Jazz & Improvisation / Avant-Garde Jazz

Yosuke Yamashita, Itaru Oki, Yuji Ohno, and Kimiko Kasai. An astonishing jazz workshop with a never-before-seen encounter. Japanese jazz was so sharp and original.

The compositional minimalism of Jewels of Thought is a major thread through Sanders albums of this period, setting up a sparse canvas for colorful tenor saxophone meditations. In one instance Sanders' playing may be soft, beckoning and glad, while elsewhere his saxophone becomes a crazed, outraged beast unleashing its fury on the world. Regardless of which way these compositions lead, listeners are made to feel more like sonic travelers than mere consumers.

The Western Pacific archipelagic nation of Tuvalu has high levels of exposure to both local and abstract climate change stressors. The sea level rise poses a fundamental risk to its very existence. Tuvalu’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change characterises it as a ‘sinking’ nation. This reality inspired Pascal to form the musical ensemble Tuvalu with the intention to reflect on the human relation to nature using texts and poems slammed in the native tongues of each ensemble player : F…

*2023 repress* Sun Ra inspired Space Jazz. Nat Birchall plays all the instruments - Tenor & soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, Korg Minilogue synth, bass, drums, hand drums, bells, shaker.

Bastille Musique presents its thirty-eighth release »DLW: Live at Salle Cortot« featuring world premiere recordings by Dell-Lillinger-Westergaard. The live recordings were made between 2023 and 2025 at venues such as Salle Cortot (Paris), Resonanzraum (Hamburg), Orangerie Theater (Cologne), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) and Paul-Robeson-Studio (Berlin) and document the development of Dell-Lillinger-Westergaard’s repertoire during this period. In addition to the recordings produced by bastille musiqu…

Head’s Blackpool Cool was self-released in 1977 on the band’s own Head Records, marking the Scottish group’s third and final album. Long prized by collectors, it stands as a distinctive entry in UK jazz-rock and fusion, driven by an inventive interplay of trumpet and keyboards and a sharp, forward-moving sense of rhythm. Influenced by the exploratory edge of groups such as Nucleus, the album showcases the band’s creative confidence and the multi-instrumental talents of John Davies. The sound is …

Jazz enthusiasts rejoice: the legendary Never Let It End by Albert Mangelsdorff Quartet, a seminal 1970 album hailed as one of the most important in the European jazz canon, receives a fresh vinyl pressing from MPS Records. Originally recorded on March 23, 1970, at Walldorf Studio in Frankfurt under producer Joachim Ernst Berendt, this free jazz masterpiece captures Mangelsdorff's innovative trombone mastery alongside Heinz Sauer on saxophones, Günter Lenz on bass, and Ralf Hübner on drums.  The…

Temporary offer! For 1971’s Black Unity, Pharaoh Sanders added groove to foundation of spiritual and free jazz he had explored on his previous Impulse! albums. The result is a piercing and emotive 37-minute rhythm-driven title track exploration of African, Latin, aborigine and Native American sounds. "By 1971, Pharoah Sanders had taken the free thing as far as he could and still live with himself. He was investigating new ways to use rhythm -- always his primary concern -- inside his music and m…

August 10, 1964. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. A young saxophonist from Philadelphia enters the studio to record his first album as a leader for Impulse! Records. At his side, as co-producer, stands the man to whom he owes everything: John Coltrane. Archie Shepp was twenty-seven years old when Four For Trane was recorded - an age that in 1964 jazz still meant being an emerging voice. Born in Fort Lauderdale but raised in Philadelphia - the same Philadelphia as Coltrane, eleven…

August 1961. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Max Roach - the man who reinvented jazz drumming alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s, the co-leader with Clifford Brown of the definitive hard bop quintet until tragedy struck in 1956 - enters the studio with something to say. Something that cannot wait. Something that demands a new language. The year before, Roach had recorded We Insist! Freedom Now Suite for Candid Records, a searing response to the Civil Right…

Tip! In 40 minutes of improvised music, the Pipeline ensemble creates a piece that can unhesitatingly be described as orchestral, collective, and even choral. Without patterns, scores, and reference points, the group shapes an organic and cohesive course.

*3rd repress* Jazz is not dead. Traditional and classic jazz disciplines have been alive and progressing perpetually throughout the ethers of the musical universe, for upwards of the past 70 years within the dispensation of recorded music history. Moreover, Jazz contains a multitude of sub-styles that outreach and influence enthusiasts of the genre via various sonic characteristics, shapes and forms. It is a genre which never negates the multitude of intricate musical preferences and gravitation…

November 1978. Henry Cow disbands after a decade of music that redefined the boundaries of experimental rock. November 2022. Four founding members return to the stage. Not to look back - but to improvise the present. Fred Frith (guitar, violin, electronics), Tim Hodgkinson (keyboards, saxophone, lap steel, electronics), Chris Cutler (drums, percussion), John Greaves (bass, vocals): the original core reunited under the name Henry Now. The key is in the name - as Clive Bell noted in The Wire, this…

*200 copies limited edition* "Emmanuelle Bonnet’s second album is an ode to free horizons, insects, and the passing of time. Prérie(s) is an ethereal moment filled with breath. It is a breeze of warm air which blows a shared space much like into a balloon and traces a way made of the constant search for sonic togetherness. Together, the four musicians expand the bounds of spontaneous composition, toying not only with sound, (non)harmony and textures but also, with each other. Working with words,…

In November 1926, Tina Modotti wrote: “I accept the tragic conflict between life continuously changing its form, and also immutably fixing it in time.” “No longer, not yet”, the second album from the Italian band “She’s Analog”, is an “instant film” that pretentiously tries to stop movement. The title refers to a zone of transit, in which everything unfolds and blooms. This space isn’t interpreted as exclusively musical; instead it represents that liminal space in which we move and create, both …

Second edition. 300 copies, all parts identical to the first edition For the past decade, Mats Gustafsson has fastidiously produced and compiled the most thorough and comprehensive collection of archival solo recordings of the late legendary Swedish saxophonist and eccentric archivist of free music activity in Sweden, Bengt “Frippe” Nordström (1936–2000). Bringing together rare and unreleased recordings taken from an extensive collection of home-recorded solo sax improvisations, it documents his…

Stephen McCraven's Wooley The Newt was his first album under his own name, released on Marion Browns own Sweet Earth record label in 1979 (orignal copies are rare and go for $500). Working with Stephen and the carvery we have remastering the audio and restored the original artwork. Stephen is a master drumer and composer and has worked with Archie Shepp for many years,he has also played & recorded with many; Marion Brown, Mal Waldron, Reggie Wokman and Stanley Cowell to mention just a few. Steph…

180 gram reissue / Limited Edition 400 copies Includes OBI and 4 pages insert. Text in Japanese / English . Cinedelic presents Jazz in Fabbrica by Enrico Intra. Recorded in Ratti’s Factory in Guanzate (Como) on October 31, 1972. Pianist, composer, arranger and conductor, among the most important ones in the history of European jazz, Enrico Intra has developed a poetics aiming at the encounter betwee the most exquilisitely jazz language and contemporary music of a cultural matrix, and for this re…

One of those records that keeps cropping up on Greatest Albums of All Time lists, and one whose historical significance can’t be denied — the crazy rhythms, the spirit of unconstrained innovation - and it's pure listening pleasure. "Thought by many to be among the most revolutionary albums in jazz history, Miles Davis' Bitches Brew solidified the genre known as jazz-rock fusion. The original double LP included only six cuts and featured up to 12 musicians at any given time, some of whom were alr…

Taupe’s latest album release, "waxing | waning" delivers jazz experimentalism, ‘skronk’, avant-rock, and electronics, by the Glasgow-based trio, due out via Minority Records. Across its seven tracks, "waxing | waning" captures Taupe’s approach – bold and boundarypushing – shaped by a fresh shift in the band’s dynamic and compositional approach. Taupe’s "waxing | waning", co-composed and realised by its players in a studio that was once an undertaker’s premises in Glasgow, is an absolutely affirm…

Ars Ludicra is the third studio album from Peter Evans’ group Being & Becoming, recorded in 2024 at the legendary Van Gelder Studios in New Jersey. Featuring Evans on a range of trumpets, piano, and electronics, Joel Ross on vibraphone and synth, Nick Jozwiak on bass and synth, and Michael Shekwoaga Ode on drums, the album captures the band in peak form during a period of extensive touring and intense musical development. The sound of the group has changed radically from what was heard on their …

*2026 stock. Includes score samples, photos, and more Kandinsky artwork* The highly anticipated second album from Being & Becoming. The LP features a continuous journey through 4 distinct musical compositions, symphonic in scope and delivery. The download (included with the purchase of the CD & LP) also includes the title track, recorded live in concert at the Jazz Gallery in the Spring of 2023. The music on this record has been workshopped, performed, and refined over two years, and introduces …

Bomb! The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker and William Parker formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves' “A Mind-Body Deal” exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and now a working group. Across 2LPs of side-length long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 Arts & Archives in LA and The Chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by t…

Land Back! An unadulterated opening statement intoned by Saul Williams three times, as he joins Carlos Niño & Friends in sound ceremony underneath oak and black walnut trees in Coldwater Canyon Park, Los Angeles, on December 18, 2024. The performance, which was organized by Noah Klein of Living Earth on the grounds of longstanding conservationist organization TreePeople, was the first of its kind for longtime friends and collaborators Williams and Niño. The two have been in contact since 1997 an…

Cosmic Ear is a new group bringing together Christer Bothén, Mats Gustafsson, Goran Kajfeš, Kansan Zetterberg and Juan Romero. Their debut album Traces is released by We Jazz Records on 23rd of May, 2025. Including 6 deep cuts, Traces is an album that sees Cosmic Ear tracking down the "traces" of the legendary Don Cherry's legacy while paving their own way in contemporary creative music expression. Christer Bothén, a collaborator with Don Cherry during his Swedish period in the 1970s, brings dep…

2026 Stock, last copies. 5LP deluxe box and a 156-page clothbound book packaged in a custom white-birch wood box, limited to 665 hand-numbered copies The book features music manuscripts and notebook pages from the musicians' archives, an extensive itinerary, the complete history of the NYAQ, artists' bios, and musical analysis.  2013 release. Five LPs of entirely uncirculated music by the New York Art Quartet, featuring Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, and Milford Graves; the bass chair is alternativ…

Collective interplay is essentially about listening and giving space. If ever there was a credo for this ensemble recording, this would be it. Sometimes the soloist or a small group steps forward, other times they play as a large unit. This collective of musicians are connected through old and new friendships, a set of relations that has been formed through two decades of co-creation on stage and in the studio, and their new recording is a reaffirmation of that with an A-side of free improvisati…

Longtime collaborators Mark Turner and Jakob Bro play central roles in the feature-length documentary film “Music for Black Pigeons”, which premiered at the 79th Venice Biennale, played across film festivals worldwide and portrays the unique artistic processes of Paul Motian, Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Craig Taborn, Andrew Cyrille, Manfred Eicher and many others. Mark Turner is heard on three albums with Jakob Bro, all from Avatar Studios in New York, and enters the film in a session from Copenha…

2022 REPRINT. This is the first issue of the new We Jazz Magazine, 128 pages, 174 x 250 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. Inside, you'll find great new stories about music including the cover piece on Alice Coltrane by Ashley Kahn, Sun Ra by Daniel Spicer, Berlin report by Debra Richards, Corbett by Stewart Smith, Andreas Müller on Lockdown Listening, Alan Braufman talking to Nabil Ayers, plus more. This is a magazine but together by a quality cas…

On Jupiter by Sun Ra blends deep funk, avant-garde jazz, and cosmic soundscapes, capturing the Arkestra’s 1979 creative peak. Remastered by Technology Works, this reissue features original sleeve art and new liner notes.

*2024 stock* Moondog is one of those artists who it is almost impossible to define. His look was unique and his music even more so, and whilst many of the people who encountered him on the streets of New York thought of him as one of the sights of the city, to the police he was little more than a beggar. Yet Moondog was ultimately to become a worldwide celebrity, feted by the great and the good of New York City, including the likes of Benny Goodman and Charlie Parker. This album gathers together…

Hugest tip! "Originally released across two edited volumes by Shandar in 1971, the concerts are now being reissued by Strut in a stunning expanded 6 LP vinyl box set for Record Store Day 2025. The set is housed in a hardboard box and features a reprint of the original festival programme, a 12-page over-sized booklet featuring liner notes by Daniel Caux, Jacqueline Caux and Paul Griffiths and stunning restored photos of the festival by Philippe Gras. Sun Ra’s Nuits de la Fondation Maeght recordin…

*Limited edition of 600 copies* Nomadic spiritual jazz duo The Sea Ensemble embodied the ethos of their era and art to a uniquely poetic degree. Founded in the early 1970’s by ethnomusicologist Zusaan Kali Fasteau and versatile instrumentalist Donald Rafael Garrett (sideman to John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and Roland Kirk, among others), the couple’s lifestyle mirrored their music: restless, questing, collaborative, and improvised. Their itinerant journeying spanned Senegal, Congo, Morocco, Haiti…

Thereupon is the long-anticipated return of the all-star collaborative trio Fieldwork, which has been described by NPR as a “power trio for the new century.” This long-standing collective comprises three internationally revered innovators of contemporary music: alto saxophonist-composer Steve Lehman, pianist-composer Vijay Iyer, and drummer-composer Tyshawn Sorey. In the seventeen years since their last recording, Door (Pi), all three musicians have climbed to the pinnacle of the creative music …

Pianist Pat Thomas, saxophonist Seymour Wright (both of [ahmed]) and drummer Paul Abbott - the latter two working as XT - deliver a remarkable set of new music, each, re-imagining improvisation and synthetic ideas with acoustic and electronic tools. This monumental new suite Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary)* released by We Jazz Records on 30th January 2026 is spread across three release formats, the complete album includes more than 2 hours and 15 minutes of music recorded live in London and Zuric…

Listen Ship is the latest masterpiece in the ever-expanding sound world of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Threadgill, whom The New York Review of Books recently described as “one of American music’s great Romantics and a lifelong seeker of the sublime.” The new work is a suite for six acoustic guitars – including individual stylists such as Bill Frisell, Miles Okazaki and Brandon Ross – and two pianos that utilize Threadgill’s unique intervallic syntax to illuminate his idiosyncratic visi…

The boundary-pushing trio known as Last Dream Of The Morning – featuring soprano saxophone titan John Butcher, double bass maestro John Edwards, and percussion innovator Mark Sanders – proudly announces the release of their electrifying new album, Sharp Illusion. This recording captures the group's unparalleled chemistry in a whirlwind of spontaneous sonic invention. Emerging from a legacy of fearless improvisation, Sharp Illusion distills the trio's decades of collaborative fire into six tracks…

Trombone titan Ray Anderson and tenor sax visionary Ivo Perelman invite listeners into the mystical forge of creation with their electrifying new album, 12 Stages of Spiritual Alchemy. Released today via Fundacja Słuchaj, this duo recording captures two masters of free improvisation transmuting raw sound into pure gold across twelve transformative tracks. Anderson's growling, buoyant trombone weaves serpentine lines and thunderous bursts, while Perelman's tenor sax erupts in fiery spirals and ha…

Fundacja Słuchaj announces the release of Comprehensive, a riveting new album from the powerhouse trio of Joe Morris (guitar), Tyshawn Sorey (drums), and Peter Evans (trumpet). This recording captures the essence of fearless improvisation, where structural precision meets boundless creativity. In Comprehensive, three of contemporary music's most visionary artists converge for a telepathic exploration of rhythm, timbre, and form. Joe Morris wields his guitar as a sonic architect, crafting intrica…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly announces the release of Choreography of Fractures, a searing new album from the powerhouse trio of bassist John Edwards, trumpeter Luis Vicente, and drummer Vasco Trilla. This recording captures the unbridled intensity of live improvisation, where fractures in sound become portals to profound musical discovery. In Choreography of Fractures, Edwards, Vicente, and Trilla forge a sonic landscape that dances on the edge of chaos and control. Edwards' thunderous double bass …