★Corbett Vs. Dempsey

Corbett vs. Dempsey is pleased to present The Early Quintet, featuring trumpeter Manfred Schoof's highly influential mid-sixties sextet (and occasional septet), featuring pianist Alexander Schlippenbach, tenor saxophonist Gerd Dudek, bassist Buschi N…

David Grubbs' commissioned music for Josiah McElheny's singing paintings, wall works with hand-blown glass discs that resonate sound: one 30-minute piece for lap steel, electric guitar and Serge synthesizer, built on microtonal slide.

Corbett vs. Dempsey is thrilled to announce the release of ‘Reason’, the second album from international free music quartet The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.

Corbett vs. Dempsey is honored to present the first comprehensive compilation of the music of Jon Waine, culled and curated from original 1970s/80s master tapes, home recordings, and rehearsal documentation, featuring provocative and legendary artist…

In September, 1967, three of the primary ensembles of free music in Northern Europe gathered for a mini-festival on Radio Bremen: the Manfred Schoof Quintet, the Peter Brötzmann Quartet, and the Irène Schweizer Trio. Pianist Alexander von Schlippenba…

One of the critical figures in Chicago's creative music scene, alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella has been a mainstay for over 25 years as a leader, composer, and player. This gorgeous recording was made at Shape Shoppe Paradiso, the Italian studio of …

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 ci…

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 partic…

"Dear Listener, this recording starts with a sound that has energized me over many years: the 'Dark Woods' of the clarinet, bassoon, cello and bass; the 'Bright Sparks' of the alto and trumpet; the wood and metal of the percussion bringing it all tog…

There's a story that gets to the heart of this record. Years ago, Keefe Jackson spent an evening with South African-Dutch legend Sean Bergin - the only time the two ever met. At some point Bergin told him: "Keefe, you remind me very much of my friend…

*300 copies limited edition* Corbett vs. Dempsey is pleased to announce the release of Horizon, featuring music by Joseph Shabason and Thom Gill as a score for artist David Hartt's film. This vinyl-only project is co-released with Hartt's new imprint…

Two decades ago, an all-star assembly of Chicago improvisers started a new band, drawing its name from an 1841 book by Charles Mackay: Extraordinary Popular Delusions. With weekly gigs at a spot in Chicago called Hotti Biscotti, Jim Baker, Mars Willi…

An ace technician who studied at the New England Conservatory, Erez Dessel is in no way conservative. Indeed, his bracing approach to the keyboard and deeply intuitive sense of form can be explosive, uncorked energy summoning references to Cecil Tayl…

Corbett vs. Dempsey is delighted to announce the release of the self-titled debut CD by the international quartet The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. The highly democratic foursome works in the productive netherworld between genres, where genres g…

Selections from the Empty Bottle Jazz and Improvised Music Series (1996-2005) is a six-CD anthology that captures the vibrant, unpredictable pulse of Chicago’s improvisational scene. Meticulously compiled from over 500 performances curated by John Co…

October Flowers for Joe McPhee is a luminous solo work by Ken Vandermark, recorded in tribute to his longtime friend and mentor. Released by Corbett vs. Dempsey in March 2025, the album unfolds as a suite for reeds—melding lyricism, memory, and impro…

From the viral Severance TV dance party to spiritual jazz explorations, this vinyl compilation spans five decades of the Poughkeepsie legend's most electrifying moments. Funky grooves, cosmic transcendence, and raw improvisation collide.

After Caspar Brötzmann’s 2024 LP with Bass Totem, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker releases new live recordings of “All This Violence.” Founded 1986, the band’s intense, influential sound shaped underground rock, inspiring acts like Sonic Youth and SUNN O))…

Thanatosis Records (Stockholm) and Corbett vs. Dempsey (Chicago) are pleased to announce a joint release titled Love, the second record by the quartet Das B. The lineup features Maya Magdas on piano, Mazen Kerbaj on trumpet, Mike Majowski on bass, an…

Corbett vs. Dempsey presents Jaap Blonk's Ursonate, featuring the complete text-sound work by artist Kurt Schwitters. Blonk first recorded the canonical Dada poetry piece in 1986, released as an LP on BVHAAST, Willem Breuker's label. He has returned …

It's a miracle that some records ever get made. Right in the middle of Ceausescu's ultra-repressive dictatorship, composer Iancu Dumitrescu managed to arrange for his first LP, a compilation of radical new music by Dumitrescu and three of his Romania…

Corbett vs. Dempsey presents And Yeah So (1981-1985), the first ever compilation by Splat! Emerging amid the primo froth of the British post-punk era, Splat!'s lineup included vocalist Dave Parsons, the mastermind behind Ron Johnson Records. The band…

In Straight Up, Without Wings, Joe McPhee surveys sixty years in creative music. Starting with his trumpeter-father's influence and formative years in the U.S. Army, McPhee recounts experiences as a Black-hippy-cum-budding-musician based in upstate N…

Until now, the earliest recordings anyone has heard by Joe McPhee come from the period around his 1968 debut album, Underground Railroad. McPhee had just started playing tenor saxophone at that point. A couple of years earlier, the bassist featured o…

One for the ages here.  Unearthed from the ESS archives and officially released for the first time ever, a previously unknown half-hour from cosmic mythologist and sound scientist Sun Ra's 1971 U.C. Berkeley course "The Black Man in the Cosmos." Ra's…

Two hardcore proponents of free improvisations from different generations meet for a granular explosion.

Kyosaku is a trio. Guitarist Finn Loxbo. Electric bassist Else Bergman. Drummer Ryan Packard. They are based in Stockholm. Together, they explore intensive plateaus. States of constant ecstasy. Kyosaku's music has been described as relentless. But it…

Joe McPhee is one of the great multi-instrumentalists of contemporary improvised music. His instrumental battery has included saxophones, clarinets, valve trombone, pocket trumpet, sound-on-sound tape recorder, and space organ, but another arrow in h…

It's unreleased Oxley & Stabbins & Sirone & Thomas & Schoof!

When Mars Williams dove into his vault to excavate several recordings for a Mars Archive series on Corbett vs. Dempsey, he immediately landed on a concert date from a decade earlier. The event, recorded at Chicago's Elastic Arts Foundation in 2012, f…

From a night of music in Holland that's become legendary among NRG Ensemble enthusiasts, Hold That Thought presents a blazing concert of the quintet's unique sound. With Mars Williams and Ken Vandermark on reeds, Kent Kessler and Brian Sandstrom on b…

At the tail end of 1996, saxophonist Mars Williams and drummer Hamid Drake took the tall corner stage at Chicago's Empty Bottle for two sets of duets. The rock club had just started a weekly Jazz & Improvised Music Series, curated by Ken Vandemark an…

For the first time, a compact version of Rob Mazurek's magisterial Exploding Star Orchestra – Exploding Star Orchestra/Small Unit – commits its music to CD.  Recorded live at Corbett vs. Dempsey's Chicago gallery space in March, 2023, the six-piece b…

2 LPs packaged in cardboard sleeve with paper insert | Produced and directed by Christopher Williams | Executive production by John Corbett & Jim Dempsey | Edition: 500. Inklusive is a play written by Bavarian playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz. It is par…

Chicago vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz leads and composes for this magnificent quintet, driven by Hamid Drake’s powerhouse drumming and Joshua Abrams’ deep-in-pocket bass, with Jon Doyle and Josh Berman’s horns bringing the shine.Eight tight, swinging…

On their first stand-alone record as a duo, Ken Vandermark and Hamid Drake celebrate their 30+ year playing relationship with an electrifying live set of pieces, all featuring music composed by legendary free jazz musician Don Cherry.

Sexmob breaks new sonic ground with longtime producer scotty hard on the hard way, a new and extraordinary collaboration

Keeper of the Code: Paintings 1963–2022 is Roscoe Mitchell's first exhibit with Corbett Vs. Dempsey. The exhibit is accompanied by an in-depth 140-page full-color catalog reproducing over 100 of Mitchell’s paintings, with an interview by John Corbett…

Corbett Vs. Dempsey presents the third release in an ongoing series that will reconstruct the legacy known and the legacy damned of the most overlooked and under-documented American free rock unit, Dredd Foole and the Din.

On this maiden recording, Chicago-based bassist Jason Roebke leads a new quartet, featuring his original compositions and a stellar lineup. The music, which was brilliantly recorded at Steve Albini's legendary Electrical Audio and expertly mixed and …