Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Gerhard Gschlössl, Gebhard Ullmann, Jan Leipnitz, and Johannes Fink improvise as composers would do. From scratch they create a holistic sound sculpture - each time unique and unpredictable - always with a formal approach. Michael Haves was invited to create with them using analog electronics. In the moment and without overdubbing he becomes the fifth element in GULFH of Berlin. Personnel: Gebhard Ullmann - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Gerhard Gschlössl - trombone, sousaphone; Johannes Fink -…

In a two-decade career, Raymond Byron Magic Raposa has recorded six albums as Castanets, another as Raymond Byron and the White Freighter, and has worked with musicians ranging from Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent), and Sufjan Stevens, to Liz Janes, Jana Hunter, Nathan Hubbard (Trummerflora, Cosmologic), and John McCauley (Deer Tick). Over the course of that time, his music has been called part of the new weird America movement, freak-folk, psychedelic folk, and indie fo…

Jones Jones is a funny name for an all-star band. To grant such distinctive musicians so anonymous, Google-proof a moniker is whimsical in the extreme. But, given its members' long and distinguished work in the service of music, this group should not be taken lightly or treated as a lark. There is humor in their work but also gravitas and depth and magic. Larry Ochs says: "The newest and I think Jones Jones' best recording, sonically speaking, was specially recorded in-studio just before Covid s…

WeFreeStrings was founded in 2011. This is the group's second album. Leader Melanie Dyer (not to be confused with the Australian country pop songwriter of the same name) is a jazz viola player and composer based in New York City who currently performs with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Dead Lecturers, Heroes Are Gang Leaders, Baba Andrew Lamb, Gwen Laster's New Muse 4tet, William Parker, Tomeka Reid Stringtet, Janice Lowe/Tyehimbe Jess Millie & Christina project, and Patricia Nicholson's Women with an Ax…

After paying his dues with bluesmen Albert King and Bobby "Blue" Bland and jazzman Jaki Byard, Michael Marcus had his first album released in 1991, when he was 39. He's been much more prolific since then, co-leading Cosmosamatics with Sonny Simmons, SaxEmble with Frank Lowe and James Carter, Blue Reality Quartet with Joe McPhee, Warren Smith, and Jay Rosen, and Duology with Ted Daniel as well as Marcus's many albums as sole leader. Frank Lacy moved to New York in 1981 and soon established himsel…

The eighteenth duo album by Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp. "We believe it's our best effort so far," says Perelman. "Every rhythmic and melodic gesture [in 'Nine'] that tenor saxist and pianist feed each other in this remarkable duet is met with a musically and emotionally appropriate response from the other. And somehow or other, this entirely free jazz somehow coalesces and takes shape in a way that is absolutely perfect." And, "each track in this remarkable album is a highlight in itself and…

Allen Lowe writes: "America: The Rough Cut is my statement not only on American music and American song, but also my commentary on the way American musicians of all styles handle that old-time music and those old song forms . . . The old things - not just the blues, but gospel music and pre-blues shouts and language, plus hillbilly/minstrel song and medicine show irony - reflect a disinterest in the polite trappings of (primarily but not only white) society, an implicit rejection of basic tonal,…

Allen Lowe writes: "In the Dark is a commemoration (sic) of the worst time of my life - a period during which, having been operated on to remove a cancerous tumor in my sinus, I slept for only brief periods of time. Sometimes I made it as long as two hours continuously, but most often I dozed off for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, maybe an hour - encamped as I was on my couch, trying not to wake my wife as I wandered in the dark contemplating the long night ahead. Sometimes I turned the television set …

The most well-informed aficionados of NYC's jazz avant-garde speak of pianist John Blum with reverential respect, yet his discography is shockingly small for someone with a three-decade career: five albums as a leader, four as a sideman. Blum studied piano with seminal avant-gardist Cecil Taylor and ambidextrous master Borah Bergman, and it shows, yet his style at its most intense is more thickly textured than even theirs, and fully individualistic. Blum's left hand recalls James P. Johnson: ene…

ESP-Disk presents They Tried To Kill Me Yesterday. Frequently lyrical, sometimes hard-hitting, nostalgic for jazz and R&B, proud of African-American heroes, Paul r. Harding has been around, has seen and heard things he reflects on and refracts to us with vivid words. Based in upstate New York, he's joined by bassist Michael Bisio (Matthew Shipp Trio) and, on half the tracks, by percussionist Juma Sultan (who played with Jimi Hendrix).

Look at those players Alon Nechushtan brought together for this gig! The late, great Roy Campbell; reed masters Daniel Carter and Sabir Mateen; mayor of the NYC avant-jazz scene William Parker; versatile drummer Federico Ughi. Then listen: they all live up to their reputations. And then there's Nechushtan himself, born in Tel Aviv and long a thriving presence in New York as both composer and improviser. This concert happened at a time of considerable ferment on the NYC scene, with established vi…

Guillermo Gregorio has been exploring space and form and gesture in music for a very long time. In 1969, with composers Norberto Chavarri and Roque de Pedro, he cofounded the collective Movimiento Música Más, which for a while staged public interventions, performances, and happenings even as the political skies were darkening again. He finally left Argentina in 1985, living in Vienna, L.A., and Cologne through the end of that decade, before settling in Chicago for the next 25 years. Already in V…

This group evolves in leaps and bounds. You've never heard a jazz piano trio sound like this album - not even this band on its previous album, the much-praised World Construct. That said, there is a through line from the first Matthew Shipp Trio album, 1990's Circular Temple (ESPDISK 4082CD, 2023 reissue) to New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz. Says Shipp, "Yes, we went there with that type of title this time. To anyone who thought the trio had reached its apotheosis on World Construct, you are in f…

Creativity is theoretically infinite. Just as improvisors can play the same song every night and have it sound different every time, existing recordings can have their materials combined in different ways, re-mixed, re-ordered, re-everything'd. Some people prefer the comforting solidity of a single version, unchanging, but that is antithetical to the jazz spirit. The infinity of creativity is being explored in two upcoming projects by Thollem (McDonas). Worlds in a Life, Two is the second of two…

Frank London writes in his liner notes: "Spirit Stronger Than Blood pays homage to some of the recordings that shaped my musical-spiritual aesthetic: Charles Mingus's Changes 1&2, Booker Little's Strength and Sanity, Pharaoh Sanders's Peace and Love, Clifford Thornton's Gardens of Harlem, Alice Coltrane's Ptah, The El Daoud. Each of these artists, as different as they are from each other, shared a commonality of intention that set me on my life and career path. Their music is spiritual, politica…

Volume 1. One might think that an album titled Louis Armstrong's America is a tribute to the famed trumpeter, and certainly he's a focus here, but a normal tribute would feature compositions by him, or at least associated with him. Allen Lowe doesn't operate in the realm of the predictable, though; instead, the concept - powered entirely by Lowe compositions - takes in not just Armstrong's influence but also the evolution of jazz starting with influences (not all jazz) on Armstrong and continuin…

Performed live by Thollem McDonas at Sala Perriera, Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo, Sicilia, 13 May 2023. Recorded and mixed by Simone Sfamelli. Mastered by Sean Mac Erlaine at Studio Saile, Dublin. Design and artwork by ACVilla. From the liner notes by Thollem McDonas: "My approach to the piano is unique, based on my lifelong relationship with the instrument. It is also universal, born out of the context of everything and everyone who came before and during. I have been influenced by my …

When Michael Bisio heard Korean pianist Eunhye Jeong's ESP-Disk 2021 album NOLDA, he expressed interest in working with her. After a successful and riveting duo concert in Kingston, NY showed what a good match they were, ESP was eager to document their musical affinity. One of the concert attendees was avant-jazz sax icon Joe McPhee, who guested with the duo at their subsequent studio session along with one of ESP's favorite drummers, Jay Rosen. Magical moments abounded, as you can hear on this …

Written, produced, recorded, and mixed by Buck Curran at Via Paleocapa, Bergamo, Italy between April 2024 and January 2025. Mastered by Harris Newman, Grey Market Mastering, Montreal, Canada. Curran's ninth solo album finds an elemental, full-form return to his musical roots: a deep love for the ambient and resonant nature of the acoustic steel-string guitar in alternate tunings. In company and reunited (after an 18-year separation) with a rare "Butterfly" Model 1 acoustic guitar made by Stefan …

Entropic Hop's sophomore studio album, their first on ESP-Disk', is a covert extraterrestrial mind control program utilizing controversial sonic hypnosis techniques; a prurient hyperreal triad unraveling in sonic flux while rupturing auditory expectations; an inter-dimensional artifact filtering rigorous initiation rituals and organized chaos into weapons of discourse against hierarchical coercion. After the psychoactive success of their 2023 Japanese tour, Entropic Hop returned to NYC envisioni…

Amazingly, this is Charles Downs's first album as sole leader, recorded shortly after he turned 81. Starting in the 1970s, he performed as Rashid Bakr, a name he chose out of admiration for drummer Rashid Ali; this is how he was known while performing in various Cecil Taylor ensembles, with Jemeel Moondoc's Ensemble Muntu, and as a member of Other Dimensions in Music, to name just a few. He reverted to his birth name in the 21st century. Featuring Hery Paz (saxophone), Jamie Saft (piano), and Jo…

After paying his dues with bluesmen Albert King and Bobby "Blue" Bland and jazzman Jaki Byard, Michael Marcus had his first album released in 1991, when he was 39. He's been prolific since then, co-leading Cosmosamatics with Sonny Simmons, SaxEmble with Frank Lowe and James Carter, Blue Reality Quartet with Joe McPhee, Warren Smith, and Jay Rosen, and Duology with Ted Daniel as well as Marcus's many albums as sole leader. Marcus had his debut on ESP with Abstractions in Lime Caverns in 2022. As …

This album is part of two ESP-Disk' initiatives. The one that came first is the idea of teaming up artists who haven't worked together before. In this case, longtime collaborators Ullmann and Swell play with a rhythm section new to Ullmann: Morris and Downs. And, this is another ESP release featuring Charles Downs. The senior member of the trio, he is also known to jazz aficionados as Rashid Bakr, the name he used while drumming in various Cecil Taylor groups, Ensemble Muntu, and Other Dimension…

The core of Gschlössl, Ullmann, and Leipnitz remains; Haves has become a constant as well. This time out they are joined by Messerschmidt and Hillbig. GULF of BERLIN is a sextet consisting of five musicians and a real-time sound designer, exploring the space between improvisation and composition. What initially appears to be spontaneous sonic creation gradually reveals itself as music that emerges in the moment while unfolding according to its own internal logic. Each individual acoustic voice i…

Notes by Bruce: water under the bridge: "... and now we've returned to the work as different people, imaginations stretched in unimagined ways. With this new recording, rehearsal and performance dates set, the quartet is once again finding its footing, weathering many forces at play - those life-and-death circumstances that attend us daily. Yet, as the years pass, ROVA remains dedicated to creating/realizing personal works for saxophone quartet. Booked with pieces by Steve and Jon, we present th…

Giancarlo Schiaffini composes, arranges and conducts a brass-heavy ensemble from the trombone, recorded at Trafalgar Studios in March 2007. With Giovanni Maier on bass, Beppe Caruso on tuba, Gianpiero Malfatto on euphonium, Martin Mayes on French horn and U.T. Gandhi on drums. Seven pieces, from Basic Blues and Tuba Libre to Concerto Grasso. Released by Pentaflowers.

Solo piano by Franco D'Andrea, recorded live at Teatro Morlacchi in Perugia on 12 July 1994. Six pieces in about fifty minutes, including the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony alongside D'Andrea's own Sketch in Blue, Air Waves and Lychees. Released by Pentaflowers.

Bassist Nello Toscano with Enrico Rava on trumpet and flugelhorn, recorded at Ciminiera Studio in Catania on 6 and 7 January 1994. With Mauro Negri on clarinet and tenor sax, Alberto Alibrandi and Giuseppe Emmanuele on piano and Mimmo Cafiero on drums. Eight pieces, from Bossa for Rava to Tango per Gisa. Released by Pentaflowers.

About Monk is Giancarlo Schiaffini's album named after Thelonious Monk, recorded in April 1992 at Regson Studio in Milan. All compositions are Schiaffini's own. The band includes Gianluigi Trovesi on alto sax and clarinets, Eugenio Colombo on flute and soprano sax, Pasquale Innarella on French horn, Piero Leveratto on bass, Tiziano Tononi on drums and Fulvio Maras on percussion and electronics. Released by Pentaflowers.

Now available on CD the Roman sessions of the great jazz dueo Smith Pieranunzi. A work that has his roots in the 70s up to the 90s for a selection that will see you involved in pleasant Dejavu' and interesting news. The two great Jazz Player perform together with Bruno Tommaso and Roberto Gatto for 13 tracks with a great sound!

Enzo Scoppa has been playing tenor saxophone on the Roman scene since the late 1950s, and since 1958 he has shared the front line with trumpeter Cicci Santucci: next to the Basso-Valdambrini sextet, the Santucci-Scoppa quintet is the longest-running partnership in Italian jazz. New & Old Friends is his latest album, recorded at Clive Simpson's Extrabeat studios in Rome in March and April 2018, and the first CD ever issued by Sonor Music Editions. The six pieces move between bebop, big band writi…

2CD version. A new edition of Joshua Abrams’ 2015 2xLP magnum opus Magnetoception is at last here. Out-of-print on vinyl for a decade+, Magnetoception is the 3rd album, & 1st double album, in the saga of Natural Information Society. In a Berwyn, Illinois attic, February 2013, Abrams, guitarists Emmett Kelly & Jeff Parker, & grand master drummer Hamid Drake gathered around vintage Neumanns & a woodstove to record the nucleus of Magnetoception live to 2-track. Beamed-in over the next year at Abram…

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers with Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt, recorded at Van Gelder Studio on March 6, 1960. Blue Note Classic Vinyl reissue.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers with Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt, recorded at Van Gelder Studio on March 14, 1961, first issued in 1967. Japanese UHQCD reissue (UCCQ-9727).

Kenny Burrell's third Blue Note session as a leader, with Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Doug Watkins and Louis Hayes, recorded in Hackensack on 10 February 1957 and first issued in Japan in 1979. Mono Tone Poet reissue, 180g.

Live recording by the Donald Byrd quintet with Pepper Adams, Duke Pearson, Laymon Jackson and Lex Humphries, taped at the Half Note Cafe, New York, on 11 November 1960 and first issued by Blue Note in 1961. Tone Poet 180g LP reissue.

The second of two Blue Note volumes recorded live at the Half Note Cafe, New York, on November 11, 1960, by Donald Byrd's quintet with Pepper Adams, Duke Pearson, Laymon Jackson and Lex Humphries.

Donald Byrd's jazz-funk album produced by Larry and Fonce Mizell, with Harvey Mason, Chuck Rainey and strings arranged by Wade Marcus, recorded at the Sound Factory in Los Angeles in August 1975 and released by Blue Note that year. Classic Vinyl 180g LP.

Dexter Gordon's second Blue Note album, a quartet with Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones, recorded at Van Gelder Studio on May 9, 1961. Blue Note Tone Poet LP reissue.

Dexter Gordon's 1962 Blue Note quartet album with Sonny Clark, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder on 27 August 1962. Blue Note 85 limited edition on blue vinyl.