Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Recorded on 19 March 2002 live at MIB, Bremen

The most thoroughly realized blueprint for a post-hardcore take on improvised jazz to date from the duo of legendarily long-serving New England saxophonist Paul Flaherty and young firebrand drummer Chris Corsano. Forsaking the call and response modes of countless improvising ensembles, the duo deal more in a simultaneity of sound, an elemental non-stop gush of ideas, rhythms and epiglottal forms that at points feels like a small-group response to the orchestral conceptions of the Peter Brotzmann…

From last year's North American tour: Evan Parker (saxophones), Alexander Von Schlippenbach (piano), Paul Lytton (percussion) in concert recordings at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans and the Seattle Asian Arts Museum.

2nd works is the covers of famous Eric Dolphy's Out To lunch! otomo's post-modern interpretation of Dolphy's compositions by Orchestra is very beautiful and intensive. Gazzelloni is translated to hardcore punk version, or Straight Up And Down ? Will Be Back is translated to improvisation that is swift to respond each other and most beautiful onkyo sound. This is the marvels of jazz! otomo Yoshihide (guitar, conduct on 4), Axel Doerner (trumpet, slide trumpet), Aoki Taisei (trombone, bamboo flute…

Tatsuga Nakatani (drums, percussion), Raymond MacDonald (alto saxophone), Neil Davidson (guitar), Peter Nicholson (cello), and Nick Fells (laptop.) Recorded December 2004, Glasgow.

2006 release ** Music + One, created in collaboration with Myles Boisen, is a collection of solo improvisations that is meant to be played along with by improvisers. The instructions given to the participants before recording were simple: improvise for 3 to 4 minutes, as if you were playing music with your shadow. This was to allow room for others to improvise with the recording. To test this, we invited the musicians to play along with one of the tracks at the 21Grand Performance Space & Art Ga…

Music Improvisation Company: 1968-1971 - one of the earliest recorded examples of the European school of Free ImprovisationImportante e fondamentale ristampa di uno dei primi dischi della Incus, Music Improvisation Company 1968-1971 (Incus 1971). La Company era una sorta di gruppo aperto fondato dal chitarrista Derek Bailey sul finire degli anni Sessanta. Il primo capitolo della Company, che raccoglie varie registrazioni che vanno dal 1968 al 1971, è sicuramente uno dei più rivoluzionari in sens…

Precious document of early Japanese improvised music scene. Tensional performance of heavy sounds from reeds and bass.

A staggering achievement, one is tempted to call The Hands of Caravaggio the first great piano concerto of the 21st century. The work is the brainchild of Keith Rowe, eminence grise of MIMEO and co-founder of AMM who, inspired by the recently discovered painting The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio, imagined a piece combining the mighty forces of MIMEO's electronics with the pure, gorgeous sound of John Tilbury's piano. Technically, therefore, the work is not really freely improvised, as the music…

This trio features very distinct musical personalities and caught us off guard simply by its appearance at all, but we sure did smile when we heard it as we knew it would pack the goods. Both Zach (percussion) and Doneda (reeds) lay sturdy frameworks with Ielasi (guitar) adding an almost alien warmth to the group sound. Intense sonic impact yet transparent and sparse enough to navigate with alert senses, the whole disc has an ambitious arc that one may miss when caught in the web. Doneda's comme…

Two Toronto musicians and a visitor from London formed this trio that has worked on both sides of the Atlantic. Group improvisations on acoustic guitar, alto saxophone and percussion that cover the whole gamut from dense high-energy to sparse interactions.

Urabe is the ONLY Japanese player with the ability to soar beyond where Kaoru Abe left off, and for anyone with even the slightest interest in the possibilities of human breath and forged brass this is an essential and tremendously exciting document.

Martin Küchen: prepared and non prepared alto saxophone. David Stackens: guitar, low-budget electronics. Recorded at Fylkingen, Stockholm by Andreas Berthling, 16th of May 2004. Mastered by Andreas Berthling, David Stackens and Martin Küchen.

Julie Tippetts' 1975 album, first issued on Utopia, with Keith Tippett, Elton Dean, Mark Charig and Louis Moholo. Esoteric Recordings CD, 2022, remastered, with a booklet essay by Sid Smith.

Soprano saxophonist Lol Coxhill always sounds good regardless of what area he is playing in and who he is playing with. This present collection just features his free improvising, but with a variety of partners. The late Hugh Davies was a master instrument inventor. Guitarist John Russell is one of the major stalwarts of the London improvising scene (like Coxhill). Henry Lowther has been a much sought-after jazz trumpeter since the 1960s, but has always kept a toe in free waters. Pat Thomas is a…

Muhal Richard Abrams: piano; Marty Ehrlich: alto saxophone, clarinet.  This disc is taken from a live recording of an open air concert which took place August 11, 1996 at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. This duet concert was, on one level, a meeting between two of the seminal jazz innovators of their respective generations. The nuanced and subtle interchange of ideas between these two great musicians-as they challenge and provoke each other to explore new musical ground-is enthralling thr…

A couple years before this session, Rowe recorded with two soprano saxophonists, Michel Doneda and Urs Leimgruber (The Difference Between a Fish on Potlatch), a session that, while providing some interesting music, had its share of problems. Central to these was the difficulty many saxophonists have in shedding the "baggage" accumulated while playing in jazz bands as opposed to working in non-idiomatic, free improvisatory forms. For whatever reason, possibly having to do with the ability to abst…

This is the first contact of B.Phillips, maestro of improvised bass, and K.Haino! New dimentions of the shape of improvisation to come!

Hard-swinging vibraphone and percussion free jazz duets based on compositions by Berger and Don Cherry. In contrast to these largely metallic sounds, there are also two African sounding improvisations on two instruments made from wood -- a bala(fon) (African xylophone) and an osi-drum (slit drum). Reissue of Quark 9996 with an extra piece from the same concert. 61 minutes. Recorded in Albany, NY, 3/20/76.

With Gary Crosby, Ed Jones & Byron Wallen. As well as his pioneering work with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, John Stevens continued to explore the jazz idiom. This group with three fine young musicians active on the London jazz scene, was one of his best as well as being one of his last. Byron Wallen (trumpet & flugelhorn), Ed Jones (soprano & tenor saxophones), Gary Crosby (double bass) & John Stevens (drum set) find fresh things to say in the areas associated with Ornette Coleman and John Co…

John Stevens, drums and mini trumpet; Kent Carter, bass; Derek Bailey, electric guitar. track list:   1. One time (11.560)    2. U Kent & I (14.15)    3. Without warning (14.43)    4. Along the coast (10.00)    5. Not a dry glass in the house (06.24)    6. Cheers/tears (03.29)  Recorded in Leicester, England in November 1992. Cover art (reproduced above) 'Self portrait' by John Stevens; CD booklet design by Karen Brookman.

John Russell: guitar. Ute Völker : accordion. Mathieu Werchowski : violin. A very fine acoustic (guitar, accordion and violin) improvising trio, made up of three musicians of three different ages from three different countries. Put together by a promoter for a French festival in 2001, they related so well, that they have continued to get together, whenever possible, to continue to make great music.

Acoustic guitar, cello or double bass, & percussion trio improvisations -- intended for release as the third CAW LP which never happened. Recorded 3/24/81.

2nd volume of all previously unissued recordings of solos & duets for clarinet and cornet. All of a sensational LA duo and solo performance, plus the remainder of the Worcester concert leftover from Tandem 1 -- improvisations on original compositions.

70 minutes of Bradford (cornet) & Carter (clarinet) duets, recorded in Worcester, MA. Previously unissued music by these legendary Ornette alumni.

Five tracks from 2002 recorded live in Japan by Tetuzi Akiyama. The first four feature Butcher solo on tenor or soprano sax, and were recorded at the Oya Stone Museum. The final track is a 20-minute duet with Toshimaru Nakimura on no-imput mixing board, recorded at Super Deluxe. Released in 2004, this is the first release on Butcher's Weight of Wax labe

Test the ears and patience of yr so called 'friends' -- the trained (operatic) vocalizings of ms. mackness dance and squeak around the flutter-scronk of mr. butcher (he of long-standing brit-free improv fame). Pure frontal-excursion, quiet and slippery.

ECM :rarum I: two CDs compiled by Keith Jarrett from his ECM recordings of 1974-1994, solo piano, clavichord, pipe organ, the overdubbed Spirits, the European Quartet and the Standards trio. Released 2002.

ECM :rarum XX: nine tracks featuring Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen, recorded 1974-1997 with Keith Jarrett, Ralph Towner, Terje Rypdal, Masqualero, Ketil Bjørnstad and the Bobo Stenson Trio. Released 2004.

ECM :rarum 19 (2004): thirteen pieces chosen by Arild Andersen from his ECM albums recorded 1975-1999, with Kenny Wheeler, Bill Frisell, Masqualero, Ralph Towner, Nana Vasconcelos, Vassilis Tsabropoulos and others.

ECM :rarum 17 (2004): twelve pieces chosen by Tomasz Stańko from seven ECM albums recorded 1975-1998, with Dave Holland, Edward Vesala, Gary Peacock, Jan Garbarek, Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin, Tony Oxley and others; produced by Manfred Eicher.

ECM :rarum 16 (2004): nine Paul Motian compositions chosen by the drummer from six ECM albums recorded 1972-1987, with Keith Jarrett, Charles Brackeen, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Paul Bley and John Surman.

ECM :rarum 14 (2004): ten tracks chosen by John Abercrombie from ten ECM albums recorded 1974-2000, with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Ralph Towner, Kenny Wheeler, Mark Feldman and others; original sessions produced by Manfred Eicher.

ECM :rarum volume VIII: Bobo Stenson's own selection of thirteen recordings from 1971 to 1999, with his trios (Arild Andersen, Anders Jormin, Jon Christensen) and with Jan Garbarek, Don Cherry, Charles Lloyd and Tomasz Stanko.

Four complete solo piano concerts by Keith Jarrett, recorded by the pianist himself in October 1996 in Modena, Ferrara, Turin and Genoa, released in 2016 as a 4-CD box on ECM.

Box set of the four ECM albums by Peter Erskine (drums), John Taylor (piano) and Palle Danielsson (double bass): You Never Know, Time Being, As It Is and Juni, recorded 1992-97 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo. 4CD, ECM 2490-93, Old & New Masters series.

John Scofield's trio with Vicente Archer (double bass) and Bill Stewart (drums): seven originals and seven covers, from Dylan, Neil Young and the Grateful Dead to Bud Powell and Bernstein. Recorded August 2022 at Clubhouse Studio, Rhinebeck, New York. 2CD, ECM 2796/97.