Jazz /
Be Music, Night
*2023 stock* "Peter Brotzmann's Chicago Tentet combines some of the finest avant improvisers out of Chicago and Europe. For a such a logistically and musically complex multi-member outfit they've had a rather long and significant life. And they still flourish today, as witnessed by their recent European tour. We turn the clock back to 2004, and a Tentet gig recorded at Wall to Wall in Chicago. It was auspicious and fortuitious that the mikes were in place, the “tapes" running that day, because t…
The "Wels" Concert
*2023 stock* This live recording from a 1996 Austrian music festival is a powerful interaction of three musicians from different countries, each of whom have extraordinary improvisational abilities and deep, grounded technique. A somewhat unusual instrumentation is heard from this free jazz trio: German saxophonist Peter Brotzmann also performs on e-flat clarinet and tarogato (a Hungarian single-reed woodwind), American percussionist Hamid Drake plays a drum kit, a frame drum, and tablas, and Mo…
Stone/Water
Featuring Ken Vandermark & Mats Gustafsson. Recorded live at Victoriaville in May of 1999. Fantastic live material from a very unique group – the instantly-legendary meeting of reedman Peter Brotzmann with the leading lights of the Chicago avant jazz scene in the 90s – brought together into a tremendous tentet that's maybe even better than the sum of its parts! The group features Brotzmann on tenor and clarinet, Ken Vandermark on tenor and bass clarinet, Jeb Bishop on trombone, Fred Lomberg-Holm…
Tesserae
Drummer Tilo Weber joins forces with bassist Petter Eldh (Koma Saxo) and Elias Stemeseder, who plays harpsichord and keys here on Weber's We Jazz debut, "Tesserae". The three musicians plus guests present a unique jazz trio sound for all times, without boundaries. Weber, based in Berlin, came to the attention of We Jazz Records with his his highly inspired drum work on Otis Sandsjö's Y-OTIS, and has since then also been awarded with the prestigious Deutscher Jazz Preis for the arrangement of the…
Since Time Is Gravity
"The next chapter of the Natural Information Society is here. Since Time Is Gravity, credited to Natural Information Society Community Ensemble with Ari Brown, presents a newly expanded manifestation of acclaimed composer & multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams nearly 15 year, 7 albums &-counting flagship ensemble. Joining the core NIS of Abrams (guimbri & bass), Lisa Alvarado (harmonium) Mikel Patrick Avery (drums) & Jason Stein (bass clarinet) are Hamid Drake (percussion), Josh Berman & Ben Lama…
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*2023 stock* "Improvised music is invariably meant for live consumption, where the give-and-take between musicians is laid bare for all to hear and the ephemeral nature of the playing is intrinsically linked to that one moment that’s never to be repeated. In a way, recordings of improvised music negate the one arguably essential tenet of improv — namely, spontaneous composition: Even the most unusual and challenging music, once recorded, becomes permanent and obviously immutable. Though listenin…
Healing Force
*2023 stock* Healing Force is an album by American jazz pianist Don Pullen recorded in 1976 for the Italian Black Saint label.
Stumps
* 75 copies limited edition * In times of vinyl shortage and production backlog, resourcefulness is key. In keeping with his well-established practice of replacing original materials with surrogates to generate new sonic experiences, Sven-Åke Johansson has devised a digital reinterpretation of the historic flexidisc in the shape of a 10inch rubber disc with engraved QR codes that let buyers access the music online.
About the music: "The six compositions titled ‘stumps’ are based on a potential f…
Mannawyddan
*B-stock* This record was brought to us at Dizonord by Julien, part of the shop Music Records in Saint Brieuc (Brittany, France), who is specialized in Brittany music. In the band are fantastic people. The group leader came back from an initiatory trip in India to Brittany with the belief that there was a mystic link between Indian music and Celtic music. Who could say the contrary?
Sept Jeunes Et Fiers Maris
*Rare original* "ARFI is an improvised music group from the south of France that continues to evolve, involving not only musicians but also cooks and street performers in its search for more freedom of expression. One of the core bands of the ARFI, with all the main improvising musicians, was the Marvelous Band, released on their own label in 1985. Carnivals on street corners, street performers, the hints of foreign lands wafting from the back alleys - the original landscape that lies at the hea…
Azur Et Tenebres
*Rare original* "As you can tell from the additional description to the album title, this album and the compositions on it are a collection of sound illustrations for performances, performances, dances, films and plays (mostly in the spirit of early cinematography and early century theatre, one would think). Illustrations, stylistically very different. From rather sad interludes, which for some reason remind me personally of films like Silence, Sadness, Silence with to 'saspienza' moments, with…
Aïré
*Rare original* French project combining flamenco and jazz. The music is reminiscent of recent bands around Ultra High Flamenco, recorded in 1985 at the Centre Autonome D'experimentation Sociale in Ris-Oragis, a suburb south of Paris on the Seine River. It sounds like an extension of sextet, innovatively brought bass, cajón and saxophone to flamenco. It's strange that neither the other works nor this project have attracted much attention, but they are unusually accomplished: the level of perform…
The Call: For A New Life
* Edition of 300. Spectacular four-panel gatefold cover * Since the early 1980s, the Nexus creature has represented one of the most interesting realities of the Italian jazz scene. Daniele Cavallanti (Aktuala) and Tiziano Tononi (Moon On The Water and D.O.M Alia Orchestra) realize a sensational mix of orchestral praxis and impro-free jazz. The strength lies in the ensemble's variety of timbres, in that precise hybrid of styles reminiscent of the cross-sectional experiences of the 1970s of Zappa,…
Aleksi Heinola Quartet
The Aleksi Heinola Quartet presents a new take on vintage hard-bop with their latest record, featuring original compositions and reinterpretations of works by iconic jazz greats. Impeccable musicianship, groovy swing, and a distinct sense of style are on display, with Gábor Bolla on tenor sax, Jukkis Uotila on piano, and Daniel Franck on double bass. This quartet date is not to be missed!
One-Eyed Daruma
Swiss artist Lukas Traxel releases his powerful debut album One-Eyed Daruma on We Jazz Records, March 10. The trio features Traxel on double bass, Otis Sandsjö on sax and Moritz Baumgärtner on drums. Compact, deep, and organic to the bone, Traxel & co's sound echoes the innovations of rhythmically driven avantgarde jazz while keeping things moving at all times. There's both drive and freedom to this sound.
One-Eyed Daruma features eight new compositions by Traxel, who crafted the outline for the…
Sketches
"If music really is a form of rapid transportation, then I have found my mode of transport. Suspense brings apprehension before something happens. It’s a fact. The next time you’re in a snappy nightclub, tap your foot to the memories of your day fading out under the blue lights. The fiercest way to walk anywhere is on your toes. “Here I am,” you blurt out, but everyone already knows you, because a bass is a foghorn that guides us out of exhaustion. The days are doing a little number on us all of…
Trio Exposition
*In process of stocking. 2023 stock* Devin Daniels’ Trio Exposition is a bold yet vulnerable body of work that highlights his unique sense of rhythm and harmony through relatively obscure songs by jazz greats. Joined by bassist Logan Kane and drummer Christian Euman, the lack of a harmonic instrument gives the three musicians space to fully explore and push each other. Very rarely do saxophonists choose this instrumentation- especially as their breakout record as a bandleader.
Ripples
*In process of stocking* "Ostensibly ‘jazz’, but you’d be hard-pressed to adopt that term here, as the duo stretch the definition of such pat categorizations to the point where genre effectively becomes meaningless. Just gorgeous, pure music. Softly, as in a morning sunrise." - Darren Bergstein
Music the listener can sink into, immersing themselves in lush textures, and bathing in the richly varied harmonies and sonorities. Ripples began life with an experimental session designed to explore the …
A Jazzy Profile of Jojo
First analog reissue of Masayuki Takayanagi's modern jazz works based on the Tristano-Konitz technique! First analog reissue of this extremely rare modern jazz work originally recorded in 1970! "Although Takayanagi was already devoted to free jazz at this time, this work is a modern jazz piece based on the Tristano-Konitz technique. Familiar numbers are transformed into Takayanagi's unique sense of time, and then pass through Takeshi Shibuya's filter. The sound thus unleashed seems to wander sof…
Tigers Are Better Looking
Composer Valtteri Laurell Pöyhönen presents his Nonet formation on We Jazz Records. Their debut album Tigers Are Better Looking is released 3 Feb and the ensemble features internationally renowned Finnish clarinetist Antti Sarpila, plus a strong cast of Helsinki-based musicians from several of the top Finnish groups.
Based on the writings of British-Caribbean author Jean Rhys (1890–1979), the 6-track album is a melancholy, intimate chamber jazz creation. Laurell's music swings, yet he doesn't st…