Jazz & Improvisation / Free Improvisation

Mycorrhiza is the term describing the symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and a plants root system. The fungi forms networks between the trees, allowing them to communicate. Often nicknamed the ‘wood wide web’, the network allows trees to send each other nutrients and warn each other about predators such as bugs, deer, or harmful pathogens. This album is inspired by natural systems like this and is concerned about the human impact and the corruption surrounding it. The album flows l…

"Talk about your dynamic duos. Drummer/bassist Tony Bianco and violinist/violaist Faith Brackenbury have pooled their talents to come up with one of the best such meetings in recent memory." - Darren Bergstein, DMG NYC A no holds barred free jazz duo equally balancing fire / momentum with space / texture. Faith – “Everything is first takes and no edits, and so captures some raw feelings. It feels to me that all my learning and training, and unlearning and exploration has come to this point in a …

Recorded by Maxim Khaikin at Dom Cultural Center, Moscow, on November 6th 2017

This 1983 recording, originally issued on Sackville LP, features jazz trumpeter Joe McPhee with the Bill Smith Ensemble.      ” …a stimulating set of avant-garde music. The interplay between these masterful improvisors on group originals and Albert Ayler’s classic ‘Ghosts’ is consistently impressive and worthy of a close investigation by the more open-eared segment of the jazz audience.” — Scott Yanow, Allmusic       “Vistation breathes as if it were music that was recorded yesterday. Joe McPhee…

This duo, and the resulting album developed out of conversations between Robert and Shirley whilst working on Robert’s Invocation project in 2014. Their discussions explored the varied paths of their respective backgrounds, and different relationships of all aspects of those musical paths to improvisation. Both have a shared classical training, in which the absence of an improvisation became both a frustration and source of inspiration. Part of the story of this album lies in their different for…

Anthropods is the new band from American drummer and composer, Mark Holub. Holub, known mainly as bandleader of the acclaimed and Mercury Prize nominated Led Bib has with ‘Anthropods’ created his first project as a leader since starting Led Bib in 2003. While some of Holub’s trademark Led Bib style is evident here, the album is full of contrasts, from pastoral beauty to dense free improvisation to heavy grooves, showcasing sides of Holub’s work well beyond his work with Led Bib. Holub has been b…

"These inspired duets sound so unforced and unconstrained that they blow fresh life into that well-worn image. From the outset, two quite distinct pianists establish common ground, where they interweave and spring surprises. It's wonderfully fertile ground too. Strings of scintillating moments bound seamlessly into musical mesh, now mysteriously chromatic, now alluringly melodic, fractiously dissonant, propulsive or ethereal. Tippett's speaking voice, heard fleetingly, suggests a degree of physi…

Temporary Super Offer! These sessions were recorded exactly two years apart, in early November 1966 and 1968 (both were released in 1969). While they can’t be called “bookends” by any means, they do bracket a remarkable period in Don Cherry’s musical evolution, on his journey from the more strictly jazz environments, as adventurous as they were, of Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and others, to a philosophy that embraced many non-Western traditions. While these included various African forms, espe…

Recorded live may 03 2018 at Porgy&Bess, Vienna recorded by Wolfgang Racher & Gerald Domjan mixed and mastered by Martin Siewert released March 14, 2022 Konrad Bauer - trombone Georg Graewe - piano John Lindberg - double bass

Grey-area LP reissue, exact replica of the original * ldris Muhammad's legendary first album for Prestige, a great synthesis of the disparate elements that went into the era's Spiritual Jazz, Grooves, Soul and Free Experimentation and an indication of the many changes that were to occur in Black Music generally over the immediate years following the end of the 1960s.   "Parts of the second solo album by Prestige Records' house drummer, Idris Muhammad, are an even poppier affair than Black Rhythm…

*2022 stock. Hardcover edition* This is the republication of a book first published in 1973, and as such—and without the benefit of rose-tinted nostalgia—it offers a snapshot of a British jazz scene that was extraordinarily vibrant and diverse. Trumpeter, bandleader and author Ian Carr was ideally placed to chronicle the events and personalities of the era, and his story reveals a scene that was creative despite, rather than because of, the artistic establishment of the day. Discussion of that b…

"As the bassist for the Matthew Shipp Trio for some dozen years, Michael Bisio has still made time to initiate a cornucopia of side projects, all distinct, all persuasive and all showcasing the deep and wide artistry of Bisio. But now, his side roads have led him back to the heart of his best-known gig. The just-released Flow of Everything centers on the bass-piano symmetry of the Matthew Shipp Trio. This isn't the first time Bisio has made a duo record with Shipp, but it's been nearly a decade.…

*2022 stock* Futura Marge presents Live At The Sunset by Other Dimensions In Music (Roy Campbell trumpet, pocket trumpet, flugelhorn, flute, recorder & double flageolet, Daniel Carter alto saxophone, flute, trumpet & voice, William Parker double bass & musette & Hamid Drake drums & skin drum).Recorded in Paris at the Sunset on October 17th & 18th, 2006

*2022 stock* Futura Marge presents Wha's Nine by Trio 3 (Oliver Lake alto saxophone, Reggie Workman doublebass & Andrew Cyrille drums). Recorded in Paris on October 28th 2007, live at the Sunset.

*2022 stock* Futura Marge presents Shape by Alexandra Grimal (tenor & soprano saxophones ), Antonin Rayon (Hammond & Clavinet) & Emmanuel Scarpa (drums) . Recorded on June 30th 2008 at the Sunset, Paris. Digipak.

*2022 stock* Futura Marge presents A Night In Paris / Live at the Sunset by FAB Trio (Joe Fonda doublebass, Barry Altschul drums & Billy Bang violin). Recorded on April 19th 2008 at The Sunset, Paris.   Recorded live in Paris at the Sunside on July 22nd, 2006. ℗ & © 2006 Terronès

Martin Archer and John Jasnoch have a musical relationship which goes all the way back to the early 1980s when they were both a part of jazz-punk pell mellers Bass Tone Trap. Over the subsequent years they have played and recorded together occasionally, previously as ASK, and now as this no frills improvised music duo which allows both musicians to utilise the full range of their respective instrumentation. This new work was recorded in the same place at the same time, one day in July 2021. The …

I have wanted to make a trio recording – that simplest and yet most demanding configuration for any saxophone player – for many years, but had been unable to decide who the other players should be. It was only when I heard Michael’s solo work that I realised that his approach to the bass, combined with Walt’s textural playing, would make the foundation which I was looking for. I wanted a trio sound where the saxophone could inhabit the music from within - as opposed to riding upfront in the role…

TAO Forms is rather stoked to present this astonishing new work from the fertile creative mind of tenor saxophonist–composer James Brandon Lewis. Performed by the Red Lily Quintet, an exceptional & singular inter-generational ensemble, this album speaks to the forever-evolving continuum of the jazz tradition.

The Tribe Records co-founder’s lost album, recorded in 1975, rumored to exist no more. Mastered from the original tapes!

*2024 repress! LP version* "Sadly, many will hear Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt's latest LP, Made Out of Sound, as 'not-jazz,' though it would be more aptly described as 'not-not-jazz.' In a better world, it would warrant above-the-fold reviews in Downbeat, or an appearance on David Sanborn's late-night show (if someone would only give it back to him). More likely, we can hope for a haiku review on Byron Coley's Twitter timeline to sufficiently connect the various improvised terrains trodden by th…

This release, Bremen to Bridgewater, contains two albums worth of previously unreleased live recordings made in Germany and England during two very different periods of the band’s career. The German radio recordings were made on June 20th, 1971 at Lila Eule (Lilac Owl), a well known jazz club in Bremen. The English recordings were made at the Bridgewater Arts Center, during two tours that the band made with different lineups in February and November of 1975, and feature some of the very last rec…

In September 1968, Marion Brown, who moved to Europe two years earlier, recorded the soundtrack of the movie by Marcel Camus entitled 'Le Temps Fou' in the legendary Parisian studio Davout. The movie starring Nino Ferrer was released in 1970 under the title 'Un Été Sauvage'. Soon fallen into oblivion, 'Le Temps Fou' was printed in very few copies by the French arm of Polydor and is almost impossible to find in its original pressing. Finally, more than fifty years later, Le Tres Jazz Club has bro…

The Manchester trumpeter, composer and all-round northern new-music enabler Matthew Halsall might be a man with the open ears and eclectic energy to run a broad-based contemporary record label - but he's also a disciple of the meditative 1960s music of John and Alice Coltrane, which significantly steers his own ventures. Halsall's personal projects often come close to the Coltranes' most reflective later works, but his Gondwana Orchestra (including regular partners Rachel Gladwin on harp and sou…

Sending My Love (2008) and Colour Yes (2009) were his first releases and document Halsall’s first great bands featuring the likes of flautist Chip Wickham, saxophonist Nat Birchall, harpist Rachael Gladwin, bassist Gavin Barras and drummer Gaz Hughes. Joyful, life-enhancing albums, drawing on UK jazz and spiritual jazz influences but with a decidedly modern bounce, they introduced Halsall’s music to the world gathering support from the likes of Gilles Peterson and Jamie Cullum, Mojo, Straight No…

Salute to the Sun: Live at Hallé St Peter’s documents a very special concert recorded at the iconic Manchester venue during lockdown.

Salute to the Sun features lush wholly improvised tunes inspired by ambient rainforest and jungle field recordings, deeply soulful tunes built around hypnotic harp and kalimba patterns, deep Strata-East inspired spiritual jazz grooves and some of Halsall’s most beautiful playing and inspiring healing melodies yet recorded. The album was recorded at the band’s weekly sessions, using Halsall’s own recording set-up, giving the recordings a relaxed vibe and unforced energy that really lets the music…

A collection of improvised duets with guitarist Jim O’Rourke and reedist Mats Gustafsson. All of the material has been newly remastered for release on 2xLP & digital and marks the first ever vinyl pressing with previously unreleased tracks. Tracks A1, B3 (excerpt), C1, C2 and D3 (excerpt) were in parts or in its complete form released on legendary Incus label (1999) with a different mix and master. The duo recorded the improvised duets at Chicago’s Acme Studios during 1999, with Gustafsson on te…

Tip! *300 copies limited edition* Recorded in Stockholm on October 25, 1962, this session is one of Albert Ayler's earliest recordings, featuring a European backing group he assembled during his brief stay there, before returning to the States in 1963 and beginning his legendary run with ESP-Disk and Impulse. Though his genius is not yet fully formed, one can easily hear he's headed that direction, and this rare and long out of print recording is an essential piece of the history from one of Ame…

Tip! *300 copies limited edition* Recorded in Stockholm in 1962, and originally released on Sonet Records, these sessions stand as Ayler's first step into a new sonic world. This was when Ayler was still dealing with classic Jazz standards such as "I'll remember April", M Davis's "Tune Up" and "Rollins Tune", a declared tribute to the older master Sonny Rollins. His already super-strong tenor sax voice dominates a quiet, almost shy, local rhythm section featuring Torbjorn Hultcrant on bass and S…

Tip! 'Frijazz mot rasisme' or ‘Free Jazz Against Racism’, as you may have guessed, is a compilation of Norwegian contemporary and outsider music. There’s plenty to get your teeth stuck into here. Highlights include Sanskriti Shrestha & Andreas Wildhagen cut a percussive groove, there’s the strange processed sounds of Propan and the subversive Agnes Hvizdalek. Stitched and compiled by Anja Lauvdal and Tine Hvidsten, the set features 18 outsider Jazz burners centered around a varied and diverse ca…

Tip! Spectacular live recording from 1986 of two seminal figures of the Japanese avantgarde - Akira Sakata on saxophone and Takeo Moriyama on drums. Mitochondria captures the reunion of the two free jazz masters, who started playing together in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio in 1972 until 1975. For both, the experience with the trio was an important step in the development of their own career and musicianship. The recordings are a remarkable performance in which each successfully highlights the essen…

This trio didn’t know how lucky they had it. They were certainly happy to perform again when this concert was recorded at the ArtActs Festival in St Johan Austria in early March 2020. Although their first outing was back in 2013 in Harnik’s hometown of Graz - a live concert broadcast through the Austrian National Radio/ORF, the band has had a sporadic performance history. So the opportunity to reunite for this festival performance was already special. Little did they know what lay ahead though, …

* 2022 stock * "Drake and Tsahar were in Paris as guests at a friend’s wedding. Turning the celebration into a busman’s holiday, the two subsequently went into a studio with veteran German bassist Peter Kowald and American trumpeter Hugh Ragin, who were specifically invited to take part, and produced Open Systems. It’s more than 72½ minutes spread among seven compositions that relate as much to hard core energy music of the late 1960s as the former disc does to spirituality...... Take the saxman…

* 2022 stock * Rob Brown's Big Picture Quartet includes William Parker, Hamid Drake, and Roy Campbell, the band responsible for the sublime Raining on the Moon with Lena Conquest, recorded as the William Parker Quartet, as well as playing together in different configurations yielding some of the most vital and essential recordings of the last decade. In the grand jazz band tradition (think Sonny Greer and his Memphis Men), the music's flavor and quality maintains whoever's name shuffles forward.…

* 2022 stock * New York-born drummer Stu Martin made a name for himself at the age of sixteen by playing with many of the great bands - those of Billy May, Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Maynard Ferguson and Quincy Jones, among others. In the 1960s he moved to Europe where he played with the greatest musicians of the time such as Jean-Luc Ponty, the Kühn brothers, Martial Solal or John McLaughlin. A very complete drummer adapting to all forms of jazz, he was part of the John Surman a…

* 2022 stock * Sunny Murray's Aigu-Grave, a nominal quintet date with percussionist Pablo Sauvage appearing on two of the five tracks; the rest of the group features French tenor saxophonist Richard Raux, Bobby Few and Alan Silva. Its two leading tracks, “Happiness Tears” and “Tree Tops,” are memorable Murray compositions which are given free and satisfying treatments. The theme of “Happiness Tears” searches through some minor intervals before resolving in a cheerful major chord. “Tree Tops” is …

Tip! * 2022 stock * This 1979 date by tenor saxophonist Billy Harper is one of his most transcendent. Rife with his deep study of Coltrane's modalism, and his own deep knowledge of the blues and Eastern music, Harper and his quintet take on three extended pieces: "Soran Bushi-B.H." comes in at over 12 minutes, while "Cry Of Hunger," is over 20; both work out of extended harmonic architectures to place improvisation as a new element (remember, this was 1979), as an extension of the jazz "song." T…

* 2022 stock * Jade is an ambitious blend of jazz, abstract improvisation, and classical sacred music. Recorded at the Organ Studio at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg, the album features sax and trombone echoing regally against a backdrop of honest-to-goodness choral hymns, performed by a church organ and the 10-woman Volcanic Choir, led by mezzo-soprano Maria Forsström. In slow movements, as if to cherish the sounds and moods being created, the album blends its influences beautifully, conveyi…

Futura Records presents For (and More): Daniel Beaussier & Manu Pékar with Jean-Lou Descamps & Pierre Marcault.Daniel Beaussier (saxophones, hautbois, cor anglais, clarinette, clarinette basse, flûtes en ut & sol), Manu Pékar (guitares), Jean-Lou Descamps (violon & objets sonores) & Pierre Marcault (percussion).Recorded 10th jan, 2nd jul & 20th nov 2016 at studio EDIM, Cachan (France).