Jazz /
Distil
*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* 'The bands Atomic and School Days share the same rhythm section : Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. Atomic further consists of Magnus Broo on trumpet, Fredrik Ljungkvist on tenor sax and Bb clarinet, and Havard Wiik on piano. School Days has Chicagoans Jeb Bishop on trombone and Ken Vandermark on baritone sax, Bb and bass clarinet and Norwegian Kjell Nordeson on vibraphone. After "Nuclear Assembly Hall" this is the second release…
Nuclear Assembly Hall
*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* "The 3rd release by Ken Vandermark's School Days is a double CD of studio material recorded with the Oslo quintet Atomic. Both bands have the same rhythm section of Paal Nilssen-Love on drums and Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass. The group includes Magnus Broo: trumpet, Jeb Bishop: trombone, Fredrik Liungkvist: reeds, Ken Vandermark: reeds, Hevard Wiik: piano & Kjell Nordeson: vibraphone. 9 new compositions 1 each by all the members (2 by Mr. Liungkvist)." - S…
Birdhouse
*2022 stock. In process of stocking* 'Fred Anderson is from Chicago, a city like Detroit known for the strength of its music scene. High time that he was shown in the light of this great quartet session, Birdhouse. Anderson’s association with Hamid Drake has germinated here with Anderson’s quartet giving a searching performance of his [Anderson’s] compositions. Birdhouse reflects that kind of powerful play where the roots are so strong, the music can evolve farther without losing the thread of i…
Destiny
*2022 stock. In process of stocking* 'Recorded live during the “Women of New Music” festival in Chicago, [this] OkkaDisk set is marred — Crispell-wise — only by having the piano mixed down too low and occasionally swamped by saxophone and percussion. Otherwise it finds her in thoroughly sympathetic company. Anderson’s diction is Coltrane-influenced but generously... This seems like a relationship written in the stars, and it allows them to build up whole areas of interaction in which the exchang…
Fred Anderson / DKV Trio
*2022 stock. In process of stocking* Fred Anderson & DKV Trio is an excellent jazz album that captures the high level of musicianship possessed by these top Chicago players. Heard here are saxophonist Fred Anderson (founding member of the AACM), percussionist Hamid Drake, bassist Kent Kessler, and reeds man Ken Vandermark. With this group, there is no "warming up"; they're hot from the opening notes. "Planet E" is the first cut, and within no time the fire is stoked and the musicians move, wail,…
Double Or Nothing
*2022 stock. In process of stocking* AALY Trio (Gustafsson, Nordeson, Flaten) on left channel; DKV Trio (Vandermark, Kessler, Drake) on right channel.Recorded September 23, 1999 at Airwave Studios, Chicago.Track 2 is a long performance with an index point at the start of the Awake Nu theme.
Envoi
*2022 stock* 'American trumpeter Bill Dixon began composing his moody, darkly abstract music in the mid-60s, fusing free jazz with modernist chamber music elements touching on Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Envoi is the last of these works, recorded at the FIMAV festival in Victoriaville just three weeks prior to Dixon’s death in June 2010. Dixon’s failing health required that his unaccompanied trumpet solo with echoing multiplex be played on tape during the concert, but nothing feels unfulfilled or…
Birds Abide
*2022 stock* Recorded at the 26th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, May 22, 2010. “This set was my favorite one of the entire Festival. It was most magical and flowed organically. For me, this was the perfect trio, with Malcolm on the high end, Barre on the low end and Catherine somewhere in the middle with her immensely charming voice & presence. I kept thinking that this trio is perfect, communicating on a high level and taking us with them on an inner journey that o…
Eviyan Live
*2022 stock* 3 unique composer/performers merging into a singular sound, an intimate, acoustic blend of world roots, post-minimalism, jazz, rock, and cabaret.
Echo Echo Mirror House
*2022 stock* Live recording of Anthony Braxton's Echo Echo Mirror House Music, where all the musicians use iPods in addition to their instruments, which took place during 2011 Tri-Centric Festival at Roulette.
In Echo Echo Mirror House musical system, all the musicians wield iPods in addition to their instruments, while navigating scores that combine cartography and evocative graphic notation, creating a musical tapestry combining live performance and sampled sounds from Braxton’s extensive reco…
Solo + Trio Roma
*2022 stock* "The rhythm section is thunderous in general with Nilssen-Love providing polyrhythmic barrage fire to Brötzmann’s assaults. It is a vortex of sounds – some shrieking, others almost torn, spat, even puked – owing credits both to hardcore and to Dadaistic sound poems, sharing their free rhythms, their devoted declamation and their rejection of conventional form and content. Trio Roma is a supremely passionate and committed group." -Martin Schray, Free Jazz Blog
Conversations
*300 copies limited release* In 1963 Eric Dolphy recorded some sessions in New York with producer Alan Douglas, the fruits of which were issued on small labels as the LPs Conversations and Iron Man. They've been reissued a number of times on various labels, occasionally compiled together, but never with quite the treatment they deserve (which is perhaps why they're not as celebrated as they should be). In whatever form, though, it's classic, essential Dolphy that stands as some of his finest wor…
The Victoriaville Tape
'Both bassists had made regular appearances in Victo over the past two decades, but no one in the audience could have guessed that it would be Kowald's last. The German improviser died in New York City four months later. The French-Canadian radio was not recording this concert, but the mixing desk engineer kept a tape rolling, just in case, and negotiations toward the release of this performance were already in progress when fate struck. There is magic on this record, especially in the last minu…
Cecil Taylor / Bill Dixon / Tony Oxley
'As evidenced by this release of the set, the music played that night was intimate, even delicate. It still seems that Dixon didn't quite sit down at the table with his mates, and his electronic effects don't do him any favors, but credit seems due to him for keeping the set at an unusual slow burn. There aren't the displays of pyrotechnics evidenced in Taylor and Oxley's duo performances. Instead, piano and drums dance lightly around the trumpet's background wash, creating a music both sparse a…
Sextet (Victoriaville) 2005
'Simply put, this is a stunning piece of work, performed in front of a stunned audience that was won over from the first few notes. After a spell of a few years, Anthony Braxton was back in Victoriaville in 2005 to present a new line-up. This sextet of young musicians (except for tuba player Jay Rozen, who is more experienced) is impressive to say the least. Taylor Ho Bynum makes a flashy trumpeter, quickly rising to the status of Toshinori Kondo. Violinist Jessica Pavone waltzes her way through…
The Bishop's Move
'A happening. Not that these two heavyweight reedsmen had never shared a stage, but this was going to be a face-off, a clash between two of the hardest-working free improv trios on the circuit. On the left side of the stage: Evan Parker, with drummer Paul Lytton and pianist Alex von Schlippenbach, the latter filling in for bassist Barry Guy. On the right side: Peter Brötzmann and his trusty rhythm section, bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake. These are two highly experienced and gifte…
After You Gone
Reverberations from bassist Peter Kowald's passing continue to be felt two years later. Last year, a long-time bass quartet with one sub gathered to bathe Kowald's spirit in a bass balm. Comprised of close associates or admirers of Kowald, this quartet represents a summit from across borders and generations, sharing only remarkable technique and a love of the unknown.Barre Phillips helped legitimize improvised solo bass, as well as expanding its vocabulary with extended techniques. Joëlle Léandr…
Ndikho Xaba And The Natives
*50th Anniversary Remaster* Outstanding!! Matsuli Music presents soul, spirituality and avant-garde jazz from South African political exile Ndikho Xaba. Its rarity has until now served to obscure both its beauty and its historical significance. Making profound links between the struggle against apartheid and the Black Power movement in the USA Ndikho Xaba and the Natives is arguably the most complete and complex South African jazz LP recorded in the USA. It stands out as a critical document in t…
Garden Island
*In process of stocking* Spectacular mystical jazz infused psychedelics from Canary islands cult band GAF. Adopting a series of different addendums to their names (Love Supreme Arkestra, La Estrela de la Muerte, etc) to illustrate what mutation or influence they are feeding through at the time of recording, the Love Supreme Arkestra here being the more Coltrane-ish (Alice more than John) and Sun Ra-esque influenced the matic of the project. Over a series of 7 huge sounding themes, we can hear sa…
Pink Dolphins
“We’re improvisers first and we’re bringing “moment music” into these other zones of hip hop and electronic music, drum-machine music, sound-system culture… Acoustic musicians sun-kissed by electro-magnetism, flowing out into everything. This is the shit that we want to be playing on big ass systems. Omnivorous, energy space time, mosh pit dance-music. Get it in the subwoofers so you can feel it hit, cuz the music has to begin in the body!” – jaimie branch jaimie branch and Jason Nazary are Ante…