★Tzadik
Undertaker Please Drive Slow
A long time resident of the Appalachian town of Asheville, North Carolina, Shane Parish is the mastermind behind the cutting edge rock band Ahleuchatistas. Here he steps out with a remarkable and soulful acoustic solo project that digs deep into Appalachian roots. Taking classic old times folk songs, Shane has abstracted them in utterly fascinating ways evoking the haunting and brooding world of the American South. At times reminiscent of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, at times of John Cage and Mo…
Black Narcissus
Three of downtown’s most dynamic performers join forces to form Mephista—one of the first all women supergroups (Susie Ibarra, Sylvie Courvoisier, and Ikue Mori). Separately these three have worked with some of the most important musicians in new music (Derek Bailey, Wadada Leo Smith, Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Mike Patton, Dave Douglas, etc.)—together they have created a whole new kind of music spanning the worlds of rock, classical, jazz and electronica. Sensitive…
The Debt
Frank London, a major voice in today’s Jewish music renaissance, who has worked with the likes of LLCooI J, LaMonte Young, Jane Siberry and Gal Costa, is a trumpetist, composer, arranger and musical scholar of startling range and creativity. The Debt is the first collection of his work for film and theater, and contains a wide variety of his musical obsessions: Latin grooves, Mingus-style jazz arrangements, classical chamber compositions, moody sound pieces, funky bachelor pad music and a gorgeo…
New Rap
Haino Keiji is a mysterious psychedelic minstrel who has been performing his peculiar blend of rock, medieval music and improvisation since the early 1970’s. Incredibly prolific, he has headed dozens of bands and released hundreds of CDs on a variety of labels around the globe. His latest project is a wild duo with Ruins mastermind Yoshida Tatsuya, the undisputed master drummer of the Japanese Underground. Featuring Haino’s unique singing and screaming style as well as his best guitar playing to…
Beyond Quantum
Anthony Braxton, Milford Graves and William Parker are quite literally three of the most important virtuoso instrumentalists in new music, each a vivid conceptualist as well an influential composer/perf o rm e r. This intense improvisational outing features them at their best: excited, inspired and in complete communication. Recorded and mixed by musical alchemist Bill Laswell, sparks fly in this important and historic meeting of creative music masters.
Standards
In early 2002 Derek Bailey astounded the free music community with his gorgeous album Ballads, a radical and steely interpretation of the standard repertoire. It became an instant classic, hit a dozen best-ten lists and remains his best selling cd of all time. The recordings here were made just weeks after the idea was first born at an intimate Christmas gathering in New York—and two months before the recording of Ballads. Here Derek is working out his personal approach to the standard song repe…
Pieces For Guitar
Private recordings of incredible historical importance (practically the holy grail to fans of free improvisation), Pieces for Guitar presents the earliest known solo recordings of guitar innovator Derek Bailey. Dating from 1966 (possibly 1965) these pieces were recorded for personal study during a transitional period and include some of the only instances of him performing his own written compositions!! Under the influence of the music of Anton Webern, Bailey began working through a variety of t…
One Atmosphere
An original member of the legendary Black Artists Group (St. Louis' counterpart to the AACM), and founder of the World Sax Quartet, Julius Hemphill was one of the most important composer/performers in creative music. His work is marked by a sharp, edgy melodicism steeped in the blues, contrapuntal complexity and a striking formal logic. One Atmosphere presents the full range of his compositional talents: a long, epic work for seven woodwinds (one of his greatest compositions, here receiving its …
Perseverantia
On Perseverantia, Vadim Neselovskyi turns his lyric, classically infused jazz language into a meditation on endurance, carving spacious, song‑like structures where fragile melodies, sudden storms and long silences feel like different faces of the same stubborn hope.
Olympiad - Vol. 4 - Curling
On John Zorn’s Olympiad Vol. 4 – Curling, John Zorn exhumes one of his rarest 1970s game pieces, a slow‑burn study in sustained tones, handing it to ROVA Saxophone Quartet and the William Winant Percussion Group, who turn its minimalist rules into 45 minutes of hovering, hypnotic sound.
John Zorn's Bagatelles Vol. 6
On John Zorn’s Bagatelles Vol. 6, John Zorn hands a fresh batch of his angular miniatures to the Brian Marsella Trio, who render them as a volatile, deeply melodic piano‑trio songbook where Monkish heads, free detonations and elusive “exotic” moods feel entirely at home.
John Zorn's Bagatelles Vol. 5
On John Zorn’s Bagatelles Vol. 5, John Zorn hands eight spiky miniatures to the Kris Davis Quartet, who turn his angular “weirdo tunes” into a fierce, lyrical piano‑guitar quartet set where structure, swing and free combustion constantly collide.
Sing Me Now Asleep
Bill Frisell, Kenny Wollesen, and Carol Emanuel are The Gnostic Trio and their unique blend of minimalism, early music, and jazz has resulted in some of the loveliest music Zorn has ever created. “Sing Me Now Asleep” is their first CD in over five years and not surprisingly it explores some unexpected new directions—notably two ambient-influenced pieces in the spirit of Zorn’s Absinthe and Redbird, and a dramatic long form composition in the style of his cinematic file card works. Enhanced by th…
Song Of Songs
This very special CD Book presents John Zorn’s evocative musical setting of the Biblical love poem The Song of Songs, with singer/conductor Barbara Hannigan and film director/actor Mathieu Amalric narrating. Featuring extensive notes, the full text of Jeremy Fogel’s passionate new translation (commissioned expressly for this project), and 35 illustrations by Zorn himself, this limited edition one-of-a-kind CD Book is an absolute treasure.
Alchemical Theatre
Friends and musical cohorts since the early 1980s, these three master improvisers come together to perform a freewheeling set of outrageous and mind-blowing improvisations. Recorded at Roulette, founded in 1978 and one of New York’s most adventurous venues, the music is full of surprising twists and jumps from one mood to another with mercurial synchronicity. Dedicated to the memory of Downtown theatrical genius Richard Foreman, “Alchemical Theatre” presents nine pieces of tele-pathic, counter-i…
IPY25
IPY25 unites three trailblazers of experimental music — Ikue Mori (DNA, Downtown NYC scene), Phew (Aunt Sally), and YoshimiO (Boredoms, OOIOO, Saicobab) — for their first trio project. The album captures their telepathic interplay across electronics, drums, voice, and bamboo flute, fusing avant-garde soundscapes with an urgent sense of improvisational freedom. Recorded live at Club U.F.O. in Tokyo and crafted during the 2020 shelter-in-place period, this collaboration radiates both raw energy an…
Kabell Years: 1971-1979
From 1971-1979 Wadada Leo Smith released four albums on his own, privately pressed label Kabell. Under the supervision of the composer, this material has now been collected, remastered and coupled with over two hours of unreleased bonus tracks, including the second set of the influential Reflectativity concert and the legendary Mapenzi solo concert from 1976. Complete with a twenty-eight page booklet featuring session photos and tributes from musical associates such as George Lewis, Alvin Single…
Red Sulphur Sky
The first solo recording in over thirty years by the brilliant composer/performer Wadada Leo Smith. Born in Leland, Mississippi, Leo was a founding member of the AACM in Chicago, and has been performing his music all over the world since the mid-1960s. His compositions for solo trumpet, highly acclaimed yet rarely documented, are some of his most personal and delicate creations. Red Sulphur Sky is the music of one of the true masters of creative music at the height of his powers.
Golden Quartet
A longtime dream project of Wadada Leo Smith, one of creative music’s most original voices, Tzadik is proud to present the first recording by a modern jazz supergroup. The four instrumental giants that comprise the Golden Quartet are veterans of some of the most influential bands in jazz history and here they are at the height of their powers. Five new compositions bring together lyricism, groove and fireworks in this exciting recording destined to become a classic of new jazz.
America
Two creative music legends who share a remarkable spiritual connection in their first duo outing. Originally proposed to ECM in 1979 and rejected, this rare musical treasure is a project that has been brewing for thirty years. Featuring six new compositions by one of the most consistently brilliant composer/performers out of the legendary AACM, and telepathic interplay by two virtuoso instrumentalists who have been pushing the musical envelope since the 1960s, Red Trumpet is one of the highlight…