Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

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

British Jazz Explosion Series! Recorded in '69, Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises is irresistible on two counts. First, for its daringly conceived and brilliantly performed music, inspired by Greek folk songs and instrumental textures and deep enough to reveal all its treasures only after many repeated listenings. Second, for being recorded at the moment when the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, a major force in British straight-ahead jazz since '62, had broken up and Carr's equally influen…

Super Tip! *250 copies limited edition* The Italian imprint, Ictus, was founded in 1976 by percussionist and composer, Andrea Centazzo, and his wife Carla Lugli.  Running for just under a decade, until relaunching during the mid-2000s, the label produced a couple of dozen highly highly celebrated releases, the majority of which loosely fall under the banner of free jazz. Ictus’ second batch of releases from the label’s historic archives logically begins with Andrea Centazzo’s “U.S.A. Concerts”, …

On Awofofora, Marion Brown folds funk, reggae and Afro‑Caribbean rhythm into his mature structural language, using grooves not as decoration but as architecture for golden‑toned alto lines and quietly radical collective improvisation.

Tip! *250 copies limited edition* On the same trip to the United States that produced  “U.S.A. Concerts” and “Environment for Sextet”, Andrea Centazzo also connected with the San Francisco-based Rova Saxophone Quartet, formed the previous year by Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Andrew Voigt and Bruce Ackley (all playing various saxophones). While not as well-known now as they once were, over the last 40+ years the ensemble has produced dozens of albums and collaborated with diverse figures like Anthony …

New vinyl edtition as part of the "Luminessence" Series, presented as a tip-on gatefold including new photos from the archive. “I personally feel this is a great record and recommend it to everyone. It’s positive and hot and simply excellent.” – Gary Burton   Pat Metheny had debuted at ECM as a member of Gary Burton’s band on the album Ring in 1974, but Bright Size Life, his first studio recording as a leader, was the album that decisively put him on the map as a bright new force, with something…

** 2026 restock, long out of print - few copies available **  Here’s an astonishing fact: This album was recorded during John Tchicai’s first and only weeklong residency at a New York jazz club. Tchicai — co-founder of the New York Art Quartet, one of the most innovative bands of the 1960s; member of Albert Ayer's New York Eye and Ear Control; participant in John Coltrane’s Ascension, perhaps the most influential of Coltrane’s late works; practitioner of world music-jazz fusions in bands such as…

2025 much needed repress!! Since its formation in 1969, Soul Media had been advocating a fusion of jazz and rock. The next step along that line was this album, In the Groove, recorded in 1973. The sharpness of jazz is brought to the forefront, with rock melting in to give it an edge, and funk injected to imbue it with power and resilience. The result was a strong, sophisticated, and simply "cool music" that could not be categorized within existing genres such as jazz rock, jazz funk, or fusion. …

Bomb! The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker and William Parker formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves' “A Mind-Body Deal” exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and now a working group. Across 2LPs of side-length long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 Arts & Archives in LA and The Chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by t…

* Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert. * Founded initially as the The Beckerlee Quartet sometime towards the late 1950s and early '60s, a time during which time they went through various lineup changes before morphing into The Contemporary Jazz Quartet, in 1962 they began playing the Vingaarden club in central Copenhagen as one of the earliest European adopters of the emerging movement of free jazz. It was there that they came …

“Bloque 6” (1968), by Juan Carlos Calderón, is a landmark recording in the history of modern jazz in Spain, markedly different from the albums Calderón would record just a few years later under the influence of funk, disco music, and even flamenco. Juan Carlos Calderón enjoyed a long and successful career,  composing and arranging some of the most iconic songs by Spanish artists such as Joan Manuel Serrat, Mocedades, and Ana Belén, among many others. However, his musical beginnings were closely …

Powerful trio music by pianist Takehiro Honda, known for his strong touch and bluesy feeling, together with an American rhythm section. The album features a line up of compelling originals, including the overwhelmingly powerful "Minors Only" and the title track "Salaam Salaam," whose title means “peace” in Swahili.   East Wind was a ground-breaking jazz label established in 1974 through the full cooperation of Ai Music, as it was then known, and Nippon Phonogram, as it was then known. Over a per…

The saxophone, thunderous as a peal of lightning, burns the listener’s body and shakes the soul. Out Of Chaos captures a new frontier reached by Kosuke Mine beyond the depths of chaos. Having attracted widespread attention through his work with the Masafumi Kikuchi Group and the consecutive release of three albums under his own name in 1970, Kosuke Mine was one of the most talked-about figures in Japanese jazz. Following the breakup of the Kikuchi Group, he released the masterpiece Daguri in 197…

Brooklyn pianist Eva Novoa joins saxophonist Daniel Carter and drummer Francisco Mela for the second volume of The Freedom Suite, a set of twelve pieces blending piano, Rhodes, harpsichord, gongs, and vocals with Carter's multi-reed brilliance and Mela's Cuban-inflected drumming, creating an urgent, intimate, and fluidly improvised dialogue of words, sound, and fearless imagination.

Brooklyn-based pianist and composer Eva Novoa presents Eva Novoa Solo (I), her first solo piano recording and seventh album with 577 Records. Recorded at the legendary Sear Sound Studios in Manhattan, the album captures Novoa alone in the studio, embracing the artistic challenge of vulnerability, introspection, and creative freedom that defines the solo piano format. After several years working primarily within piano trio settings and other ensemble configurations, Novoa turned inward, embarking…

Flirty Ghost is an evocative LP by Rachel Kitchlew, a jazz and contemporary harpist known for pushing the boundaries of her instrument. A blend of jazz, ambient, and experimental sounds, the album was crafted in a spontaneous, deeply personal atmosphere, recorded late at night in the cozy, smoky setting of SFJ headquarters. Inspired by everything from Henry Mancini to Dorothy Ashby, this LP captures an eerie, playful essence, like a ‘flirty ghost’, while celebrating exploration and self-expressi…

Sisonke Xonti is a celebrated South African jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. Originally from Cape Town, he relocated to Johannesburg where he deeply immersed himself in the local jazz scene, collaborating with esteemed artists like Nduduzo Makhathini, Abdullah Ibrahim, Hugh Masekela, Herbie Tsoaeli, and Zim Ngqawana. 6 years later, Sisonke is back with a powerfull album ‘”uKholo” with Shane Cooper on double bass, Yonela Mnana on piano and vocals, Ayanda Sikade on drums, Keenan Ahrends…

*2026 repress!!!* Oh yes! First ever official reissue of the positively sublime and very rare Butterfly LP, recorded in Tokyo in 1979 by Japanese songstress Kimiko Kasai and jazz legend Herbie Hancock. Due to its super-rare status as a Japan-only release, this exquisite collection of covers never got the recognition it deserved at the time, despite incredibly inspired performances from Kimiko, Herbie and the supremely talented musicians assembled for the project. From heavenly drummer Alphonse M…

** Jeanne Lee's-Conspiracy in CD, housed in reverse board printed gatefold card sleeve. Initial copies come with complimentery poster designed by Shabaka Hutchings ** Jeanne Lee (1939-2000) was an African-American vocalist, poet, composer, improvisor, activist and educator. In her 40 year career she performed with Archie Shep, Marion Brown, Gunter Hampel, Frank Lowe, William Parker, Andrew Cyrille, Anthony Braxton, Ran Blake, Billy Bang, Cecil Taylor, John Cage, Rashsaan Roland Kirk, Pauline Oli…

Brasil & The Gallowbrothers Band are proud to announce the release of Record, Erase...Start Over Again, a powerful new record that captures the energy of live performance, the emotion of reinvention, and the joy of turning mistakes into momentum. Across the album, the band invites listeners into a world where every groove tells a story and every transition feels like a fresh start. From driving moments to deeply reflective passages, Record, Erase...Start Over Again follows an arc of growth—one t…

*Warehouse find!* "D.N.A." is a contemporary jazz album recorded at Mondial Studios in Milan in December 1996 by two 'heavyweights' of Italian and international jazz music, trumpeter Enrico Rava and pianist Mario Rusca, the latter here feature with his trio accompanied by double bass player Lucio Terzano and drummer Tony Arco. The album alternates original compositions written by Mario Rusca with evergreen classics of the genre.  In 1997 SAAR Records with its Giants Of Jazz label for the contemp…

An adventurous instrumental jazz-rock fusion album that captures the free-form chemistry between keyboardist Howard Wales and guitarist Jerry Garcia. The record blends jazz improvisation, psychedelic rock, blues, funk, and progressive influences into fluid, exploratory compositions driven by Wales' inventive keyboard work and Garcia's expressive, melodic guitar playing. Supported by musicians including John Kahn, Bill Vitt, and Martin Fierro, the album emphasizes spontaneous interplay over conve…

*100 copies limited edition* Following the striking debut of Believe That Was Me (577 Records, 2025), Matthew Putman, Hill Greene, and Francisco Mela reunite for Bright Sun Outside, a fearless new recording that further expands their shared language of spontaneous composition and soulful listening. Emerging from the creative orbit of 577 Records, the trio crafts a vivid and unpredictable sonic landscape where abstraction, rhythm, lyricism, and raw momentum exist in constant motion. Mela’s additi…

“Memories of a Loser” presents Juan Belda & The Bit Band at their most focused and fully realized. Blending jazz, rock, electronics and experimental composition, the album refines the core elements that have defined the project into a more cohesive and direct musical statement. The result is a record that moves with clarity while preserving its exploratory edge. Structured compositions and open passages coexist naturally throughout the album, driven by a strong sense of atmosphere and interplay …

La rueda infinita de Hans continues the exploration initiated by Juan Belda & The Bit Band, expanding their language through a conceptually structured and musically ambitious work. The album brings together a stable ensemble of outstanding musicians from the worlds of jazz and experimental music: Jorge Pardo, Enrico Barbaro, Juanjo Ortí and Epi Lorente. Their collective virtuosity shapes a sound that moves freely between composition and improvisation, precision and openness. Throughout the recor…

With No encuentro la tónica, Juan Belda & The Bit Band push their musical language further into unpredictable territory. The album unfolds as a restless and multifaceted work where jazz, experimental rock and electronic textures intersect freely. Rather than following a fixed stylistic path, the music constantly shifts perspective, moving through dense arrangements, sudden rhythmic turns and moments of spacious improvisation. The ensemble once again brings together a remarkable group of musician…

With Carretera mágica, Juan Belda & The Bit Band continue their journey through a musical territory where genres dissolve and direction emerges from collective exploration. Although its language can loosely evoke the broad landscape of jazz rock, the album ultimately resists precise categorization. Instead, it unfolds as an open musical route shaped by interplay, texture and evolving momentum. The core ensemble once again features Jorge Pardo, Juanjo Ortí and Enrico Barbaro, joined by collaborat…

This is the first stop on Sven Wunder’s musical journey. Wunder takes the listener somewhere around the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea, around the Levantine Sea, where he paints a colourful portrait and illustrates the regions flora through sound.

*220 copies limited edition* Lucien's music is inspired by Caribbean rhythms (biguines, mazurka, zouk), Caribbean rhythms (calypso), and Latin American rhythms (bossa nova, salsa), and is strongly influenced by modal jazz, jazz-fusion, and American funk. Laura Laura, Mim, Herbie — titles that showcase the musicians' creativity and the harmonic elegance of the compositions, making jazz both accessible and sophisticated.  Lucien Joly’s talent is evident not only in his compositions but also in his…