Jazz /
Old and New Dreams Chapter-1
The opening of the pair of simultaneous releases, "Introduction," is a new wave of free jazz born from an intergenerational improvisation session with Takashi Sugawa (b) and Shun Ishiwaka (ds). Guitarist/composer Otomo Yoshihide has been active all over the world, from movies, plays, TV to commercials, without being confined to the framework of free jazz. The live recording of December 27, 2024 at Shinjuku Pit Inn, which has been his "core" since his teenage years, is not only a "milestone" in O…
Solhverv
Bomb! Danish pianist Tom Prehn was one of the first Europeans to deeply explore free music. With his quartet featuring Fritz Krogh on tenor saxophone, Poul Ehlers on bass, and Finn Slumstrup on drums, Prehn recorded Axiom in October, 1963, for Sonet, though it went unreleased until 2015 because the band felt that their music had moved beyond it already. To hear the music they were talking about, one could only turn to two privately-made reel-to-reel tapes, Centrifuga and Sohlverv, recorded in Au…
Troupeau Bleu
"Troupeau Bleu” is the 1st and most famous album which had been recorded by the French Jazz-Funk band legend, Cortex. The obscure French jazz group that's been a favorite of funky collectors for years! In 1974, Alain Mion, Alain Gandolfi & Jeff Huttner formed the mythical band, Cortex, who then recorded several LPs, including the legendary “Troupeau Bleu”. “Troupeau Bleu”, recorded in 2 days in july 1975, is a real musical U.F.O, an unclassifiable record, a mixing of thousand flavours, the kind…
Spectrum
2025 stock Cobham's debut record after making a name for himself collaborating with Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra remains a remarkable moment in progressive jazz. "Stratus" would later be sampled on Massive Attack's "Safe From Harm" and featured in Grand Theft Auto IV radio.
It's A Funky Thing To Do
2025 stock Exact repro of this 1971 release by saxophonist Hank Crawford. The personnel also includes Eric Gale (guitar), Cornell Dupree (guitar), Richard Tee (piano), Chuck Rainey (electric bass), Ron Carter (electric bass) and Bernard Purdie (drums).
Freigeweht
Released in 1981, the debut of the legendary keyboardist from Eberhard Weber’s Colours band and later the Jan Garbarek Group, Freigeweht presented Rainer Brüninghaus as a highly original and idiosyncratic sound sculptor in his own right, accompanied by ECM stalwarts Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn and drummer Jon Christensen as well as oboist Brynjar Hoff. In a review of the album from the year of its release, the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung traced Rainer’s influences and minimalist …
Amaryllis
Return of the great American jazz trio that delivered the poll-topping "Nothing Ever Was, Anyway" in 1997. Material heard on "Amaryllis" is by turns thoughtful, touching, joyous and viscerally exciting. Some of the songs are well known – almost classics of new jazz – including Crispell’s "Rounds", Peacock’s "Requiem" and "December Wings, Motian’s "Conception Vessel". There are also a number of startlingly effective free improvised ballads. As leader Marilyn Crispell says, "There’s a great depth …
Skrifum
From the very first note, Norway’s Jon Balke proposes a new sonic dimension with Skrifum, continuing a line of inquiry begun with Warp (2016) and Discourses (2020), solo piano albums which also processed the acoustic environment in which the music was heard. Skrifum (the Icelandic word for “write”) takes things a step further. With the aid of electronic audio tool the Spektrafon, which he helped develop, Balke is now able to directly manipulate ambient audio sound from the piano while playing –…
Preludes And Songs
Pianist François Couturier and violinist Dominique Pifarély, major figures in French improvisation, have played together in many projects over the last 30 years, including their duo, which made its recording debut for ECM with the remarkable Poros in 1997. Preludes and Songs, carries the story forward, with its programme including music by both players as well as pieces by Jacques Brel, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and J.J. Johnson. With sensibilities informed by jazz and contemporary composi…
Relations
Musical messages from Oslo, New York, Basel and Lugano – recorded between 2018 and 2022 – are juxtaposed and recombined on an absorbing recording that features Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen solo and in a series of duets . With such partners as Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Sinikka Langeland and Jorge Rossy, the musical frame of reference is very broad. Elements from Langeland’s’s archaic-sounding folk to Potter’s post-Coltrane saxophone and Taborn’s whirlwind modernist piano each find their p…
Innocence
1992 release ** "In 1984, Joe Gallivan settled in London and organized the avant-garde big band Soldiers of the Road, featuring Elton Dean, Evan Parker, Marcio Mattos, and, later, Ashley Slater, Paul Rutherford, Jim Dvorak, Claude Deppa, and Guy Barker. This ensemble recorded eight pieces for the BBC, performed often in London including at the London Jazz Festival, and, in 1992, made a critically acclaimed CD, Innocence."
Blue Train: The Complete Masters
2025 stock To mark the 65th anniversary of the album’s recording, Blue Train will be released in two special editions on September 16 as part of Blue Note’s acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series. A 1-LP mono pressing of the original album will be presented in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket, while the 2-LP stereo collection Blue Train: The Complete Masters will include a second disc featuring seven alternate and incomplete takes, none of which have been released previously on vinyl…
The Awakening
Ahmad Jamal is a jazz giant and The Awakening is his iconic masterpiece. The landmark deep trio session - recorded in NYC and released on Impulse! in 1970 - is an essential album and perennially sought-after on vinyl, so Be With Records are delighted to make it available again. As a “Zen master of jazz piano” and one of its greatest innovators, Jamal evolved his elegant sound with this adventurous record. The Awakening showcased his fast, richly melodic chops in remarkable variation. A consummat…
Štiri Dela
*2025 stock* "The CD surprised me because it could be listened to with many ears. At first I felt I could not separate it from contemporary composed music, soon after that I could still place it in the context of contemporary improvised music, and finally the fantasticness of a journey that takes the best both worlds have to offer revealed itself to me. Much of the merit can be attributed to the sensible arrangement of the four movements, which, despite being at least superficially similar proce…
Adyton
Edition of 200. Japanese free jazz legend Akira Sakata and Greek avant-garde guitarist Giotis Damianidis present Adyton, their first-ever duo recording. Having collaborated since 2018, the two musicians have developed an intuitive and electrifying musical dialogue, culminating in this live performance at Haekem, Brussels -- the final concert of a two-week tour with Entasis in September 2023. Sakata, who turned 80 on February 21st, 2024, delivers his signature fiery alto saxophone, evocative clar…
What About The Butterfly
There is something intensely alluring, almost addictive, about Kansas City-based artist Jackie Myers. Known for her innovation and fluidity on the keys and her sultry, bluesy vocals that could spark warmth in even the iciest of souls, she has a way of leaving all your flabbers ghasted and with a voracious appetite for more. Now, 577 Records is ecstatic to present her latest work of art, What About the Butterfly, a technical masterpiece born from the depths of this vocalist/pianist/composer’s bea…
A Black Op'era - Dedicated To Chairman Fred Hampton
2007 release (RARE) ** "A Black Op'era (dedicated to Chairman Fred Hampton), written, directed and performed by Ernest Khabeer Dawkins (one of Chicago's most famous improvisers and president of the well-deserving and celebrated AACM), leader of the Chicago 12, which includes some of the best and most famous soloists on the Chicago scene. Ernest Dawkins, one of Chicago's leading artists (he has collaborated with musicians and groups such as Ramsey Lewis, Muhal Richard Abrams, Richie Cole, Jack M…
In Der Fabrik Hamburg
2012 release (RARE - light storage wear) ** "E.M.T. started focusing on ecstatically free improvisation in an explosive and expressive manner. Over the years E.M.T. gradually extended their musical language by incorporating dada like spoken words and improvised recitations inspired by Schönberg (Pierrot Lunaire), noise, improvised structures and composition fragments from European composers like Grieg, Schumann (the song Ich grolle nicht) a.o. Alfred Harth extended his instruments to electric z…