Jazz /
Bò Kay La Vi-a
Ogun presents Bò Kay La Vi-a by Francine Luce. One of the lesser-known gems in the Ogun catalogue - check the the list of participating musicians to start with! Francine, originally from Martinique but a long-time resident of the UK, has contributed her unique vocals to Louis Moholo-Moholo's Unit and Septet, and to the Dedication Orchestra, but this her debut album from 1999 remains her only recorded output under her name on Ogun.
Bush Fire
Ogun presents Bush Fire by Louis Moholo, Evan Parker, Pule Pheto, Gibo Pheto, Barry Guy Quintet. Recorded at Gateway Studio, London in July, 1995 and released in 1997. "Musicians who refuse to follow passing fashions represent a vital rejuvenating force on any music scene, and perhaps especially today in a jazz world dominated by nostalgia and revisits to the past. The influence of South African musicians on the British jazz scene has been a crucial inspiration to that kind of independence. Loui…
Different Times Vol 2
A second volume of valuable documents from the Ogun archives by label co-founder Harry Miller. the tracks come from three sessions spanning 1977-1982. All feature Harry on bass with Louis Moholo-Moholo behind the drum kit and Trevor Watts on sax, other musicians included are Alan Wakeman (sax), Bernie Holland (guitar), Keith Tippett (piano), Alan Tomlinson (trombone), Dave Holdsworth (trumpet). This joyful music, at times rough around the edges but full of life and spirit, conviction and enthusi…
Different Times Vol 1
Precious artefacts from the Miller family's box of tapes. This album presents three tracks recorded in London (1973) with a line up of Harry Miller, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Chris McGregor, Mike Osborne, Nick Evans. Four more tracks come from a French festival (1976) with Miller, Moholo-Moholo and Osborne joined by Keith Tippett, Mark Charig and Malcolm Griffiths.
Procession Live At Toulouse
“Procession” captures Chris McGregor’s Anglo/South African big band in explosive form. Originally released on LP in 1978, this historic recording has been painstakingly restored from the original two-track analogue masters for this 2013 CD edition, which features an additional 23 minutes of music.
Pipedream
King Crimson/Soft Machine alumnus Mark Charig played in Keith Tippett's group and Centipede big band, and here on his sole Ogun album Keith and vocalist Ann Winter formed a trio to create a gem of free improvisation. Recorded over two cold days in January 1977, in a Bristol church, it was released on LP as OG 710, then reissued in 2010 on CD (OGCD033) with an extra previously unreleased track.
All Night Long
The phenomenal trio of Mike Osborne, Harry Miller and Louis Moholo-Moholo at their fiery best. Tracks 1-6 were recorded at the Willisau festival in Switzerland in April 1975. Track 7 is of vague origin but is of a similar vintage, recorded live in Europe (somewhere...)
Trio & Quintet
** Two LPs (Border Crossing + Marcel's Muse) on one CD, in a six-panel digisleeve ** Reissue (from 2004) of the two Mike Osborne albums released by Ogun on LP format now together on CD: 'Border Crossing', featuring the renowned Trio with Louis Moholo and Harry Miller, recorded live at the famous Peanuts Club in Bishopsgate, London, in 1974, and 'Marcel's Muse' recorded in 1977.
"Uneven and raw, but full of unflinching magic and flinty beauty." - John Fordham, The Guardian
Rogue Element
Recorded live in a French club in May 1978, this important document captures the Soft Head line up on cracking form and in quality audio crispness. The original LP was released in 1978 (OG527) and the CD reissue (OGCD013) in 1996, including two extra tracks. Please note the typo on the spine - Soft Heap - this album does not feature Pip Pyle!
Hugh Hopper - bass guitarElton Dean - alto sax, saxelloAlan Gowen - electric piano, synthesiserDave Sheen - drums
Coxhill on Ogun
Ogun presents Coxhill on Ogun by Lol Coxhill. Packaged in a double-gated cardboard sleeve including a short biography of Lol Coxhill, portrait photo and visuals on inner panels. Artwork [Inside Etching] – Claire Coxhill. Artwork [Inside Painting] – Stephen Cochrane. Executive Producer – Hazel Miller. Layout – David Ilic. Mastered By [CD Mastering] – Shawn. Photography [Portrait] – An Italian Friend. Soprano Saxophone, Producer – Lol Coxhill. Visuals: "Diverse" illustration (front) from Victorian…
Live at Willisau
This famous recording previously released as an LP now on CD with extra music launched the Ogun label. Recorded live at the Willisau Jazz Festival, Sept. 1974. Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath big band was exciting packed audiences throughout Europe, and needed an outlet provided by this new label, home of the South African family. The cover was designed by Niklaus Troxler with sleeve notes by Val Wilmer.
Recorded live at Willisau, Switzerland, 27 January 1973 by Roland Janz. Edited and re…
The Giant Is Awakened
The title of Horace Tapscott's debut release is apt, if not self-referential, for indeed a giant of West Coast jazz had awakened with this, the pianist / composer / bandleader's 1969 album for the Flying Dutchman label. Tapscott went on to form two groups crucial to the flowering of modern jazz in the Los Angeles area, the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (or P.A.P.A.; the name is an homage to Tapscott's predecessor and peer, Sun Ra), which eventually became part of a larger umbrella organization, U…
Carlton Streets
Composer and saxophonist Brian Brown produced some of the most refined Australian jazz recordings during the 1970s. A versatile musician whose distinct impressionist music melded modern jazz with the outer limits of free experimentation. Considered to be his greatest work was the 1975 concept album Carlton Streets, an ambitious recording that romanticised the sights, sounds and the nostalgia of this once-bohemian Melbourne neighbourhood. Differing from his eco-jazz composition Wildflowers heard …
Nights on Saturn - Communication
Astral Spirit presents Nights on Saturn (Communication) by [Ahmed]. Recorded live at Cafe OTO, London, December 5th, 2019. Recording: Shaun Cook. Mixing: Billy Steiger. Mastering: Mikey Young. Inner-sleeve text: ' Origins Revisited' by Pat Thomas (2004). Cover photo of Ahmed Abdul-Malik at the Cabana Club, New York City, 1965. "The journey of self-discovery, communing with the eternal sound. A musician steeped in multiple worlds; oceans apart yet closely connected in ancestral memory. Musicians …
The Oracle
Composer, clarinetist, singer and spiritual jazz soothsayer Angel Bat Dawid descended on Chicago's jazz and improvised music scene just a few years ago. In very short time, the potency, prowess, spirit and charisma of her cosmic musical proselytizing has taken her from relatively unknown improviser to borderline ubiquitous performer in Chicago's avant-garde. On any given night you can find Angel adding aura to ensembles led by Ben LaMar Gay, or Damon Locks, or Jaimie Branch, or Matthew Lux, or e…
Free Jazz Manifesto
** Texts in English and French ** 169 fundamental free jazzrecords recommended in 180 pages by Maurizio & Roberto Opalio (My Cat Is An Alien) and Philippe Robert, from must-have classics to indispensable curiosities. Free Jazz Manifesto is not simply a list of 169 recommended records, but a poetic vision, a parallel universe based on a personal aesthetics of perception and an in-nite love for the most creative, incendiary, spiritual music. If Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman or Anthony Braxton are well p…
Stigma
When in 1970 Jerzy Milian was developing his regular cooperation with the Berlin radio, which was launched a few months earlier by recording music for the television ballet “Rivalen”, he was at the peak of his creative possibilities. He could boast of three years of success with his own trio, along with cooperation with Gustav Brom and an ongoing adventure with the Belgian big band BRT. He also had an abundance of ideas and energy that could be devoted not to one, but two projects. In July 1970,…
Some Jellyfish Live Forever
** 2021 Repress ** A great reunion of the Jeff Parker/Rob Mazurek duo – a pair who've only continued to grow strongly in the years since their Chicago Underground classics – and who bring all that sense of energy to play in their music! The sounds here represent the deeper, more mature styles that both musicians have hit – a way of almost being more powerful by being less aggressive – especially from Mazurek, who's got this wonderfully gentle touch on his horn at times – wrapped up in these wave…
Question & Answer 1966
If there was one sound guaranteed to shock in British jazz during 1966 it was that of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, the free-improvising collective centred around drummer John Stevens which that year helped establish London’s Little Theatre Club as a stronghold of the ‘new wave’. Although the avant-garde were slow in gaining a toe-hold on British jazz tastes, every so often a grass roots jazz club would take a chance on the new style, such as the night in June 1966 when the SME alighted on Gre…
Kulu Sè Mama
Endless Happiness presents Kulu Sè Mama by John Coltrane. Reissue for this classic album from '67 on Orange Impulse Rec. Considered to be the last Coltrane's lifetime release it includes the all-time classic "Welcome", as defined by Coltrane himself as the song is that feeling you have when you finally do reach an awareness, an understanding which you have earned through struggle. It is a feeling of peace. A welcome feeling of peace."