Reissues
Panic
Established by members of the British brass-rock outfit IF with the former Osibisa percussionist Loughty Amao, Zzebra was a forward-thinking hybrid mixing jazz, rock, and world music. Chief songwriter/saxophonist Dave Quincy keeps the arrangements complex and Loughty injects the African element, former Elastic Band keyboardist Gus Yeadon and guitarist John Terry adding layers of melodic inventiveness. Yielding a progressive jazz style that roped in funk, blues, and west African rhythms, this ent…
Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981) - A Life Unfinished
Softcover ediion, 1070 pages (!) Cornelius Cardew was a musician of genius for whom Life and Art were as one. He was a radical, both artistically and politically, becoming a tireless activist and uncompromising Marxist-Leninist. Passion and imagination governed all he did: his boldness and humanity continue to intrigue and inspire.
John Tilbury, whose close friendship with Cardew dates from their first concert together, in January 1960, has worked for many years on this biography, and brings his…
The Time Is Now!
Phil Ranelin's first record as a leader is worlds away from his later 1976 offering, Vibes From the Tribe. The Time Is Now is a vanguard jazz record, full of the spirit, determination, and innovation inspired by John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Cecil Taylor, Pharoah Sanders, and Archie Shepp. Recorded in 1973 and 1974 and released at the end of 1974, the set shows Ranelin to be an imposing composer and frightfully good trombonist. The original album contained six compositions that are a deep musical …
After The Rain
The pianist and bandleader Frank Strazzeri enjoyed a distinguished jazz career. After backing Billie Holliday and Woody Herman, Strazzeri became a mainstay of the west coast jazz scene. His excellent album After The Rain, released by Catalyst in 1976, straddled different styles and moods, Strazzeri’s piano and synth melodies abetted by top accompaniment from Herman’s horn alumni Sam Most and Bobby Shew, playing alongside Cal Tjader’s bassist Harvey Newmark and percussionist Don Alias of Blood Sw…
My Own Time And Space
Of Filipino descent, the expressive keyboardist, vocalist, and composer Flip Nuñez enjoyed a varied career in jazz. After backing Bev Kelly, Jon Hendricks, and others in the 1960s, Nuñez impacted in the Latin jazz-rock act Azteca. The marvellous My Own Time And Space, his only solo album, showcases his versatility; the Latin cadences of Willie Colon and former Santana bassist Tom Rutley and the keen jazz phrasings of guitarist Michael Howell and drummer Vince Lateano make superb backing for Nuñe…
At The Golden Circle Stockholm (Revisited)
Temporary Super Offer! "For the followers of Ornette Coleman’s music, 1963 and 1964 were the lost years. His final session for Atlantic Records, Ornette on Tenor, was in March 1961, and though he played sporadic club dates in ’62, his self-produced Town Hall concert in December was to be his last significant appearance until he accepted a Village Vanguard gig in January 1965. The reasons for this hiatus, apparently, were personal, economic, philosophical, pragmatic, and artistic, all at the same…
One Step Beyond To New And Old Gospel (Revisited)
Temporary Super Offer! "One Step Beyond is rightly seen as a pivot point in Jackie McLean’s evolution, but its adventurousness was not without precedent. As A.B. Spellman noted in Four Lives in the Bebop Business, “Quadrangle” – the opening track for 1959’s Jackie’s Bag; it was first recorded as “Inding” for Lights Out!, a 1956 Prestige date – “involved an elaborate group construction that [McLean] was afraid was too far-out,” so he used “I Got Rhythm” changes to mainstream it, which he later re…
Dumpsters & Attitude
Recorded in Pontiac, Michigan, Wolf Eyes Dumpsters & Attitude was unleashed on October 7, 2022. This album showcases the continuing homemade idiosyncratic audio hell - visions of John Olson, who handles electronics, saxophone, and a range of unique mutant reed instruments along with Nate Young, contributing vocals and an array of utterly personalized electronic sordid instruments. While some might view this release as the sequel to "Dreams In Splattered Lines," Wolf Eyes took their usual rugged …
The Warriors
*2023 stock* Long awaited, never before published live chronicles of legendary Kondo / Chadbourne / Centazzo 1979 Italian tour. The document of the time, the music, and one of the direction of the improvised art form in late 70s. "We showed up at the train with all the equipment, 50 cases of percussion. The organizer is five hours late to meet. Then we all get searched on highway by the Italian police, looking for terrorists of the Red Brigade…" - Eugene Chadbourne
Cjant
*2023 stock* Released originally as double LP: Cjant - First Concert For Small Orchestra Based Upon Friulian Folk Songs, is Centazzo's first orchestral composition combining a string section along with the original Mitteleuropa (Free Jazz) Orchestra. The name for the ensemble came not only from the cultural background of its members but also from middle-European mold of the music written for it.
In the Mitteleuropa Orchestra, Centazzo brought together the finest artists in the field of creativ…
Drops
*2023 stock* In the history of free improvised music, there has been arguably no greater advocate for the idiom’s power and potential than the English guitarist Derek Bailey. Fiercely principled, between his emergence during the 1960s and his death is 2005, he cut a wide path, positioning this music at the height of creativity, transpiring in real time, and a means through which people from diverse background could come together, express, and commune. For Bailey, “playing is about playing with o…
Trio Live
*2023 stock* Originally issued in 1977 as the 5th entry in the Ictus catalog, Trio Live was recorded in 1976, only a handful of days after Steve Lacy and Andrea Centazzo’s Clangs was laid to tape, presumably capturing another moment on the same two-week tour that had rendered the recordings for its brilliant predecessor. This time, the pair - Lacy and Centazzo - is joined by the American bassist, Kent Carter, a sinfully under-appreciated artist who had worked extensively in Steve Lacy's group, p…
Curve
Keplar releases a vinyl reissue of 2001’s »Curve,« the second album released by Frank Bretschneider on Mille Plateaux under his real name. »Curve« saw him pick up on the underlying concept of 1999’s »Rand,« but gave his explorations of the sonic and stylistic range of electronic music notably more space and time to unfold.
Merging compositional minimalism with sonic complexity, the eight tracks display an affinity for the production techniques of dub music, which had already been a major referen…
In The Pale Moon Light
Originally released as a cassette on Palemoon Productions by a 12-year-old Henry Mallard in 2011. This cassette reissue includes an 8 page booklet of photos and liner notes from Henry Mallard, his mother Margaret Rial, and Ron Lessard.
Puke On My Corpse
CD reissue of the exceedingly rare and scarcely heard tape by this Italian legend who needs no introduction, originally released as part of the BloodLust! Cassette Series in 1996. Packaged in a tall format 6-panel digipack to honor the classic BloodLust! layout, this reissue features extensive liner notes by Sam McKinlay and Mark Solotroff.
"The resulting sound is like a chaptered journey through DBL’s influential brand of harsh noise, creating a mountain of HN information that maintains the blo…
Venal / Heteronormative Musik För Att Stärka Medelklassens Självbild
Tip! White Centipede Noise proudly presents: 2 all time classic tapes, now on 1 compact disc! Treriksröset is one of the all time masters of hands-on orthodox harsh noise, making even the most world-weary naysayers keep their candle lit for this type of ecstatic art. The two tapes being presented here are staples of modern harsh noise and belong in every collection. Even if you have the originals, you need this CD just for the brilliant bargain-bin layout by Tony Stovik.
Endless Tunnel
"These recordings are an attempt to process many long hours spent in isolation and many late nights spent both welcoming and dreading the following days." CD reissue of a one sided C90 released on Veil Tapes in 2022. Bleak, moist, subterranean noise that evokes a peaceful fearfulness. One of the best things I've heard from a relative newcomer in the past few years, it felt only right to do a CD version to spread it further.
Demon's Dance
Demon's Dance is an album by American saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded in 1967 for Blue Note, but not released until 1970. It features McLean in a quintet with trumpeter Woody Shaw, pianist LaMont Johnson, bassist Scotty Holt and drummer Jack DeJohnette.
"The record retreats a bit from McLean's nearly free playing on New and Old Gospel and 'Bout Soul, instead concentrating on angular, modal avant bop with more structured chord progressions... While Demon's Dance didn't quite push McLean's soun…
Ugetsu
Ugetsu: Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers at Birdland is a live jazz album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers released on Riverside Records in October 1963. The album was recorded at Birdland in New York City.
The original LP had six tracks and producer Orrin Keepnews stated in the liner notes that "there were other performances taped that night that couldn't be fitted into the resulting album". The Jazz Messengers' tour in Japan had ended a few months before this live performance; then the band d…
Alex Express
Hailing from Cape Town, tenor saxophonist Winston Mankunku Ngozi (1943-2009) is a venerated figure in the pantheon of South African jazz. Inspired by Coltrane while rooted in indigenous folklore, he released the classic album Yakhal’ Inkomo at the outset of his career with the Mankunku Quartet in 1969. Backed by the Cliffs, Alex Express documents Mankunku’s return to the studio in 1975 with a handful of new and original compositions and his inimitable tone on full display. Shaking off the burden…