Jazz /
Fly By Night
Wendell Harrison was born in Detroit in 1942 where he began formal jazz studies for piano, clarinet and tenor saxophone. At 14, while still in high school, Harrison started performing & recording professionally with artists such as Marvin Gaye, Grant Green, Sun Ra, Hank Crawford … and many others.
In 1971, Harrison began teaching music at Metro Arts (a multi-arts complex for youth) where he also connected with Marcus Belgrave, Harold McKinney and Phil Ranelin…soon after they formed the (now lege…
An Evening With The Devil
2023 repress. "The Tribe co-founder's debut, remixed from the original mutli-track master tapes under the direction of its creator and lacquered by Bernie Grundman. Now-Again presents the defi¬nitive Tribe Records reissues. Deep, spiritual jazz of the highest order. The Tribe label, one of the brightest lights of America's 1970s jazz underground, receives the Now-Again reissue treatment. This is your chance to indulge in the music and story of one of the most meaningful, local movements of the 2…
A Railroad Spike Forms The Voice
*2023 stock* "Don’t follow.” That’s the admonition saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell (b. 1940) was known to give his students at Oakland’s Mills College in one-on-one sessions. In musical communication and creation, not following or directly responding to others is central to Mitchell’s philosophy and approach. As he said to me in a recent conversation, “I just let things develop with my intent, with my work, and I’ve never been a person that went around looking for people to play with. I…
A Spirit Speaks
** Limited edition LP with an iconic Japanese obi strip attached ** One of the most unique albums on the Strata East label – and that's saying a heck of a lot, given the creative energies flowing through that legendary jazz outlet! Descendents Of Mike & Phoebe is a righteous little project put together by Spike Lee's father, Bill Lee, and his brothers and sisters (Cliff Lee, Grace Lee Mims, and Consuela Lee Moorhead) – working here in a group named after their slave ancestors, who are paid tribu…
Earth Passage - Density
Super Tip! An outstanding yet obscure 1981 release by two Art Ensemble of Chicago members, multi reeds player Joseph Jarman and drummer Don Moye along with legendary bassist Rafael Garret (mostly remembered for his presence on John Coltrane's masterpiece "Kulu se Mama") and young lion Craig Harris on trombone. Four great individuals digging deep between ancient African rituals and modern urban multidimensional grooves. A tribal ecstatic sound based on a multitude of instruments: reeds, bamboo fl…
Full Force
The previous Art Ensemble of Chicago ECM album Nice Guys vaulted them to the top of improvised music groups in the U.S. and worldwide, paving the way for similar bands to be more accepted into the mainstream of modern music. Where "Full Force" generally lives up to the title, there's also a palpable diverse approach, producing more than enough potent music brimming from the sinews of these brilliant musicians to uphold their burgeoning cache. The crown jewel of this effort is "Charlie M," a blue…
Applecores
*2022 stock* Exact repro, originally released in 1978. One of the hippest, tightest sessions ever recorded by drummer Sunny Murray – a large group set recorded with his Untouchable Factor group – a great ensemble that includes Frank Foster on soprano sax, Oliver Lake and Arthur Blythe on alto saxes, Hamiet Bluiett on baritone, Don Pullen on piano, and Cecil McBee and Fred Hopkins on bass! The sound is somewhat straighter than Murray's free jazz of a few years before – almost in the mode that Fos…
Old And New Dreams
*2021 stock* This album, originally released in 1977, was re-mastered and repackaged in Digifile cardboard format. It includes the original full-color booklet. Old and New Dreams was a jazz group that existed from 1976 to 1987, and was composed of tenor saxophone player Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, trumpet player Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell. A virtual reincarnation of Ornette Coleman's first ensembles, the cooperative Old and New Dreams brought together trumpeter Don Cherry, te…
The Complete Remastered Recordings On Black Saint & Soul Note
Amazing music from trombonist George Lewis – five different albums that each show a different side of his talents! First up is Shadowgraph 5 – a great early Black Saint, and a key example of the way the AACM spirit thrived overseas, thanks to the efforts of labels like this! The work is quite serious and experimental – almost compositional in nature, and definitely heading towards the AACM promise of "Great Black Music" – and other players include Roscoe Mitchell on saxes, Leroy Jenkins on violi…
Shadowgraph, 5 (Sextet)
This album, originally released in 1978, was re-mastered and repackaged in Digifile cardboard format. It includes the original full-color booklet. "Shadowgraph and the duos with Douglas Ewart are characteristic of the free abstract jazz that emerged out of AACM's explorations in the '60s and early '70s. Listening to them, one is aware how little this music has been assimilated into the mainstream of either jazz or improvisation."
Jila - Save ! Mon. - The Imaginary Suite
**CD Edition** A post-free masterwork, recorded in Milan in 1978. This is an extraordinary encounter between George Lewis's electronically modified trombone and the flute, alto sax and bass clarinet played by Douglas Ewart, a giant of impro jazz, often at Lewis's side. Both George Lewis and Douglas Ewart create arresting, complex music here, in ways that powerfully contrast and powerfully pull together. The two are prodigious musicians, their understanding is perfect and you can only admire the …
Nothing but the Music
The sounds of late '70s and '80s east coast avant-garde jazz, soul, and punk rock are well documented, but in Nothing but the Music Thulani Davis gives us something beyond, delivering a collection of synesthetic, transportive documentary poems that breathe anecdotal and impressionistic life into a sonic-social history about which most can only speculate. Davis' verse takes free flight with its muses, scatting and leaping off the page and the shoulders of the musicians, nightclubs, and choreograp…
The Complete Remastered Recordings On Black Saint & Soul Note
As Black Saint and Soul Note continue their boxed set "Complete Recordings Of" series in 2011, this volume by Lester Bowie is one of the most diverse. Containing three discs cut over a decade, it reflects the numerous dimensions in Bowie's musical persona, from fiery improviser to post-modern formalist and engaged ensemble member, and above all, his love for the entire jazz, blues, and gospel music traditions. The first disc in the collection is 1978's 5th Power. It's the only title here that sh…
Black Case Volume I and II: Return From Exile
Last copies...Joseph Jarman (1937 - 2019) was a saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist best known as a founding member of trailblazing avant-garde jazz group Art Ensemble of Chicago. Jarman was responsible for the Art Ensemble’s signature face paint and elaborate costumes as well as the pioneering theatrical and multimedia elements of their shamanistic performances, which could include dance, comedy, performance art, surreal pranks, and—notably—the recitation of Jarman’s poetry. In 1977, Art Ense…
Je Suis Un Sauvage / Le Moral Necessaire
A single produced by the highly-revered Saravah label at the time, featuring the Art Ensemble of Chicago backing the poetry of the little-remembered Alfred Panou, is not as well-known as the label's other releases. Seen in the 1967 film Weekend by Jean-Luc Godard, Alfred Panou who is of mixed Benin-Togolese origin, already had a career as an actor in political theater when, pushed by producer Pierre Barouh, he recorded two of his texts concerning Black Power. Panou's prose is one of the first, i…
Peace and Blessings
** Original 1979 vinyl edition of the album. Few copies available. Sealed copies ** A fantastic album recorded in Italy, but with all the soulful roots of Kalaparusha's earlier years with the AACM – an incredible balance of tone and timing, handled by a quartet - this obscure set features passionate blowing by Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre (heard on tenor, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet and percussion) along with the little-known Longineu Parson on trumpet, flugelhorn, flute, sopranino and record…
The Complete Remastered Recordings
The legendary jazz recordings made by Black Saint/Soul Note make a welcome return to the active catalog with this series of specially-priced boxed sets that highlight some of the label's finest artists. Roscoe Mitchell - The Complete Remastered Recordings features nine discs in slipcases with original album artwork housed in a clamshell box. Included are Mitchell's 3x4 Eye, Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound and Space Ensembles, The Flow of Things, Live at the Knitting Factory, Duets and Solos, This …
The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles
The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles is a 21-CD limited and numbered edition issued as the standard-bearers of Great Black Music prepare to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Both the Art Ensemble of Chicago and ECM Records were founded in 1969, and there have been many shared experiences. As Roscoe Mitchell says, “It has been amazing to have taken this journey together.”With their first ECM album, the widely-acclaimed Nice Guys, the Art Ensemble’s revolutionary and polystylistic …
The Sea Of Modicum
Killer! This is an excellent free jazz album featuring Andrew Lamb (a.k.a The Black Lamb) on tenor saxophone, Warren Smith and Arkadijus Gotesmanas on percussion, and the album was recorded live in of October 2016 at the Vilnius Jazz Festival. The rhythmic foundations that the percussionists develop make for a fascinating foundation for Lamb's strong and strident saxophone tone. Lamb studied with the AACM before moving to New York City, and embarking on a successful career in the music and arts …