Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

1998 release ** "This recording is an important part of bassist William Parker's early discography and comprises four ensemble pieces. The sound quality is slightly subpar, but the raw, 1960s feel of this album should appeal to those who appreciate the unassuming brilliance of this giant of the string bass. Each of the four tracks features different groups, with Parker composing all the pieces and appearing on all four. The two larger ensembles presage some of the large bands Parker was to lead …

2003 release ** "An important release is not necessarily a great release, and while the rare Environmental Control Office recording of legendary Swedish saxophonist and clarinetist Bengt Frippe Nordström is a significant contribution to the discography of Swedish jazz, his lengthy improvisations remind the listener of Albert Ayler on an off day, which when you think about it is a complement of sorts. Nordström squeezes a primitive sound from his horns, his tenor sounding precisely how drummer Pe…

1993 release **

1989 release ** "On November 23, 1986, at the Galerie Maximilien Guiol, a small art space in Paris, Alan Silva, Roger Turner, Misha Lobko, Didier Petit, and Bruno Girard shared the stage for the first time. They knew each other well, since they had all performed alongside one another in various groupings, but as a quintet, as this quintet, it was their first concert. From the moment Turner starts hitting his metal scraps, they all dive in and begin to Take Some Risks. A satisfying session, focus…

2007 release ** "Susie Ibarra is a percussionist, but she doesn’t hit you over the head with the fact. Rather, her powerfully delicate, insistent sounds seem to emanate from the landscape of drums and tuned gongs by themselves. Drum Sketches, Ibarra’s first solo CD following several Tzadik ensemble releases, is inspired by various images and sounds of her native Philippines. Among her glowing array of percussion are tuned bronze Kulintang gongs and a Surunay xylophone that blend with field recor…

1994 release ** "This is the logical companion to Tout Court. The lineup has been hardly changed. The only newcomer is Alfred Spirli, who alternates percussion duties with Xavier Desandre. Yves Robert also sticks to the same formula with an emphasis on musical vignettes. The relationship with Tout Court is also underlined by the deliberate choice of opening with the composition that concluded its predecessor, "Epilogue" -- several other pieces are also revisited. It would be a mistake, however, …

1994 release ** "Hooker's music is good, unabash ed free-jazz improvising. He and Lawrence make an effective duet: Hooker's rolling bed of drumming avoids direct comment on Lawrence's strong, Lyons-inflected alto. Of the trio and quartet tracks on the album, Pralaya and Radiance are probably the strongest. The horn players get their solo moments and do well with them, but the music is framed to emphasize the group, and that's where a listener's ears are drawn. There's good group improvising to b…

1990 release (RARE) ** Recorded live at Volksbühne East Berlin on June 13, 1982.

1998 release ** "A cosmopolitan synthesis of visionary music and outstanding poetry" is the concept and program of "Honey and Ashes," according to the press release. This claim naturally raises many questions about the work of German saxophonist Michael Riessler: Is it jazz—what constitutes "jazz"? There is little improvisation, as "Honey and Ashes" is largely through-composed. Is it contemporary classical music? Can you find pounding bass drums in classical music? "Honey and Ashes" is a speech …

2002 release ** "The drummer and band leader Lucas Niggli, with his trio ZOOM and quintet Big ZOOM, provided the big surprises at many festivals last year: the band's concerts in Moers, Saalfelden, Willisau, Münster, Schauffhausen count among these festivals' highlights. «Unbelievable how the genre-idioms from blues, rock and jazz styles are paired up among each other in the controlled gesture of new music,» said the journalist Marcus Maida after the performance at the Moers Festival. «Everythin…

1995 release **

1989 release ** An early Available Jelly Quartet; the instrumentation scaled down to two horns, bass/tuba, and percussion. Original compositions and covers of Brian Wilson and Misha Mengelberg. "The 1989 album from Available Jelly, In Full Flail narrowed down the band's physical lineup while extending its musical reach. Down to a quartet, the band included Michael Moore on saxophones and piano, Gregg Moore on tuba, trombone, electric bass, and mandolin, Michael Vatcher as master drummer, and the…

What happens when you bring together familiar faces at London experimental music venue Café OTO, Charles Hayward (drummer Abstract Concrete, This Heat) and John Edwards (double bass), and the Total Refreshment Centre (hub of new london jazz scene recording studio ) like Alabaster DePlume (singer and saxophonist) and Danalogue (synths from Soccer96, The Comet is Coming), and the learning disability autism art scene like singers/spoken word artists Sebastian Golgiri and Dean Rodney Jnr (Fish Polic…

2015 release ** "Matthew Shipp, the supreme jazz pianist of his generation, and Mat Walerian, the finest Polish jazz woodwind player of his, have combined their talents in concert on several occasions. This album documents one such event on May 15, 2012. Shipp hardly needs an introduction at this point thanks to a career of over a quarter century, including not only many acclaimed albums under his own name but also a long and prominent tenure in the David S. Ware Quartet and a vast array of coll…

1995 release ** "This work had its origin in the '60s. That's when I met Irene Aebi and Frederic Rzewski in Rome. The three of us have been working together ever since. The Living Theatre (founded by Julian Beck and Judith Malina in New York) was at that time very active in Italy and, as the most powerful and innovative theatre group anywhere, was becoming part of all our lives. I knew them from New York from the late '50s (The Connection, The Brig), and so did Frederic, who had composed and pla…

1997 release ** Daniel Carter, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, trumpet, piano, voice - Randall Colbourne, drums, piano - Paul Flaherty, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, voice - Raphe Malik, trumpet, piano - Sabir Mateen, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, piano, voice.

Recorded at the 1970 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and produced by Helen Keane, Montreux II (originally issued on the CTI label) was the second of Bill Evans’ Montreux concert recordings to be released, following the Grammy Award-winning Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival (1968). It features the leader accompanied by Eddie Gomez on bass, and Marty Morell on drums. According to AllMusic writer Ken Dryden, the concert finds “the pianist in peak form” presenting “a terrific live perfo…

Further Conversations with Myself, released on the Verve label in 1967, was Bill Evans’ sequel to his 1963 Grammy Award LP Conversations with Myself.  As on that initial album, here all the pieces are unaccompanied solos with piano overdubs. On Further, however, he plays just two pianos instead of the three he had previously employed. According to AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow, “The program is brief, but Evans plays quite well throughout. In particular, his versions of Johnny Mandel's ‘Emily’ an…

The Afro National band was formed in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1972. Their inspirational leader, Sulay Abu Bakarr accompanied by his wife Patricia and Ayo Roy Macauley split from the Sabanoh Jazz Band to form their new group. They skillfully merged highlife and jazz sounds with a deep knowledge of West African sounds. Growing to become one of the premiere bands to emerge from Sierra Leone they not only defined the sound of the country for a generation but also crafted some of the country's most …

Rare original! Half a century of fearless experimentation, boundary-smashing improvisation, and irreverent creativity is immortalized in !ICP! 50, the landmark LP from the legendary ICP Orchestra (Instant Composers Pool). Originally released as a celebration of their 50th anniversary, this album remains a vital testament to one of Europe’s most influential avant-garde jazz collectives. A golden jubilee of sonic rebellion, !ICP! 50 (ICP 050) captures the anarchic spirit and razor-sharp musiciansh…

*Edition of 300. 2022 stock* French-born, Amsterdam-based clarinetist Joris Roelofs has built his career balancing intense discipline and deep commitment to post-bop tradition with a measured exploratory streak. He’s worked extensively in the Vienna Art Orchestra and he maintains a wonderfully buoyant trio with the American rhythm section of Ted Poor and Matt Penman. But this new recording suggests that his attraction to freedom is growing stronger. Icarus is a lovely duo project with the vetera…

A record that's every bit as great as you'd guess from the three artists billed on the cover -- raw guitar from Terrie Ex, offbeat alto sax from Brodie West, and some amazing percussion from the legendary Han Bennink! The record feels very free and improvised -- very much in the best spirit of other Ex/Bennink collaborations, but really taken to the next level with West's contributions -- played with a raw tone that really holds the whole thing together, and sends it back to almost ESP-l…

"One of Shorter's best-selling albums from the '70s was Native Dancer, a Brazilian-oriented jazz-fusion masterpiece that boasts Herbie Hancock on acoustic piano and electric keyboards, and employs such Brazilian talent as singer Milton Nascimento (a superstar in Brazil) and percussionist Airto Moreira. Everything on this melodic, consistently lyrical effort is a jewel, and that includes Hancock's "Joanna's Theme," as well as pieces by Nascimento ("From the Lonely Afternoons" and "Ponta de Areia"…

*2025 stock* The funky, atmospheric, evocative and sometimes downright weird output of companies such as DeWolfe, Cavendish, Burton, and the ubiquitous KPM have always been a guiding inspiration for ATA Records, as evidenced in the spooky soundtrack vision of The Sorcerers, the big band brass of The Yorkshire Film & Television Orchestra and even in the soul-jazz of The Lewis Express and Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble. It only seemed natural for the team at ATA Records to scratch their own library it…

Sail Cabin Records are very proud to release the new album from SOL SOL, titled “What Year Is It?”! It will be available on CD and digital platforms on January 28. (Vinyl edition will be released later this year.) SOL SOL is a Swedish jazz group featuring some of Sweden’s top jazz musicians, playing their highly original music, written by Elin Forkelid and David Stackenäs. This is their second album as a group. (Their first album “Unaccustomed Soil” was released 2019 on Signal and Sound Records.…

2025 stock We’re very happy to announce that the record Elin Forkelid Plays For Trane is released on Sail Cabin Records on September 18, available on CD, 2 LP Vinyl (180g) and all major digital platforms. The record features Elin’s own personal take on the music of John Coltrane and features some of Sweden’s greatest jazz musicians. Elin Forkelid, saxophones / David Stackenäs, guitar / Mattias Ståhl, vibraphone / Ville Bromander, bass / Jon Fält, drums

We Jazz Records presents the second volume of their reworks albums dealing with source material from the Helsinki-based label's catalog. This time around, it's Carl Stone's turn to tackle the source albums at hand and filter the label's output through his musical lens. We Jazz Reworks is an idea that repurposes some of the label's output 10 albums at a time. That is, the label invites producers whose music they love on board, and one by one, they tackle 10 albums worth of source material, of whi…

Five years in the making and representing the twenty-year story of a pioneering British jazz-rock fusion band with strong Latinesque influences… whose alumni over that period included over thirty well-known British jazz musicians… but a band you might not have heard of… or have any of their eight albums… we have finally come up with ‘Variation and Creation: The Story of PAZ’. The album was produced in cooperation with the families of Dick Crouch and Geoff Castle, the heart of the of the band ove…

Trevor Watts has been at the forefront of the Jazz and Free Improvisation scene since the 1960s and is highly respected by his peers and quite rightly so. Much of the UK listening audience though, seem to be unaware of the amazing breadth of Trevor’s works on a global scale. With that in mind, Jazz in Britain have decided to try and address this issue with this release.In 2022 we issued The Art Is In The Rhythm which featured an improvised performance of Trevor in partnership with drummer, Liam …

1997 release **

2003 release ** "“The human voice must not be limited only to a conventional language, but is an inexhaustible source of natural musical instruments. If it is coupled with jazz it becomes a double musical instrument”: Mimmo Rotella dixit, and here is a combative group of Italian jazz musicians, stimulated by the maestro in his eighties, puts the theory into practice. The Rotella Variations therefore materialize in nineteen episodes of mostly short duration, often introduced or concluded, contami…

1994 release ** "Everything about this album, from the artist's name and album title to the rather cheesy cover photo of a smiling tuxedo-clad man on a beach surrounded by congas, suggests to a cynical eye that Arriba! Con Montego Joe is kitschy exotica on par with Martin Denny or Les Baxter. And while that style of music has its fizzy charms, it turns out that Arriba! Con Montego Joe is something much meatier. Collecting the entirety of the two albums Montego Joe (born Joseph Sanders) made for …

1992 release ** "A stunning album of duets performed by John Taylor and John Surman composed by the former. This recording documents the longstanding musical relationship between the two Johns captured by Jan Erik Kongshaug at Rainbow Studios in Oslo. Some of the most beautiful music you will ever hear."

2012 release ** "Ndikho Xaba left South Africa in 1964, an exile from his homeland who eventually found his place in San Francisco’s vibrant spiritual jazz scene of the late 60s. A songwriter, bandleader, pianist, and inventor of percussion and woodwind instruments, Xaba played alongside contemporaries like Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, and Sun Ra.."

1993 release ** "This aggressive trio of improvisers is unified by one idea throughout this session: that none of them gives a damn what the other thinks. It's a liberating notion and one not often seen on the other side of the Atlantic. In this set of tracks, the ancient drummer of British free jazz, Tony Marsh, is pitted in with the ever-youthful Paul Rogers and the energetic youngster Simon Picard on tenor. Marsh is the key to the communication as well. His swooping cymbal work and shifting f…

An unearthed treasure from the '70s Italian avant garde archives! A previously unreleased recording from the legendary Beat72 club in Rome in 1973, featuring a one-off Italian-American all-star ensemble with Roberto Laneri founding member of the experimental vocal group Prima Materia, maverick American composer Alvin Curran co-founder of Musica Elettronica Viva. Trombone specialist Giancarlo Schiaffini from the historical Gruppo di improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. Cello virtuoso Frances Marie U…

Released in 1967 with personnel including Lonnie Liston Smith (piano), Ronnie Boykins (bass), and Grady Tate (drums), Now Please Don’t You Cry… marked the beginning of Roland Kirk’s groovier explorations that would eventually lead him to record Blacknuss (1971). It’s vintage Kirk in a pared-down setting and is considered an essential Kirk album. Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

Some of soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's most interesting recordings are his earliest ones. After spending periods of time playing with Dixieland groups and then with Cecil Taylor (which was quite a jump), Lacy made several recordings that displayed his love of Thelonious Monk's music plus his varied experiences. On this particular set, Lacy's soprano contrasts well with Charles Davis' baritone (they are backed by bassist John Ore and drummer Roy Haynes) on three of the most difficult Monk tunes…

Big Tip! Tzadik is proud to present Asterisms, a beautiful and exploratory instrumental project by Sean Ono Lennon, one of the most creative and versatile musician/composer/producer/songwriters working today. Sean has written countless songs, composed film scores, produced, and performed on dozens of albums-and here he steps out as the leader of an all-star band of Downtown luminaries. Years in the making, the music is powerful, trippy, and intensely imaginative, blending rock, electronics, jazz…

Sun Ra is still trying to get our attention 50 years after dispatching this transmission. Humanity’s path since then makes his message even more urgent today. Years after Herman Poole “LeSony’r Ra” Blount “left the planet” he’s still trying to reach us, to wake us up and to change our destiny.Sun Ra and the Arkestra weren’t a traditional studio band, and every star in the vast galaxy of their discography reflects this. The origins of these records can be hard to pinpoint at times, but when it co…