrukt have since been creating an impressive catalog including collaborations/performances with significant musicians like Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Akira Sakata, Marshall Allen, Evan Parker, Thurston Moore, Michael Zerang, Alfred Harth, or Alexander Hawkins that gained them an ever growing a…
Moshi Too
2012 Release. 80 Minutes of previously unreleased recordings from 1969-70, not to be found on the tenor player's regular "Moshi" album. Dark and trance-like amalgam of Afro-blues, acid-rock jams, polyphonic rhythms and spiritual jazz influences from the likes of Coltrane or Sanders. Recorded 1969-1970 in Africa by Barney Wilen on Nagra (Stereo/ Mono). Unreleased archive sounds, transferred on Telefunken and Nagra from original tapes found in the estate of Barney Wilen. Moshi: trance utterance by…
Rules Of Freedom
Exact LP repro edition A grey-area edition of the legendary 1967 modal masterwork by one of the greatest unsung jazz pioneers of the 20th century. A ture lost underground jazz classic from the late '60, filled with long, flowing tunes that have tremendous modal energy and a very cohesive feel. Backtracking a little, Nathan Davis was born in 1937 in Kansas City, Kansas and attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence before shipping off to military service in Germany in 1960. After being dischar…
Banka
Edition of 300 copies. Japanese free/jazz sax legend, Kaoru Abe, dies at the age of only 29 in 1978, living a fast and crazy life and dieing of a drug overdose. His entire music career was only 10 years, from 1968 to 1978. In that short period, he was well recorded with around 30 releases, ten of which are solo sax efforts, duos with guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa and drummer Sabu Toyozumi. Mr. Abe also toured and recorded with Milford Graves, Derek Bailey and Toshinor…
Mannyoka
Japanese free/jazz sax legend, Kaoru Abe, dies at
the age of only 29 in 1978, living a fast and crazy life and dieing of a
drug overdose. His entire music career was only 10 years, from 1968 to
1978. In that short period, he was well recorded with around 30
releases, ten of which are solo sax efforts, duos with guitarist
Masayuki Takayanagi, bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa and drummer Sabu
Toyozumi. Mr. Abe also toured and recorded with Milford Graves, Derek
Bailey and Toshinori Konda in 1977 …
Live at Cafe Amores
Edition of 300. Featuring Alexander von Schlippenbach and Aki Takase both on piano, recorded at Cafe Amores in Yamaguchi. Japan in August of 1995. Although Ms. Takase and Mr. Schlippenbach have been married for many years (she moved to Berlin in 1987), it seems as if their music collaborations began in the early 1990’s. There are some half dozen or so discs of duos (1993, ’94 & 2014), a trio/quartet (from 2005), the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (BCJO) (1993 & 1996), collaborations with Sve…
Arirang Fantasy
Edition of 300. Recorder live in 1995. Creative musicians from Korea are a rare breed. According to the liner notes, when the Kang Tae-HwanSaxist Trio came to Japan to play at Tokyo Meeting in 1985, they were a shock to those who knew about the Japanese Free/Jazz scene & history. The Kang Tae-Hwan Trio consisted of Mr. Hwan on alto sax, Choi Sun-Bae on trumpet and Kim Dae-Hwan on drums & percussion. The members of Mr. Hwan’s Trio began collaborating with established Japanese musicians like Masah…
The Haunt
Recorded April 21, 1976, Blue Rock Studio, NYC. This is a reissue of the rare album, ‘The Haunt’ (Otic 1005). Includes a nearly 7 minute bonus track not found on original LP. Featuring Bobby Naughton on vibes & compositions, (Wadada) Leo Smith on trumpet and Perry Robinson on clarinet. Recorded April 21, 1976, Blue Rock Studio, NYC. This is a reissue of the rare album, ‘The Haunt’ (Otic 1005). After attending dozen of jazz gigs at places like the Village Vanguard, the Village Gate and the Five S…
Journey To Parazzar
Recorded at Metallurgov House Of Culture in the Ukraine as the 2nd concert of their tour, the trio of Joe McPhee (trumpet, alto saxophone), John Edwards (double bass), and Klaus Kugel (drums) present a masterful concert that includes a 29-minute "Re-Hairing In Zaporozhye" a 19-minute "To Rush At The Wind", and a wonderfully unconventional tribute to Cecil Taylor
Yatagarasu
2012 release. The great German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brotzmann (also playing clarinet and tarogato on this album) is joined by Masahiko Satoh on piano and Takeo Moriyama on drums on this exciting and frequently thrilling album which was recorded in November of 2011 in Krakow, Poland. The title track “Yatagarasu” leads off the album with wailing saxophone, piano and drums. It’s interesting to hear Brotzmann perform with a pianist, something that I have rarely heard him do. He even drops out…
Eklisia Sunday
2013 Release. Recorded live in front of a small audience on May 15th, 2011 at Eklisia - an old chapel built in the 17th century in Gümüşlük, a small village near Bodrum - this improvisation features the Konstrukt collective - which is Korhan Futacı (tenor & soprano saxophones), Umut Çağlar (electric guitar), Özün Usta (double bass, djembe, gong, bells), Korhan Argüden (drums) - incredibly enriched by the presence of Peter Brötzmann (on tenor), Hüseyin Ertunç (acoustic piano, küstüfon, gong), Doğ…
Diversity
To celebrate the forty years of career of the Slovenian musician the label Not Two has now releases Diversity, a sumptuous box of five CDs recorded live and in studio in the company of the best of the old and new European avant-garde, with Evan Parker, Lotte Anker, Phil Minton, Rafal Mazur & Agusti Fernandez among others. Zlatko Kaucic is an elusive musician. When you expect him to be in a specific sound place, he is already somewhere else. Kaucic is a musician who has developed a very personal …