Jazz /
Cruelty Bacchanal
Cruelty Bacchanal, the second release from guitarist Matt Hollenberg’s group Shardik, is a ferocious statement of intent. Years in the making and issued on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, the album presents a volatile and politically charged fusion of modern classical structure, metal intensity, and free jazz unpredictability. Hollenberg’s compositions are marked by intricate rhythmic architecture and an uncompromising sonic vision, alternating between explosive virtuosity and dark, layered atmosphere…
Polarity 3
The third volume of duos between indefatigable tenorsaxophonist Ivo Perelman and adventurous trumpeter NateWooley is their most intimate encounter to date. Beginningwith mournful, almost undersea drones, it moves through avariety of subtly shifting moods, combining old-school jazzromanticism with the kind of nearly telepathic interaction thatonly a long-term creative relationship can inspire. Anyonewho’s enjoyed the first two volumes of this brilliant series willfind this latest dispatch to be a…
Reese And The Smooth Ones
Reese and the Smooth Ones was captured during the same revolutionary Paris session as Message to Our Folks, but stands apart as a two-part, 40-minute odyssey of unchained invention.
Shishiodoshi
Kaze and Koichi Makigami Unleash Musical Mayhem on New Album Shishiodoshi.
Fantasma (Illusions From A Surrealist Mirror)
Zorn’s compositions for classical soloists with rhythm section are among the most successful and powerful meetings of classical and jazz ever conceived—completely notated virtuosic scores for classical players augmented by improvisers who illuminate the music with surprise, support, and an imaginative unpredictability. Mining this magical world since 2010, the project reached its apotheosis in the acclaimed 2021 release “Heaven and Earth Magick.” Here that same quartet divides into different gro…
Impromptus
With “Suite for Piano” in 2022, Zorn began exploring classical forms in the context of the jazz piano trio. The second CD in the series was a beautiful collection of “Ballades,” released in July 2024. This third project presents nine Impromptus—freewheeling forms that unfold like brilliantly imaginative short stories. Brian, Jorge, and Ches outdo themselves here with telepathic interplay, endless creativity, and a courageous ability to go places that have never been discovered before. With each …
Members, Don’t Git Weary
Max Roach wasn't just one of the greatest drummers and percussionists in jazz history; he was also one of the greatest bandleaders in all of jazz, able to adapt his playing to an innumerable array of styles, from bop to free, and blessed with a keen eye and ear for talent. And he always, always kept pushing himself and his bandmates to find new modes of musical expression throughout his six-decade career. Speaking of modes, this 1968 release on the Atlantic label is one of his finest albums, a m…
Tides Of Unrest / Berlin 2023
American percussionist Jeff Arnal and German pianist-composer Dietrich Eichmann’s two-decade partnership fuses polyrhythmic structures and vibrant textures in dynamic, improvised soundscapes. "Tides of Unrest" captures their creative synergy in a 2023 session, blending innovation, tradition, and collaboration.
BorderlessSoutheastofTheNorth
"What we have here is a result of an idea ignited almost 15 years ago with its roots deep in the era of subculture 1990s, when its teenage protagonists started listening to records. But the comradeship between the three of us started in the early 2000 when I was pursuing my first Utopian idea of an art commune in the form of a counter-festival in the Southeastern Slovenian countryside on the border with Croatia. An idea from which, years later, another Utopian project was born - an international…
Poor Isa + Evan Parker/Ingar Zach
Acclaimed Belgian duo Poor Isa (banjoists Ruben Machtelinckx and Frederik Leroux) present their third album, evolving their minimalist style by collaborating with saxophonist Evan Parker and percussionist Ingar Zach. The result is a rich blend of introspective textures and dynamic improvisation.
Plastic Sun
*2025 stock* 'From the early years of Norwegian jazz, few albums have stood the test of time as well as the venturesome and subtly psychedelic Plastic Sun. It was the Svein Finnerud's second disc, and was released on Sonet in 1970. Inexplicably for an album of such beauty, it has been a hard-to-find collector's item for decades, having only been reissued once before, in 1998, as a CD on the Norwegian Jazz Federation's Odin label. In April 2018, Odin have reissued it again, this time on CD and in…
House and Home
Wheelhouse reunites as a trio after a decade apart. Their new work, "House and the Home," reflects years of artistic growth, personal change, and enduring bonds, capturing the essence of shared musical evolution and community.
Alarm
2018 release ** "Pauline Oliveros was only partly serious when she coined the term "deep listening" 30 years ago. The American composer, accordionist and electronic music pioneer first offered the phrase after recording an album 14 feet underground. Regardless, it has grown to become a meaningful term in avant-garde music circles, promoting the idea that artists can (and perhaps should) listen and react to their environment when performing. This new effort from Xenofox - electric guitarist Olaf …
America's National Parks
2016 release ** "With America’s National Parks, visionary composer and Wadada Leo Smith offers his latest epic collection, a suite inspired by the scenic splendor, historic legacy, and political controversies of the country’s public landscapes. Writing for his newly expanded Golden Quintet, Smith crafts six extended works that explore, confront and question the preserved natural resources that are considered the most hallowed ground in the U.S. – and some that should be. His 28-page score for Am…
Ecliptic
Shifa is a name taken from the Arabic word for healing, شفاء. The trio's members are three of the UK's most experienced and in-demand improvising musicians.
Canyon
Jerome Deupree, Sylvie Courvoisier, Joe Morris, Lester St. Louis unite for an album of explosive solos, profound improvisation—a canyon where all musical worlds collide in boundless synergy.
This Is Not Speculation
Long-time collaborators and legends of the British improvised music scene, the great saxophone virtuoso John Butcher and the master of the double bass John Edwards, join forces in a duet journey through a fascinating land of sounds, sometimes undiscovered, sometimes impossible, and always breathtaking.
Resta chi va
Antonio Borghini and Banquet of Consequences continue on their path of jazz, freedom, and rigor, in which writing, improvisation, tradition, and chaos coexist in a vital and surprising mixture. Well-organized music that uses disorder to its enrichment and is a harbinger of melodic flourishes and references many different kinds of music.
In Movimento
Tip! Two long pieces, a live performance and a rehearsal at home, make up this work by the Braida Locatelli duo, a new stage in their 30-year journey. Improvised music that often sounds composed. Improvised, decomposed, recomposed, composed? A true duo, where one plus one makes one.
B-X0 NO-47A
A cornerstone of avant-garde jazz, B-X0 NO-47A captures Anthony Braxton at a pivotal moment in his career and in the history of the Association For The Advancement Of Creative Musicians (AACM). Recorded in Paris in 1969 and newly restored from the original master tapes, this classic session finds Braxton leading a quartet of fellow AACM visionaries: trumpeter Leo Smith (before adopting the name Wadada), violinist Leroy Jenkins, and drummer Steve McCall.
The group’s instrumentation is strikingly …