Jazz /
America's National Parks
2016 release ** "With America’s National Parks, visionary composer and Wadada Leo Smith offers his latest epic collection, a suite inspired by the scenic splendor, historic legacy, and political controversies of the country’s public landscapes. Writing for his newly expanded Golden Quintet, Smith crafts six extended works that explore, confront and question the preserved natural resources that are considered the most hallowed ground in the U.S. – and some that should be. His 28-page score for Am…
Ecliptic
Shifa is a name taken from the Arabic word for healing, شفاء. The trio's members are three of the UK's most experienced and in-demand improvising musicians.
Second Sight
Whenever the term “Free Jazz” gets mentioned, the same questions more or less present themselves: “Is this easy to listen to?” “Is there structure, or is this just a few friends playing over each other?” “Is this another Coleman/Taylor/Dolphy homage?” Yes; yes; maybe—who cares? Free Jazz is (in my definite opinion) the last bastion of music (and maybe even art as a whole) where true innovation is not only still possible but also extremely well-executed—if done right. Enter “Second Sight” by Oslo…
Oppression Is Nine Tenths of the Law
Gustav Horneij’s Organic Pulse Ensemble blends jazz tradition with modern groove, inspiring unity & protest, uplifting listeners in the fight for freedom and justice for all.
Cantos Invisíveis
2016 release ** "Mixing the opaque with the diffused and blurring the lines between electric and acoustic, Rob Mazurek’s wide ambition continues to race toward the outer limits of what is possible in music. These nine selections were recorded in Texas; they offer an almost entirely new view of SPU, one that falls outside musical classification. Here, east and west, northern and southern hemispheres, speak through tropical, desert, ritual, and party sounds that are all inscribed upon one another …
The Celestial Squid
2015 release ** "...The Celestial Squid is so special... Here are two of the greats....no, the greatest." – Jim O'Rourke. "The Celestial Squid pairs guitarist/improviser Henry Kaiser with one of his earliest idols, British guitarist, producer, arranger, and composer Ray Russell. Kaiser has a long history of recording with players he admires and has been influenced by, including John Abercrombie, Derek Bailey, David Lindley, and Fred Frith. Russell may be somewhat of a cipher to non-guitar heads.…
Flute News
1992 release ** Christy Doran on acoustic and electric guitars and delay devices.
Prepare Thyself To Deal With A Miracle
Endless Happiness reissues Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s experimental 1973 album, “Prepare Thyself to Deal with a Miracle”—a visionary, layered jazz masterpiece showcasing Kirk’s multi-instrumental mastery and boundary-pushing sound.
Phase III
Endless Happiness reissues the 1968 British jazz classic Phase III by The Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, showcasing their creative peak and innovative spirit.
One Flight Up
One Flight Up by the legendary Dexter Gordon. Recorded in Paris on June 2, 1964, this album stands as a testament to Gordon’s leadership and the vibrant European jazz scene of the era.
Canyon
Jerome Deupree, Sylvie Courvoisier, Joe Morris, Lester St. Louis unite for an album of explosive solos, profound improvisation—a canyon where all musical worlds collide in boundless synergy.
This Is Not Speculation
Long-time collaborators and legends of the British improvised music scene, the great saxophone virtuoso John Butcher and the master of the double bass John Edwards, join forces in a duet journey through a fascinating land of sounds, sometimes undiscovered, sometimes impossible, and always breathtaking.
Flute News
1989 release ** Heupel studied flute at the Cologne University of Music. From 1980 to 1985, he was a member of the multimedia group Boury. Since 1984, he has also performed as a soloist with his own compositions. He has toured Asia, Africa, and Latin America with Norbert Stein's Pata Masters. He has been a member of many of Norbert Stein's Pata projects for many years. In a duo with Xu Fengxia, he played bass flute and subcontrabass flute. In 1990, he founded his own quartet. He has also worked …
Lights On A Satellite: Live At The Left Bank
Available for the very first time, the intergalactic icon Sun Ra and his Arkestra’s Lights On A Satellite: Live at the Left Bank was recorded on July 23, 1978 at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore, Maryland by the Left Bank Jazz Society. The limited-edition 2-CD set contains audio from the Sun Ra Archives and was researched and compiled by Sun Ra archivist Michael D. Anderson. The critically acclaimed independent filmmaker Robert Mugge has also provided audio from the recordings he made at the Lef…
Resta chi va
Antonio Borghini and Banquet of Consequences continue on their path of jazz, freedom, and rigor, in which writing, improvisation, tradition, and chaos coexist in a vital and surprising mixture. Well-organized music that uses disorder to its enrichment and is a harbinger of melodic flourishes and references many different kinds of music.
In Movimento
Tip! Two long pieces, a live performance and a rehearsal at home, make up this work by the Braida Locatelli duo, a new stage in their 30-year journey. Improvised music that often sounds composed. Improvised, decomposed, recomposed, composed? A true duo, where one plus one makes one.
B-X0 NO-47A
A cornerstone of avant-garde jazz, B-X0 NO-47A captures Anthony Braxton at a pivotal moment in his career and in the history of the Association For The Advancement Of Creative Musicians (AACM). Recorded in Paris in 1969 and newly restored from the original master tapes, this classic session finds Braxton leading a quartet of fellow AACM visionaries: trumpeter Leo Smith (before adopting the name Wadada), violinist Leroy Jenkins, and drummer Steve McCall.
The group’s instrumentation is strikingly …
Domino - Live At Radio Bremen Tv-studios 1963
On September 30, 1963, American saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk and his quartet gave a small concert in the TV studios of Radio Bremen. The concert was broadcast on ARD in the spring of 1964 as part of the popular "Domino" series.
Now the original tapes have resurfaced in the station's archives. Sensational! The former sideman of Charles Mingus, Gil Evans and Quincy Jones had come to Germany not only with his successful Mercury albums "Domino" and "We Free Kings" in his…
Gesprächsfetzen & In Sommerhausen
Alto saxophonist Marion Brown was an initially underrated hero of the jazz avant-garde. It was only after he moved from Atlanta to New York and joined John Coltrane that the public and the critics took notice of him.Dedicated to discovering the far-reaching possibilities of improvisational expression, Brown possessed a truly lyrical voice. In the early seventies, she played with Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyrille, Bennie Maupin, Jeanne Lee, and Chick Corea, among others. On this recording he was ac…
The Straight Horn Of Steve Lacy
Some of soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's most interesting recordings are his earliest ones. After spending periods of time playing with Dixieland groups and then with Cecil Taylor (which was quite a jump), Lacy made several recordings that displayed his love of Thelonious Monk's music plus his varied experiences. On this particular set, Lacy's soprano contrasts well with Charles Davis' baritone (they are backed by bassist John Ore and drummer Roy Haynes) on three of the most difficult Monk tunes…