Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

The MerKaBa Brotherhood are Roman Norfleet (The Cosmic Tones Research Trio, Be Present Art Group) and Andre Raiah (Brown Calvin of Brown Calculus, Be Present Art Group). The duo draw from esoteric texts, sacred imagery, and mystic thought, shaping sound into space, tone, and pulse. It's a spare and almost geometric record featuring Sax, keyboard and percussion. The album turns sound into a working language - textures as diagrams and melodies as signals. There is much to be learned and even more …

Were you to tap the lifeblood of Chicago music, you would find Josh Berman flowing liberally through its veins. Active on the scene for more than a quarter century, the cornetist, bandleader, and composer has helped retain the unique flavor of the city's soundscape, with particular attention to the music of its jazz past – groups like the Austin High Gang and the Oliver-Armstrong lineage and Freddie Keppard, as well as more recent figures from Lester Bowie to Wadada Leo Smith. But Berman is more…

With Ça commence par la marche (It Begins with the Walk), Jérémie Ternoy presents an immersive work in which repetition becomes movement and movement becomes sonic architecture. Building on a career shaped by major collaborations — notably with Magma — as well as his own projects (Organik Orkeztra, his trio, and TOC), he delivers here a fully realized synthesis of his artistic explorations. The album makes walking its founding principle: moving forward slowly, perceiving the world in its finest …

Besides being a leading session musician in Milan's jazz scene between the 60s and 90s, Italian pianist Oscar Rocchi created a number of exquisite library albums in the pop-jazz genre. These include among others "Erbe Selvatiche", "Pop-Paraphrenia" and "Woman's Colours" (the latter co-written with his friend Giancarlo Barigozzi) as well as "Alchemy in Jazz", which is now available in digital format for the first time ever. Originally released on Ring, an imprint of Edizioni Minstrel, the album w…

2025 much-needed repress. On May 27th 1983, drummer Masahiko Togashi and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, two pivotal figures in the Japanese free jazz scene that had been working together since the 1960's, performed and record this unique set at Zojoji Hall in Tokyo. At the time, Japanese jazz musicians were trying to find their own voice, welcoming creative elements coming in from the USA and Europe. The two musicians were at the fore-front of this generation, with Takayanagi developing his own …

Big Tip! An essential jazz masterpiece from celebrated Canadian pianist Paul Bley, presented in a deluxe edition. Originally released in 1969 as part of the iconic Actuel series, this definitive remastered edition of Ramblin' invites listeners to experience the artistry of Paul Bley’s 1966 Rome session in unprecedented clarity. Recorded at Studio RCA in the Eternal City on July 1, 1966, Ramblin’ captures Paul Bley alongside the formidable rhythm section of double bassist Mark Levinson and drumme…

Pioneering, magisterial compilation, which turned many of us here onto Mustafa Ozkent, Fikret Kizilok, Erkin Koray, Temiz and co, a decade ago. Still dazzling, fresh, essential.

The music on “Green Prism” is rooted in the last of the many commissions Keith Tippett wrote in the latter part of his career. The original compositions featured on this album are arrangements drawn from a suite composed by Tippett entitled "Winter's Welcome" in 2018 for the brass ensemble Zinc & Copper, which premiered in Berlin on 17th February 2019. Due to ill health Keith was unable to attend the final rehearsals, which meant the project was never finished as originally envisioned. After Kei…

This 1971 album by the Hungarian jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó is a smooth jazz-fusion record blending psychedelic jazz, pop, and Latin influences. It includes one of Szabó’s best-known tracks, "Breezin’", later famously reworked by George Benson. The album is marked by melodic guitar lines, cinematic arrangements, and a polished, atmospheric sound typical of early-70s jazz fusion. Szabo also delivers a few stellar originals, showcasing his signature fusion of Hungarian folk music, jazz, psychedeli…

Get ready to ignite your turntable: Cal Tjader's seminal 1965 Latin jazz masterpiece Soul Sauce is back on vinyl for the first time since 1993. This vibrant reissue celebrates the album's enduring groove, fusing the vibraphonist's shimmering melodies with irresistible Afro-Cuban rhythms like mambo and boogaloo. A cornerstone of Latin jazz, Soul Sauce captivated audiences with its tight, danceable grooves and accessible yet sophisticated arrangements. Tjader, the vibraphone virtuoso who bridged j…

Originally released in 2003, With A Heartbeat brings together Pharoah Sanders, Bill Laswell and Graham Haynes in a collaboration that remains as elusive as it is forward-thinking. Now reissued by Glossy Mistakes, the album receives its first official vinyl edition, remastered and available both in standard black and a limited burgundy pressing. At the core of the record lies an unusual but striking element: the steady pulse of a human heartbeat. Rather than a conceptual gesture, it becomes the f…

French-born, London-based composer and musician Pascal Bideau aka Akusmi announces his second full-length Terra Incognita, an album of intrepid sonic exploration that delights in the sensation of being somewhere you've never been before. The listener is invited to experience seven faraway sonic imaginariums, as global and spiritual jazz are fused with modern electronics and life affirming minimalism into a hypnotic, polyrhythmic odyssey. The album's rich multilayered sound world features contrib…

*2023 repress* Akhenaten was the first album Nat released on the fledgling Gondwana label back in 2009, it was the second release on the label and has remained a hugely popular and much sought after album ever since. Jazzman Records issued a vinyl version in 2016 (which quickly sold out and is now a collector’s item) and Nat reissued a CD version a few years later, but this is a much needed and long awaited new vinyl pressing. Featuring four original compositions the album is a deeply meditative…

2023 much-need repress. Nat Birchall continues apace with his “one-semble” recording projects, this album being the fourth one to feature only Nat himself playing all the instruments. The Infinite presents seven original compositions loosely based around various mystical aspects of the universe. The recording demonstrates Nat’s belief in the music having its own life outside of any human input, and also that it has its own laws and innate sense of balance and form, as does the universe itself. A…

Join the Kyle Shepherd Trio on “A Dance More Sweetly Played” as they explore, collaborate and improvise on the ‘songs we like to play’. The album’s title is a dedication to the celebrated South African artist William Kentridge, with whom Shepherd collaborated on a joint-work “Waiting for Sybil” that has toured world-wide. In addition to ten Shepherd originals, perhaps most unexpected is the inclusion of an exquisite reading of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’ and a deconstructed take of Journey’s ‘Do…

Departing from a run of releases for Discus Music featuring mainly large group composition, this stripped down, free-blowing session features a group of great players on top form, delivering music which is in turns heavily incisive and delicately traced. Dunmall himself has never sounded better than he does here.

We Are Busy Bodies presents Drive Unlimited. A gem by South African group The Drive, founded in 1971 by Adolphus "Bunny" Luthuli and Henry Sithole. Remastered reissue by We Are Busy Bodies. Art restoration by Steve Lewin.

What if the blue that I see is different from the blue that you see? This question is an infrastructure for my Afro-Surrealist Anti-Opera, Colla Voce. Often, when we think of Surrealism, we think of subconscious mental states, dreams, nightmares-those unexplored corners of our psyche. But Afro-Surrealism protests: what if that which one calls a ‘dream' is a nightmare to another? What if that which one calls ‘rational' is completely baseless to another? And surely, we must have varying ideas of w…

Deluxe reissue edition. Restoration and digital transfer from original analogue tapes. Reissue of a 1976 duo recording. The Quest is a live album by Sam Rivers on which he is accompanied by double bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul. It was recorded on March 12 and 13, 1976, during the Rassegna Internazionale Jazz at the Palazzo dello Sport in Milan, Italy, and was initially released later that year by Red Records.  The trio was active from 1972 until 1978,[and was influential in the…

Everything Is Possible, the third album from Peace Flag Ensemble, pushes the boundaries of jazz improvisation and ambient experimentation. Led by Jon Neher’s lyrical piano and complemented by subtle electronic flourishes from Michael Scott Dawson, the group’s ensemble dialogue traverses gentle melodic passages and unexpected textural turns, resulting in a collection that is both introspective and quietly assertive.​

Pita Parka, Pt. II: Nim Egduf, the latest release from Dun-Dun Band, is a hypnotic excursion through polyrhythmic landscapes and global traditions. Guitarist Craig Dunsmuir leads a ten-piece ensemble in Toronto, weaving intricate ostinato riffs with jazz, Afrobeat, and ambient influences, resulting in a set of four expansive compositions that enchant and provoke.​

In 1975, the New York City alto saxophonist Alan Braufman released his debut album, Valley of Search on the India Navigation label. Recorded at the now legendary 501 Canal St. loft, the album was heralded by Village Voice jazz critic Gray Giddins, who wrote, "These are the musicians who are taking the chances today and their gifts and commitment ought to be attended." Braufman went on to record and tour with everyone from Carla Bley to The Psychedelic Furs, and didn't release another album under…

* Last copies, sold-out at source * Gatefold triple LP (5 sides of music). Limited pressing of 500 worldwide. Includes new liner notes from Susan Mannheimer, the host of the 1975 event * This recently unearthed recording captures Alan Braufman with his five-piece band in an early 1975 live radio session soon after recording his debut album Valley of Search for the India Navigation label. This was the first meeting for William Parker and Cooper-Moore, whose musical partnership has flourished ever…

Broken Shoes, the reissued LP from Soweto, thrives on the vibrant interplay of jazz and funk, capturing an era where rhythmic conversation takes precedence over polished surfaces. With each groove, the band conjures a sense of lived experience, reframing classic township forms in a manner both contemporary and respectful of the genre’s roots.​

On Sonic House Reunion, Bobby Bradford, Mark Dresser and Hafez Modirzadeh reconvene a long‑running alliance, turning cornet, five‑string bass and hybrid reeds into a quietly radical chamber unit where Ornette‑rooted lyricism, spectral tuning and deep listening pull the music in multiple directions at once.

On Sun’s Blessings, Sunny Murray and Sabu Toyozumi meet as a double‑drum frontline, turning a 1999 Sapporo concert into a two‑part ritual where clattering polyrhythms, rolling thunder and sudden hollows of space make free improvisation feel both volcanic and oddly tender.

On Keeping It In Context, Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen, William Parker and Lou Grassi turn a 1996 Context Studios session into a blazing, deep‑listening workshop, with twin reeds, singing bass and restless drums stretching free jazz language without losing its earthy pulse.

*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 …

*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…

In any band there is a constant push and pull. A state of tension and release between written music and improvisation, between leading and following. In the instinctive, unpredictable world of jazz, that push and pull can explode groups and compositions into entirely new forms, yet no matter how far each player might be stretched, there is always something connecting them back to each other and back to the tune. A tether. For New York-based saxophonist and composer Alden Hellmuth, that innate se…

One of the leading lights of contemporary creative saxophone music, Jon Irabagon (b. 1978) hails from Chicago, made his name in New York, and has returned to the Windy City with decisive ferocity, joining the city's bustling scene as an active participant and bandleader. Known for many of his groups, including Mostly Other People Do The Killing and PlainsPeak, as well as membership in ensembles led by Mary Halvorson, Dave Douglas, and Barry Altschul, Irabagon is a ceaselessly inventive horn play…

On Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts, The Cecil Taylor Unit detonates across two uncut Paris sets: a newly unearthed, vividly mastered document of Taylor, Sam Rivers, Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille stretching free jazz into an overwhelming, architectural storm of sound.

On Three for Shepp, Marion Brown leads a blazing American free‑jazz ensemble with Dave Burrell, Norris “Sirone” Jones and Grachan Moncur III, unleashing high‑energy fire music that shows the Impulse! era at full boil yet still somehow under‑sung.

On Buttercorn Lady, Art Blakey leads a brief but blazing mid‑60s Jazz Messengers lineup at The Lighthouse, launching a young Keith Jarrett and Chuck Mangione in a hard‑bop set that feels both like a proving ground and a joyous passing of the torch.

On The Final Tour: Copenhagen, March 24, 1960, Miles Davis and John Coltrane turn a standard club set into a knife‑edge drama, Davis all poised understatement, Coltrane in full escape‑velocity experimentation over one of the greatest rhythm sections in jazz.

On The Bagatelles Vol. 8, John Zorn hands nine knotty miniatures from his 300‑tune book to the John Medeski Trio, who turn organ, guitar and drums into a shape‑shifting engine of groove, skronk and sly lyricism that makes each Bagatelle feel like a tiny, exploding suite.

On The Bagatelles Vol. 7, John Zorn hands a batch of his razor‑cut miniatures to pianist Brian Marsella, who turns thirteen terse themes into a 46‑minute solo suite where classical poise, jazz volatility and downtown mischief share the same set of keys.

Using the crème de la crème of sound engineers and the unsurpassed production quality of Quality Record Pressings, the Acoustic Sounds series is mastered from the original tapes, pressed on 180-gram vinyl and packaged in high-quality gatefold covers produced by Stoughton Printing Co., where — as was customary on records of the era — the printed paper sheet is applied to the cardboard (so the cardboard itself is not directly inked). All this is overseen by Chad Kassem, CEO of Acoustic Sounds, the…

*2026 repress* "With the reissue of the Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool sessions, accompanied by recordings of this seminal nonet’s slightly earlier live dates at New York City’s Royal Roost, we now have as complete as possible an account of this still fresh sounding and beautiful music. The array of talent alone is startling: Miles Davis in transition between his earlier bebop stylings, and his later gorgeous tone and sparer choice of notes; Lee Konitz on alto sax playing startling melodic inven…

*2026 repress!* This is Dorothy Ashby's debut album, originally released in 1957 by the Regent label. Recognized as the woman who gave the harp a jazz voice, here Ashby is at the head of a highly distinctive combo featuring Frank Wess on flute, Eddie Jones or Wendell Marshall on bass and master Ed Thigpen on drums. The Jazz Harpist is an unprecedented mix of evocative classic sounds and jazz soul, awarded by Allmusic as her first and best album, period!