Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

*100 copies limited edition* Some ensembles begin with a repertoire. Others begin with a community. Airlft emerged in Philadelphia in 2022 as an ongoing monthly gathering initiated by drummer and percussionist Kevin Diehl: a space where composers, improvisers and listeners could meet in an open process of experimentation. Over the course of four years, that process gradually evolved into a shared musical language, one shaped less by fixed personnel than by sustained collaboration. Spatial Recogn…

A space is often described by its dimensions. The height of the ceiling, the expanse between walls. Division into functional elements of varying density follows. We have ideas of how such dimensions should be balanced to work well for sound — the classical concert hall, a Northward mastering room. It’s tempting to try and use this idea of space to understand Space the group (Lisa Ullén, Elsa Bergman, Anna Lund). To calculate their cartesian co-ordinates: dynamics that run from whisper soft to pu…

On Sweet Love, Bitter, Mal Waldron turns a fictional portrait of Charlie Parker’s final years into a darkly luminous suite of cinematic jazz. His lyricism, tension and blues‑stained restraint guide a formidable 1967 ensemble through music that moves beyond soundtrack function, making New York feel bruised, nocturnal and fiercely alive.

* Edition of 100 copies * Two kits, facing each other, one night. On 10 April 2025 Lily Finnegan put a quintet on stage at Elastic Arts in Chicago with a second drummer sitting opposite her, and Bill Harris ran tape on it. Forty minutes, released here as three continuous parts, nothing reshaped after the fact. The second drummer is Vincent Davis, and the choice tells you a good deal. Davis is an AACM member with a Chicago pedigree that runs back through Roscoe Mitchell and Jodie Christian, along…

* Edition of 100 copies * Two people in a room, and not one moment of merging. That is what makes All I Know In The City remarkable, and it is not a small thing. Potliquor is the duo of pianist Sharon Udoh and turntablist Allen Moore, caught live at Elastic Arts in Chicago on 18 January 2026 and issued by Amalgam, the artist-run Chicago collective and label founded in 2015 by drummer and engineer Bill Harris, who also recorded, mixed and mastered the session. Amalgam has spent a decade documenti…

* Edition of 100 copies * Two years of sessions went into this record, spread between 2023 and 2025 at Marmalade, the West Loop studio Ishmael Ali co-founded and works in as an engineer. Nobody was watching the clock. You can hear that in the shape of the thing: ten pieces that were never meant to add up to a single argument, solo cello miniatures wedged between full band tracks, a couple of them actual songs with words and a singer. The solo pieces may be the strangest part of it. Ali amplifies…

*2023 repress* Caz Plak İstanbul proudly presents Okay Temiz's Oriental Wind - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival 1982 LP. A fantastic cocktail of Turkish Jazz which has unique rhythm sections like 9/8 , 7/8 , Anatolian Rock and Funk. Okay Temiz perfectly demonstrates the immersive layers of Turkish music. Never before released until now, a Turkish Jazz Magnum Opus is unearthed in collaboration between Istanbul-based Caz Plak and Montreux Jazz Festival. The performance by Okay Temiz's "Oriental Wind…

Huge Tip! Never before released recording of the Sensational and Banned Turkish Theater Play by James Baldwin and Engin Cezzar, Istanbul 1970. Licensed by Gökhan Akçura, author of Engin Cezzar's autobiography, who was personally entrusted with the original master tape by Engin Cezzar. "One of the most shocking and daring plays staged in Turkish theaters was banned by the Istanbul Governorship on February 7, 1970. The ban on the play, which was watched by 30,000 people in 60 days, did not last lo…

Albert Ayler did it once, and only once. On February 24, 1964, in New York, on the same day as the session that would become Spirits, he recorded a program of spirituals and standards with no screaming, no glossolalia, no demolition of form: "Goin' Home", "Ol' Man River", "Down By The Riverside", "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Deep River", "When The Saints Go Marchin' In", "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen". Songs of suffering and salvation, played with a devotional restraint that hits harder th…

"Utility Modern represents a kind of full creative circle for me. My musical journey began under the influence of Bill's work, and now we find ourselves collaborating, building something new together. In many ways, Utility Modern is an homage to the guitar and to the guitarists whose music shaped my artistic voice.My work is rooted more in process than in concept, and that process is deeply informed by an ongoing exploration of the instrument—its technique, physicality, and expressive possibilit…

Back at the end of 2023, Giotis Damianidis and Aleksandar Škorić, while finishing their tour with Entasis, began talking and dreaming about a tour of the Balkans—starting from Thessaloniki (Damianidis’s hometown) and heading north to Novi Sad (Škorić’s hometown). Next came deciding the lineup. John Dikeman on saxophone and Petros Damianidis on double bass were the obvious choices, as Škorić, Dikeman, and the Damianidis brothers have worked together for many years. On March 16th, 2024, the tour w…

Double CD Edition, comes with a 36-page booklet. Every national jazz history has its unrepeatable figure. Britain's is Tubby Hayes, and this is the deepest single drop into his archive that anyone has yet managed - thirty-six performances, every one of them previously unissued, drawn from ten different settings across fourteen years. He was called the Little Giant, and both halves of that name did real work. Barely taller than the tenor he carried, Hayes was a professional at fifteen, a member o…

Wewantsounds presents the first official release of a legendary 1977 concert, capturing Don Cherry, Collin Walcott and Leon Thomas in their only documented performance together, joined for part of the night by the rest of Oregon. Long circulating among a few Cherry fans, Sunrise is a hypnotic forerunner to Codona, newly remastered, with Moki Cherry artwork and new liner notes by Jason Weiss.

In September, 1967, three of the primary ensembles of free music in Northern Europe gathered for a mini-festival on Radio Bremen: the Manfred Schoof Quintet, the Peter Brötzmann Quartet, and the Irène Schweizer Trio. Pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach appeared as part of the Manfred Schoof Quintet, but in these sets, which mixed the dozen members of the ensembles, as well as presenting them on their own, Schlippenbach in fact either led or was at the center of several groupings, presenting two …

All music previously unissued! Transferred from the original tape reels restored by Michael D. Anderson with audio remastering by Joe Lizzi and lacquers cut by Matthew Lutthans at Cohearent Audio. Includes extensive booklet with previously unpublished photos from the actual performances by Hal Rammel; liner notes by acclaimed author John Corbett; and testimonials from Marshall Allen, David Murray, Dave Burrell, Matthew Shipp, Thurston Moore, Amina Claudine Myers, Jack DeJohnette, Michael Weiss &…

180 gram Vinyl Edition. Gatefold Cover. The fourth album as a leader by spiritual jazz saxophone titan Pharoah Sanders, Jewels of Thought was released in 1969. It Consist of two extended tracks, one of which had to be divided into two parts in order to fit onto the LP. Sanders was incrediblt active in 1969, recording lo less than four albums and releasing three. The band on Jewels of Thought includes several major stars, among them Idris Muhammad, Roy Haynes, Richards Davis, Cecil McBee, Leon Th…

On Live at Yoshi’s 1994, Mal Waldron and Steve Lacy turn a decades‑deep partnership into a single, extended act of listening, folding Monk, Ellington, Strayhorn and their own themes into a stark, tensile dialogue where every note feels earned.

There are musicians who play jazz and there are musicians who expand its very definition. Yusef Lateef was the latter - a visionary who brought the oboe, the argol, the shanai, the bamboo flute and countless other instruments into the jazz vocabulary decades before "world music" became a marketing category. Golden Flower: Live in Sweden presents two never-before-released concert recordings that capture this master at the height of his powers, finally emerging from the Sveriges Radio tape vaults …

"The band showed up, four folks from three different spots on the globe -- Chicago (Vandermark, Reid); Nickelsdorf, Austria (Gustafsson); Philadelphia (Taylor). They assembled their gear and sound-checked at the studio. There was a four-way freedom at play, structures but liberties and no need for elaborate explanation. Everyone spoke the same shorthand. Cues were understood; timings were implicit and considered; space was made for chances to be taken. In creative music, you sometimes need to re…

On Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts, The Cecil Taylor Unit detonates across two uncut Paris sets: a newly unearthed, vividly mastered document of Taylor, Sam Rivers, Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille stretching free jazz into an overwhelming, architectural storm of sound.

** 2CD version is housed in foil digipak** Strut present the definitive edition of Sun Ra’s classic ‘Lanquidity’ album from 1978 . Recorded overnight at Bob Bank’s Blank Tapes on 17th July 1978 after the Arkestra had appeared on Saturday Night Live, the album is unique in the Ra catalogue. “Most critics felt that it was more of a fusion-inspired record,” explains Michael Ray. “As the name suggests, the album is liquid and languid.” Bob Blank continues, “Musically, it was very ad hoc and freeform…

The Munich band Embryo was founded in 1969. "Opal" was her first album. Released on the OHR label in 1970. The band led by Christian Burchard (2018) combined numerous genres into one huge crossover project. Jazz rock, folk, blues, soul, contemporary music, and world music. Even if "Opal" doesn't sound as perfect as later recordings, the album is considered to be very influential. Embryo themselves describe their style as follows: Pop music is the appropriate level of communication for Embryo, ju…

On Oscillations, Sol Sol stretch their free‑jazz vocabulary into something almost cosmic: ten pieces where Elin Forkelid’s four saxes, David Stackenäs’ guitar and the Agnas brothers’ rhythm team move from feather‑light drift to razor‑edged intensity with effortless precision.

Lucky restock! We present you a very special and limited edition 5-LP box - a piece of Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Quintet European tour in January-February 2024. In this box you will find recordings from the band's only concerts in Poland at Pardon, To Tu in Warsaw and at NOSPR in Katowice. The recordings have been meticulously mixed and mastered for the best sound quality for you to enjoy. Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Quintet visited Poland for the very first time and it felt really important to …

A never-before released Art Blakey 1965 live recordings. First official release with the full permission and cooperation of the Art Blakey Estate & INA (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel).

** Limited edition housed in a die cut craft sleeve, flooded pocket, in printed inner sleeve, with insert ** Artistry was Sirone's first album as a leader, recorded in 1978, just after the split of the Revolutionary Ensemble. Artistry has an Atypical combination of instruments, bass, cello , flute and percussion and delivers aplenty. Listen and you will know. Sirone ( Norris Jones) had an enormously prolific career as a bassist, both as a member of the Revolutionary Ensemble and playing with man…

Bomb! ** Sourced from the master tapes. First-time vinyl reissue ** Groundbreaking early work from drummer Milford Graves and pianist Don Pullen – a set of long, free improvisations that were originally issued on Graves' Self-Reliance Productions label! The music is even more striking than sounds from the time on the ESP label – and also really predates some of the freer work of this type from the European scene – as Graves is a monster on the drum kit and a range of percussion, reaching out wit…

"To understand the significance of the word 'featuring' on Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold, consider how infrequently Sun Ra used it and the exact way it had been used."The October Revolution in Jazz, organized by Bill Dixon in the West Village in 1964, presented a vivid cross section of approaches to the new music, including a sextet led by Ra. For the October Revolution's continuation, titled Four Days in December, held at nearby Judson Hall on the last days of 1964, the Arkestra pe…

Hot Heros once again bring a raw jazz grit to the heart of Finnish folk. Their latest LP, Tähtisilmä, explores the compositions of the master fiddler Konsta Jylhä through a modern, improvisational lens. Deepened by the rich, mournful tones of cellist Juho Kanervo, the group reimagines these beloved songs alongside a new original composition by bassist Ville Rauhala. Tähtisilmä is a visceral blend of jazz improvisation and the timeless "pelimanni" spirit, capturing the melancholy beauty of Finnis…

Kuusijärvi/Rönkkö launches the concept of accordion jazz into orbit with their album Aika ja tila (Time and Space). Built entirely on improvisation, this six-track collection stretches both musical genre boundaries and the very fabric of spacetime. Harri Kuusijärvi’s electronic accordion sounds at times like the chirping of a cyborg bird flock, and at others like Brian Eno’s electric toothbrush just as the batteries are dying. The other half of the duo, Tatu Rönkkö, weaves through his drum kit, …

* Limited edition housed in a die cut craft sleeve, flooded pocket, in printed inner sleeve, with insert * Malik King was an important part of the St Louis jazz scene of the 70's & 80's. He studied under Albert Ayler in NY in the early 70s before returning to the Midwest. He was a member of the Shirley Le Flore's ensemble "Free N' Concert". He also served as musical director of The Creative Arts & Expression Lab, The African Peoples Continuum, & The Black Arts Alliance, The worrier poets, The Hu…

“Peace is not the word to play” rapped Large Professor on Main Source’s 1991 debut album. His plea to stop abusing the word “peace” simply for rhetoric flair sounds just as valid in today’s genocidal world as it did in the streets of New York over 30 years ago. For Oiro Pena to name this album Béke, meaning peace in Hungarian - or white people in French Caribbean creole - it seems like they finally have something to say.With this group/concept/project called Oiro Pena, circling as a creative vor…

Gon Muruaga: Lines in the Sky. Music Shaped by Listening Some musical encounters begin long before the first note. Others begin in the instant of listening.

Introducing a musical treasure from the enigmatic Sun Ra's expansive discography, Strut Records proudly presents "Inside The Light World: Sun Ra Meets The OVC”. This extraordinary album unveils previously unreleased recordings from the year 1986 for the very first time, showcasing a unique chapter in the Sun Ra catalogue, officially released for Record Store Day 2024. Introducing the inaugural release of "lost" sessions from 1986, where Sun Ra encountered the OVC. These remarkable recordings wer…

Org Music’s reissue captures Cecil Taylor’s pivotal 1962 trio concert in Copenhagen. Remastered, complete, with rare notes, it’s a vital document of avant-garde jazz, praised for fearless innovation.

Purple Vinyl! How do you make a documentary film about a man who was also a myth? About a musician who was more than a musician? About someone who asked us to trust our intuition more than our rational minds? This double LP contains the original soundtrack to the accompanying PBS documentary! Includes liner notes from executive producer Bradford Smith about the making of Sun Ra: Do The Impossible, interviews from members of the Arkestra and a BluRay disc of the doc! Firelight assembled an incred…

**2023 repress** Out of print and hotly pursued on the secondary market, we’re thrilled to announce a much needed reissue initiative, dedicated to Ictus’ back catalog, beginning with four LPs, Steve Lacy and Andrea Centazzo’s Clangs, originally issued in 1976, Derek Bailey and Andrea Centazzo’s Drops, originally issued in 1977, Steve Lacy, Andrea Centazzo, and Kent Carter’s Trio Live, also from 1977, and John Zorn, Andrea Centazzo, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Toshinori Kondo, and Polly Bradfiel…

Sowing Records present a reissue of Lee Morgan's City Lights, originally released on Blue Note in 1957. City Lights is the result of a fine session recorded at the legendary Rudi Van Gelder studio by an all-star sextet featuring the 19 years old trumpet genius Lee Morgan plus an impressive coalition of jazz stylists such as Curtis Fuller on trombone, George Coleman on tenor sax, Ray Bryant on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Art Taylor on drums. All great players caught here in top form while d…

After Chick Corea’s Piano Improvisations, and Keith Jarrett’s Facing You, Paul Bley’s Open, To Love was the third fabulous chapter in ECM’s quietly revolutionary solo piano manifesto, whose impact endures and continues to influence improvisers today.  In the liner notes to this Luminessence vinyl edition, Bley biographer Greg Buium writes, “After more than fifty years, Open, To Love remains an imperishable gem, lodged forever in the present tense, and among the great masterpieces in ECM’s vast c…

A spiritual jazz masterpiece, Bennie Maupin’s The Jewel In The Lotus returns on vinyl. Featuring Herbie Hancock and a stellar ensemble, this ECM classic blends meditative soundscapes and collective improvisation, inviting listeners on a timeless journey of musical discovery