Jazz /
Gowanus Sessions II
Gowanus Session II was seven years in the planning. Thollem McDonas, Nels Cline, and William Parker convened at Peter Karl Studios in Brooklyn on January 3rd, 2012 and recorded two complete albums. The first was Gowanus Session I, released by Porter Records in April of 2012. GS II was put aside to eventually complete the five-album palindromic cycle of trio albums Nels and Thollem ambitiously set out to realize. The albums in between include Radical Empathy with Michael Wimberly (Relative Pitch,…
Threnody, At The Gates
This trio is on to something extraordinary; full on furor brushed w thin melodic lines or rage contained in a certain kind of drunken beauty and bliss - all stumbling on towards the heard and the unheard - in a whisper, in a shriek, forces joined and disjoined....This trio is the whole in the never ending audible crack Johan Berthling: double bass; Martin Küchen: tenor and soprano saxophones, retardophone, flute; Steve Noble: drums and percussion. Recorded by David Carlsson at Gula Studion, Malm…
Air Time
Vinyl repressing of a classic '70s jazz recording - one of the first recordings led by Pulitzer winner Henry Threadgill with bassist Fred Hopkins and drummer Steve McCall. This edition is limited to 550 copies pressed by QRP, the vinyl manufacturing division of Acoustic Sounds. These are 150 gram discs in 'rice paper' sleeves.Saxophonist Henry Threadgill, bassist Fred Hopkins and drummer Steve McCall originally came together in 1971 as a group designed to play the music of Scott Joplin for a Chi…
Signaling
**2020 stock** Cellist / composer Tomeka Reid and saxophonist / composer Nick Mazzarella have become valuable contributors to the Chicago music scene(s) for over a decade. This collection of duets demonstrates equally their instrumental skills and innate musicality. The saxophone / cello combination goes back to, at least, the '50s with the Chico Hamilton Quintet and recordings by Eric Dolphy and Ron Carter in the '60s. Most relevant here though is the pairing of Julius Hemphill and Abdul Wadud …
All the Numbers
These first recordings under Lester Bowie's name were made in 1967 with his compatriots from the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble. Originally issued in edited form as Numbers 1 & 2 on a single LP, these two discs contain all the material recorded over two days in the studio. The first session was a trio date with Malachi Favors (bass, etc) and Roscoe Mitchell (saxophones, etc). A week later reed virtuoso Joseph Jarman was added to the group. These recordings were the first documentation of the quart…
Early Combinations
**2020 stock** As the title implies, this is the Art Ensemble in a formative stage. Three parts Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble and three parts Joseph Jarman quartet. A To Ericka was recorded for submission to a Jazz Festival in Poland and was not successful in landing them a ticket to Europe. Quintet was a dress rehearsal for a concert that was cancelled on the day of this recording. Luckily both performances survived on tape to reach a much larger audience than the concerts could have provided. B…
Saga of the Outlaws
Alto and baritone saxophonist Charles Tyler was an early associate of Albert Ayler and recorded with him for ESP in the middle 1960s. Tyler also recorded 2 dates for ESP under his own name. Saga of the Outlaws was recorded "live" at Sam Rivers' Studio Rivbea in 1976 and is generally considered to be his finest recording. The band includes Earl Cross - trumpet, Ronnie Boykins - bass, John Ore - bass and Steve Reid - drums. Charles moved to Europe in the middle '80s and died of cancer in 1992.
Live at The East 1973
"Now-Again Records presents limited edition deluxe reissues of the lauded black fire catalog in 2020. First up in the series, this previously unreleased live session recorded at the legendary Brooklyn venue The East in 1973. Magical, mystical, Afrocentric, progressive -- words that could be used to describe any number of musical compositions by Sun Ra or his cosmic brothers and sisters, from John to Alice Coltrane, early '70s projects on record labels like Detroit's Tribe or Houston's Lightin' o…
Live
**30 copies square lathe cut 7" records, in 3 color silk-screened pack with insert** Avant guitarists Bill Nace and Sandy Ewen join forces on this extremely limited release, offering two very dense improvised tracks which, as per title, were recorded live.
Laboratorio Della Quercia
In the summer of 1978, an ambitious twelve-day experimental jazz project was undertaken at the ancient amphitheatre, Tasso della Quercia, on the slopes of Rome’s Gianicolo hill. The idea was to assemble the leading players from Italy’s avante-garde jazz scene, revolving around members of Grande Elenco Musicisti (or GEM), such as saxophonists Tommaso Vittorini, Eugenio Colombo and Maurizio Giammarco, trumpeter Alberto Corvini and trombonist/composer Danilo Terenzi, together with visiting American…
Spiritual Unity
2023 repress. LP version. 180 gram virgin vinyl, with original artwork restored. Spiritual Unity, recorded on July 10, 1964, is the album that made Albert Ayler and ESP-Disk' famous (or, in some people's eyes/ears, infamous). Mr. Ayler had already recorded in Europe and, in February '64, in New York, but this was the first album on which neither he nor his collaborators held back. It was also ESP's first jazz recording. Spiritual Unity presented a new improvisation paradigm: looser structure, le…
Flaps
**500 copies** Steve Lacy had plenty of fantastic moments on the European scene of the 70s – but this unique album may well stand as one of his best! The set's very different than any of Steve's recordings with his own group – partly because the core energy here comes from trumpeter Franz Koglmann – who sets things up in a really unusual way, by often embracing rhythm – but also setting it free in all these other erratic patterns too – which proves to be a perfect foil for Steve's soprano sax, a…
Opium For Franz
**500 copies** "This gem of a recording has been a collector's dream prize for decades. Recorded and released in the mid-1970s on flugelhorn / trumpeter Franz Koglmann's Pipe Recordings, each copy of Opium For Franz was issued with an original hand painted cover. Back in the day, we wouldn't speak of a limited issue release, even though this one probably came out in an edition of 200. Certainly it was a labor of love, with no such thing as our modern digital capture of sound and pro tools. We're…
New Acoustic Swing Duo
Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Willem Breuker and Han Bennink's New Acoustic Swing Duo, originally released in 1967. Late in 1967, saxophonist Willem Breuker and drummer Han Bennink recorded the first LP for the new artist-run free improvised music label, ICP Records. New Acoustic Swing Duo was an instant classic, and remains one of the most enduring documents of Dutch improvised music ever recorded. With Breuker's omnidirectional reed work, which ranges from plaintive to excoriating, …
No Time Left for Sadness
Despite having worked together in innumerable settings, including the longstanding Survival Unit III, with drummer Michael Zerang, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee have never released a CD of duets. In an extra intimate studio setting in upstate New York, where both players reside, No Time Left for Sadness demonstrates their incredible musical understanding. Recalling some of McPhee's landmark records with Marseilles musicians in terms of telepathy and trust, it's a…
Largest Afternoon
One day in the studio, something ridiculously great happened. It was deep Chicago winter, cold as shit. Four musicians assembled for a round-robin set of improvisations -- duets, trios, a few quartets. Approached casually, the late morning bloomed into Largest Afternoon, 15 crackling encounters between guitarist Arto Lindsay, saxophonists Joe McPhee, and Ken Vandermark, and drummer Phil Sudderberg. No expectations -- open minds and creative intent. Lindsay, a brilliant singer and songwriter and …
The Underflow
An übertrio drawn from distinct parts of the creative music spectrum, The Underflow was recorded during a sizzling two-night stand in May 2019. In a series of duets and trios, guitarist David Grubbs, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, and trumpeter Rob Mazurek met headlong for the first time, converging not only their acoustic and electric instruments, but at times submerging themselves in a tangle of electronics, then emerging into shamanic bell-shaking chant or chest-rattling howl. Ranging from extr…
The Shithole Country & Boogie Band
In 2018, Mats Gustafsson provided raw saxophonic material for the elusive Wendy Gondeln, who sometimes applied a scalpel, sometimes a pneumatic drill, to rework, remix, reimagine all the Swede's squeaks, pops, blats, and tones. In some places, Gondeln adds violent violin to thicken the roux, making Ornette's fiddling seem like Yehudi Menuhin. Uncommon bedfellows: disjunct techno and improvised music. But the Shitholes make it work brilliantly, even inviting minimal techno pioneer and co-founder …
Live in Lesotho
* Brand new extended and remastered version of the original LP from 1981. Gatefold with new photography and liner notes * Slickest Afro-jazz-funk swerve from legendary South African cornet player and anti-apartheid figure Hugh Masakela, recorded at the Maseru Holiday Inn before a small audience during days surrounding his defiant 1981 performance in Lesotho while banned from performing just over the border in SA proper. Newly remastered and recut from the original single LP over a 2LP pressing."…
Théâtre Garonne, 2008
"The David S. Ware Archive Series was launched in November 2015, and AUM Fidelity has marked the anniversary of his birth -- November 7, 1949 -- with a vital new edition therein every year since. David S. Ware was a master saxophonist of the highest order, and an unparalleled sonic alchemist of the modern jazz era. As his distinctly potent sound and vision was an integral inspiration toward the creation / devotion of AUM Fidelity, that mission continues strong with the DSW-ARC series.Théâtre Gar…