Jazz /
The Lady With The Golden Stockings
The Lady With The Golden Stockings" is a propulsive, forthright groove – a decisive, deep-space, pre-dawn party jam, emitting golden sparks from the black hole center which begat "Africa" and "Watusa." Quantum-elasticity of temporal equations, bubbling bass, trumpet dancing on light waves, tenor sax serenade across the galaxy, signaling yonder... vessels... beings... femaliens... Pure poetry in sublime, delicate, rhythmelodic motion becomes "Spontaneous Simplicity.” A centerpiece among the gentl…
Rocket Number Nine
Among Sun Ra's most famous and jet-propelled anthems, "Rocket Number Nine" is heard here in one of the earliest renditions from a marathon June 1960 session, with a staggering, swaggering, hip-bop beat. Ignition. Liftoff. "Rocket Number Nine Take Off for the Planet Venus, Zoom Zoom! Up in the air! Zoom! Up!" Paired with originally unknown recordings, including the driving, bossa nova-infused "Ankhnation" from 1959 and "Project Black Mass" from 1962. More energized and driving in contrast …
Enfances à Dunois le 8 janvier 1984
Daunik Lazro, alto saxophone, Joëlle Léandre, bass, voice, George Lewis, trombone, toys. Recorded at Dunois in Paris on January 8, 1984, by Jean-Marc Foussat.
Monism
Finally reissued, this mega rare spiritual jazz by reed player Milton Marsh – one of the harder-to-find albums on Strata East – and one of just a couple incredible records to Marsh's name! Obscurity aside, this is prime Strata East. In 1975, Milton Marsh released his first album Monism for the Strata-East label. Marsh, a composer, arranger, saxophonist and flautist, recorded the album in New York City from 1973-1974. The musicians on Monism represent some of the finest living in NYC at t…
Key To Nowhere
CD Edition. Cosmic righteousness from Brother Ahh – aka Robert Northern – best known for his work with Sun Ra, but a force behind some wonderfully soulful records of his own! This album's one of Ahh's later works – self-released in 1983, with a conception that's fuller than his earlier works – almost in an Alice Coltrane spiritual mode, with tracks that emphasize consciousness, healing, well being, and awareness. Ahh plays flute and French horn on the album – and other instrumentation includes p…
Move Ever Onward
CD editio. Cosmic righteousness from Brother Ahh – an enigmatic musician who worked briefly with Sun Ra, and continued an exploration of the sonic heavens on his own! This rare 1975 album features Ahh's Sound Awareness ensemble – a 25 piece group that features a host of voices set to percussion, flutes, and other intimate and evocative instrumentation. The feel's quite hard to describe – kind of a cross between Sun Ra and Moondog, with the righteous style of vocalization that you might fi…
Sound Awareness
CD edition. A very trippy album from the enigmatic former member of Sun Ra's Arkestra, and also a lecturer on the east coast. This album's his first, originally issued on the Strata East label – and a space mixture of other-worldly sounds. The renowned French horn player known as Brother Ah (aka Robert Northern) is one of the most prolific and respected musicians in the history of jazz music, with a recorded output spanning more than 30 years. Born in 1934 and raised in the south Bronx, B…
Dawn
Dawn presents Mike Osborne in both his earliest surviving recording, as a co-leader with John Surman of a quartet from 1966, and in 1970 with the first known recordings of his mighty trio with the transplanted South African rhythm team of Harry Miller and Louis Moholo. These unearthed recordings not only fill in important gaps in Osborne's own discography but in the history of British jazz as a whole. The first six tracks, recorded in 1970, are by his trio, his main vehicle as a leader and…
Withdrawal (1966/67)
Featuring the earliest published recordings of Barry Guy & Evan Parker, percussionist John Steven's presents transitional sextet and septet performances of his groundbreaking free improv group from 1966 & '67 with Trevor Watts, Paul Rutherford, Kenny Wheeler, and Derek Bailey.
"Here is a missing link between the first two Spontaneous Music Ensemble (SME) recordings to be published. The music on CHALLENGE (recorded 1966 March and issued on a long vanished Eyemark LP) is mainly free jazz, w…
Sahib's Jazz Party
In a time before jazz music went free and ‘avant-garde’ there were a couple of inspired souls who put an emphasize on extended jams and improvised yet melodic parts based on a rather repetitive rhythm background. The result in turning away from the rather artistic and complicated bebop was the modal jazz that came up in the second half of the 1950s and lasted as the leading style until the mid to late 60s when bands either became free avant garde or discovered rock music to boost up their sound.…
Sonny's Time Now
LP version. In 1965 - only a few months after recording „Ghosts“ with Albert Ayler - Sonny Murray released his first album as a leader. „Sonny's time now“ is one of the holy grails for collectors and aficionados of free avant garde jazz music from the 1960s and while original vinyl copies fetch prices up to 270,00 US$ and more ,even the first Japanese reissue from 1986 on vinyl and CD is rare as stardust these days and goes up to 100,00 US$ for a mint CD copy. Well, we will take a closer look at…
Ghosts
"I have to admit that this record contains some of the most intriguing and wicked music I ever experienced. And I say that from the point of view of a John Coltrane aficionado. Well, Ayler and his mates Don Cherry on trumpet, Sonny Murray on drums and Gary Peacock on bass guitar are definitely on par with the before mentioned god of free jazz and others like Ornette Coleman. If you listen to this album from the pop music perspective you may find only screeching and overblown saxes and some non s…
Goodbye Red Rose
Chefa Alonso performed with numerous musicians during her 2004-8 stay in London. Perhaps the most profound and rewarding musical relationship was the duo with Tony Marsh. This is at least the fifth soprano saxophone and percussion duo on Emanem. While perhaps influenced by the other duos, the strengths of the two participants mean that it is a unique addition to the instrumentation. Besides their contribution to the last night at the Red Rose, there are also appearances at another London venue, …
Oratorios and Songs
The project heard on this CD resulted from a commission from the Festival des Nuits Romanes, which organizes performances and concerts in Romanesque churches in the Southwest of France. In 2008 this was given to Company D M I of which Kent Carter is the musical director. (Danse Musique Image), The resulting multimedia show 'Fire Shadow' was performed in three churches that year – excerpts can be seen and heard at here.
For some time, Carter has been organising superb groups whose music is unclas…
Outside
Duck Baker made his name as a preeminent fingerstyle guitarist in the folk/acoustic world, as one of several players of his age who expanded the fingerpicking repertoire from blues, ragtime, and Merle Travis-style instrumentals to include Irish and Scottish music, swing numbers and modern jazz. Less well-documented is Baker's free jazz - free improv style, something he began working on after hearing Sonny Sharrock in the 1960s. Baker's approach to this music was also heavily influenced by people…
The Worse The Better
LP version. Recording of the stunning first set performed by the trio of Peter Brötzmann, Steve Noble and John Edwards at Cafe OTO in January 2010 during Brotzmann's first residency at the venue. This was also the first time the trio had played together. Recorded at Cafe OTO by Shane Browne, mixed by John Edwards and Mastered by Andres [LUPO] Lupich at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
"Does the world need another Brötzmann album? Probably not, but as the inaugural release on Cafe OTO's in-house hi…
In the Moment E & F Sides
Makaya McCraven's In The Moment E & F Sides contain 40 minutes of additional music from the original In The Moment sessions. These 9 pieces of organic beat music were sampled concurrently, but not fully completed, with the 19 that comprised the January 2015 release. Slowly refined by McCraven and mastered in November 2015 by Daddy Kev (founder of Low End Theory, Alpha Pup Records), the In The Moment E & F Sides demonstrate McCraven's further actualization as a unique composer/producer in an…
Solos: The Lost Tapes (1980-1981-1984)
In 1976, Joe McPhee recorded the landmark album Tenor, kicking off a solo period of finding and refining the distinctive voice that continues to inform his music to this day. Solos: The Lost Tapes (1980-1981-1984) is a collection of material from McPhee's personal archives that shines new light on the legendary multi-instrumentalist's work during this time. 'Wind Cycles,' for tenor saxophone, explores the permutations of breath on reed and brass, from quiet whispers to full-throated cries and…
Blue York
Jeanne Dielman present Blue York, a collection featuring unreleased tracks from Sun Ra's Arkestra from 1963. Herman Poole Blount, better known to the world as Sun Ra, lived more musical lives in his 79 years on this planet (and others) than seems possible. In the '30s he was the most rigorous bandleader in Birmingham, heading the Sonny Blount Orchestraand filling every waking moment with music or philosophical discussions, by the '40s he had moved to Chicago and performed with luminaries such as…
Schobberdebonk
Terrie Hessels, electric guitar. Paal Nilssen-Love, drums & percussion. Limited to 300 copies only. Recorded live in concert on the 4th of April 2015 at Festival PiedNu, Le Havre, France. Recorded by Emmanuel Lalande. Mixed by Arnold de Boer. Mastered and cut to vinyl by Mike Grisner at D&M Berlin. Cover art and design by Marek Wajda.