Jazz /
Profile
**300 copies** “Profile” is the first and only Ken Rhodes LP as a leader. This intimate and rare recording captures an explosive concoction between a blues attitude, a jazz approach and a funky swing. Though an acoustic performance, this LP offers overwhelming grooves, breaks as well as introspective moments . The upbeat and funky title track “The Profile” foreshadows the raw grooves of the session.The composition is driven by a percussive and obsessive bassline which embraces the funky rhythms …
Piano Jazz Radio
** Edition of 103 hand-numbered copies. Gold vinyl ** Pianist and composer Alice Coltrane shimmers on a set of her original tunes and honors the legacy of her husband, saxophonist John Coltrane. She also duets with host Marian McPartland in Trane's "Giant Steps" and "Miles' Mode". Coltrane opens the program with two of her compositions: "Transfiguration" and "Prema". Her skill as a harpist is reflected in the sparkling, light treble notes of her right hand; with the other hand, she brings the br…
The Third World-Underground
** Edition of 102 hand numbered copies. Crystal, slightly orange/blue marbled vinyl ** A stunning little session – and every bit as wonderful as you'd expect from a lineup that includes Dollar Brand, Don Cherry, and Carlos Ward! The three players work together here in open, spiritual styles – with really long-flowing lines from Brand on piano, in a more modal style that's different from some of his other records – balanced out with bold trumpet lines from Cherry, and soaring alto sax from Ward –…
Descension "Out of Our Constrictions"
**CD edition** Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London’s Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-minute performance, inspired …
Script Original
** Edition of 300 copies. Hard cardboard gatefold cover ** To Keith... “You were so afraid of death, you spoke about it often… often with lucidity, with reason, but this fear disappeared very quickly when you sat down at the piano… There, the demons vanished, The ghosts disappeared, the beauty s 'installed… Your piano, you caressed it for so long, barely out of adolescence. In 1975, in Nancy, you deployed nearly a hundred feet to play your music, this "Septober Energy", the energy that one has a…
Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story 1975-1993
Strut present the first ever compilation bringing together classics and rarities from the seminal spiritual jazz and conscious soul label Black Fire, spanning 1975 to 1993. Formed by DJ and record producer Jimmy Gray in Richmond, Virginia, and following in the footsteps of other influential black-owned independent labels like Strata-East and Tribe, the foundation of Black Fire coincided with saxophonist James “Plunky” Branch returning to Richmond from New York to form Oneness Of Juju. The band’s…
My Pure Joy
"From A Love Supreme to The Sex Machine!" The personal musical mantra of the late Philadelphia reedman Byard Lancaster informed an open-minded and varied lifetime in jazz. Strut presents one of Lancaster’s lesser known classics, ‘My Pure Joy’, recorded in 1992 for Black Fire. Lancaster had initially cut his musical teeth with the avant-garde on New York’s Lower East Side in the 1960s (famously on sessions with pianist Dave Burrell and drummer Sunny Murray) and in Paris during the ‘70s after an a…
Live at 131 Prince Street
Strut continue their in-depth archive reissues from the Black Fire label with a definitive edition of JuJu’s ‘Live At 131 Prince Street’, recorded in 1973 at Ornette Coleman’s gallery in New York and featuring a previously unheard recording of the Pharoah Sanders composition "Thembi".
After forming in San Francisco while working on the Marvin X theatre piece ‘The Resurrection of the Dead’, JuJu began to hone their uncompromising fusion of Afro-Latin rhythms with free and spiritual jazz before si…
Augmented Space
Temporary Super Offer! Musicians as different as Bill Dixon, Wadada Leo Smith, Axel Dörner, Susana Santos Silva have experimented with the lonely, no-safety-net discipline of solo trumpet playing. It is one of the hardest avocations in music: no harmony instrument, no pedal notes, no supportive pick-up if things go wrong. Schmid seems to follow in that line and yet the solo performances on Augmented Space, for all the extreme discipline of his technique, seems very different to the artists abov…
Newport, New York, Alabama, 1963, Revisited
John Coltrane played the long game. Longevity in life wasn’t his lot; his fortieth year being his final bow. That circumscribed career, particularly in its final decade, evinced a trajectory of creative ascendancy that was as indelible to improvised music as it was omnipresent in impact. Charlie Parker arguably wears the posthumous mantle of most influential saxophonist, but Coltrane suggests a close contender in terms of ineluctable clout on those who play the instrument.
Practice and the pursu…
The London Musicians' Collective
The third instalment of Trevor’s accounts of the seeds and growth of free improvisation in the UK, The London Musicians’ Collective (LMC), spans a 30 + year period and tells the story of one of the most celebrated of all British organisations for the experimentally inclined. With many illustrations of LMC festivals, adverts, fliers, posters, etc, the book follows the twists and turns of this most polymorphic of collectives, interleaving these with contemporaneous societal, cultural and political…
Location
**In process of stocking** Following on from the welcome revival of Lyman Woodard’s classic ‘Saturday Night Special‘ and drummer, Bert Myrick’s ‘Live ’n Well’ – which features the epic ‘Scorpio’s Child’ – BBE Records continue to dig deeper into the vaults of Detroit’s Strata label with The Contemporary Jazz Quintet album ‘Location’.
Working in conjunction with 180 Proof’s Amir Abdullah BBE are poised to unearth a steady flow of hard to find or previously unheard gems from the short-lived but con…
Live ‘n Well
**In process of stocking** Rescued from relative obscurity by DJ Amir’s 180 Proof Records, BBE is delighted to present a gem from the tiny yet highly influential catalogue of Strata Records. Preceding New York’s Strata East, Detroit’s original Strata label issued only a handful of underground titles in the early 70’s, making it a ‘holy grail’ imprint among jazz lovers and record collectors the world over.
Released by Strata in 1974, Bert Myrick’s ‘Live ‘n Well’ was originally recorded by Strata …
Into a New Journey
Unearthed by The Mighty Zaf for BBE Music, Into A New Journey by Ambiance is an impossibly rare and sought-after private label spiritual jazz masterpiece from 1982 with Latin, Brazilian and Afro overtones. Ambiance was the ‘nom de guerre’ of an ever-shifting jazz collective headed up by Nigeria-born, LA-tutored multi- instrumentalist, arranger, producer and photographer Daoud Abubakar Balewa.
Balewa studied composition and jazz improvisation at the feet of innovators such as Frank Mitchell (Art …
The Magnetic Atmospher
We're delighted to announce the reissue one the most sought-after European private press spiritual jazz albums: The Magnetic Atmospher by Clarence Peters Quartet. Never reissued in its entirety before, The Magnetic Atmosphere is a solid album of deep, post modal spiritual jazz that will appeal to fans of the Strata East, Tribe, and Black Jazz labels. Resident in France since the 1970s, drummer Peters recorded the album with a French rhythm section: Patrick Gauthier on piano, and Jean-Jacques Ave…
Space Dimension
Black vinyl / 505mcn paper / Hand Plasticization / PVC outers / original artwork / 250 copies edition. 1970 freeform jazz rarity. Noah Howard was born in 1943 in New Orleans and, like many of his contemporaries, first played music in church as a child. In his 2010 book, 'Music in My Soul', Howard reflected upon his childhood in New Orleans and the influence the city had on him: “Growing up in New Orleans was like receiving a steady diet of music, and my taste in music became increasingly more so…
Aquila
**2021 stock. In process of stocking** Ltd vinyl pressing. “3D” shaped cubic sleeve / Heavyweight Vinyl, 300 Gram White-White Double Coated Paper. Originally released in tiny numbers in Chile in 1974. The album’s opening track, ‘Alba’, bathes the listener in a warm glow of vibes and electric piano with a groove evoking the laid back soul jazz of classic Ramsey Lewis Trio. Horns build up as the track lopes along, adding a punchy rawness to the languid head nodding slo-mo funk. A change of gear as…
Jazz En La Universidad
**2021 stock. In process of stocking** Jazz trios have an economy that makes them risky. Yet it’s that risk that makes them exciting; how to get the most out of three musicians. Trios made up of rhythm instruments – piano, drums and bass – are particularly special. In the case of Ruben ‘Baby’ López Furst, the Argentinian pianist, and the trio session for ‘Jazz en la Universidad’, that special feeling is abundant. The balance of lightness and air with muscularity and drive makes the album worthy …
Oasis
**2021 stock. In process of stocking** Heavyweight Vinyl, Original Glued Prints on Thick Cardboard 700 gram / 2 Separated parts handily gluing, PVC Outersleeve. Originally released in tiny numbers in Israel in 1977. The fascinating thing about jazz is not so much where it came from, but where it went, how it changed and how it seemed to effortlessly mix with local styles and traditions. In some ways, it’s no surprise that jazz found a fertile home in Israel. Much has been written about the conne…
Pelo De Rata
**2021 stock. In process of stocking** Heavyweight Vinyl, 300 Gram White-White Double Coated Paper, Handily Gluing, PVC Outersleeve. Originally released in tiny numbers in 1975 on the Promusica label, ‘Pelo de Rata’ was the debut outing for a considerable talent in South American jazz, Matias Pizarro. A pianist and composer of some skill and flair, his output sadly falls far short for someone who exhibits such a natural ability to conjure up such an idiosyncratic style of jazz, replete with thou…