Jazz & Improvisation / 80s

Communion, privately released in an impossibly small edition of twenty five cassettes in 1986, is a beguiling, politically underpinned meditation of cosmic improvisation and wayward folk music from Cleveland’s Universal Liberation Orchestra. The grou…

When any recording made by George Coleman is issued, it's an instant event. Though Coleman has always been busy performing, writing, and especially teaching, scant few LPs or CDs have come listeners' way. It is especially thrilling to hear him live i…

*In process of stcoking* Ethereal, sensual, subtle. Maria de Fátima is that new favourite singer you think you just discovered, but had actually always been there. This Brazilian muse from Tijuca (Rio de Janeiro) has worked and recorded with artists …

American jazz bassist, composer and producer Jaco Pastorius was a member of Weather Report during the Seventies and also recorded albums as a solo artist. As of 2017, he is the only electric bassist inducted into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame and ha…

Comet Records present the new reissue out of the Comet new reissue series, Dilijans by Ayizan. A mind-blowing session of spiritual jazz recorded in NYC in 1984 led by Haitian genius Alix Pascal blending traditional Ra Ra elements with modal/spiritual…

This double LP release features one of Miles Davis final great bands: John Scofield on guitar, Bill The Other Bill Evans Evans on saxophones, flute and electric piano, Darryl Jones on bass, Al Foster on drums, and percussionist Mino Cinelu. Miles was…

Recently rediscovered while digging through our vaults, this is the original 1984 vinyl edition of the album. It doesn't get any better than this! This is an album featuring octet led by the Milanese musician Giorgio Gaslini.

*2022 stock* The American vocalist and actress Abbey Lincoln made a name for herself in the 1950s under the name of Gaby Lee as a variety singer and film actress (The Blonde and I). At the end of the 1950s, married to drummer Max Roach, she participa…

* 2022 stock * Recorded at the Studio Jazz Unité in Paris, France, on June 19, 1981, Filet de Sole / Philly of Soul was the only recording made by brilliant drummer Philly Joe Jones with this exact octet formation.The group plays a variety of tunes, …

* 2022 stock * "The main point of interest of this album is its session date. Recorded in 1982, this is one of the very few documents of the late Sonny Sharrock's playing between his classic work with Pharoah Sanders and Don Cherry as well as on his …

* 2022 stock * Marge Records presents Live at Dreher by Roy Burrowes Sextet featuring Mal Waldron Roy Burrowes (trompette & bugle), Richard Raux (saxophones ténor et soprano), Mal Waldron (piano), Patrice Caratini (contrebasse) & George Brown (batter…

* 2022 stock * New York-born drummer Stu Martin made a name for himself at the age of sixteen by playing with many of the great bands - those of Billy May, Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Maynard Ferguson and Quincy Jones, among others. In…

Paul Bley was born in Montreal in 1932 and left for New York at the start of the 1950s. He had already taken over Oscar Peterson's chair at the Alberta Lounge as a teenager. In December 1987 he came home, sat down at Studio Tempo, and recorded ten im…

Charles Mingus died in January 1979. Nineteen months later, on 18 August 1980, his drummer of more than twenty years took what was left of the last Mingus band into Fonoprint Studio in Bologna and recorded six tunes for the Dutch label Timeless. Dann…

Jazzhus Montmartre, Copenhagen, 4 and 5 April 1985. The George Adams - Don Pullen Quartet with Cameron Brown and Dannie Richmond, and a guest who changes the sound: John Scofield on guitar. This was the rhythm section of Mingus's Changes One and Chan…

The first studio album by the George Adams - Don Pullen Quartet, recorded at Fendal Sound Studio in Loenen aan de Vecht, in the Dutch countryside, between 3 and 5 August 1980, and produced by the two leaders themselves for Timeless. Adams on tenor an…

One day at Vanguard Studios, New York, 7 January 1982. Woody Shaw on trumpet with the band he had by then been working with for a couple of years: Steve Turre on trombone, Mulgrew Miller on piano, Stafford James on bass, Tony Reedus on drums. Produce…

Yosuke Yamashita and Mal Waldron knew each other from Waldron's years of touring Japan; in 1985 they would record as a piano duo at the Pit Inn. A Tribute To Mal Waldron comes five years earlier, recorded at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg on 17 and 1…

Eric Dolphy live in 1962-63, in Gunther Schuller's Twentieth-Century Innovations series at Carnegie Hall and in Syracuse: his own quartet with Richard Davis and J.C. Moses, three Schuller third-stream pieces with strings and Jim Hall, and a Donna Lee…

ECM :rarum 16 (2004): nine Paul Motian compositions chosen by the drummer from six ECM albums recorded 1972-1987, with Keith Jarrett, Charles Brackeen, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Paul Bley and John Surman.

The Keith Jarrett trio with Gary Peacock (double bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums), live at the Kölner Philharmonie on 15 October 1989: standards dedicated to other musicians plus two Jarrett originals. First released by ECM in 1990.

The Keith Jarrett trio with Gary Peacock (double bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums) playing standards live at the Philharmonie, Munich, on 13 July 1986. Produced by Manfred Eicher, first released by ECM in 1988.

Keith Jarrett alone on flutes, recorders, tablas, percussion, soprano saxophone, guitar, piano and voice, overdubbed in 26 short pieces. Recorded May to July 1985 at his Cavelight Studio, New Jersey; first released by ECM in 1986.

Pat Metheny Group (Metheny, Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby, Dan Gottlieb, Nana Vasconcelos) live in Dallas, Philadelphia, Hartford, Sacramento and Nacogdoches, July-November 1982. 2CD.

Carla Bley on organ with Steve Swallow, Hiram Bullock, Larry Willis, Victor Lewis and Don Alias, playing six Bley compositions. Recorded December 1986 to January 1987 at Grog Kill Studio, Willow, New York. WATT/17, 1987.

Extensions is a 1990 ECM album by the Dave Holland Quartet: Holland (double bass), Steve Coleman (alto saxophone), Kevin Eubanks (guitar) and Marvin "Smitty" Smith (drums), recorded in September 1989 at the Power Station, New York, produced by Manfre…

Triplicate is the only album by the trio of Dave Holland (double bass), Steve Coleman (alto saxophone) and Jack DeJohnette (drums), recorded digitally in March 1988 at the Power Station, New York, produced by Lee Townsend and released by ECM in 1988.

Private City is a 1988 ECM solo album by John Surman, who plays bass clarinet, recorders, soprano and baritone saxophones and synthesizer in multi-tracked pieces, two of them written for a Sadler's Wells ballet. Recorded December 1987 at Rainbow Stud…

Oregon's 1987 ECM album, the first after Collin Walcott's death: Ralph Towner (guitars, piano, synthesizer), Paul McCandless (oboe, cor anglais, soprano sax), Glen Moore (double bass) and Trilok Gurtu (tabla, percussion). Recorded March 1987 at Tonst…

Gary Peacock (double bass) with Jan Garbarek (tenor and soprano saxophones), Palle Mikkelborg (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Peter Erskine (drums, drum computer), playing Peacock's compositions. Recorded March 1987 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo.

Second and last album by Marc Johnson's Bass Desires: Johnson (bass), Bill Frisell and John Scofield (guitars), Peter Erskine (drums). Recorded March 1987 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Edward Vesala's 1987 ECM album with his eleven-piece Sound and Fury, co-arranged by Iro Haarla (piano, harp), with Raoul Björkenheim (guitar) and Taito Vainio (accordion). Recorded June 1986 at Finnvox Studios, Helsinki.

First live album by the Keith Jarrett trio with Gary Peacock (double bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums): six standards recorded on 2 July 1985 at the Palais des Congrès, Paris, produced by Manfred Eicher. ECM 1317, 1986.

Marc Johnson's debut as a leader: a quartet with guitarists Bill Frisell (also guitar synthesizer) and John Scofield and drummer Peter Erskine, recorded in May 1985 at the Power Station, New York, produced by Manfred Eicher. ECM 1299, 1986.

Pat Metheny Group album recorded in February 1984 at Power Station, New York, with Pat Metheny (guitars, guitar synthesizer), Lyle Mays (piano, synthesizers), Steve Rodby (bass), Paul Wertico (drums) and Pedro Aznar (voice, guitar, percussion). Produ…

John Abercrombie (guitar) with Jan Hammer (keyboards), Jack DeJohnette (drums) and Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone), recorded in April 1984 at Power Station, New York, and mixed at Rainbow Studio, Oslo. Produced by Manfred Eicher.

Chick Corea's cycle of twenty short solo piano pieces, written between 1971 and 1983, plus an Addendum for piano trio with Ida Kavafian (violin) and Fred Sherry (cello). Recorded in July 1983 at Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg. Produced by Manfred Eiche…

Kenny Wheeler album of four original compositions, with Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone), John Taylor (piano), Dave Holland (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums), recorded in May 1983 at Power Station, New York. Produced by Manfred Eicher.

Second ECM album by the trio of John Abercrombie (electric and acoustic guitars, guitar synthesizer), Marc Johnson (bass) and Peter Erskine (drums), with Michael Brecker on tenor saxophone on three tracks. Recorded April 1987 at Power Station, New Yo…

Jan Garbarek Group with Bill Frisell (guitar), Eberhard Weber (bass) and Michael DiPasqua (drums, percussion): six Garbarek compositions recorded in March 1983 at Talent Studio, Oslo, engineered by Jan Erik Kongshaug and produced by Manfred Eicher (E…