Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

There is a searching, yearning quality to Naked Truth, and a raw beauty and vulnerability in Avishai Cohen’s trumpet sound on his most improvisational ECM recording to date.  Very much music-of-the moment, found and shaped in the course of a remarkable recording session in the South of France, Naked Truth takes the form of an extemporaneous suite. For most of its length the Israeli trumpeter painstakingly leads the way, closely shadowed by his long-time comrades – pianist Yonathan Avishai, bassi…

Their collaboration has been hailed as a summit meeting of two jazz masters. Enrico Rava, trumpeter from Trieste, and Fred Hersch, pianist from Cincinatti, share a deep affection for the tradition and a profound sense for melodic invention. In this recording, with flugelhorn and piano glowing in the superb acoustic of the Lugano studio, Rava and Hersch explore some much-loved standards: Jerome Kern’s “The Song Is You”, Thelonious Monk’s “Mysterioso” and “’Round Midnight”, Jobim’s “Retrato em Bra…

The third album from Joe Lovano’s Trio Tapestry finds the group continuing to extend its spacious and lyrical approach, with deep listening and intense focus. “Our Daily Bread is fueled by the rhythm spirit of expression that projects the mysterious world of music that lies ahead,” says master saxophonist Lovano in his liner note, and these elegantly fluid pieces and free-floating ballads indeed feel like songs of the soul. “The intensity comes not from ferocity but from depth of feeling,” wrote…

Experience the vibrant and soulful sounds of Sicily with Orchestra Jazz Siciliana's latest album, "Plays The Music Of Carla Bley." This dynamic ensemble pays tribute to the iconic composer and pianist Carla Bley, with their own unique jazz interpretations of her compositions. The album features a fusion of traditional Sicilian melodies and Bley's avant-garde jazz influences, creating a dynamic and captivating listening experience. Led by renowned saxophonist and conductor, Francesco Cafiso, Orch…

Flesh and Bones is the latest release from drummer, composer, and poet William Hooker. The album marks his third full length effort for Org Music, following “Big Moon” (2021) and “Symphonie of Flowers” (2019). Hooker has also referred to the new work as his “Black Lives Suite”, a multi-disciplinary event which uses music and poetry to address the social issues of the times. Recorded at NYU Steinhart Studios, the recording features fellow New York based players Ras Moshe, Charles Burnham, On Davi…

Reissue, originally released in 1967. In a 1990 interview, producer James Bronson described his Touché label as a "floating record label", comparing it to the "floating gambling houses" that Black people in his city had operated to try and avoid attention from the law. The label itself was a private enterprise, run from home, and had scant budget for promotion nor expansion. His slogan "Record companies don't make music, musicians do" spoke volumes as to his respect for the artist. Nevertheless,…

2013 release. Among the most artistically successful alchemists of indie/psychedelic folk, Maine-based duo Arborea consists of Shanti Curran (vocals, banjo, "banjimer" (a banjo-dulcimer hybrid), harmonium, ukulele, sawing fiddle, and hammered dulcimer) and Buck Curran (guitars, vocals, sawing fiddle, flute, and banjo). Weaving together strands of indie rock, Appalachian folk, psychedelia, and ambient music into what has been called avant-folk, Arborea's songs combine delicate beauty and mystical…

2013 release. Two of the things most often associated with ESP-Disk' are free jazz and balls-to-the-wall saxophone improvisations. Go with your strengths, people say, so as part of the label's first batch of physical releases in its 50th anniversary year (2013), it presents producer Michael D. Anderson's compilation Fire Music. The saxophonists on these tracks are Albert Ayler, Charles Tyler, Frank Wright, Arthur Jones, Jack Graham, Byard Lancaster, Joe Phillips, John Tchicai, Marshall Allen (tw…

A sonic odyssey of extreme brilliance! Computer musician Tom Mudd and Hungarian percussionist/violist Áron Porteleki navigate the liminal space between the virtual and the corporeal with ferocious intelligence. Recorded live at NEXT Festival 2022 in Bratislava, this rambling and consistently surprising collaboration bridges divergent sonic landscapes with rare intensity. Mudd's impossible virtual instruments - simulated guitar using the NESS physical modelling code - intertwine seamlessly with P…

Silent, Listening is a major addition to ECM’s distinguished line of solo piano recordings, featuring one of the outstanding improvising pianists and jazz masters of our time: Fred Hersch. The album features seven original creations and a handful of well-chosen standards, including Billy Strayhorn’s “Star-Crossed Lovers”, Sigmund Romberg’s “Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise”, Alec Wilder’s “Winter Of My Discontent” and Russ Freeman’s “The Wind”, all played with the focus, sensitivity and gracefuln…

Everyone’s Children is the stunning debut album of spiritual avant-garde music from keyboardist, composer Surya Botofasina, out on Spiritmuse Records. The record combines deep jazz excursions with expansive synth passages and intimate piano turns to create a hypnotic, meditative and devotionally expressive suite that soothes, enriches and uplifts the soul. Botofasina’s upbringing at the Sai Anantam Ashram in the Southern Californian hills involved daily bhajans (traditional Hindu devotional song…

2014 release. Bud Powell ranks as one of the most influential pianists in jazz history, his style having provided the template for innumerable bebop pianists who followed in his wake. This remastered three-CD set captures Powell at his peak on his home turf at the famed Birdland club, recorded onsite (these are not air checks), and mostly working with top-notch sidemen such as Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford, Roy Haynes, and Art Taylor, along with guest appearances by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gi…

Before Miles Davis obsessed over his sense of space. Before Gil Evans studied his orchestral approach to the trio format. Before "less is more" became a jazz cliché. There was this - Ahmad Jamal's early trio, captured on the short-lived Parrot label, playing music so sophisticated, so elegant, so precisely constructed that it would redefine what a jazz piano trio could be. Chamber Music of the New Jazz isn't just a great album title - it's a manifesto. Jamal, Ray Crawford (guitar), and Israel Cr…

Following the highly-acclaimed release of Feeling Good and Inner Peace compilations, Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the reissue of two superb classic albums in our new mainstream records original classics series. The releases will be crammed with bonus material. Wewantsounds has gone back to the original negative to reconstruct the original artworks and will add many jaw dropping never-seen photo sessions and CD Bonus material with new liner notes. LPs will be released in glorious gatefol…

Joe McPhee's first international release, Black Magic Man, was issued on the newly formed Hat Hut imprint in 1975. It was a watershed moment for the 35-year-old musician. Based in Poughkeepsie, New York, he was too far away from Manhattan to have participated extensively in the Loft Jazz happenings of the decade. European exposure, however, would give McPhee an alternative circuit, something of an escape route from the trappings of American cultural myopia. " In support of the new record for thi…

Black Magic Man is arguably the pivotal Joe McPhee release. It bridged the span between the regional and the international, bypassing the national altogether. "Recorded in the same sessions that produced Nation Time, Black Magic Man consists of music not chosen for that LP. Like its much-feted sister, technically it falls under the domain of CjR, Craig Johnson's herculean effort in support of McPhee. An erstwhile painter, Johnson became a self-taught audio engineer, acquiring equipment expressly…

2010 release. Cosmoplitude is a sexy, ultra-limited-edition 45rpm 7" single co-released by ESP Disk' and Electric Cowbell Records. This historic record not only marks Talibam's first ever single and 20th record, but also ESP's first single in their legendary history as a vanguard label. Side A's "Cruisin' the Cooke Isle" and side B's "Cosmic Attidude" are ready for DJ spins on Milano fashion runways, in Brooklyn punk basements, or at hot tub parties from Vegas to Tibet... Ka-ching + Ohm = KA-BON…

The Act Of Noticing is an invitation to enter a sound world rich in sonic imagery, evocative atmosphere, and finely wrought detail. This album takes listeners on a journey, at one moment guiding them through changing musical landscapes at high speed, at another inviting them to simply stop and stare. Espial emerged from a discussion between David Beebee and myself about how to develop and extend the musical language we had established on our duo album for Discus, “Ripples”. David felt that expan…

Big tip! Hampton Hawes - one of the finest jazz pianists of the 1950s, a fixture on the Los Angeles scene who had brought his own interpretations to the dominant Bud Powell style - was rebuilding his career after five years in prison on heroin possession charges. Pardoned by President Kennedy in 1963, he'd spent the late '60s finding his way back, relearning how to navigate a jazz scene that had changed dramatically in his absence. High in the Sky, leading a dynamic trio with virtuoso bass play…

LP version. 2026 restock; LP version. 2013 reissue; originally released in 1966. The first North American release of the "electric newspaper," an archetypal '60s counterculture "happening" from August 6, 1966, this is also the first edition anywhere since the original vinyl to include the lengthy closing track, "Interview with Hairy." A legendary all-star cast of performers got together to make an anti-war collage of words and sounds that defies mere track listings - one of the elements is "Sile…

Lee Morgan quintet session with Bennie Maupin, Cedar Walton, Reggie Workman and Billy Higgins, five Morgan originals recorded on 3 May 1968 and released by Blue Note that year. Classic Vinyl 180g LP reissue.

From his first full-length album ‘Minima Moralia’ (“Excellent” 8.1 Pitchfork) in 2006, through the subsequent 70+ albums that followed, Chihei Hatakeyama has created a mighty canon of work. Having collaborated with the likes of Ai Kuwabara, Hiroki Chiba, Kei Matsumaru, Gen Hoshino, Terumasa Hino, Tony Allen, and countless others, Shun Ishiwaka is one of Japan’s most prolific modern jazz drummers. Between them they’ve played across ambient, experimental, electronic, pop, hip-hop, jazz, and metal …

Lee Morgan quintet session with Jackie McLean, Larry Willis, Reggie Workman and Billy Higgins, recorded for Blue Note on 16 November 1965 and first released in 1981. Japanese UHQCD reissue, UCCQ-9658.

Lee Morgan sextet session recorded at Van Gelder Studio on February 15, 1968, with Bennie Maupin, George Benson, John Hicks, Reggie Workman and Billy Higgins; first released by Blue Note in 1980 (LT-1031).

Lee Morgan quintet session with Hank Mobley, Cedar Walton, Paul Chambers and Billy Higgins, recorded at Van Gelder Studio on 29 November 1966 and first issued by Blue Note in the mid-1980s. Tone Poet 180g LP reissue.

Lee Morgan quintet album with Joe Henderson, Barry Harris, Bob Cranshaw and Billy Higgins, recorded for Blue Note on 21 December 1963 and released in 1964. Blue Note Essentials LP reissue.

"Yellow brings together acclaimed LA-based musicians Kozue Matsumoto, Patrick Shiroishi, and Shoshi Watanabe. With total expressive command of their instruments, the trio unfurls a brilliant and impassioned free improvisation of the highest virtuosic caliber that is at once anguished, defiant, and vigorously hopeful. An astonishing musical work, Yellow is also a powerful political statement. The musicians came together on the basis of a mutual interest in exploring Japanese-American identity. Wh…

Duke Pearson's 1969 Christmas album for Blue Note, a piano and celeste trio with Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker plus Airto Moreira on percussion, recorded in February and August 1969. Blue Note Classic Vinyl reissue.

Huge Tip! Ahmed Abdul-Malik was best known to jazz listeners as a bassist with Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Coleman Hawkins, and many others. He made a few records as a leader, with this one being his most exotic. The Brooklyn native was of Sudanese descent; in addition to playing  bass, he also plays oud, the forerunner to the lute. Originally released in 1960 the album is rich and heady, a multi-layered set of tonal grooves that are wrapped tight beneath the melody lines. The musicians on Ma…

Matthew Shipp, the supreme jazz pianist of his generation, and Mat Walerian, the finest Polish jazz woodwind player of his, have combined their talents in concert on several occasions. This album documents one such instance, from May 2012. Shipp hardly needs an introduction at this point thanks to a career of over a quarter century, including not only many acclaimed albums under his own name but also a long and prominent tenure in the David S. Ware Quartet and a vast array of collaborations with…

Piotr Mełech and Wojtek Kurek have been a duo for over 7 years. They played dozens of concerts together, also in larger ensembles. They debuted with the album 'Split Here' (Antenna Non Grata), which referred to its jazz roots and free improv. Their second album 'Walk Thru' explores trance-like, motor rhythms and looped melodies of oriental provenance. Together they create a compact, forward-moving tissue with a well-established and clear structure. They draw from tradition and improvised music. …

Duke Pearson's 1967 Blue Note album of six originals for an eight-piece band with Freddie Hubbard, Garnett Brown, James Spaulding, Jerry Dodgion and Stanley Turrentine, recorded on 13 September 1967. Japanese UHQCD, UCCQ-9649 (2024).

Ike Quebec's final album, with Kenny Burrell, Wendell Marshall, Willie Bobo and Garvin Masseaux, recorded on 5 October 1962 and released by Blue Note in 1962. Tone Poet 180g LP reissue.

Freddie Redd's second Blue Note album, seven originals recorded at Van Gelder Studio on August 13, 1960, with Jackie McLean (alto saxophone), Tina Brooks (tenor saxophone), Paul Chambers (bass) and Louis Hayes (drums).