Jazz & Improvisation / Free Jazz

*2024 stock* Lovely 1972 solo work by one of the most influential European avant-garde pianists of the last half-century; a player whose improvisational flexibility puts him in the same league as Cecil Taylor, but whose ability to concentrate at moments and knowledge of jazz history make him much more remarkable! One of Alexander Von Schlippenbach's finest albums; it's beautiful all the way through, with an unfaltering inventiveness that occasionally leads to Monkish moments or Herbie Nichols wh…

This is Texas-born tenor sax giant Billy Harper captured on tour in Europe in 1979. Mr Harper's gorgeous tone drives a highly energetic quintet featuring a young Fred Hersch on piano, Everett Hollins on trumpet, Louie "Mbiki" Spears on bass and Horace Arnold on drums. Billy Harper's seminal masterpiece, which gained more widespread recognition in the 70s, is a scorching and powerful record that exudes righteousness from start to finish. At this stage of his career, Billy has developed a strong c…

*2024 stock* Chico Freeman wrote all the originals and arranged it for the septet. The music is an excellent documentation of what was going on in Chicago during the avant-garde period. The tunes and performances make challenging and rewarding listening. It is now thirty three years since this important, pioneering recording was made and it a testament to it's value that the music has matured so well and to this day remains vital, challenging and fresh. Chico Freeman - tenor & soprano saxophone,…

*2024 stock* One of the major statements in the history of Jazz and African American liberation movements. Originally released in 1960 on Candid Records, Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite consists of five original compositions and performances staging and celebrating different moments and aspects of the African American history and culture. Here is a wonderful cast of musicians reunited around Max Roach – drums and Abbey Lincoln – vocals. Throughout the album you can find great contributions from th…

*2024 stock* "I think we've created something that can be called 'Japanese jazz.' I want to take it to the world." With these words, Oki Itaru left Japan in 1974. This album is a live recording of a concert he held just before leaving for France. The sound, which is filled with the achievements he had made up to that point and his determination for the future, is still vivid when listened to today. This album captures one of Oki's peaks.

*2024 stock* Recorded live in Australia in 1977 by the Revolutionary Ensemble, the famous loft jazz unit formed by violinist Leroy Jenkins, bassist Sirone, and drummer Jerome Cooper. This is the only Enya disc by these three exciting and unique members of the New York loft scene!

*2024 stock* A solo performance by Cecil Taylor at the peak of his powers at a jazz festival in Austria in 1976. The insane keyboard rampaging that he performed with devilish concentration is only possible with the genius Taylor, who has reached a height that no one else can reach! This is the Cecil Taylor of the 70's!

*2024 stock* Dark to Themselves is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival, Yugoslavia, on June 18, 1976, and released on the Enja label. The album features Taylor on piano with alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, tenor saxophonist David S. Ware, trumpeter Raphe Malik, and drummer Marc Edwards. (The album documents the only occasion on which Ware and Edwards recorded with Taylor.) The original LP release presented the music in edited form, while the CD reissue contains the…

*2024 stock* Enja has released the live recordings of Masahiko Sato, one of the most famous pianists in Japan, at a broadcasting station in Germany in 1971, and this is a rare item that has only been released on CD once in the past in 1992.The performance by Sato, who came to Munich in 1971 at the invitation of Horst Weber of Enja, Peter Warren on bass, and Pierre Fabre on drums is truly a triumvirate of greatness!

*2024 stock* Cecil McBee, the famous bass player behind many great recordings, teamed up with Don Moye, Steve McCall and Dennis Moorman's black jazz rhythm in 1977 to inspire Joe Gardner, Chico Freeman and others on this white-hot hidden black jazz masterpiece! First CD release in Japan!

*2024 stock* The Yamashita Trio on tour in Germany in 1975 had a miraculous encounter with free improv genius Manfred Shcoof! This is a too hot live recording of the live performance with Yosuke Yamashita, Akira Sakata, Takeo Moriyama, and Manfred Schoof, who responded aggressively with their whole heart and soul!

In this quartet Amado gathers three of his strongest longtime influences: German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, Norwegian double bass player Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and American drummer Gerry Hemingway. For Amado this band represents a deep dive into his own formative roots, something he hasm been dealing with more and more in these last few years. With Schlippenbach, Håker Flaten and Hemingway by his side, Amado has the perfect context to explore the classic materials he considers to be th…

*2024 stock* Altoist John Tchicai, who has made his name on numerous free jazz sessions, including Archie Shepp's New York Contemporary Five and John Coltrane's Ascension, in a duo with Polish stunning bass player Witold Lek. Spiritual session!

*2024 stock* The Flying Dutchman's second album, which shifted from the free jazz of the 60s to the passionate jazz sound of the 70s. As the title suggests, this is a popular work that combines hot brooding and melancholy with burning Latin blood. A Japanese version was also released at the time and is one of the most popular.

*2024 stock* Gato Barbieri is an Argentine jazz musician who won a Grammy Award as musical director for the film Last Tango in Paris. The Flying Dutchman's debut album, produced by Bob Seale, boldly incorporates elements of South American music.

*2024 stock* Takashi Kako, who immersed himself in "the world of improvised music, where composition and performance progress instantaneously" while studying in Paris, recorded this album live on his temporary return to Japan in 1976. It is the culmination of this period, a dense and intense performance.

*2024 stock* Chaos and impulse! The impact of the moment when Japanese rock and jazz was born. Finally, the treasured sound sources from the Late 60's - a period that the whole world craves for - have been released. Recorded with the latest remastering from film music tapes left over from Koji Wakamatsu's films!

*2024 stock* The epic free jazz of the first Yosuke Yamashita Trio and the bleak singing of Rie Yokoyama. Includes a total of five tracks, including the film's opening 'Here's a Quiet Frontline', 'Umitsubame ver II', which features rare singing accompaniment by the Yosuke Yamashita Trio, and the Yosuke Yamashita Trio's performance during and at the end of the film, plus Koji Wakamatsu's story 'I am Koji Wakamatsu! is included.

2024 stock. Legendary downtown music master Daniel Carter meets Tobias Wilner from world-renowned electronic band Blue Foundation. Featuring Wu-Tang Clan bass player Djibril Toure & drum wiz Federico Ughi. As a band, they have played a number of concerts in NYC, including the Forward Festival 2016 and 2018, and are currently promoting their debut album. This group is the ultimate mix between the classic New York sound of the avant-garde (i.e., John Coltrane & Albert Ayler) combined with electron…

*2024 stock* "Prophecies Come to Pass is the debut recording of Sabir Mateen's compositions by his group The Shapes, Textures, and Sound Ensemble. Recorded live in Brooklyn in September 2005, the CD was edited by Mateen and Swell and mastered under Mateen's direction. It's dedicated to the late great Raphe Malik, who at one time played with the group. The ensemble is composed of an impressive roster of creative musicians: Mateen on saxophones, flute, and clarinets; Matt Lavelle on trumpet, fluge…

2024 stock. Iconic downtown sax player Sabir Mateen, together with up-and-coming Texan clarinetist Patrick Holmes and drum wiz Federico Ughi, celebrate the cosmic dimensions of creative music via their new album Survival Situation.The three musicians have collaborated in the past, in New York, in different projects but never as a trio. This time they met in a recording studio in Tuscany, Italy, not far from where Sabir Mateen has been living for the last few years. They freely improvised, then t…

2024 stock. Shifa, from the Arabic word for healing, is a new trio born out of old musical partnerships from the ever-shifting sands of the UK improvised music scene. Pat Thomas, pianist extraordinaire whose eclectic motherboard pushes the music in unexpected twists and turns, suggested the name. The healing, in this case, is a raw, unfettered musical space where he, saxophonist Rachel Musson and drummer Mark Sanders meet and make music in the moment, of the moment. Each player values the others…

2024 stock. The trio pays homage to legendary pianist Paul Bley, drawing on both his tunes and improvisational approach. Bley’s music encompassed latin-inspired grooves, deceptively simple and catchy melodies, as well as freer improvisations. His willingness to collaborate openly with European improvisers as well as being part of the American tradition was an attractive template to follow.Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash and Tony Orrell grew up in the UK with the children’s tv series Play School and whe…

*250 copies limited edition* "Play" is a set of 100 cards with instructions for ensembles of any size and instrumentation. The individual instructions vary from precise (two contrasting sounds, a very long sound) to vague (something funny, thinking of something you smell), sometimes requiring a high degree of interpretation. The release combines two excellent recordings of the piece: one including the composer himself with a group of Israeli musicians, the other introducing an ensemble around th…

2024 Stock. Modern Silence present the first ever reissue of Archie Shepp/Lars Gullin Quintet's The House I Live In, originally released in 1980. An incredible live album featuring saxophonists Archie Shepp and Lars Gullin, recorded at the Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen, Denmark on November 21, 1963. 180 gram, virgin vinyl; Edition of 500."This is a fascinating release. Tenor-saxophonist Archie Shepp would not burst upon the U.S. avant-garde scene until 1964-65 but here he is featured at a Dan…

Historic 1969 Paris session by the american saxophonist-vocalist-intellectual who conveys his deep anguish at the loss of a civil rights icon.

Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation is an album by the jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman. It was released through Atlantic Records in September 1961: the fourth of Coleman's six albums for the label. Its title named the then-nascent free jazz movement.  About Ornette! Brian Olewnick commented that Coleman is found "plumbing his quartet music to ever greater heights of richness and creativity," concluding that the album was "a superb release and a must for all fans of Coleman and cr…

Rising Experimental Sax Player Ayumi Ishito Brings Her Quintet to 577 Records, Releasing First Album with the Label.

*2024 stock* Are you ready for magic? The master musicians Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Gerald Cleaver will provide access with this album, the first they have released after playing together for decades. Daniel Carter has been collaborating with William Parker since the early 70s and with Matthew Shipp starting in the mid 80s. This trio has played together on many recordings but by adding legendary drummer Gerald Cleaver to the mix they have created a masterpiece combination…

*2024 stock* Can music liberate us? Francisco Mela, who worked and partnered with the legendary jazz musician McCoy Tyner, believes so. On this album, the second volume of Music Frees Our Souls, Mela collaborates with pianist Cooper-Moore and bassist William Parker to build a 2-part extended track project of advanced dialogue between 3 of the genre's most important instruments. Tyner was well-known for his boundless musical talent, and perhaps best-known for playing in John Coltrane’s quartet, w…

*2024 stock* Before any instrumentation, Francisco Mela addresses his fellow musicians, pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker, with a sense of anticipation and affirmation, “Okay guys, ready? Rolling!” The sense of camaraderie and his artist-focused approach is heard throughout the album’s majestic improvisation—as well as in its inspiration, dedicated to Mela’s longtime musical partner, the legendary jazz musician McCoy Tyner. Tyner was well-known for his boundless musical talent, an…

The New Album by Francisco Mela and Zoh Amba 'Causa y Efecto, Vol. 2' is a celebration of differences and unity. Creativity in general and experimental music in particular can serve as a conduit to the inner soul of its creators, a kind of spiritual path that goes two ways and allows a deeper understanding also of ourselves. It's a light projecting the humanity of the players that simultaneously reflects the creator and the humanity in all of us. The vulnerability of the artists and what they se…

It's unreleased Oxley & Stabbins & Sirone & Thomas & Schoof!

Pedal steel innovator Susan Alcorn combines Chilean folk and nueva canción with free improvisation and contemporary classical on breathtaking new album.

"The Recursive Tree features a rather remarkable trio consisting of John Blum on piano, tenor-saxophonist David Murray, and Chad Taylor on drums. Although the three musicians had never before recorded together, they sound very much like a working trio. The title is inspired by a concept in mathematics that explains the architecture in nature arising from systematic growth over time. This algorithmic expression also illustrates the growth of Jazz through the art form’s incremental expansion of id…

"After discovering the unique hand-wringing style of guitarist Christy Doran on Red Twist & Tuned Arrow, I was excited to check out this seemingly neglected record, for which he was again joined by drummer Fredy Studer, only this time, intriguingly enough, with two bassists: Bobby Burri and Olivier Magnenat. Burri is a familiar name in the ECM circuit, having shared stages with Pierre Favre, Manfred Schoof, and Tim Berne, and of course as a member of OM (also with Doran and Studer). Burri, it be…

Collaborators for two decades, Marcia Basssett (guitar) and Samara Lubelski (violin) play electric improvisation. This is their 8th duo release and first on CD and streaming.

This is the first collaboration between Australian improvisor Chloë Sobek who plays the Renaissance precursor to the double bass, the violone and New York saxophonist Time Berne.

CD digipack "Why would I sing in French? I have Breton culture, I speak Breton, I live in Brittany, and the Breton language is the language of this country..." So explained Kristen Noguès, of whom this is the first of the (rare) albums that she recorded Marc'h Gouez, is a fabulous voyage in space on each listening. Noguès learned the Breton language as a child, at the same time as the Celtic harp, -- taking lessons with Denise Mégevand, who would go on to teach others, notably Alan Stivell. At t…

Reissue, originally released in 1971. Solaire, Siegfried Kessler, that is the least you can say! Aged four: learns piano. Aged six: his first concert. After this: studies classical music like everyone else... until the jazz of Jack Diéval and Stan Kenton turned everything upside down. So, it was goodbye to Bach... And hello to Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Ted Curson, and Archie Shepp (who he would accompany over a long period). In 1969, with Yochk'o Seffer, Didier Levallet, and Jean-My Truong, …