Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Ricercar (from the Italian "ricercare"), meaning “to search” or “to seek”, is a musical form that developed and flourished in a very interesting way in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was practiced by the greatest polyphonists and improvisers of the time: Giovanni Gabrieli, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and, ultimately, Johann Sebastian Bach (the six-voice ricercar from Musikalisches Opfer). It was always about the interaction between instruments, about dialogue, and about finding a common musical path.…

Wadada Leo Smith, Joe Fonda and Reggie Nicholson together. A trio of trumpet, double bass and drums. Six compositions/improvisations – or perhaps six sonic poems – filled with magic, contemplation and deep reflection.

Saxophone, double bass and drums trio of Michael Foster, John Moran and Joey Sullivan, in two long parts recorded in Philadelphia on May 8th 2025.

McCoy Tyner septet with Andrew White, Ted Dunbar, Buster Williams, Billy Hart, Mtume and vocalist Songai Sandra Smith, recorded on 10 September 1970 for Blue Note and first released in 1974. Tone Poet 180g LP.

Wayne Shorter quartet with Herbie Hancock, Cecil McBee and Joe Chambers, recorded on 14 June 1965 for Blue Note and first released in 1980. Japanese UHQCD, UCCQ-9742 (2024).

Wayne Shorter quartet with Herbie Hancock, Reggie Workman and Joe Chambers, recorded on 3 and 24 February 1966 for Blue Note and first released in 1967. Japanese UHQCD, UCCQ-9645 (2024).

Jackie McLean quintet sessions for Blue Note: five tracks recorded on 11 February 1963 with Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, Butch Warren and Tony Williams, one from 2 May 1959. First issued in 1980. Tone Poet 180g LP.

Jackie McLean quartet session with Sonny Clark, Butch Warren and Art Taylor, recorded on 28 September 1962 for Blue Note and first issued in Japan in 1979. Tone Poet 180g LP reissue.

Jackie McLean's One Step Beyond, a quintet session with Grachan Moncur III, Bobby Hutcherson, Eddie Khan and Tony Williams, recorded on April 30, 1963 at Van Gelder Studio and first released by Blue Note in 1964.

Jackie McLean's A Fickle Sonance, a quintet session with Tommy Turrentine, Sonny Clark, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins, recorded on October 26, 1961 at Van Gelder Studio and first released by Blue Note in 1962.

Elvin Jones' first Blue Note album as a leader, a piano-less trio with Joe Farrell and Jimmy Garrison recorded on April 8, 1968 at Van Gelder Studio, produced by Duke Pearson and first released in 1968.

Bobby Hutcherson's Medina, recorded on August 11, 1969 at Van Gelder Studio with Harold Land, Stanley Cowell, Reggie Johnson and Joe Chambers, unissued until Blue Note released it in 1980 in the LT series (LT-1086).

Andrew Hill's Judgment!, a quartet session recorded on January 8, 1964 at Van Gelder Studio with Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis and Elvin Jones, produced by Alfred Lion and first released by Blue Note in 1964.

Andrew Hill's Compulsion!!!!!, recorded on October 8, 1965 at Van Gelder Studio with Freddie Hubbard, John Gilmore, Cecil McBee, Richard Davis, Joe Chambers, Renaud Simmons and Nadi Qamar, first released by Blue Note in 1967.

Larry Young's last Blue Note session, five originals recorded at Van Gelder Studio on 7 February 1969 with Lee Morgan, Herbert Morgan and Eddie Gladden, first released in 1980 (LT-1038). Tone Poet reissue, 2026.

Larry Young's first Blue Note album as leader, recorded at Van Gelder Studio on 12 November 1964 with Sam Rivers, Grant Green and Elvin Jones, first released in 1965. Blue Note Classic Vinyl reissue, 2020.

Japanese UHQCD reissue (UCCQ-9640, 2024) of McCoy Tyner's 1969 Blue Note album, a hornless quartet with Bobby Hutcherson, Herbie Lewis and Freddie Waits recorded at Van Gelder Studio on 17 May 1968.

Tyrone Washington's only Blue Note album as leader, six originals recorded at Van Gelder Studio on 29 December 1967 with Woody Shaw, James Spaulding, Kenny Barron, Reggie Workman and Joe Chambers. Tone Poet reissue, 2026.

Debut of the open improvisation collective founded by Philipp Hager, with Andrew Bernstein of Horse Lords: four pieces of free jazz, polyrhythmic drums, droning bass and synths, cut in one day.

Marc Ribot's first all-instrumental album since Live at the Village Vanguard: a quartet with Chad Taylor and the saxophones of James Brandon Lewis, Brian Settles and Briggan Krauss, between free jazz and No Wave. On Pi Recordings.

* 180g vinyl housed in tip-on sleeve + download code * Swiss saxophonist Gilles Torrent, perhaps known from our recent Spiritual Jazz collection 'A Tribute to 'Trane', leads the way with his new album 'Buleria'; a mesmerizing set of modal jazz pieces that will speak directly to any listener who has felt the other-worldly depths of John Coltrane. The album comprises of Torrent originals and explorations of John Coltrane standards. It reaches for something beyond the mundane, and blends complex ha…

Matthew Shipp on piano and William Parker on bass in only their fourth duo album, the fruit of a four-decade friendship that began in the David S. Ware Quartet. Recorded in Brooklyn in June 2025, CD on Tao Forms.

William Parker as composer and lyricist: songs sung by Andrea Wolper with an inter-generational band, a title suite with tap dancer Melissa Almaguer, pieces for Chantal Akerman and Joseph Jarman. CD limited to 500 copies on Centering.

Debut of Trio Imagination, the group that grew out of Trio 3: David Virelles on piano with the legendary rhythm section of Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille, recorded at the Van Gelder Studio. On Pi Recordings.

James Brandon Lewis's third Red Lily album turns to Antonín Dvořák: original pieces that vary, echo or answer the Czech composer, with Kirk Knuffke, Melanie Dyer, Tomeka Reid, Joshua Abrams and Chad Taylor. On Tao Forms.

A solo piano journey through spontaneity, intimacy and the unexpected. On Undress & Fly, pianist and improviser Josep-Maria Balanyà invites the listener into a world where sound takes shape in the moment. Across nine solo pieces, he moves fluidly between agile, energetic playing and passages of striking delicacy, letting intuition guide the music toward unexpected destinations. Balanyà treats the piano as both instrument and terrain for discovery. In “Relaxed Discussion” and “Jump And Fly Away,”…

A visceral encounter of electric guitar, saxophones, bass clarinet and drums—where free improvisation cuts close to the nerve. On Ecorchure, Jérémy Baysse, Jean-Luc Petit and Fabrice Favriou create music that is raw, restless and alive to the moment. The trio’s second album brings electric guitar, sopranino and tenor saxophones, contrabass clarinet and drums into an uncompromising dialogue—one that moves from uneasy quiet to bursts of abrasive intensity. Across seven pieces, the musicians build …

This recording documents a first encounter. For his 60th birthday, Stefan invited two musicians he had previously met only online. We stepped into the same room, the same air, the same sound. By the end of the night, the trio had already begun. Thanks to Barbara and Norbert at BLOCK7, Bernd and all the birthday guests who supported this concert.

"Suspensão (Suspension in Portuguese ) is one of the many free improvised ensembles that prolific violist Ernesto Rodrigues leads. A Question Asked by the Empty Horizon is the thirteenth album of this ensemble that has been operating since 2016 with a rotating line-up of local musicians coming from different backgrounds, with different instrumentation.  The current version of Suspensão features a nonet with violinist Inês Ferreira, double bass player Hernâni Faustino, trumpeter João Silva, melod…

"With a total of three members, Imprints of Experiences captures the largest unit of the releases reviewed here, and its sound is correspondingly (and comparatively) full. Schindler deploys a range of instruments, some heard before (clarinets, cornet, saxophone) and one (b-flat tubax) unique to this recording. Harald Kimmig meanwhile contributes an energetic violin and Eric Zwang Eriksson, an array of prattling percussion. Playing live over two nights in Munich in 2024, the trio offers quite a …

"Recorded live in Lisbon, violist Ernesto Rodrigues joins vocalist Maria Radich and violinist Maria do Mar in a free improv trio where close-range string interplay and crackle box electronics create high-register tension, while voice moves within the texture through whispers and cries, shaping an intimate, spatially focused performance balancing density, restraint, and evolving interaction." - Squidco

"Framed as a shifting, dreamlike improvisation, this electroacoustic quartet led by violist Ernesto Rodrigues, with cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, Carlos Santos on electronics, and percussionist Monsieur Trinité, unfolds a fluid free improv session that dissolves into evolving textures, balancing tension, restraint, and collective interplay within an immersive sonic landscape." - Squidco

Violinist Carlos Zíngaro, violist Ernesto Rodrigues and cellist Guilherme Rodrigues come together on 'Pataphysique, a new album of free improvisation that places close listening and adventurous sound-making at its heart. Across six pieces—“I” through “VI”—the trio explores the expressive range of its string instruments, shaping an open-ended musical conversation in real time. Rather than follow a fixed path, the music unfolds through shifts in texture, gesture and intensity, inviting listeners i…

"A Berlin-recorded trio of violin, viola, and cello with voice, where Gerhard Uebele, Ernesto Rodrigues, and Guilherme Rodrigues shape twelve concise movements of hushed, textural free improv, blending extended string techniques and subtle vocalizations into a fragile, reductionist sound world of intimate interplay, suspended time, and finely detailed sonic nuance." - Squidco

Released by Creative Sources Recordings, Livingry captures a vivid live encounter between Lawrence Casserley, Dominic Lash, Massimo Magee and Phillip Marks. Recorded at London’s Hundred Years Gallery on 4 October 2025, the album brings together Casserley’s Signal Processing Instrument, Lash’s double bass and electric guitar, Magee’s alto saxophone and clarinet, and Marks’s percussion in a set of six freely improvised pieces.  Across just over an hour, the quartet shapes music that feels alive to…

Trost Records proudly announces the latest release in its ongoing cooperation with Berlin’s legendary FMP label, with the long overdue reissue of two classic live albums by the singular alto saxophonist Noah Howard, a key figure in New York’s free jazz revolution during the 1960s. Berlin Concert was recorded live in the titular city in January of 1975 with a quartet featuring pianist Takashi Kako, bassist Kent Carter, drummer Oliver Johnson, and percussionist Lamont Hampton, while Schizophrenic …

Reissue, originally released on ESP Disk' in 1966. Frank "The Reverend" Wright was one of the most powerful saxophonists to pick up on Albert Ayler's freedom and ferocious playing. Born in Mississippi and raised in Memphis, TN and then Cleveland, OH, he started in music as a bassist in blues bands but switched to tenor sax under the influence of his Cleveland friend Albert Ayler. Wright's "energy music" approach to tenor saxophone was influenced by Ayler but at the time in the '60s Wright's inte…

** White Vinyl. Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve. ** The first instalment of a landmark session by one of the most unique figures in black music is a shower of sounds that have come straight from another world.  Occupying a unique place in the history of black music, Sun Ra took the big band aesthetic of his role model Duke Ellington into thrilling new territory. A pianist and keyboard player with an ear for uncommon timbres, a profound interest in a wide range of non-Western cul…

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the release of BAG's first album since 1973, "For Peace and Liberty", recorded in Paris in Dec. 1972 when the musicians had recently arrived from St Louis. BAG only released one album during their existence. This long-lost performance, recorded at Maison de l'ORTF in optimal conditions just a few months previously, was thought lost until recently unearthed from the vaults of INA (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel). Here the group unleashes an incandescent 3…

On All the Numbers, Lester Bowie’s first sessions as a leader catch the future Art Ensemble core in 1967 workshop mode, running multiple takes of two pieces that keep splintering into different shapes, energies and internal logics.