Jazz /
Live at Hachioji Alone Sep.3 1977
Kaoru Abe was an influential Japanese free jazz alto saxophonist, who is often regarded as being the greatest abrasive sounding saxophonist.
He generally performed solo, and died young from a drug overdose, and has since been immortalized in the jazz scene. He became close friends with Milford Graves, Masayuki Takayanagi, Derek Bailey, and Motoharu Yoshizawa, and was married to the author Izumi Suzuki. His cousin was the famous singer Kyu Sakamoto.
Eternal Duo
One of the most compelling albums Steve Lacy recorded during the 80s – a spare set of duets with Japanese percussionist Masahiko Togashi, who really helps shape Steve's style on the record! Togashi approaches his instruments with a very introspective, almost tentative style – hardly the bold rhythms of other drummers, and instead this subtle stepping forward that almost feels, at times, as if Masahiko is discovering his instruments for the first time – and figuring out the sounds in a careful wa…
Three Improvised Variations On A Theme Of Qadhafi
Jinya Disc presents Three Improvised Variations On a Theme of Qadhafi. A live recording board that includes live performances of improvisation by Action Direct, which was performed on the theme of "personal image" of Muanmar al-Gaddafi rather than ideology or political position. Jim O'Rourke refers to Three Improvised Variations On a Theme of Qadhafi as "a constellation of moving celestial bodies, expanding gas, exploding stars densely packed" and "a corridor of endless possibilities and discove…
Mass Hysterism: In Another Situation
Mass Hysterism: In Another Situation, a 1983 record by the late Japanese noise-guitar hellion Masayuki Takayanagi (1932–1991) is one of those albums that always going to be lurking in my attic, so to speak. I can put it away for a while, but it never goes to sleep—it's always calling me. Even if it takes a few years, I'll be back. (As an illustration of this, I obsessed over Takayanagi in a February 2007 post as well.) It's a bashing, clanging exorcism: two electric guitars (the other played by …
Adams Apple
Further distanced in time from John Coltrane's spiritual new-jazz and the influential second Miles Davis quintet, Doug Carn showed a close affinity with R&B when recording his fourth and final Black Jazz album Adam's Apple. Sharing his interest in R&B was a platoon of committed, resourceful jazz musicians including young star-in-the-making Ronnie Laws, who had worked with Earth, Wind & Fire before that band's big commercial breakthrough. Of the others, ace guitarists Nathan Page and Calvin Keys …
Fjordgata
John Butcher, saxophones. Michael Duch, contrabass. Jazzfest Trondheim, Trondelag Senter for Samtidskunst, 9th May 2015. Recorded in concert by Jonas Krossli and mastered by Karl Klaseie. Thanks to Ernst-Wiggo Sandbakk and Randi Martine Brockmann. 'I first heard John Butcher in 2001 playing duos with Rhodri Davies and Derek Bailey on the CD Vortices and Angels. I was completely mesmerized, particularly by the two tracks in the end with John and Rhodri playing together. Vortices and Angels is sti…
Angry Waves Vol.2
Masayukia Takayanagi, electric jazz guitar. Nobuyoshi Ino, contra bass. Hiroshi Yamazaki, drums. Recorded live at Yokohama Airegin on August 26, 1984. Remastering and remix by Yukio Kojima from Takayanagi's private tapes. Linernote (in Japanese) by Kazuo Imai.
Angry Waves Vol.1
Masayuki Takayanagi, electric jazz guitar. Nobuyoshi Ino, contra bass. Hiroshi Yamazaki, drums. Recorded live at Yokohama Airegin on August 26, 1984. Remastering and remix by Yukio Kojima from Takayanagi's private tapes. Linernote (in Japanese) by Kazuo Imai.
She Sleeps, She Sleeps
LP version that includes bonus CD, edition of 500. Fire! is a Swedish trio comprising Mats Gustafsson (The Thing), Johan Berthling (Tape), and Andreas Werliin (Wildbirds & Peacedrums), which came together with the idea of a fresh approach to improvised music drawing upon a number of influences from free jazz, psychedelic rock, and noise. Fire! is also these musicians' vehicle for rekindling their instrumental skills, playing outside their comfort zones, and collaborating with such prestigio…
At the Funkhaus LP
rec. 1973 live at the Funkhaus, Hamburg, Germany - ltd/numbered 1/69, with paste-on cover (front & back with notes) "two sides long pieces, available here for the 1st time, top sound quality/pressing" punzmann
Friendly Love
A vibrant Sun Ra recording session held in NYC at Variety Studio in 1973, ltd/numbered 1/79, with paste-on cover (front & back with notes) "meager, raw and totally oblique Arkestra rec. available here for the 1st time. very difficult record to do, came out amazing" punzmann
The Boston Creative Jazz Scene 1970-1983
Cultures Of Soul compile a selection of music culled from rare private press Jazz LPs, pressed in small quantities of a few hundred for band members and the local jazz community. This group existed in the creatively fertile, Boston jazz scene at the time. Presented as a double LP set, packaged in deluxe box with each piece of vinyl housed in its own euro-style glossy jacket. In the 1970s Boston was a fertile ground for a very creative jazz scene. Small, independent venues ranging from lofts…
Beyond Jazz: Plink, Plonk and Scratch
**2016 revised edition** Utterly essential!!How did Free Improvisation, aka Free Music emerge? And how has this most arcane of musical forms survived so long and gained such loyal adherents? Trevor Barre seeks to answer these questions in Beyond Jazz, the first book solely devoted to the so-called First Generation of Free improvisers.
Beyond Jazz is an account of the genre's formative London years. It retraces the road that led from the music's emergence in late 1965/early 1966, through t…
Melt
Begun as a temporary project in 2014 by Mats Gustafsson(The Thing, Fire!), Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt), and Massimo Pupillo (Zu), this trio soon evolved into a band project. They're now releasing their first album on Trost Records, with a tour to follow in 2016. Mats Gustafsson: saxophone; Brian Chippendale: drums; Massimo Pupillo: bass.
Clarinet Record
A five part suite evoking the memory of Jimmy Guiffre and Giancinto Scelsi. Alex's brilliant clarinet playing perfecty complements Coxon's musical experiments in which the listener's spatial perspectives are constantly being challenged-extremely vivid recordings of guitars, kalimbas, 78rpm recordings,pebbles, metal objects and handbells form surreal landscapes as he takes the listener on an extended musical journey.
Clapham Duos
In the only studio recording of this duo, John Tchicai and Evan Parker improvise a set of pieces at once reflective and joyful, introspective and responsive by turns. Recorded in 2005 during John's visit to London at the invitation of John Coxon and Ashley Wales. A beautiful dialogue between these two great figures.
Jems
The extraordinary improvising duo of John Edwards and Mark Sanders have recorded together in countless groups, but only once as a duo [Nisus Duets Emanem 2002]. For this recording, Mark uses an unorthodox kit setup with horizontal orchestral bass drum. John's huge bass sound is captured in full by the old RCA ribbon microphone used in this recording. Constantly imaginative, thrilling playing.
Duos With Guitars
Giovanni Di Domenico (piano, Rhodes), With Norberto Lobo (acoustic guitar), Tetuzi Akiyama (acoustic guitar) and Jim O'Rourke (electric guitar). Recorded during the course of 3 years (from 2011 to 2013) in various locations in Brussels and Tokyo, this double LP puts together 3 of the most uncompromising and original guitar players of the globe (there should have been a fourth great guitar player, the late Hans Reichel, but unfortunately he passed away days before asking him to join the project),…
Delivery Health
Delivery Health is the highly idiosyncratic trio of Giovanni Di Domenico, Jim O'Rourke and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto. The recording was done in Tokyo's great GOK Sound, directly on 24 tracks tape recorder, and was mixed at Steamroom, Tokyo, by Jim O'Rourke himself. The blend of early 70's ECM drumsound, long unfolding travelogues and the great trasparency of the mix, give to this record a breadth and deepness that will give hard times catagorizing it's music, where jazz (the one of Abercrombie's Gatewa…
To Whom Who Keeps a Record
"In the late 1950s, Ornette Coleman set the jazz world on fire. From his own unique playing style to his fundamental deconstruction of harmony and complete rethinking of group performance, Coleman at once confounded critics and inspired a new generation. This revolutionary music eventually became known as free jazz, but Coleman's influence extended well beyond -- into avant-garde rock and art circles -- and today his name is synonymous with artistic freedom. Originally released in Japan o…