Jazz /
These
Wherein we come upon three visceralists who have been collaborating for years - innumerable instances in a roulette wheel of settings -- finally shacking up in a studio and fashioning a proper trio record. Glory be. Let's listen in-- 'These.' It's a phrase that never gets started, and an apt title for this record, which right off bolts from the barn and burns so brightly it nearly gets away from you by the time you're done twisting your head around looking for whoever it was that left the …
Thunder of the Gods
Sun Ra is still trying to get our attention 50 years after dispatching this transmission. Humanity’s path since then makes his message even more urgent today. Years after Herman Poole “LeSony’r Ra” Blount “left the planet” he’s still trying to reach us, to wake us up and to change our destiny.Sun Ra and the Arkestra weren’t a traditional studio band, and every star in the vast galaxy of their discography reflects this. The origins of these records can be hard to pinpoint at times, but when it co…
PEN
**500 copies** It is always a treat to see some major musical innovators in action. Especially in a mind-blowing line-up, at the top of their game and unrecorded until now on this impressive new Dropa Disc release.Evan Parker might be a member of some legendary trios – one with von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens and one with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton – still this brilliant master of the saxophone and pioneer of free music managed to surprise us big time when he introduced his trio with John Edwar…
Low Level Stink
When Ballister – the fearsome trio of Dave Rempis (saxophones), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) – performed in Antwerp in March of 2015, they played the kind of music you know some musicians are capable of, but rarely get to experience. It was a magnificent concert that grabbed you by the collar and took you for an adrenaline-fueled ride. There were some quieter moments when you could enjoy the view and take a breath, but the impression that lingered on was one of fearles…
Veskunoita
Actor/singer/flautist Vesa-Matti Loiri's third album 'Veskunoita' (1973) delves deeper into the kind of vocal jazz-pop which he mastered on his second record, 'Vesku Suomesta', but with a more light-hearted approach. During the recordings Loiri was joined by a host of well known Finnish jazz and rock musicians. This is the first ever reissue of this title of which original copies are almost impossible to find.
Nykysuomalaista - Contemporary Finnish
It seems bizarre that this LP’s original copy was pressed in such low numbers in 1969 that it has become an unusually expensive and wanted collector’s item that hasn’t been repressed on vinyl (and never released on CD) until now. Soulset were, after all, in the late 1960s one of the most popular pop groups in Finland. Their recorded legacy is relatively short, and when this split LP was released, Soulset were already about to call it a day. Here Soulset perform five fine cuts of jazzy Fenno-soul…
Etiquette
Black vinyl, edition of 300. Svart Records presents the first vinyl reissue of the first solo album by Juhani Aaltonen, a rarity since its original release in 1974 on Love Records. Saxophonist and flautist Juhani “Junnu” Aaltonen is a living legend among Finnish jazz musicians, having also performed stints with rock groups such as Tasavallan Presidentti. Encouraged by the ubiquitous Edward Vesala, with whom Aaltonen recorded several albums over the years, he ended up in the recording studio as …
The Poet
Olli Ahvenlahti's a poet on the keys – one of the most soulful players in the 70s Finland scene, heard here on one of his greatest albums ever! The record's got a glowing grace that's really wonderful – part CTI-inspired electric fusion, without as much jamming as other European work of the time – but also an album of rounder, warmer tones – recorded with a slightly larger lineup that includes Eero Koivistoinen on tenor sax, and lots of great percussion at the bottom! Tunes have a subdued approa…
3rd Version
3rd Version is Eero Koivistoinen's seventh album and finds him in the company of other excellent Finnish musicians: pianist Heikki Sarmanto, guitarist Jukka Tolonen, bassist Pekka Sarmanto and drummer Reino Laine, plus American drummer Craig Herndon. Except for Tolonen, who is mostly associated with jazz-rock fusion due to his membership in the legendary Finnish bands Tasavallan Presidentti and Wigwam, the rest of the players are all pillars of the Finnish modern jazz scene and all are vi…
Wahoo!
A fiery, raw burst of fusion jazz played by a large group with incendiary energy, Eero Koivistoinen’s commanding saxophone controlling the chaos! Don't be put off by the long name, or the overuse of vowels in the title – because this album's a killer batch of free jazz, filled with loads of choppy sax riffs, sweet Fender Rhodes licks, and plenty of heavy drums. The record's got a hard fusion groove – and all the tracks are long instrumentals served up with plenty of power, and plenty of …
Valtakunta
350 copies on clear viny, 8-page, 30 x 30 cm size booklet, with Finnish and English biography and Liner Notes (by Juha Henriksson), and with CreditsThe master of Finnish jazz and all-around composer Eero Koivistoinen turns 70 on January 13th. Svart Records celebrates the occasion by reissuing his first ever album, Valtakunta, on vinyl. Originally released on Otavan Kirjalliset Äänilevyt (a book publisher) in 1967, the album has since then only seen a very limited CD reissue in the 90s, and has b…
Tilt
Tilt" is the amazing debut album by a band whose members were not newbies at all. The six musicians' combined former experiences had led them to the roads of jazz and prog rock (even the very young, masterful drummer Furio Chirico had played in The Trip's last two albums) for some time, so their expertise was quite obvious and quite impressive as well by the time "Tilt" introduced Arti + Mestieri to the eyes of the world. The jazz-rock oriented sound delivered by the band serves as an appropriat…
Jazz am Rhein 1967-1968
It was the summer of love in 1967, and more than 12 000 people found their way into the Rheinpark in Cologne – situated opposite the majestic cathedral and right at the bank of the Rhine river – for the first German open air jazz festival. Featured on those two sunny days in September were three big bands – including ace musicians like Jiggs Whigham, Dusko Gojkovic, Manfred Schoof and Volker Kriegel – and the Kenny Clarke - Francy Boland Sextet. When the festival was revived the following year, …
The Awakening
Ahmad Jamal is a jazz giant and The Awakening is his iconic masterpiece. The landmark deep trio session - recorded in NYC and released on Impulse! in 1970 - is an essential album and perennially sought-after on vinyl, so Be With Records are delighted to make it available again. As a “Zen master of jazz piano” and one of its greatest innovators, Jamal evolved his elegant sound with this adventurous record. The Awakening showcased his fast, richly melodic chops in remarkable variation. A consummat…
Nana
Drummer Edward Vesala was an early Finnish pioneer of avant garde jazz, and he managed to release this lovely LP that has to be considered the first proper Finnish free jazz album in 1970. The Vesala trio was supposed to be a quartet, but trumpetist Mike Koskinen fell ill, and the remaining exploratory trio (Vesala, saxophonist Juhani Aaltonen and bassist Arild Andersen) recorded the album in a short, fiery session. The album Nana is an absolute rarity as well as an absolute beauty. As with many…
Unity
Eremite present Byron And Gerald's Unity, a private press free jazz album recorded in 1969 at Howard University and the first release on Byron Morris's EPI label. It is the only hardcore free jazz record out of 1960s DC, and a viscerally powerful cultural dispatch on the sociopolitical upheavals of its time. From Byron's 2017 liner notes: "In the early spring of 1969, several months before moving to Poughkeepsie, NY, Gerald Wise and I, along with the recording engineer Len Jones, conceived of th…
Kami Fusen
Itaru Oki – trumpet, bamboo fluteNobuyoshi Ino - bassChoi Sun Bae - trumpet
Port of Call
Port of Call is a studio-recorded duet by Klaus Treuheit and Lou Grassi. The latter is an American drummer who runs the gamut of ragtime (Max Morath) to no time (Gunter Hampel, Burton Greene). Treuheit is a German pianist who studied under Herbie Hancock and modern classical composer George Crumb. Mostly co-composed, this Port takes in the elemental blues, as on “Mysterioso IV”. This series of duos has a somewhat free-ish conversational cast, especially in “L’Space Sonore”, while “Lament #PB III…
A Wing Dissolved in Light
Peter Evans - piccolo trumpetJohn Butcher - tenor and soprano saxophonesFrédéric Blondy - pianoClayton Thomas - double bassPaul Lovens - selected and unselected drums and cymbals
Live Evil
A beautiful live representation of the energy of the Bitches Brew years – one that has Miles Davis and the group really letting loose with free-flowing, modally-inspired lines – cooking up an incredible blend of acoustic and electric sounds at once! There's a bit of funk here, but not much – and although guitar is sometimes used strongly, it's often not as noisy as in later live sides. Instead, the whole group gels together beautifully – an unlikely assortment of players that includes G…