★Esp-Disk
Life Is A Constant Journey Home
Originally released in 1968. Jerry Moore was working as a folksinger in Greenwich Village when ESP-Disk' artist Randy Burns brought him to the label's attention. Recorded in August 1967 at Impact Studios, NYC, the soulful Life Is a Constant Journey Home (also issued at one point as Ballad of Birmingham, acknowledging its most famous and important song) is so legendary that we'll just let the press quotation below describe it. But please also consider this: that's a heckuva band Mr. Moore's backe…
Every Dog Has Its Day But It Doesn't Matter Because Fat Cat Is Getting Fatter
This is Mr. Mat Walerian's fourth album as a leader, all on ESP-Disk'. He also appears in the Matthew Shipp Quartet on the album Sonic Fiction (ESPDISK 5018CD, 2018). Credits: Mat Walerian - alto saxophone, bass clarinet, soprano clarinet, flute; Matthew Shipp - piano; William Parker - double bass, shakuhachi; Hamid Drake - drums, percussion. Recorded May 21, 2018 at Parkwest Studios, Brooklyn, New York. Produced by Steve Holtje.
Winter Garden
From the producer's liner notes: "It is an interesting question how old 'free jazz' is. At some point, even a theme and a plan became optional. In the ESP-Disk' catalog, 'Taneou' on the Giuseppi Logan Quartet's eponymous album sounds like this approach of complete freedom starting from scratch; it was recorded on November 11, 1964. Joe McPhee, in 1967, appeared on Clifford Thornton's album Freedom and Unity, so his recording career covers 53 of those 56 years, 95% of the approach's history. Each…
Karel Velebny SHQ (PF 69)
In February, 1968, as the false Spring of hope was rising in occupied Czechoslovakia, ESP instructed Karl Velebny to record his group of improvisers during their upcoming tour of Germany. In April, 1968, the clandestine project was completed. Karel survived a terrible auto crash and sent photographs to ESP, which were utilized on the LP cover as a symbolic reference to the plight of the Czech people. A must for anyone interested in European jazz and the history of its relationship with the '60s …
Music From Europe
Recorded in Baarn, Holland on December 21st, 1966, Music From Europe was a strong statement of European free jazz from one of its first and strongest leaders, Gunter Hampel. Over the beautifully structured compositional suites are strong blowing and improvising by both reedmen (Hampel, Breuker) and the elastic rhythm section (Veening, Courbois).
Barrage
Paul Bley recorded the compositions of Carla Bley with a quintet that included Eddie Gomez, on the evening of October 20, 1964, at Mirasound Studios, with Alfy Wade as engineer. His group included Milford Graves, Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra, and Dewey Johnson.
In Search Of The Mystery
In Search of the Mystery, Gato Barbieri’s debut album as leader, was recorded March 15, 1967, on the heels of his work on Don Cherry’s famed Blue Note recordings: Complete Communion and Symphony for Improvisers. This avant-jazz masterpiece from the Argentine tenor saxophonist shows off his volatile, shrieking sound to full and unrelenting affect, fueled by the twin interweaving strings of cellist Calo Scott and bassist Norris Jones (Sirone) and Bobby Kapp’s impressionistic drum splatter. Recorde…
Yodeling Astrologer
One the real folk/oddity classics of the ESP-Disk catalog, in a league with the best of Ed Askew. When MIJ, aka Jim Holmberg was found by ESP, yodeling by the fountain in Washington Square Park, on a hot, summer Sunday afternoon, he explained that an auto accident had fractured his skull and impaired his hearing. But it had also altered his perceptions and enabled him to do things that he did not understand, but which worked musically. The next day ESP sent him into the studio. With Onno Scholtz…
New York Eye And Ear Control
Originally released in 1966. Featured artists: Albert Ayler (tenor sax), Ed Blackwell(trumpet), Don Cherry (trumpet, cornet), Sunny Murray (drums), Gary Peacock (bass), Roswell Rudd (trombone), John Tchicai (saxophone, alto sax). Michael Snow is a Canadian national treasure, a true Renaissance man. He assembled a stellar group to improvise a sound track for his art film, titled Walking Woman, featuring a silhouette that is rumored to have been inspired by Carla Bley. Digitally remastered. Manufa…
Hard Vibe
2025 stock Talibam! delights in creating music that cannot be pinned down within the safe-spaces of existing genres. With each new album, Talibam! reinvent their methodological palette in order to bolster a fresh clarity of joyous auditory surprise, something their fans have come to depend on. Talibam! focus on compositional clarity, with reverence for their diverse interest in genre. On Hard Vibe, they push the pulse of motorik rhythm through a psychedelic jazz filter. This time out, they have …
A White Horse Is Not a Horse
"There was a school of philosophy in ancient China whose core theory stems from a debate entitled “A White Horse Is Not a Horse.” In a book by Gongsun Long (公孫龍 320-250BC, about 200 years after Confucius) in the Warring States Period, two persons argue if a white horse is a horse: the protagonist argues it is not, because ‘white’ is the color of a (particular) horse while a ‘horse’ is a shape and a generic term. It’s a linguistic/logical paradox, or sophistry. Ridiculed by his contemporary philo…
Every Day → All The Way
This is the first to be released of a series of albums ESP started recording in 2023 combining artists who hadn't worked together before. In this case, we team saxophonist Larry Ochs with the Flow Trio rhythm section of drummer Charles Downs and bassist Joe Morris. They meshed magnificently on their first encounter! Larry Ochs, co-founder in 1977 of ROVA Saxophone Quartet, was born in New York City but has long been based on the West Coast, specifically the Bay Area. He has also been a member of…
Realism
Joe Morris's recording career began in 1983 and has made him one of the most revered avant-garde jazz guitarists. Down Beat magazine dubbed him "the preeminent free music guitarist of his generation," while The Wire magazine called him "one of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S." His revelatory 2012 book Perpetual Frontier/The Properties of Free Music (Riti Publishing) is a detailed and rewarding accounting of his approach to improvisation. He has been on the faculty in the Jazz an…
Morning Bells Whistle Bright
When Michael Bisio heard Korean pianist Eunhye Jeong's ESP-Disk 2021 album NOLDA, he expressed interest in working with her. After a successful and riveting duo concert in Kingston, NY showed what a good match they were, ESP was eager to document their musical affinity. One of the concert attendees was avant-jazz sax icon Joe McPhee, who guested with the duo at their subsequent studio session along with one of ESP's favorite drummers, Jay Rosen. Magical moments abounded, as you can hear on this …
The Eternal Now Is The Heart Of A New Tomorrow
Memphibians Rising from the Mud, Making Musical Moods Deepstaria Enigmatica is a quintet of improvisers from Memphis, Tennessee dedicated to creating otherworldly soundscapes. Named for a rarely seen, bell-shaped jellyfish discovered by Jacques Cousteau, the group's every note is inspired by that famous ocean explorer's sense of discovery. But don't assume the five veteran musicians create only chaos: they are as attuned to melodies and harmonies as they are to fine gradations of noise. What eme…
The Hilversum Session
A legendary recording by tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler with his amazing working band, recorded in Holland for radio play, here digitally remastered with new artwork.
Personnel
Albert Ayler: tenor saxophoneDon Cherry: cornetGary Peacock: bassSunny Murray: drums
A White Horse Is Not a Horse
There was a school of philosophy in ancient China whose core theory stems from a debate entitled “A White Horse Is Not a Horse.” In a book by Gongsun Long (公孫龍 320-250BC, about 200 years after Confucius) in the Warring States Period, two persons argue if a white horse is a horse: the protagonist argues it is not, because ‘white’ is the color of a (particular) horse while a ‘horse’ is a shape and a generic term. It’s a linguistic/logical paradox, or sophistry. Ridiculed by his contemporary philos…
It's Now: R*Time Plays Doug Hammond
Doug Hammond is a veteran American composer, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, singer-songwriter, essayist, and educator who is not nearly as well known in the U.S. as his music warrants. That may be largely because he’s been based in Linz, Austria since 1989 as a professor at Bruckner University, making only periodic visits back to his native Detroit.
Reut Regev is a boundary-crossing composer-trombonist born in Israel, living and active in New York City and its metroplex since 1998, noted fo…
Contact High With The Godz
2025 stock Coming from the same Lower East Side scene that had already delivered the Fugs to ESP-Disk’, when the Godz went into the studio in 1966, there was no precedent for what they did. The first albums of the Velvet Underground and the Stooges lay in the future. The title Contact High with the Godz might suggest psychedelia, but even that freewheeling style, still yet to blossom, would come nowhere near the freedom and sheer avant-gardeness of the Godz' first LP. They were not afraid to sou…
Live On The Riviera
2025 stock When Albert Ayler's band went through Customs in July 1970 on their way to play at a festival in France, keyboardist Call Cobbs got held back and arrived a day late. Minus the keyboards, the band played anyway. The music-making of the resulting ensemble is freer and more adventurous than on the quintet's following Maeght Foundation concerts. This unique document, Ayler's penultimate recording, thus brings him back to something close to the trio setting in which he first found fame on …