Jazz /
Soul Of Africa
Soul Of Africa stands as a cornerstone of the Afro-Parisian jazz scene of the 1970s and 1980s, uniting the expressive tenor sax of Hal Singer with the adventurous piano and arrangements of Jef Gilson. Recently reissued by Endless Happiness on 180g vinyl, this sought-after album brings back a key document in the fusion of African rhythms and Parisian jazz innovation. Recorded in Paris, the album features a stellar lineup: Jacky Samson (bass), Bernard Lubat (vibraphone, piano), and the “Malagasy R…
For McCoy
*2025 much needed repress!!!* Black Truffle is pleased to announce For McCoy, a new work by Eiko Ishibashi dedicated to the widely loved character of Jack McCoy, portrayed by Sam Waterston in Law & Order. Following on from Hyakki Yagyō (BT064), For McCoy finds Ishibashi further exploring the unique space she has carved out in recent years, bringing together musique concrète techniques, ECM-inspired jazz, lush layers of synths and hints of pop into immersive and affecting structures crafted in he…
Ichida
*2025 much needed repress!!!* Black Truffle is pleased to announce the re-release of Ichida, the first release from the duo of two important yet often underappreciated musicians, Eiko Ishibashi and Darin Gray. Ishibashi is a singer-songwriter, keyboardist, drummer, and multi-instrumentalist, known in Japan both for her own elaborately conceptual solo albums and for her frequent collaborations with figures such as Jim O’Rourke, Merzbow, and Phew. Darin Gray is a bassist and multi-instrumentalist …
Pivot
"The band showed up, four folks from three different spots on the globe -- Chicago (Vandermark, Reid); Nickelsdorf, Austria (Gustafsson); Philadelphia (Taylor). They assembled their gear and sound-checked at the studio. There was a four-way freedom at play, structures but liberties and no need for elaborate explanation. Everyone spoke the same shorthand. Cues were understood; timings were implicit and considered; space was made for chances to be taken. In creative music, you sometimes need to re…
Edifier
2001 release ** "Gravitar were an American band who appear to be influenced by K.K. Null’s work in Zeni Geva, with similar dense walls of oppresive guitar but more expansive in it's approach. Self-proclaimed as the "world's loudest Jazz band" and described by WM. Rage as "Too noise for rock, too rock for noise...". Extreme music inspired by everything from Charlie Parker to John Zorn to the sound of breaking glass. Heavy and harsh walls of psychedelic noise!!!"
50⁶
2004 release ** "Hemophiliac is an experimental musical act. This group is billed as improvisational music from the outer reaches of madness. Mike Patton does voice effects along with John Zorn on saxophone and Ikue Mori on laptop electronics. Volume 6 of John Zorn's 50th birthday party series of concert CD's (ten volumes in total) is the first fully commercially available showcase for the trio's mad improv collision."
Deathdisco2000
1998 release ** "This big band, led by T.S. Heg (alto sax & keyboards) is nominally a 'jazz outfit', but since in addition to lots of reeds, brass, bass and drums, they work with guitars, synths, sampling, etc., it's a fairly safe bet that this isn't 'just' a jazz album. Mostly structured with some very crazed, free parts, I guess you could compare them to Doctor Nerve in that regard, even though they sound nothing like Nerve."
Soul At The Hands Of The Machine
2002 release ** "Drummer Guillermo E. Brown burst onto the progressive jazz circuit via his performances and recordings with forward-thinking saxophonists David S. Ware and Rob Reddy amid various projects and sessions. His first solo release finds the artist carrying the torch for Thirsty Ear's somewhat futuristic "Blue Series." Brown, with assistance from multi-reedmen Daniel Carter and Andre Vidal, among others, delivers a decisively high-tech outing, awash with funk, trip-hop, and more. The d…
Nuits De La Fondation Maeght
4CD Set "Originally released across two edited volumes by Shandar in 1971, the concerts are now being reissued by Strut in a stunning 4CD set, Limited Edition 4CD Set. Features a 36-page booklet featuring liner notes by by Daniel Caux, Jacqueline Caux and Paul Griffiths and stunning restored photos of the festival by Philippe Gras.
Sun Ra’s Nuits de la Fondation Maeght recordings are legendary within his extensive canon. Across two nights in August 1970, these were the first concerts Ra and the …
Rotti Frutti
2007 release ** "Improvisations between jazz, minimalism, cosmic influences and acid rock; few are the possible comparisons, above all probably Sunburned Hand Of The Man. The music creates a decidedly hypnotic but also tribal effect, all immersed in a spatial atmosphere in which dilated and rarefied sounds are lost around percussions that oscillate between hypnosis and obsession."
Leaking Pipes
Recorded on March 14th, 2024 by Mikko Innanen in Hietsun Paviljonki, Helsinki
Maria Faust- alto saxophone
Mikko Innanen - alto, sopranino and baritone saxophones
Fredrik Ljungkvist - soprano and tenor saxophones
Liudas Mockūnas - sopranino, soprano and bass saxophones
Scenes From An Ideal Marriage
2010 release ** "The duo's music is rarefied, in the sense that it's highly personal and hardly rife with echoes of the familiar. Such is the other worldly aspect of "First Marriage" that it's barely possible to tell which instrument is responsible for what. This has the effect not merely of confounding expectations but also of establishing the territory in which both players are naturally at home. Their dialog, as is so often the case in this highly specialized form of improvisation, is as purg…
To Much Togethers
2010 release ** "over 2 years in the making, to much togethers is the follow up album to ashley paul’s 2008 ‘d.o.l’ release. patiently crafted and paced to much togethers continues on ashley’s unique path of ‘song’ style. combining clattering strings, (her custom green-box string set up), psycho acoustic sustain and decay, bowed metal, expressive saxophone, subtle and ear grabbing sense of color and distant voice all slowly creating mood and thought provoking miniatures, that succeed in fitting …
The Shadow Of Your Smile
2009 release ** "Ruby Ruby Ruby are more or less a vehicle for experimental German singer Margareth Kammerer. She has been involved in The Magic ID, a song-based project with Berlin improviser Christof Kurzmann, and also formed Ruby Ruby Ruby to pay homage to Billie Holiday and other jazz singers. This appears to have been a one-off project, there being no indication that the group (consisting of Derek Shirley and Steve Heather alongside Kammerer) has done anything else or is planning to work t…
Mystery Triangle
2025 stock New music from Paul Flaherty, with Sam Gas Can and White Limo. Pressing of 500 copies, cover art by Joshua Burkett. Like all of the greatest live "festival" records -- Woodstock II (Cotillion '71), Mar y Sol (Atco '72) & 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival (Blue Horizon '69) -- Mystery Triangle is an especially exceptional souvenir for those people who were there when it happened. But unlike dud compilations, Mystery Triangle provides a truly fine sonic gush for even those of us who w…
Out Of The Cool
2025 stock Originally released in 2019. "A classic big-band album and one of the first-ever releases on the Impulse! Label, this 1961 recording features a superb line-up including Jimmy Knepper on trombone, Ron Carter, on bass and a fiery Elvin Jones on drums."
Looking For Love
In July 1983, the Hebrew Israelite vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Margeeah Aharon recorded her debut album Looking For Love with the Kingdom Sounds community band at P.C. Studios in Tel Aviv, Israel. Fittingly - given the meaning of her Hebrew name, soothing, calm and tranquil - it’s a questing melange of devotional jazz, soul, funk and reggae. More than just that, Looking For Love is an album full of yearning and reflective songs of spirit, heart and inner solace. Thirty-six yea…
Adrift
Søren Skov Orbit's debut album, "Adrift," is at once subtle and profound. The Danish saxophonist and his collaborators have created something quite special and consistently deep. This record may not easily be classifiable, but the most interesting music creeps between the lines. Tenor and soprano saxophonist Søren Skov (Debre Damo Dining Orchestra) and keyboardist Peder Vind co-founded the trippy quintet Søren Skov Orbit in 2016 to explore “more jazzy ideas,” as the saxophonist puts it. Joined b…
A Flash In The Sky
2009 release ** "You like free jazz raw and hard and real and authentic? Well then here's a treat for you: Daniel Carter meets Randall Colbourne meets Paul Flaherty in a free-for-all blowing session."
Stardust
Stardust is a rare live recording that reunites three pioneers from the dawn of Japanese jazz: Masayuki Takayanagi (guitar), Ryozo Sugiura (vibraphone), and Hideto Kanai (bass), captured at Yokohama’s Stork Piano Lounge in December 1979. Unlike the intense, driven performances Takayanagi was known for in his “New Direction” and “Second Concept” projects, this session offers a relaxed, intimate atmosphere-full of warmth, camaraderie, and spontaneous musical dialogue. Listeners can even catch the …