Jazz /
Live In Cleveland
A fascinating live document that captures Sun Ra & his Arkestra performing an eclectic set for a Cleveland audience in 1975. Though the recording quality leaves something to be desired, this remains an inspired performance and includes a chaotic take on Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” as well as “Astro Nation,” a clamorous foray into disco rhythms that anticipates Ra’s pioneering 1978 effort Lanquidity. (AMG)
Calling Planet Earth
The Paris concert was supposed to be the last of this ill-fated tour -- but at the last minute, Sun Ra decided to go to Egypt. Someone had tipped him off to cheap airfare from Copenhagen to Cairo and a handful of gigs in Denmark were cobbled together to pay for a trip to the Land of the Pharaohs (see Campbell & Trent p.178). Egypt was a place of obvious spiritual importance to Sun Ra, but half of the rapidly shrinking Arkestra bailed out and returned home. Nevertheless, the core musicians dutifu…
Friendly Galaxy
A very "jazzy" performance of uninterrupted Sun Ra's standards diluted with "Prelude to a kiss" by Duke Ellington and "Blue Lou". An excursion into the history of jazz encouraged by an ecstatic crowd.
Sonic rivers
Tzadik introduces its new Spectrum series with a very special and exciting new group featuring three of the most creative wind players in new music. Friends and colleagues since the ’70s, these three musicians share a vision of improvisation and composition that is unique, virtuosic and cooperative. Performing compositions and collective improvisations, they sculpt sound and silence with masterly assurance. Surprising yet completely inevitable, this is an essential document of improvisational mu…
Free and Tremendous
I got to know Joe Sachse's playing through the band Doppelmoppel. The jazz scene in the former GDR created a special music that expressed an independence and pleasure in playing. Our idea of playing together as a duo has now become reality and from the very first moment playing together was easy and inspiring. There happened to be a recording of this first concert and listening to it we wanted to have it published. Thanks to Jazzwerkstatt this wish has now also become reality. - Nils Wogr…
Discography
This discography of musical work by the bassist Peter Kowald, who died in 2002, was compiled in honor of his 70th birthday. It includes an alphabetical catalogue of all 143 published recordings up to 2014 by and with Peter Kowald, as well as the cover designs and additional information relevant to the discography. The 208-page book also contains an index of all the films that Peter Kowald was involved in, texts by Bert Noglik, Floros Floridis, Wolfgang Schmidtke and Günter Baby Sommer, and sever…
Cosmos
"Cosmos" is a hard-to-find, alternately chaotic and tightly organized mid-'70s session that was issued on the Cobra, and then Inner City labels. Sun Ra provided some stunning moments on the Rocksichord, while leading The Arkestra through stomping full-band cuts of atmospheric or alternately hard bop compositions, peeling off various saxophonists for skittering, screaming, at times spacey dialogues. (AMG)
The Nubians of Plutonia
In the late '50s, Sun Ra emerged from big band to modern/progressive big band status, began to employ electronics, and used a more Afro-Centric percussive focus. This recording perfecly demonstrates those qualities, and more. There are several definitive themes from The Arkestra included, such as "Plutonian Nights," "Nubia," "Africa," "Watusa" and "Aethiopia." Dig for this one on vinyl if you can (the cover art is stunning,) but it is nigh impossible to find on Saturn Research. (AMG)
Angels And Demons At Play
Sun Ra's Angels & Demons at Play is a diptych created by merging two recording sessions. The first is a laid-back introspective affair ("angels?") recorded in 1960. Even frolicsome, these bouncy melodies follow the percolating rhythms with a gently leading reed, as Marshall Allen exemplifies on flute in "Tiny Pyramids." Also dating from before the truly experimental Sun Ra period, the last three tracks were recorded at RCA Studios in Chicago in 1956. Still very accessible, here several horns, am…
The Other Side Of The Sun
The Sun Ra Arkestra looks both forwards and backwards in time on this obscure small label LP. Ten years earlier, one could not have imagined Ra and his men romping through "On the Sunny Side of the Street" or reinventing "Flamingo." However, those versions certainly sound quite original, and there is no mistaking the band for any other orchestra on "Space Fling," "Manhattan Cocktail" and the trademark "Space Is the Place." The music on this album features a version of the Arkestra consisting of …
Live at Montreux
The excellent Live at Montreux set from 1976 was released on vinyl by both Saturn and Inner City before disappearing from print for many years. In 2003, the set was reissued by both Universe/Akarma and P-Vine. A full 20-member Arkestra (plus dancers) turns in a typically freewheeling set. From "Take the 'A' Train" (featuring a killer solo from Marshall Allen), to the gospel-influenced "El Is a Sound of Joy," to the almost exotica "Lights on a Satellite," to the free and raucous "Gods of the Thun…
Interplanetary Melodies
More stuff from Sun Ra's archives, this time focusing on his work with doo wop groups. Sun Ra had a home tape recorder early on, and most of these are previously unissued home rehearsals. The sound is generally excellent given that these are '50s home recordings (except for the studio tracks released on Saturn as singles and their studio rehearsal counterparts). Sun Ra clearly knew and loved this type of vocal music and probably could have had a career cranking out doo wop numbers (he wrote most…
Fate In A Pleasant Mood
Fate in a Pleasant Mood, recorded in 1960, finds the Arkestra at the very end of their Chicago days. The tunes still have that '50s Arkestra sound (great horn arrangements, prominent tympani), although there is an increasing use of dissonance and the arrangements are more spare, thanks to a dwindling Arkestra. Ra sticks to piano on these tracks, with excellent flute contributions from Marshall Allen and some fine trumpet as well, mostly courtesy of Phil Cohran. Gilmore shines on "Ankhnaton" and …
Let The Sun Shine In
Long out of print, few copies available. Beautiful material from this legendary Bay Area soul jazz combo! The Sons & Daughters of Lite have an incredibly spiritual sound – one that sounds sort of like the best groups on the Strata East label, with touches of Roy Ayers or James Mason-esque soulfulness, but with a little less polish. Many of the cuts have sweet female vocals in the lead – with backing that includes vibe, electric piano, tenor, alto, and percussion by Babatunde. The record's a grea…
Whatthefuckdoyouwant
There is only one prior release existing of Brötzmann and Sharrock as a duo (vinyl-only on Okka Disc 2003). This live recording from the archives of Peter Brötzmann was mixed by Lou Malozzi in Chicago, mastered by Martin Siewert in Vienna. Sonny Sharrock was one of the first American free-jazz guitarists. He played in the '60s with Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, Roy Ayers and many other greats. His career started again in the beginning of the '80s when he met Bill Laswell, who hired him to form t…
Live In Nickelsdorf 1984
The interplanetary jazz travelers of Sun Ra's Arkestra reached transcendent heights over the many decades their free music spanned. Live in Nickelsdorf 1984 finds a particularly spirited lineup of the Arkestra simmering through an almost three-hour set at an Austrian jazz festival. The band, featuring key Arkestra players John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Rollo Radford, Don Mumford, and of course Ra himself, runs through brilliant versions of almost 30 tunes. The set is heavy on improvisation and al…
Northwoods box
26 copies only, numbered, on special orange paper with very small red/green dots (same style as the one used for the Qbico Omicron/Omega box set) with:- front artworks by Mike Johnston (two vvariations) hand-made frame by ep along Mike's arttwork, on interstellar metallic bronze paper (all different = each box is unique) signed print by Don Barber of originall inner sleeve cover photograph- color insert printed on quality paper (front & back) with rare & beautiful images of the band- an extra on…
Hindukush Serenade
Remembering his old friend and the days when this live recordings were taken, says Hartmut Geerken: "When John came to visit us in Afghanistan and in Greece, where we lived in the 70's and 80's, my wife Sigi had to extend his bed always with fruit boxes. His height didn't fit into a normal sized bed as well as his musical dimensions were too far out to fit into the mainstream taste of the masses. It was wonderful to hike with him in the Hindukush mountains up the Salang Pass. Afghanistan was a v…
Enter
Gatefold double LP version. It can't be easy gathering 28 of Northern Europe's finest jazz and improvising musicians in one place at the same time, which is why Sweden's Fire! Orchestra has been one of the continent's best-kept secrets so far. After playing rare shows a handful of times a year, this incredible mass ensemble is getting ready to unleash its full power with Enter, its first studio recording. This isn't jazz: this is Nordic dynamite. Fire! originated as the trio of Swedish …
Spring Snow
Masahiko Satoh, piano. Paal Nilssen-Love, drums, percussion. Tokyo pianist Masahiko Satoh recorded these two extended improvisations with Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love in concert at Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo in 2013, a remarkable dialog of intense technical power and creative passion.