Jazz /
Lift Every Voice and Sing
**500 copies, strictly no repress** Smalltown Supersound are going hard on the free jazz this year - so much so that they've set up new sub-label Actions For Free Jazz to accommodate the load. This was the slogan for Smalltown Superjazzz and was borrowed at the time from Don Cherry and Krystzof Penderecki’s The New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra track Actions For Free Jazz Orchestra from the 1971 album Actions. The inspiration for the label is BYG Actuel, Incus, Freedom and ESP-Disk. AFJ's latest fora…
Born
Joan Bibiloni's Born is widely considered as one of the highlights of modern ambient music. Ever since it was first released in 1989 on Bibiloni's 'Blau' imprint, Born has been a sought after item by collectors of different backgrounds.The eight compositions that Bibiloni wrote, and then recorded with several gifted musicians, share the same vivid ethereal quality. From the emotive latin of El Sur, to the heart wrenching tones of Ballad For an Empty Street, Born is one of the pinnacles of the ba…
Starcrost
**1000 numbered copies** Jazzman Records presents a reissue of Steamheat's album of the same name, originally issued in 1975 and presented here as Number 30 in the Jazzman Holy Grail Series. Fable is a small independent record label started in Austin, Texas in the early 1970s by a young trombone player named Michael Mordecai. In autumn 1975 he debuted a trio of albums by Austin bands; with only 1000 of each pressed, and each carrying a different emphasis on soul, funk or jazz, all three have gon…
Austin Funk
**1000 numbered copies** Jazzman Records presents a reissue of Steamheat's Austin Funk, originally issued in 1975 and presented here as Number 29 in the Jazzman Holy Grail Series. Fable is a small independent record label started in Austin, Texas in the early 1970s by a young trombone player named Michael Mordecai. In autumn 1975 he debuted a trio of albums by Austin bands; with only 1000 of each pressed, and each carrying a different emphasis on soul, funk or jazz, all three have gone on to bec…
Cumulo Nimbus
**1000 numbered copies** Jazzman Records presents a reissue of Forty Times Its Own Weight's Cumulo Nimbus, originally issued in 1975 and presented here as Number 28 in the Jazzman Holy Grail Series. Fable is a small independent record label started in Austin, Texas in the early 1970s by a young trombone player named Michael Mordecai. In autumn 1975 he debuted a trio of albums by Austin bands; with only 1000 of each pressed, and each carrying a different emphasis on soul, funk or jazz, all three …
Spiritual Jazz 9: Blue Notes Part One
The Blue Note record label needs little introduction. Musically, graphically and sonically iconic, the label created and defined the golden age of modern jazz on record. Founded in 1939 by German émigré Alfred Lion, the label's roster of artists is a litany of giants - Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock, and many more. With peerless musicians in the grooves, the legendary Rudy Van Gelder behind the boards, and graphic design genius R…
Spiritual Jazz 9: Blue Notes Part Two
The Blue Note record label needs little introduction. Musically, graphically and sonically iconic, the label created and defined the golden age of modern jazz on record. Founded in 1939 by German émigré Alfred Lion, the label's roster of artists is a litany of giants - Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock, and many more. With peerless musicians in the grooves, the legendary Rudy Van Gelder behind the boards, and graphic design genius R…
Vas-Y Voir
The lesser-spotted jazz atoms that formed the fusion of Futurist Flanders! It might sound like an ambitious claim but having been a firm fixture at the top of many European jazz collector want lists over the past decade Finders Keepers wouldn't be alone when proclaiming this extremely rare, lesser-known two-track 7" from 1969 as one of the best jazz 45s of all time! Alongside Polish pianist Krzysztof Komeda's soundtrack 7" for the film Cul-De-Sac and ranking closely with François Tusques' commem…
After the Rain: A Night For Coltrane
**500 copies** In the beginning there was John Coltrane. Teodross Avery experienced an epiphany at 13 when he first heard Trane’s Giant Steps. He emerged in the mid-1990s with two critically hailed releases for GRP / Impulse! Avery’s long and productive journey has taken him down many musical paths, from gigs with jazz legends and hip hop stars to sessions with NEA Jazz Masters and platinum pop albums. With his Tompkins Square label debut After the Rain: A Night For Coltrane, Avery has found his…
Journey Into Nigritia
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…
Step!
Le Très Jazz Club present the first reissue of Naosuke Miyamoto Sextet's Step!, originally released in 1973. A fantastic modal jazz LP, led by Naosuke Myamoto on bass, with Masayoshi Yoneda on the piano and Takashi Goto on saxophone. On One For Trane, the group delivers a strong and amazing moment of spiritual jazz. Also features Kunji Shigi (trumpet), Takashi Furuya and Shoji Nakayama (drums). Produced by Takeshi Jujii. Recorded on August 25, 1973. Le Très Jazz Club keeps on exploring the Three…
Physical Structure
Le Très Jazz Club keeps on exploring Japanese jazz and the Three Blind Mice catalog with the reissue of this amazing 1976 record by drummer George Otsuka. Unavailable for more than forty years, the album is released for the first time outside of Japan. Physical Structure is an amazing jazz-fusion record featuring Fumio Karashima on piano and Fender Rhodes and Shozo Sasaki on tenor sax. Check the surprising and sublime cover of Naima which alone justifies to get this record! Personell list: Georg…
Earthly Delights
Earthly Delights is a forgotten 1978 free-jazz masterpiece by bass player, composer and improviser David Wertman, alongside his Sun Ensemble. Born in 1952 and raised in Queens NY, Wertman’s distinctive upright playing style was entirely self-taught. He cut his teeth in the notorious New York Jazz lofts, jamming for hours and hours with the likes of Billy Bang, Arthur Blythe, Marion Brown, Steve Reid, Dave Pike, William Parker, Brandon Ross and Charles Tyler to name but a few. Earthly Delights is…
Eastern Standard Time
Following hard on the heels of BBE delving into the archives of Detroit’s Strata Records and delivering their widely acclaimed and hugely in-demand exploration of J Jazz, comes another crate digger’s delight - Ralph Thomas' Eastern Standard Time, which dropped in the USA back in 1980, on the obscure Zebra Jazz imprint. LA based DJ, producer and music supervisor Mathieu Schreyer discovered this gem for BBE. This is the is the kind of “spiritual’ jazz gem that appears on YouTube and upon checking …
J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz from Japan 1969-1984
In the years following World War Two, Japan developed one of the most insatiable, dynamic and diverse markets for jazz. For a crucial period of little over a decade – from the late 1960s to the early 1980s – Japanese jazz culture progressed at an astonishing rate, producing an extraordinary array of artists, recordings and record labels that created some of the most forward thinking and impressive jazz to be committed to tape. This amazing journey is explored on J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz from Jap…
Orientasie / Largo
Along with the due reissue of the Baroque Jazz Trio homonymous album, Souffle Continu Records present a reissue of the group's one and only single which has reached a cult status among the Jazz connoisseurs and collectors. Alongside Alfred Panou & the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Je Suis Un Sauvage (FFL 055EP), Baroque Jazz Trio's Orientasie / Largo is probably one of the hardest-to-find EPs on Saravah. Hitting #2 on Jazzman Records European Jazz 45s top 10 list, this is the finest fusion between f…
New American Songbooks Volume 2
After the stunning success of last year's New American Songbooks, Volume 1,
Sound American is proud to present another chapter in their attempt to
find new points of view on the concept of the American Songbook. Last year's release found three distinctive voices--Mary Halvorson, Ron
Miles, and Greg Saunier--working together to arrange works from mass
media. Their collaboration, only a few days in total, culminated in a
recording that felt equal parts wild and warm; intimate and
revolutiona…
... Is Eternal Life
Drummer, composer and poet William Hooker has been a tireless force in free improvised music for over 40 years. He emerged from New York's loft jazz scene in the mid-'70s, part of a generation of artists fueled by the social, political and cultural frustrations of their era. This second wave of American free jazz would push relentlessly into new territories – collaborating in a variety of non-traditional settings, establishing their own labels, venues, etc. – all in an effort at creative self-de…
Where Fortune Smiles
Re-mastered edition of the 1971 album performed by the legendary enterprise consisting of John McLaughlin on guitars, John Surman on reeds, Karl Berger on vibes, Stu Martin on drums, and Dave Holland on bass. Recorded at the end of May 1970 at the Apostolic Studios in New York, “Fortune Smiles” is a jazz fusion LP that sees all five musicians experimenting equally with their outstanding music qualities. Released here as a picture disc and featuring the original Dawn Records folded insert, the al…
Arrival
Double LP version. Includes CD. Their first two albums, Exit and Enter, were presented with sizable and ambitious line-ups of 28 musicians. Ritual saw it reduced to 21 and with Arrival it's been trimmed down to a "mere" 14, with the core trio of Fire! (Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin) and the two singers Mariam Wallentin and Sofia Jernberg being the only constant members since the beginning. Apart from this reduction, the main line-up difference is the introduction of a str…