Jazz /
Masao Yagi Plays Thelonious Monk
On Masao Yagi Plays Thelonious Monk (1960), Masao Yagi leads a sharp Tokyo quintet through an all‑Monk program, translating Thelonious’s craggy angles into a supple, swinging Japanese modern‑jazz dialect without smoothing away the music’s built‑in mischief.
Live In Pori 1984
In July 1984, the otherworldly entourage of over fifty musicians of Urban Sax swarmed across the coastal town of Pori, Finland, to perform a historic concert at the Pori Jazz Festival. The masked musicians, veiled in space suits and fencing masks, arrived at the scene of the concert in the Central Pori Church by fire engines, forklifts and water buses from all over the town, followed by an ecstatic and bewildered crowd of festival-goers and amazed locals alike. For those present, the explosively…
Blue Train
"We’re listening to Blue Train, which to me is one of the most beautiful pieces on one of the most beautiful records that Coltrane recorded in the fifties. It’s his first real mature statement and he wrote all but one of the tunes on this album which was very rare in the fifties and each one is a gem, particularly the title tune Blue Train. And while it’s kind of easy to play the blues, this has a suspended and haunting kind of quality to it." - Michael Cuscuna
Adams Apple
2026 stock Doug Carn made four records for the Black Jazz label, more than any other artist, and each one topped the previous release's lofty standard. Adam's Apple was his last (1974) album for the label, representing the final note in his staggeringly creative crescendo. It was also the first record without Jean Carn, but Carn and crew (John Conner and Joyce Greene) don't miss a beat on the vocals. And the band is absolutely sick, featuring reedman Ronnie Laws and fellow Black Jazz recording a…
Tomorrow's Yesterday
In 1964, vocalist Karin Krog released Norway's first jazz solo LP, and By Myself has helped shape her career as a singer. In 2026, 62 years after the first release, she releases the LP Tomorrow's Yesterday, and it cannot be ruled out that this may be her last physical album. All the songs are recorded in duo or trio format. The musical sounds are excitingly combined with her voice and Rob Luft on guitar, John Surman on saxophone/bass clarinet on side A. Whilst on side B we hear Karin Krog with E…
Anthem for Peace
On Anthem for Peace, Alan Braufman leads a razor‑sharp quartet through compact, hook‑rich tunes that braid spiritual jazz, buoyant post‑bop and modal, Eastern‑tinged themes into a forward‑moving set that feels both steeped in history and fully present tense.
Joy
A groundbreaking session of European jazz – one of the first true moments of genius from singer Karin Krog! Tracks are long and experimental without getting too far out – and Karin's icy voice flows out magically over compelling tunes that still remain some of the most striking jazz vocals ever recorded! The set has Karin singing with a group of young, hip Scandinavian players that include Jan Garbarek on saxes, Arild Andersen on bass, and Terje Bjorklund on piano – all of whom stretch out in lo…
We Could Be Flying
Karin Krog's own label Meantime Records has given us many rare and legendary recordings, now it presents this much welcomed reissue on vinyl of 'We Could Be Flying', from the original master. First issued on Polydor in 1974, Karin performs alongside a musical dream team, consisting of Jon Christensen on drums, Steve Kuhn on electric and acoustic piano and Steve Swallow bass guitar.
The quality of the music is exceptional with the Michel Columbier and Paul Williams' title song headlining the albu…
Renaissance
Modern and grounded in the 1960s hard-bop sensibility, the American pianist and composer Albert Dailey (1939 – 1984) had perfect control over his instrument. Since an early age he played with cutting-edge musicians of the likes of Art Blakey, Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, Charles Mingus, and Lee Konitz, only to name a few. But despite that, he was an underrated artist during his lifetime, receiving the deserved recognition only after his death. Renaissance 2 November 1977 is his second album, played…
Cool Jojo
Cool Jojo was recorded from 3 to 5 December 1979 at Epicurus Studio in Tokyo under the direction of guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi. The album features the band ‘Second Concept,’ combining electric guitar, saxophone, keyboards, bass, and drums. The programme consists mainly of original compositions reflecting the band's electric jazz and experimental orientation in the late 1970s.
Go On
Go On with the George Otsuka 5 was recorded in 1972 in Japan for the Three Blind Mice label. The album features a quintet led by drummer George Otsuka, a major figure in Japanese jazz in the 1960s and 1970s. The repertoire includes original compositions as well as contemporary hard bop standards.
Moon Ray
Moon Ray was recorded on 21 and 22 April 1977 in Japan for the Three Blind Mice label. The album features the quartet led by alto saxophonist Yoshio Otomo, accompanied by Tsuyoshi Yamamoto (piano), Tamiko Kawabata (double bass) and Arihide Kurata (drums). The programme consists of standards from the American jazz repertoire as well as an original composition by Otomo. The production is part of the TBM label's series of acoustic recordings.
Midnight Sun
Recorded in Tokyo in June 1978 after his stay in the United States, Midnight Sun captures the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio in a format typical of the Three Blind Mice aesthetic: full, dynamic sound and natural breathing of the playing. Between standards (‘Autumn Leaves’, ‘Love Is Here To Stay’) and more personal themes, Yamamoto favours melodic narration, with a deep left hand and a very singing touch.
California Space Craft
Yuvi Havkin aka Rejoicer returns with an exceptional collaborative album, California Space Craft. On this aptly titled record, he joins forces with seasoned LA bass polymath Sam Wilkes — known for his inspired studio work with Sam Gendel and his dynamic live performances alongside Louis Cole and Knower — and drummer Tamir Barzilay, completing the LA-connected trifecta alongside a select handful of key featured guests. The idea for California Space Craft was born out of a series of inspired live …
Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki
A delirious cult concept album disguised as pop, first released in 1971, where psychedelic grooves, funk and global rhythms meet phonetic pseudo-Japanese chants, judo-master ritual cries and a children's choir. Sampled by Erykah Badu, Madlib and DopeLemon, and the unlikely spark behind Bananarama's debut. This can only be the fabulous world of Yamasuki.
In the spring of 1971, somewhere between Brussels, Paris and a collective pop fever dream, Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki landed on vinyl. It so…
I am Alien
London - and Berlin - based quartet Let Spin return with I Am Alien, their fifth album and first release with UK label Discus, marking a new chapter in the band’s evolution. Building on the momentum of 2022’s Thick As Thieves, the record is a continuous, shape-shifting work that thrives on tension and risk, collapsing the boundary between composition and improvisation while distilling over a decade of shared history into a fiercely unified listening experience.
Over more than 13 years of playing…
Mystic Suite, Celestial Suite, Oceanic Suite
Few groups working today have built their catalog with this kind of sustained intention. Founded in Ottawa in 2013, Atlantis Jazz Ensemble have spent a decade assembling one of the most coherent bodies of work in contemporary spiritual jazz - three albums, each mapped to a mythological realm, each pushing further than the last.
Oceanic Suite charted the tides: a debut of remarkable assurance that quietly became an underground classic, establishing the group's language of modal fire and Afro-infl…
Aya's Samba
Johnny’s Disk record is an independent jazz label run by the owner of jazz cafe Kaiunbashi no Johnny located in Rikuzentakata city in Iwate prefecture, Japan. The legendary label released a string of albums of high quality but down-to-earth music, spanning from modern jazz, avant-garde jazz to left-field pop. Albums such as “Farewell my Johnny / Left alone” and “Aya’s samba” has reached cult status among fans as some of the best works to come out of the japanese jazz scene.
Another japanese jazz…
Septober Energy
Centipede’s Septober Energy (1971), released on RCA and produced by jazz pianist Keith Tippett, is a sprawling double-album manifesto of British avant-garde jazz-rock that brings together an enormous ensemble of more than fifty musicians, including members of King Crimson, Soft Machine, and other key figures of the Canterbury and progressive scenes. Conceived as a large-scale orchestral jazz composition, the record blends free improvisation, electric jazz fusion, progressive rock dynamics, and c…
Spring 2026 " Space Time" (Magazine)
We Jazz Magazine, Issue 18 / Spring 2026 "Space Time" for Shabaka. 128 pages, 170 x 240 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. All articles presented in English. Shabaka by Tina Edwards, Booker Stardrum by Clifford Allen, Aurora Nealand by Bennett Kirschner, Jazz Now Jazz by Rui Miguel Abreu, The Space Book by Patrick Preziosi, XT by XT (Paul Abbott & Seymour Wright), Naïssam Jalal by Florent Servia, Craig Taborn by Bret Sjerven, the term "Free Jazz" b…