Jazz & Improvisation / Free Improvisation

"Voted “Best of 2021” by the critics of “The New York City Jazz Record,” the reaction to Remedy’s debut on the FSR label was not only a welcome boost to our morale but also confirmed the musical strategies we have been developing as a band: three equal partners, sharing an artistic vision where structure, collective interplay and individual free expression are evenly matched. While the ingredients will and have to change with each new piece, an instantly identifiable ensemble sound holds it all …

In late winter of 2021, four improvisers convened in a Chicago studio. This rare event united UK pianist Alexander Hawkins, midwestern bassist Tatsu Aoki, stalwart drummer Michael Zerang, and me, sleepless Oakland guitarist Karl Evangelista (who had arrived in O'Hare mere hours before downbeat). During breaks, the conversation turned to music and family, two threads that seemed to dominate the waking lives of the musicians involved. Pondering this notion, Aoki asked, "What else is there?". "What…

The title of this new work for the Blue Shroud Band comes from Samuel Beckett’s “what is the word“, his last poem and an elegiac meditation on language. Additionally to “what is the word”, I have also used one of Beckett’s late poems “Brief Dream” which refers to the theme of transiting life and the acceptance of ending - “go end there / one fine day” and Barra Ó Seaghdha’s (Irish writer and poet) evocative poem “Waiting”. Two 18th century Edo Haiku complete the texts featured in this piece that…

Three masters in their respective instrumental fields. Wybithy trombonist Steve Swell, one of Germany's most active percussionists Klaus Kugel and Mark Tokar, a Ukrainian double bassist who swapped his double bass for a rifle for the duration of the war with Russia. They are not a working band, but when they stand on stage together you get the feeling that they have been playing together forever and understand each other in half a word and create music of great power and momentum. All the music …

Do you remember the first musical meeting between Japanese-born, Irish-based pianist Izumi Kimura and legendary drum master Gerry Hemingway? It was the album Illuminated Silence recorded with Barry Guy. Today it's the two of them, Kimura and Hemingway, in the second installment of their artistic collaboration. In front of you is the album Kairos, containing five signature compositions by the two artists, one track each of their own, and the traditional song Over The Tide. And for poetry lovers, …

Let's move to Montreal in 2006, when Francois Carrier's ensemble performed on the La Chapelle festival stage with an unusual and astonishing line-up. The leader recalls that time: "In late 2005, I was putting together my annual series of concerts with both local and international artists and musicians. Two of these nights were dedicated to special guests. At the time, I had just heard of Tomasz Stanko from his beautiful album, Matka Joanna. Instantly, I knew I had to do something with him. I lis…

World-renowned horn player Mats Gustafsson teams up with Joachim Nordwall to create Their Power Reached Across Space Ana Time- To Defy Them Was Death- Or Worse- an avant-garde masterpiece. Gustafsson and Nordwall push their instruments to the limit, almost mirroring the title of the record by "reaching across space and time". The duo creates a sense of vast, three-dimensional auditory expanses. "This is where acoustics and analog synths meet. It is unique music. Unheard Vibes. Perfect for specia…

“Too often we describe music using classifications; genres like “jazz,” “experimental,” “avant-garde” are an easy shorthand to relay the rough parameters of the music to another person who may not have heard it. But these words are useful because they’re so vague, and they are most often used when the impression the music makes is equally vague. But when a group makes sounds that move the listener, these terms don’t hold up. Dry Speed has released a record that is, at turns, futuristic and organ…

*2023 stock* "Kami Fusen" is the second volume in the ongoing collaboration between NoBusiness and Chap Chap Records, after the excellent "The Conscience"by Rutherford and Toyozumi. This time, all the musicians come from the Far East: Itaru Oki was one of the first Japanese musicians to explore the free jazz idiom in the early Seventies; Nobuyoshi Ino comes from the same country and musical scene, even if he has often played in more traditional contexts; similarly, Korean trumpeter Choi Sun Bae …

*2023 stock* "Ask most open-eared listeners about Japanese music since the 1960s, and they’ll likely talk about the psych and noise scene, the offshoots of Onkyo music movement or maybe the richly documented electronic music documented by Omega Point on their Obscure Tape Music of Japan series. The free jazz scene in Japan and neighboring countries has been a bit harder to pin down. PSF nailed the voluminous output by Masayuki Takayanagi and Kaoru Abe and labels like Trio, Japanese Denon and Pad…

2023 stock** "Such is the strength and conviction with which the Sudo Quartet performs that thoughts immediately turn to how they developed such a cohesive group sound. But when uniting four virtuoso stylists from the European free improvisation scene, it's a near certainty that their paths have crossed many times during their careers. Whatever the history, it becomes straight away apparent from the first few notes that there are powerful forces at work as Léandre's richly resonant bowing meshes…

The Freestyle Band never courted fame, but they never welcomed obscurity either. The choices they made to follow their individual muses and to independently document their efforts were conscious ones. The musicians made this music in the faith - perhaps certainty is a better word - that its power and integrity would ultimately triumph over shortsighted commercial pressures and America’s racist attitudes toward black artists. Perhaps this reissue does a little bit to validate that faith.

*2023 stock* "This album, the first under the band's name in six and a half years, is a jazz alternative album with a multilingual and hardcore taste that differs greatly from previous albums.  The recording for this album started in June 2020, during a period when many of our activities were being cancelled due to Covid-19. It had been a while since I last met or played with the members of this band, with whom prior to the pandemic I would regularly get together for gigs at various venues or tr…

Siapiau is Welsh for 'Shapes', as the four members of the band create shapes in the air out of apparently nothing. The beauty of improvisation is that, at its best, it creates something perfectly fitted to the moment it was created in. Siapiau is a new project from four improvisers who have been playing together in different formats for over twenty years. It's a band who aren't afraid of the experimental but aren't afraid of a good groove either. It's improvised music that you could, at times, d…

Tip! A superb and under-recognized recording, Crisis is one-third of a trilogy of extraordinary albums -- the others being Broken Shadows and Science Fiction -- by Ornette Coleman's small groups of the late '60s and early '70s. A rendition of the piece "Broken Shadows" itself, a dirge of astonishing beauty second only to his "Lonely Woman," opens the live performance and offers solos of deep and poignant probity from Coleman and tenorist Dewey Redman, whose earthy growled tones counterbalanced t…

Featuring Nate Morgan on piano, Jesse Sharps on reeds, Danny Cortez on trumpet, Rickey Kelly on vibes, Joel Ector on bass and Derek Roberts on drums. This music was recorded in Santa Barbara in July of 1987. Since the passing of the great pianist/composer/bandleader Horace Tapscott, the Nimbus West label has continued to document the underground L.A. jazz scene that Mr. Tapscott was once at the center of. A number of great musicians who once collaborated with Tapscott, like Jesse Sharps & Nate M…

A forward thinking collaboration between electronic music pioneer Jon Appleton and trumpet great Don Cherry, that explores the relationship between the humanity and the manufactured robotic future. Using the techniques associated with Musique Concrete the ensuing improvisations create a unique entry into the great trumpeter's discography. It was an in vogue attempt to render the music of tomorrow, and today sounds more like the soundtrack to a truly great sci-fi movie. Reissued in a fascimile of…

The John Carter and Bobby Bradford Quartet/Quintet were critical to the progressive jazz movement around Los Angeles in the late 60s alongside the likes of Horace Tapscott. Both hailed from the Watts area and trumpeter, Bradford played with a woodshedding Ornette Coleman for two years in the early 60s when the legendary free movement leader decided not to record for a while but wanted to hone his trademark sound on the saxophone. Multi-reed player, Carter also worked with Coleman who brought the…

This is an unusual album in the catalogue of Ornette Coleman, and one that passes by most critics. It is however a unique insight into the ‘free jazz’ pioneer’s way of working in the early 70s. Recorded at his large loft space in downtown New York which inspired a whole scene of experimental musicians who were locked out of playing established venues. The music is a romp showing Ornette playing trumpet as well as saxophone. His quartet which featured second saxophonist Dewey Redman alongside lon…

New York-based Zoh Amba first cultivated her musical passion in the lush forests of the Appalachian mountains, playing to the woods around her home, before she studied at classical conservatories. Her music honors her roots, full of folk melodies, mesmerizing refrains, repeated incantations and powerfully-executed Free Jazz. Her sound is courageous and bold, soaring from muted hums to squeaky trebles, producing a confident sound imbued with an innate spirituality. On this project, Zoh Amba is jo…

Collaborations are unique to their combinations, producing totally original and innovative ideas with the addition of a single factor. In this case, legendary musicians and 577 mainstays join together in this unique arrangement for the first time, allowing for yet another reinvention. Saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter, pianist Leo Genovese, bassist William Parker (also playing Gralla and Shakuhachi on this album), and drummer and vocalist Francisco Mela, unite for another impro…

Huge Tip! Oiro Pena is a Finnish jazz collective helmed by prolific composer Antti Vauhkonen. Their last album, Puna, recorded in bedrooms, studios and other salubrious locations around Helsinki during 2022, is a mix of lo-fi spiritual jazz, experimental, and avant-garde music forms. It includes four vocal tracks recorded with Merikukka Kiviharju, which feature both original lyrics and those sourced from traditional Finnish folk songs. Vauhkonen first attracted attention as saxophonist in the gr…

"Here, then, are three men who have, if you will, won the argument already. They don’t need excess volume or headline soloing to get their message across. Their message is inscribed in elegant lower-case and rarely used aural fonts. You will find yourself leaning forward because not a note or whisper should be missed ..." - Brian Morton

On their 5th studio album, Connection, Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog have pushed their long-brewing tension between traditional pop songcraft and avantgarde improvisational music to the breaking point, bridging their customary genre-agnostic approach with elements of glam boogie, minimalist disco, psychedelic boogaloo, garage-punk-against-the-machine agitprop, and so much more. Recorded at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, NY and mixed by Ben Greenberg (Danny Elfman, Depeche Mode, Lamb of God) the albu…

Pianist and composer Simon Nabatov has played with "who's who" of the jazz and improvised music community, given concerts in over 60 countries, appeared on the numerous international festivals, received prizes and documented his music on 30 CD's under his own name. His musical activities include Jazz, improvised, experimental and world music. Nabatov’s initial idea to extend his Cologne-based quartet - hence the CD title – resulted in this exciting musical document. Both tracks, while fully impr…

"Trombe’s 2019 self-titled debut LP kicked off the Nantes unit’s ongoing two-piece experiment with a short and sweet exercise in minimal brut-jazz, with percussionist Erwan Cornic rattling chains and trinkets just as often as he plays full drum set and Thomas Beaudelin yanking the sax valves like root vegetables. But even though the duo has garnered praise from devout skronk stalwarts like Mats Gustafsson, their particular style has always had a distinct, almost delicate melodicism at its heart,…

“Una ofrenda a la ausencia” (an offering to absence) explores in depth the rawness, harshness and roughness of sound embracing the intense and unfiltered expressions that emerges from absence.

Berlin trumpeters Axel Dörner and Lina Allemano team up to create experimental improvised sonic explorations, both in duo and in larger trumpet-ensemble form. The pieces' titles reference the small lesser-known objects circling around the sun in our solar system; the album’s title Aphelia being the furthest distance away in orbit around the sun.

“Primitive” is Jessen’s first full-length release. A raw solo saxophone recording born out of anger and isolation. At times, it screams violently. At others, it slowly pierces. At all times, it is a reaction to Jessen’s surroundings.

Recorded in Royal Alzheimer Hall, Thessaloniki, Greece, January 2015, Limited release of 500 unique record covers for the 500 hand-numbered copies of the Basenezmen music project. Two of the most important musicians in Greece are currently together for the first time to present ‘basenezmen’ project. They improvise under rythmic structures in form of jazz, rock, ambient and folk music.

*2023 stock* "Almost two years of inactivity have passed. The main reason was the pandemic, of course, but there was also a second one, an eight-month period when I could not use my left arm because of a shoulder fracture. But still, on the 21st of October 2021, I performed solo at the Open Jazz events of Demetria Festival. In one of the old warehouses in the port of Thessaloniki which have been converted into cinema halls. Right across the port authority where I served for three years. The tens…

*2023 stock* The Orange Blue Green band improvises freely in the true sense of the word. An improvisation initiating from the very first sound produced without any prior coordination regarding the style, structure or anything relating to the overall musical form. An acoustic, almost classical trio that has embraced the fundamental features of the sound of chamber music, along with the various musical idioms and experiences of the members’ multi-dimensional course. Their music features a primal e…

Michael Fischer is an Austrian musician, composer and instant composition conductor. He works on the immanence of language within sounds, their sculptural and dramatic evidence, on the tenor saxophone, the violin, on cd-player setting and conducted instant compositions, in improvised and experimental music. Since 1999 he connects the electro-acoustic phenomenon feedback with acoustic instrumentation by creating and playing the feedback saxophone. He also collaborations with literary writers, dan…

GBK are an Austrian free jazz trio that isn't afraid of being groovy. The band was founded in 2007 after a first meeting the year before, being thrown together in an improvised music session. They performed many years under the name of KGB before changing their name recently due to Russian war against Ukraine. All three musicians are happy to swap roles in their trio, therefore abstract experimental sounds have the same place in their repertoire as groove and melody. Drummer Didi Kern works both…

Tip! Recorded a month after Outspan No 1, this album offers up four more sonic delights from the core trio of Brötzmann, Van Hove, and Bennink. Rarely has free jazz/Euro improv/circus music/[your identifier here] sounded so unfettered and delightful -- adventurous without seeming self-serious, silly yet not without gravity. A must for any fan of these three maestros.

Tip! It's hard to imagine how this record -- and it's mate, Outspan No 2 -- managed to remain more or less out of circulation from the CD era onward. Outspan No 1 is nothing less than an ideal distillation of the broad approach to sound creation utilized by the three-ring circus that is Brötzmann, Van Hove, and Bennink, here with the added bonus of Mangelsdorff. Two short numbers, two long, too perfect.

11th Street Fire Suite is a post-BAG (Black Artists Group) classic. An emotionally ranging set of blues-drenched duets by alto saxophonist Luther Thomas and flutist Luther C. Petty, it's one of the great documents of the St. Louis creative music diaspora, a wild ride through turbulent and beautiful terrain on a slab of vinyl that's as rare as hen's teeth in its original form. Relocated from their midwestern hometown to New York City, Thomas and Petty entered the studio in 1978 with a fellow musi…

Conducted by Mats Gustafsson for two 9 piece chamber ensembles, 4 soloists, tape machine, turntable. Recorded at the Avant Art festival, Warsaw, Poland, 2022. The monumental composition for 27 musicians by Swedish saxophonist, improviser and composer Mats Gustafsson is an in-depth exploration and continuation of the previous piece Hidros o.T. (2019), commissioned by NyMusikk Trondheim, inspired by the mirrored forms and visual structures of artist Mathias Pöschl. Controlling 3 different groups o…

'The initial idea behind Ensemble E was to combine traditions of Contemporary Music, Noise, Improvised music, Free Jazz and other experimental music fields and traditions with the deeper music traditions. This is deeper research of traditional and non-traditional ways of expressing folk music of Scandinavia, Portugal, Poland, Ukraine and more. Much more. By putting them next to each other/ on top of each other/ inside of each other. Creating new ways. The instrumentation of Ensemble E is spectac…

Mind altering quartertone trumpet experiments from one of the world's most highly regarded and idiosyncratic players.