Jazz /
El Infierno Musical II
By inevitable coincidence, a street vendor in Buenos Aires became an instrument of providence, when he compelled attention of Christof Kurzmann, sitting outside a coffeehouse. His merchandise were small books of Hispanic writers, and the chosen one that ended up in the buyer’s pocket some eighteen years ago was a collection of poems by Argentinean poet Alejandra Pizarnik. Her works abound with music and sounds or absence of it, appreciating silence. For Kurzmann, this served as a sufficient reas…
Natuitive Speakers
This album was recorded in Brno, Czech Republic when these five masterful musicians were invited to perform together at a festival. Quentin Rollet started playing the alto saxophone at the age of 11 and the sopranino saxophone at 37. After a few years spent unlearning the teaching of the conservatory, he devoted himself to free improvisation. This led him to find himself on record or on stage with groups as varied as Nurse With Wound, Prohibition or The Red Krayola. Sylvia Bruckner is an interna…
SINN/ist
The Valentin Duit Quartett consists of Robert Unterköfler on saxophones, Tobias Meissl on vibraphone, Ivar Roban Križić on double bass and Valentin Duit on drums. The quartet interprets pieces by Valentin Duit which offer space for collective and solo improvisation in different ways. It emerged from the Tobias Meissl Trio in 2023 and has existed as a collective exploratory ensemble ever since.
Valentin Duit is a Vienna-based drummer who plays with various ensembles mainly in the fields of jazz a…
Monster
A sensational quartet that was created by Free Music Forum in Austria. Joe McPhee is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, conceptualist and theoretician. He is currently the member of Trio X, Survival Unit III and has collaborated with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Raymond Boni, The Thing, Trespass Trio, and Universal Indians among many others. With a career spanning nearly 50 years and over 100 recordings, he continues to tour internationally, forge new connections a…
Meshes
2009 release ** "Two improvisations-one live, one without audience-by an Anglo-French trio of new voices from trombonist Forge, electronics artists Julian and cellist Papapostolou. The music is quiet and spacious....there is a wonderful sense of slowness to the music that suggests each sound, every contribution comes only after careful consideration."
Unclassified Affections
Unclassified Affections is the entrancing new release from drummer and composer Dan Weiss that features the convergence of some of the most intriguing musicians on the scene: Peter Evans on trumpet, Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, and Miles Okazaki on guitar. The new compositions, which were written by Weiss specifically for these musicians, range from deep, meditative moments to intense, high-energy peaks, while every track unveils a new layer of exploration.
Brennan’s sonorous mallet work co…
Milestones
Milestones is an album that needs no introduction. Often overshadowed by its younger sibling Kind of Blue in the rankings of greatest jazz records, it nonetheless holds a pivotal place in the history of modern jazz. Critics and devoted listeners alike recognize its importance: an early – and outstanding – example of modal jazz, recorded by Miles Davis’ so-called “first great quintet” (actually sextet, this time), featuring legends like John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones,…
Béke
“Peace is not the word to play” rapped Large Professor on Main Source’s 1991 debut album. His plea to stop abusing the word “peace” simply for rhetoric flair sounds just as valid in today’s genocidal world as it did in the streets of New York over 30 years ago. For Oiro Pena to name this album Béke, meaning peace in Hungarian – or white people in French Caribbean creole – it seems like they finally have something to say. With this group/concept/project called Oiro Pena, circling as a creative vo…
Izba
This time we are presenting another great collaborator that has been a part of our community for many years. Marina Džukljev, pianist from Novi Sad, Serbia. She joined the trio TiTiTi a few years ago as a guest, on their debut record Štafelaj out on Zavod Sploh, and then later she performed with them on many occasions including the Jazz Festival in Cerkno, Ring Ring Festival etc. TiTiTi started as a trio of the Slovenian most prominent brotherly connection, a fiery free rhythm section – Vid and …
Trio of Bloom
A new voice in contemporary improvisation emerges with the Trio of Bloom, uniting three visionary artists at the forefront of modern music: Craig Taborn (piano, electronics), Nels Cline (guitar, effects), and Marcus Gilmore (drums, percussion).
This ensemble is less a meeting of individual virtuosos than the flowering of a shared soundworld—an immersive space where texture, rhythm, and resonance intertwine in real time. Each musician brings a singular language: Taborn’s kaleidoscopic harmonic …
Bone Bells
Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson Present Bone Bells on Pyroclastic Records. Two visionary voices of contemporary music explore new dimensions of resonance, texture, and interplay.
Purposing the Air
"I grew up in a literary household with parents who paid close attention to the written word. My father was a Goethe scholar, and my mother often read to us, pointing out the beauty of the sound of words. I have always felt an affinity for poetry. I appreciate its emotional power to move us and to make us think less literally. Miles Davis stressed the importance of knowing the lyrics to standards, and I’ve always believed that understanding the meaning of the words provides an added dimension wh…
Of The Near And Far
"I’ve always been captivated by the night sky, endlessly wondering about what lies beyond. Amidst the vast expanse of stars, there is a sense of balance and symmetry that fascinates me—an order within the chaos. The innate patterns of the constellations sparked my curiosity, prompting me to explore how these celestial forms might be translated musically.
In the summer of 2024, I developed a process that allowed me to collect pitch and numerical data from constellations. I overlaid the shapes of …
Love is Here - The Complete Paris 1975 ORTF Recordings
Biggest Tip! Limited edition 2-CD Digipak. Includes a 12-page booklet with rare photos from the actual performance by Christian Rose, and an exclusive essay by longtime Down Beat contributorKevin Whitehead. Transcendence Sounds - the groundbreaking new archival imprint from Elemental Music - makes its stunning debut with the complete, previously unreleased concert recording of spiritual jazz titan Pharoah Sanders captured live at Paris's legendary Studio 104 on November 17th, 1975. This extraor…
Free Music (1975-1988)
Cortizona proudly unveils Cortizona Heritage, a new sublabel created in partnership with the Study Centre for Flemish Music (SVM) to revive and showcase hidden chapters of Flemish music history.The debut release sets the tone: blending the exuberance of a marching band with the unpredictability of free improvisation, WIM Fanfare brought raw, joyful musical anarchy to city squares, parades, and unsuspecting audiences.
Mystiphonic
"Mystiphonic" is the third release from Roland P. Young on EM, following "Isophonic Boogie Woogie" [EM1045CD/LP] which was originally released in 1980 and re-issued by EM in 2005, and the 2009 "Istet Serenade" [EM1087CD/LP].
"Mystiphonic" is the fruit of two years of recordings at Young's Isophonic Sound Laboratory in Brooklyn, "comprovisations" which are more electronic than the previous EM releases, and yet this new CD retains Young's emotional life-long horn playing, a romance which began in …
Barcelona Traction
Top notch jazz-rock-fusion with funk and Latin touches from Catalonia, 1975. Featuring Lucky Guri on electric piano (Rhodes) & Mini Moog, Jordi Clua on bass and Francis Rabassa on drums. Original artwork in gatefold sleeve and insert with liner notes by Àlex Gómez-Font & photos. RIYL: Placebo, Soft Machine, Egg, Return To Forever, Weather Report…“After recording in 1972 the cult album "We Are Digging The Beatles" with ex-Màquina! sax player Peter Rohr, innovative pianist Lucky Guri decided to fo…
Re-Union In Berlin
2025 stock The reissue of Rolf & Joachim Kühn Quartet’s "Re-Union In Berlin" on b.free is a welcome resurrection of a historic German jazz masterpiece. This album, first recorded in 1965, captures the Kühn brothers at a creative peak, blending modal jazz with free improvisation in ways that still sound fresh and daring today.
"Re-Union In Berlin" showcases Rolf Kühn’s virtuosic clarinet lines and Joachim Kühn’s exploratory piano, supported by Klaus Koch on bass and Reinhard Schwartz on drums. Ea…
The People's People Present the Spirit of David
Huge Tip! Frederiksberg Records proudly presents the reissue of The People's People Present The Spirit of David, a remarkable testament to artistic ambition and collective discipline that emerges from the depths of private-press obscurity. This singular album, originally recorded in 1974 and released in 1976, represents one of the most extraordinary achievements in spiritual jazz history - a work so meticulously prepared and passionately executed that it transcends its humble origins to become …
Beautiful People
Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet is returning with a new, refreshed lineup with a new full-length album, Beautiful People, scheduled for release in October 2024. The album will be distributed worldwide in cooperation with K7!
The album was recorded in December '23 at Polish Radio's S4 studio after a series of a dozen WMQ concerts last fall. Buoyed by the wonderful reception in many cities and hungry for new sensations and sounds, the Quintet recorded this album while absolutely in full throttle.
Beauti…