Jazz & Improvisation / Free Jazz

A cross-generational summit between the legendary pianist  Marilyn Crispell (member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet and Reggie Workman Ensemble) and Midwest improvising trio of bass  clarinetist Jason Stein, bassist Damon Smith, and drummer Adam Shead delivers all the range and expressivity one would expect from such seasoned players. The concert captured on Live at the Hungry Brain moves organically from searing free jazz to contemplative, lyrical balladry, all of conceived in the urgency of the…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** The Indianapolis-born trumpeter Freddie Hubbard introduced his prodigious talent on Blue Note Records with a run of remarkable albums recorded thru the early 1960s. At first rooted firmly in hard bop, Hubbard began to broaden his approach on his masterwork Ready for Freddie, recorded in August 1961. “The way in which I’m most interested in going is Coltrane-like,” Hubbard told liner note writer Nat Hentoff. Hubbard had recorded with Coltrane earlier in the year o…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Despite having performed on several of the most revolutionary avant-garde jazz records of the 1960s, including Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz and John Coltrane’s Ascension, Freddie Hubbard’s own albums tended to hew closer to the mainstream. Perhaps no other single album captures the trumpeter’s awe-inspiring breadth of ability and versatility than Breaking Point!, which was recorded in May 1964 shortly after Hubbard had departed Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in orde…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** The intrepid free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor produced some of his best work for Blue Note Records, including his explosive 1966 label debut Unit Structures featuring Eddie Gale on trumpet, Jimmy Lyons on alto saxophone, Ken McIntyre on alto saxophone, oboe, and bass clarinet, Henry Grimes and Alan Silva on bass, and Andrew Cyrille on drums. Over the course of four extended original pieces by Taylor—“Steps,” “Enter, Evening,” “Unit Structure/As Of A Now/Section,” a…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Herbie Nichols was one of the most original pianists and composers in Jazz history. Blue Note founder Alfred Lion considered him to be as unique and important a voice as Thelonious Monk, another singular talent who Lion was the first to record a few years before he signed Nichols in 1955. Little-known during his lifetime, recognition has begun to grow in recent decades for Nichols’ incredibly hip, angular compositions, each of which were miniature marvels built w…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On April 29 and May 7, 1968, iconoclastic saxophonist Ornette Coleman brought a dynamic quartet with tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones into the studio to record what would yield his final two albums for Blue Note: New York Is Now! and Love Call. The alchemy of this group, which combined Coleman’s first-time two-saxophone pairing with a rhythm team deeply associated with John Coltrane, produced thrilling results.UHQ-CD…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Tony Williams Spring represents the drummer-composer at a crucial moment in his artistic trajectory. By 1965, Williams had already participated in landmark Blue Note sessions - Herbie Hancock's Empyrean Isles, Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch, Andrew Hill's Point Of Departure, Jackie McLean's One Step Beyond. Despite barely being in his twenties, he had already established himself as a musician capable of listening at the highest level, responding to ensemble dynamics …

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** On Life Time, Tony Williams upends expectations of a drummer’s debut, convening shifting ensembles that include Sam Rivers, Bobby Hutcherson, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Gary Peacock. Rather than a showcase of drum solos, the album is a series of explorations in texture, space, and form. Williams’ playing ranges from explosive to whisper‑soft, but always with an acute sense of placement: each cymbal stroke, roll, or accent is structural, not ornamental. The o…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Evolution documents Grachan Moncur III stepping out as a composer‑leader with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto, Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. The pieces blend post‑bop structures with freer approaches to metre and harmony, resulting in music that feels constantly tilted yet never topples. Moncur’s trombone leads themes that are by turns mournful, eerie, and boldly declamatory; the band responds with solos…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Destination... Out! sees Jackie McLean stepping decisively into less charted territory, flanked by Grachan Moncur III on trombone, Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Larry Ridley on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums. Moncur’s compositions stretch form and harmony to the point where the music hovers at the edge of abstraction while still clinging to memorable themes. McLean responds with heightened intensity; his alto lines slice through the ensemble’s cool, translucent textu…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** Volume 2 of At the “Golden Circle” finds Ornette Coleman, David Izenzon, and Charles Moffett pushing even further into the freedoms opened the night before. The pieces feel more expansive, the silences more charged, the interactions even bolder. Coleman’s improvisations unfold like stories without fixed endings, full of sudden turns that never break the underlying logic. Izenzon’s bass veers between bowed cries and elastic walking; Moffett’s drums slip from polyr…

** Special Time-Limited Offer ** The first volume of At the “Golden Circle”, Stockholm places Ornette Coleman’s alto saxophone in front of his stripped‑down trio with David Izenzon on bass and Charles Moffett on drums, in a snowy club where the microphones catch every spark. Free of a chording instrument, the group moves with startling elasticity: themes flash by and dissolve into collective improvisation where roles are fluid. Coleman’s tone is both keening and tender, capable of slicing throug…

Super tip! Holy ghost music. The real deal. The sound of four men tearing a hole in the fabric of what jazz was supposed to be and letting something else pour through - something ancient and raw and utterly new. In their short time together, Albert Ayler and Don Cherry created a body of music that genuinely exists in the moment. Oblivious to rules and aesthetic boundaries, they played what they felt on their nerve-ends, embracing mistakes and wrong turns as part of the experience of making art i…

*100 copies limited edition* "Ben Bekele does not exist. At least not the one I'm thinking of. It's a mix of memories and fantasies from the mid-80s when it was my father who visited Ethiopia, returning with two small drums, a couple of pictures and tons of tales. One of them was a story of a boy named Bekele, who taught him a traditional Ethiopian song. Father passed this song on to us, as best as he could - now I'm having doubts as to what the message is actually about - but back then I was fa…

We Release Jazz is very happy to announce the limited vinyl edition of Ill Considered's transcendent new live album Live in Jura, an expansive document of the trio's 2023 performance at Spiegelberg Festival - now available as a double LP with a bonus D-side, housed in a heavyweight sleeve with obi and an original artwork by Vincent de Boer. Captured in the heights of Saignelégier, Switzerland, in the middle of a pasture overlooking the Jura mountains, Live in Jura bottles the singular Ill Consid…

Thereupon is the long-anticipated return of the all-star collaborative trio Fieldwork, which has been described by NPR as a “power trio for the new century.” This long-standing collective comprises three internationally revered innovators of contemporary music: alto saxophonist-composer Steve Lehman, pianist-composer Vijay Iyer, and drummer-composer Tyshawn Sorey. In the seventeen years since their last recording, Door (Pi), all three musicians have climbed to the pinnacle of the creative music …

Ornette Coleman, who died in June 2015 from cardiac arrest, must be counted as one of the most influential musicians in the jazz genre. His importance does not only lie in his ground-breaking recordings in the late Fifties and early Sixties, but lies more significantly in the educational effect of his work – in the fact that he always went beyond himself to the very end. Just a little more than a month after his ground-breaking release "Free Jazz", Coleman recorded the present album, in which he…

Step into the wild heart of New York’s underground avant-garde jazz scene with Voyage from Jericho.

Talk Show is a new duo collaboration featuring Steph Richards on trumpets and resonating surfaces and Qasim Naqvi on drums, almglocken bells and modular synthesizer. Having worked together on other projects for almost two decades, Miss America, to be released by We Jazz Records on 21st November, marks their first, pure duo collaboration – a space to engage with a sonic language they’ve been cultivating together for years. The album was recorded live, with Qasim crafting real-time electronics and…

*150 copies limited edition*  The Belgian free jazz scene of the early 1970s remains criminally under-documented. While Fred Van Hove's participation in the legendary Machine Gun sessions (1968) with Peter Brötzmann, Han Bennink, and Evan Parker placed Antwerp on the international map, a wild ecosystem of temporary combos and performative madness flourished in the shadows. The WIM (Werkgroep Improviserende Musici) collective - founded in 1972 after Van Hove and saxophonist Cel Overberghe refused…

2005 release ** Cardboard sleeve. All 4 tracks are electro-acoustic improvisations that delight the ear through their unorthodox tones and unexpected turns. Noisy and mystifying sounds develop into subtle compositions while playful rhythms and dynamic drones invite the listener on a 45 minute journey into the extreme.

1996 release ** Gatefold caedboard sleeve with insert (no OBI). The title is a play on the non-existent word "gospelized." This is Ware's most overt attempt at acknowledging the influence of Albert Ayler, not only on his playing style, but also on his method of hearing and formation. Accompanied by drummer Susie Ibarra, pianist Matthew Shipp, and bassist William Parker, Ware digs deep into the church and the level of spiritual reality to be found there and creates his own sonic vision of how tha…

26 October 2024, an album comprising a live performance by the Creative Unit of Yosaburō Toyozumi, Namchirak Signho, and Masatsugu Harada with Senko Terukina and Kosei Yamamoto at Gallery Mai within the Mōri Residence in Hofu City, alongside recordings from Masatsugu Harada's studio in Kure City. The performance at Gallery Mai could be described as ‘a once-in-a-lifetime resonance carved in Hofu by masters of improvisation.

There are super groups, and then there are Supergroups.  This trio, comprised of three prolific journeymen improvisers whose work has been recognized across the globe, is neither.  This is a band of down-to-earth, hard-working musicians, whose focus and dedication to the music is exceptional.  That’s not to say that these three don’t have a combined CV that straddles a who’s who list of contemporary music across multiple scenes.  But their ethos is one that emanates from their midwestern locale …

*200 copies limited edition* "The contemporary Los Angeles jazz renaissance has a rich cast of characters. Among the most interesting are Dave Harrington, Billy Mohler, and Jay Bellerose, all established players with fascinating discographies. While these musicians are integral to the current L.A. jazz scene, they’ve traveled various pathways to their current destinations. Harrington is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, well-known as the guitarist for Darkside, who have recorded extensively …

Brooklyn pianist Eva Novoa joins saxophonist Daniel Carter and drummer Francisco Mela for the second volume of The Freedom Suite, a set of twelve pieces blending piano, Rhodes, harpsichord, gongs, and vocals with Carter's multi-reed brilliance and Mela's Cuban-inflected drumming, creating an urgent, intimate, and fluidly improvised dialogue of words, sound, and fearless imagination.

Two Rooms Records is excited to announce its tenth and most significant release yet, "Live on WUOM 1979" by Griot Galaxy. Nearly lost to history, this double-length release captures an extended radio performance by the seminal Afro-futurist jazz group, aka “The Sci-Fi Band,” featuring stunning versions of their classic repertoire circa 1979, in a compact, quartet setting. Known for mixing complex polyrhythms, polytonality and non-western scales with grooves and minimalist elements from popular m…

"When I came to New York City in 1975, after my second period in Paris, I felt as if I was starting again. I didn’t have a band at that time. The Black Artists Group had broken up, or separated—well, it wasn’t much of a “break-up,” but we had come to our musical end, even though one of the last groups I had before returning to New York was with BAG member Baikida Carroll playing trumpet, Peter Warren on bass, and Oliver Johnson on drums. I was basically by myself. I felt eager and anxious to see…

NoBusiness Records proudly presents Live at Charlie's Tap, a mesmerizing live album from the Bobby Naughton Trio that captures the raw, improvisational spirit of jazz in an intimate club setting. Recorded live at the renowned Charlie’s Tap, this release showcases the trio’s exceptional chemistry and profound musical dialogue. Bobby Naughton’s inventive vibraphone melodies intertwine seamlessly with the dynamic interplay of bass and drums, creating an immersive experience that transports listener…

NoBusiness Records proudly presents You, Full Of Sources And Night, an evocative new album by Ziv Taubenfeld / Helena Espvall / João Sousa. This extraordinary collaboration unites three innovative musicians whose distinct voices converge into an intricate tapestry of sound. Ziv Taubenfeld’s masterful saxophone textures weave seamlessly with Helena Espvall’s haunting cello melodies and João Sousa’s immersive electroacoustic landscapes. Together, they craft a richly layered sonic journey that expl…

Music for an Imaginary Ballet is both a creative landmark and a musical diary of Arkady Gotesman long and rich career spanning over three decades. In 2023, Arkady presented his solo project of the same title. This chamber solo performance reflects his entire creative path, bearing the deep imprints of every colleague he has ever worked with, and embracing all the artistic directions that have shaped him. In Music for an Imaginary Ballet, Arkady evokes not only reminiscences of his friends and co…

The album "The New Street In Old City" by December Thirty Jazz Trio, released in 1993, is recognized as an important jazz work. The trio consists of pianist Giorgio Occhipinti, bassist Giuseppe Guarrella, and drummer Francesco Branciamore. This album showcases their development of a unique sound and artistic expression in jazz, blending melody with freedom of improvisation. The music combines inventive concepts with intense yet clean melodic lines, making it compelling and a significant part of …

Giovanni Tommaso is the greatest Italian Jazz bassist and founder and member of the most important ever Italian Jazz Rock ensembles, the Perigeo band. Sonor entirely restored the full session from the original tapes found, and digitally remastered the sound for a greater sound experience, chasing the original analog source

Stirring with poetic force, Dark Days by Neil Charles sets the bass as both anchor and insurrection, channeling the spirit of James Baldwin into a contemporary jazz crucible. Here, searing improvisation and taut spoken word entwine, yielding an album that radiates both urgency and gravitas.

HobbyHouse is the self-titled debut album by the Berlin-based duo featuring Mia Dyberg (DK) on saxophone and Axel Filip (ARG) on drums. Rooted in avant-garde improvised jazz, HobbyHouse explores diverse musical structures and sonic playgrounds, crafting spontaneous compositions with a strong focus on timbral nuance and authenticity. The duo weaves these elements into vivid, evolving sound narratives that reflect their commitment to exploratory expression and creative immediacy.

"Whether Camila Nebbia is freely improvising or playing originals that toggle between poetic rumination and fiery blowing, she is all in. With "A reflection distorts over water" she’s formed one of the most febrile, elastic ensembles in a very prolific career, uniting with two of the strongest improvisers in the US: veteran pianist Marilyn Crispell and rising percussionist Lesley Mok. The new trio set up at Nevessa Studio without any prior rehearsal. They played Mok’s composition “Longing” while…

The Unseen Pact marks the first recorded encounter between percussionist Sofia Borges and saxophonist Ada Rave—a meeting shaped by fierce yet lyrical energy, and a shared commitment to spontaneous storytelling through sound. Borges and Rave move like co-conspirators in a ritual of fire and ether, navigating the space between control and surrender. Rave masterfully weaves narratives that evoke characters and shifting personalities—stories that unfold as she plays. Borges, in turn, bends time and …

Believe’s debut album ‘Spirits of the Dead are Watching’ is a potent statement from four of Australia’s most experienced and dedicated improvisers. A powerhouse unit of rare intimacy, flexibility and passion, Believe connects the spectrum of contemporary creative sound making with the fluid, anything is possible momentum of free jazz.

Asked to create a solo album, Adia started looking for a creative way to re-invent her solo saxophone music. Her new improvisations are inventive pieces which take advantage of the full range of her instrument and different playing techniques, but also the sounds of her surroundings in the unusual locations where she recorded – the echo of a silo, the clucking of a chicken coop, or passing cars. These sounds inspired the music, creating a dialogue with the environment.

NYC free jazz cooperative TEST was literally an underground favorite -- as part of the Music Under New York program in the 1990s, TEST was out on the street and subway platforms year-round, playing long-form unadulterated free jazz with an energy and creativity rarely encountered. Even on a scene known for strong personalities, these guys were renegade cats. Eremite heard and recorded TEST many, many times over a ten-year period; Always Coming from the Love Side, a two-CD set from TEST's 1999 US…