Jazz & Improvisation / Free Jazz

Recorded at the Choreographers’ Workshop in New York, 1963, Waaghals Records presents two songs from Sun Ra’s Continuation sessions on vinyl for the first time. Known for its lo-fi recording quality coupled with heavy use of echo and reverberation, the material recorded at the Choreographers’ Workshop holds a special place within the Sun Ra catalogue. This unique blend of avant-garde jazz and bold production methods is described as “low-budget musique concrete” by Sun Ra biographer John F. Szwed…

The second album of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s Knarr band is now ready for release on his own label Sonic Transmissions Records. The band that was first put together as a commissioned one-off project for the Vossa Jazz festival in 2021 has now become Håker Flaten’s main outlet as a bandleader and composer. Clearly something sparked putting the Vossa Jazz project together, and those of us who knew and had followed Håker Flaten for over three decades as a one of the finest musicians working within (…

Taking 2023’s critically-acclaimed collagist anti-opera Sovereign Bodies / Ritual Taxonomy (Diatribe Records) as its starting point, composer Jamie Thompson invited three open-eared improvisers, Stephen Davis (drums), John Pope (bass) and Sam Comerford (tenor saxophone) to join him (on piano and electronics) in entangling themselves not only with the textual and political themes of the record – migration, racist linguistic taxonomy, nationalism, Europe’s deadly borders policies – but with its po…

*2024 stock* Odd Jazz is a collaborative creation of Finnish musicians recorded at the all analog studio in Southern Finland, Hämeenlinna. On this album you find compositions performed by various music collectives in different formations with the unified goal to enrich their compound and give us listeners the delight of sharing their experience of the vast unknown. A feeling of unity is transmitted through the spiritual and mostly improvised idiom. The core members of Odd Jazz are Tuure Tammi (t…

*2024 stock* New York city based bassist and visual artist Josh Werner was awarded an artist in residence from The Cell Gallery located in New York NY. As a part of this residency which occurred in the month of July 2020, Josh presented various works in different mediums from visual art to music. In lue of the 2020 pandemic Josh was unable to present music to a live audience and instead offered a pre-recorded live performance to be aired at a later date. Werner was able to put together an ensemb…

RR Gems brings to you EEG Coherence. An album consisting of Devin Brahja Waldman - saxophone and keyboards, Sam Shalabi - guitar, Liam O’Neill - drums, Morgan Moore - bass, Janice Lowe - flute and voice, and Ala Dehghan - voice; with woodblock artwork by Ryock. For reference, EEG means electroencephalogram: a scientific test that measures electrical activity in the brain. When our right brain and left brain hook up, coherence is born. The third eye pops out. The mind and heart become one. As int…

*2024 stock* Organic Pulse Ensemble approaches adventures in fields of sound as a one-man band. It is music recorded, composed and mixed by Gustav Horneij. But don’t let this fact mislead you, because the way the artist is binding together rhythm, melody and textures is highly inspirational. It is singular but with a spiritual kinship and debt owed to the torchbearers of 60s and 70s independent jazz. Intellectually unpretentious ‘Formative Stages’ takes the listener on a voyage into an organic a…

*3rd repress* Jazz is not dead. Traditional and classic jazz disciplines have been alive and progressing perpetually throughout the ethers of the musical universe, for upwards of the past 70 years within the dispensation of recorded music history. Moreover, Jazz contains a multitude of sub-styles that outreach and influence enthusiasts of the genre via various sonic characteristics, shapes and forms. It is a genre which never negates the multitude of intricate musical preferences and gravitation…

Music produced by Freecall is based on improvisation with a variety of different aesthetic approaches: it explores elements of jazz, electronic music and the symphonic Avant Garde, maintaining aspects of Dadaism as what is produced in performance cannot possibly be repeated. Notions of time and sound are not seen as a means of creation but as autonomous mediums of a mosaic. 68 minutes of music is divided into two parts and 7 tracks, included is a 7 minute art video with music created for the spe…

*2024 stock* Recorded September 22, 2007 at Mylos (Xylourgeio), Thessaloniki, Greece in the context of the 5th meeting of jazz and creative music. Mastered September 28, 2008 at Royal Alzheimer Hall, Thessaloniki, Greece

Something About Livingis an album of live recordings by experimental jazz composer/multi-instrumentalist Robert Stillman. The music was captured over the course of Stillman's time as the solo support act for The Smile (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Tom Skinner). The album weaves excerpts from various theater and arena shows along the tour's North American routing into a seamless whole, creating a 40-minute program that represents an expanded version of Stillman's ever-transforming live set. Somet…

*200 copies limited edition. First repress* All compositions by Tahmela Six. Recorded on December 29, 2023, at Tahmela’s Villa, Tampere. Session produced and engineered by Jarno Alho

Primitive Art Group 1981-1986 is being released October 25, 2024. This gatefold 2xLP is a combination of the group’s only two albums, consisting of one LP of Five Tread cuts plus “Cecil Likes to Dance” a never-before-released live recording from Thistle Hall (1984) and the full 1985 LP Future Jaw-Clap. This material that has been unavailable since mid-1980s.

This third CD from the dynamic piano trio of Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches Smith is a delightful surprise--and one of Zorn's greatest achievements. Exploring a wide variety of tempi, moods, and feelings the compositions dive deeply into the parameters of melody, harmony, hythm, and texture, stretching the ballade format to its limits and beyond. The trio, three essential members of Zorn's inner circle, performs with passion, imagination, virtuosity, and a telepathic improvisational inte…

Tip! The second album from the high-caliber improvising trio Fictional Souvenirs captures a visceral meeting between three of improvised music’s most idiosyncratic, elusive figures. On Volatile Object Pat Thomas (piano and electronics), John Butcher (saxophones), and Ståle Liavik Solberg (durms) were recorded live at London’s Café Oto in January of 2023.

The Last Temple is a live recording of this extraordinary trio at the Alchemia in Krakow. Since the concert was quite long, we divided it into 3 formats: 1) The Last Temple vol. 1 - vinyl 9" EP 2) (this one) The Last Temple vol. 2 CD 3)The Last Temple vol. 3 vinyl 12" LP (180g black vinyl) The Trzaska, Haker Flaten, Nilsen Love trio played a concert tour in Poland in March 2024. A combination of one of the most famous sections of the world's intuitive jazz (e.g. The Thing) and one of the most fa…

Deluxe reissue edition. Restoration and digital transfer from original analogue tapes. 2LP - gatefold sleeve with LP size insert - 180g premium vinyl cut and pressed at Pallas in Germany. In recent times, a search of the Red Records archive led to the discovery of two quarter-inch tapes, believed to be blank. Upon closer examination, a single Sphere track was discovered on each of the reels. A remarkable discovery since, incredibly for such an important jazz group, the official recording legacy …

Deluxe reissue edition. Restoration and digital transfer from original analogue tapes. Reissue of a 1976 duo recording. The Quest is a live album by Sam Rivers on which he is accompanied by double bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul. It was recorded on March 12 and 13, 1976, during the Rassegna Internazionale Jazz at the Palazzo dello Sport in Milan, Italy, and was initially released later that year by Red Records.  The trio was active from 1972 until 1978,[and was influential in the…

The Last Temple is a live recording of this extraordinary trio at the Alchemia in Krakow. Since the concert was quite long, we divided it into 3 formats: 1) The Last Temple vol. 1 - vinyl 9" EP 2) The Last Temple vol. 2 CD 3) (this one) The Last Temple vol. 3 vinyl 12" LP (180g black vinyl) The Trzaska, Haker Flaten, Nilsen Love trio played a concert tour in Poland in March 2024. A combination of one of the most famous sections of the world's intuitive jazz (e.g. The Thing) and one of the most f…

"...How Time Passes... and Essence were issued at a time when jazz history was being made practically on a monthly basis. There are a few reasons why they became submerged in the tsunami of groundbreaking  albums released in the first years of the 1960s. For starters, Candid and Pacific Jazz simply did not have the  market clout of Atlantic, Impulse, and other labels. Furthermore, Don Ellis’ music differed significantly from that of the avatars of free jazz, occupying a space between contemporar…

Propulsion is the debut album by a stellar quartet of journeymen Chicago improvisers assembled by saxophonist and Aerophonic Records founder Dave Rempis. Vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz is known for his extensive work with the late Peter Brötzmann, Hamid Drake, Mike Reed, and his own trio Sun Rooms. Bassist Joshua Abrams is the leader of Natural Information Society, perhaps the best-known group internationally to emerge from Chicago over the last decade. He also maintains longstanding relationship…

*200 copies limited edition* Akira Sakata is a treasure of Japan’s free jazz/improvised music world. Rie Nakajima is a London-based sound artist with an international career in Europe and beyond. Sakata and Nakajima have performed together in Japan and other countries since the mid-2010s. When Nakajima came to Japan for a time in 2023, the two appeared at Ftarri, Tokyo, on December 4, performing two duo sets. Sakata, on alto sax and clarinet, forgoes ferocious sound-making and plays with calm el…

Big Tip!  180 gram Vinyl Edition. Gatefold Cover. One of the last records made by avant sax legend Albert Ayler – a really mind-expanding album that's unlike anything else he ever did! By the time of the record, Ayler had made a full round trip between the New York and European jazz scenes – leaving important influences wherever he went, and trying desperately to pick up new ones the further he moved on. Here, he's working in a style that's a bit like that of Archie Shepp at the time – still ste…

Before Don Cherry appeared in Ornette Coleman's quartet, the band's trumpeter was Bobby Bradford. Responsibility for his family dissuaded him from his career as a nomadic musician. It's a well-known story, but it's hard not to wonder "what would have happened if Bradford had stayed in New York and continued to create with Coleman?" This thought is even more intriguing when we learn that the marriage, which dominated the development of the young musician, broke up in 1970.I like to think that if …

We have a special relationship with Ivo Perelman, so when his latest trio with Cuban-born and hugely respected pianist Aruan Ortiz and Spanish-born but French-based friend of our label Ramon Lopez finally came about, we felt that their first studio meeting had to be in our catalog. Their first album, Ephemeral Shapes, was recorded in Catalonia's Rosazul studio under the delectable ear of Ferran Conangla himself. We are all the more pleased that the band has entered the roster of the famous Akamu…

One of the most brilliant contemporary improvisers playing the recorder, Dominik Strycharski is not the first time he has appeared on recordings in our catalog. An album featuring him came out nearly a decade ago, Myriad Duo, recorded with bass guitar virtuoso Rafal Mazur, sometime later a solo recital Flauto Dolphy, dedicated to the music of the great Eric Dolphy. And then October Suite, a disc documenting the anniversary concert of the RGG formation, during which Dominik was a special guest al…

Udo Schindler is truly a man of many talents. He was a rock musician, an educated architect, a pretty well-educated instrumentalist, and a virtuoso playing clarinets, saxophones and flutes. His extensive activity in the field of art includes composition, improvisation and live performance, and in each of these areas Udo Schindler has gained a reputation as a deep-thinking explorer and expert. This resulted in collaborations with musicians such as Hubert Bergmann, Gerry Hemingway, Eddie Prévost, …

2024 stock. The energetic somersault greeting us on the debut of Danish born Trondheim based saxophone player and band leader Amalie Dahl’s Dafnie is a heads up for this fresh breath of air that Dafnie represents. The quintet colour out Dahl’s strong, melodic compositions with playfulness and convincing weight. What we hear is harmonic yet avant-garde, with references to both old school free jazz and modern contemporary reed-leaded bands. But be not in doubt - Dafnie is something of its own.The …

*200 copies limited edition. 2024 stock* This release is an orchestral expansion of the vocabulary of The Hatch. The duo work of Desprez and Rasmussen extrapolating into two local scenes in Texas. A co-release with Astral Spirits from Austin, Texas.Pressing off only 200 copies! Beautiful gatefold double LP with artwork by Jaime Zuverza!

Šalter Ensemble operates on the border between free improvisation and composition, focusing on collective processes as a central part of its practice. The project is an international electro-acoustic ensemble initiated in 2017 by Jonas Kocher in collaboration with Zavod Sploh Ljubljana and Izlog Festival Zagreb, and has since performed at numerous venues and festivals in Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Switzerland and Serbia.The ensemble consists of outstanding personalities from the Swiss music scen…

2024 stock. The album Entschlummern sollst du, sollst entschlummern (engl.: Thou shall slumber, slumber, shall thou) brings us the first ever released recordings of four string quartets by Frieda Bertelsohn Martholdy (1878 -1907), a composer yet unknown to most of us. The first listening makes undoubtedly clear what an original voice as a composer and what an astonishing achievement from the performers we are witnessing here. Frieda Bertelsohn Martholdys thoroughly modern sounding music fluently…

Recorded live on 25th February 1979, Teatro Cristallo, Milan, Italy. Second of two performances. Previously unreleased. Stereophonic sound. Elton Dean - saxophones, Keith Tippett - piano,  Harry Miller - double bass, Louis Moholo-Moholo - drums.  All tracks composed by Elton Dean. Original event organised by Riccardo Bergerone. Very special thanks to: Marino Dean, Roberto Ottaviano, Sergio Balletti, Carlo Verri, Aymeric Leroy. Executive producer: Riccardo Bergerone. Restored and produced by Matt…

The Derek Bailey transcription were performed at the Holywell music room in October 2005 as part of a concert organised by Fran Ryan, who wanted to hear me playpiano in a more composed setting. I agreed to play music based on Derek Bailey’s early recordings and brilliantly transcribed by Chris Burn, which he had sent me, I was inter-ested in the challenge and the obvious contradiction of performing free improvisationsas compostions, especially Derek’s, knowing his view on the use of transcriptio…

South African born and raised pianist/bandleader Chris McGregor formed the racially mixed Blue Notes in the early 1960's, touring and trying to get by in extremely difficult political circumstances as best they could. By 1964, facing continuous government harassment, Chris & the Blue Notes fled their South African homeland, finally settling in London in 1966. They made a huge impact on London's jazz scene and befriended many in London's emerging avant-garde jazz community. By 1969, the Blue Note…

Featuring Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, Satoko Fujii on piano & compositions, Takeharu Hayakawa on electric bass and Tatsuya Yoshida (from RUINS!) on drums & voice. What I find most fascinating about this quartet is that although Satoko & Natsuki come from a mostly diverse jazz background, those crazed Ruins dudes have created their own progressive/punk world. Quite an odd combination of extremes which grows stronger with each disc by challenging each member and the audience as well. Once more Sato…

Two gigs by a loose ensemble of nomads, hybrids, tech-heads and agitators gravitating around Porto, Portugal. ANTIFLUFFY is the pop cousin of Autodigest, both dedicated to a critique of the current culture of entertainment and the paradoxical labyrinths of late consumerism. While Autodigest takes the cerebral, strategic route, Antifluffy gets down and dirty, visceral in the face of fluff. Whether disemboweling magnetic tape or analogue photographs, delivering impassioned manifestos or crooning a…

Tip! The trio of Japanese Saxophone legend Akira Sakata with the scandinavian rhythm section presents already his fifth album! While the trio was on a Japan tour in 2019, Sakata arranged for a handful of special collaborations, with some of Japan’s most important artistic figures. Featuring the avantgarde dancer Min Tanaka, the pianist Yuji Takahashi and a heavyweight veteran of Japanese experimental music - drummer Takeo Moriyama. Moriyama was playing with Sakata in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio an…

*2024 stock* The new ONJQ (Otomo Yoshihide New Jazz Quintet), with new members Shinpei Ruike (Tp) and Osamu Imagome (Tb), will release their first album, "Hat and Beard," featuring a selection of songs and edits from live recordings from their 2018 tour. Mixed & mastered by Soichiro Nakamura (Peace Music). Includes songs by Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and Wayne Shorter, plus self covers and new originals, for a total of 6 songs over 70 minutes.

“Between 1974-77 Elaine Brown led the Black Panther Party, the 1st and only woman to do so. Seize The Time is a curiously elegiac and somber affair. Five of the tracks also features arrangements written by pianist/composer Horace Tapscott and performed by the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra” A milestone of the Black music movement, originally released on Vault in 1969. The debut album of Elaine Brown was arranged by piano player and composer Horace Tapscott, conducting the Californian Pan-Afrikan P…

Frank Heer about idea of triple LP At Low Noon set up by founder of Chuchchepati Orchestra, double bass player and improviser Patrick Kessler: ‘Patric Kessler is not afraid to stare death into the eyes. Twelve times in June 2020, he challenged people to a duel, although dueling has been outlawed in Switzerland since 1937.But no fear! Patrick Kessler, challenged his opponents, who arrived by train and were armed with an instrument, solely musically.When the train arrived at 12:12 noon each day, P…