Jazz /
The Unseen Pact
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 …
Spirits Of The Dead Are Watching
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.
Taking Place
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.
Always Coming From The Love Side
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…
Live In Foggia
Recorded in Italy in 1985, this is a valuable record of a unique trio playing at the very top of their game. Larry Stabbins, after years of playing with many of the greatest improvising musicians of the 60s and 70s (John Stevens, Chris McGregor, Keith Tippett, Mike Westbrook, Tony Oxley etc) had recently exploded onto the pop world with the bands Weekend and Working Week and was quite famous in Italy. Not to be outdone, Louis Moholo-Moholo turned up to this gig in full ‘warpaint’ and all three p…
Live at the Swing Club Torino Italy
"Although alto saxophonist Noah Howard never quite managed to garner the reputation that several of his more well-known playing partners did, to those 'in the know', he was every bit as essential and extraordinary as Archie Shepp and Albert Ayler. A player and composer of direct and emotionally charged music, Howard's career saw him bear witness to some of the most tumultuous periods in jazz, giving voice to the cry for freedom – both musical and political – that characterised the late 1960s and…
st
Instrumental Smoothie. What is Grid? is: sax, bass, drums. Recorded @ boto's Farm by Alberto "Boto" Dutto on August 2024.
Every Dog Has Its Day But It Doesn't Matter Because Fat Cat Is Getting Fatter
This is Mr. Mat Walerian's fourth album as a leader, all on ESP-Disk'. He also appears in the Matthew Shipp Quartet on the album Sonic Fiction (ESPDISK 5018CD, 2018). Credits: Mat Walerian - alto saxophone, bass clarinet, soprano clarinet, flute; Matthew Shipp - piano; William Parker - double bass, shakuhachi; Hamid Drake - drums, percussion. Recorded May 21, 2018 at Parkwest Studios, Brooklyn, New York. Produced by Steve Holtje.
Winter Garden
From the producer's liner notes: "It is an interesting question how old 'free jazz' is. At some point, even a theme and a plan became optional. In the ESP-Disk' catalog, 'Taneou' on the Giuseppi Logan Quartet's eponymous album sounds like this approach of complete freedom starting from scratch; it was recorded on November 11, 1964. Joe McPhee, in 1967, appeared on Clifford Thornton's album Freedom and Unity, so his recording career covers 53 of those 56 years, 95% of the approach's history. Each…
Karel Velebny SHQ (PF 69)
In February, 1968, as the false Spring of hope was rising in occupied Czechoslovakia, ESP instructed Karl Velebny to record his group of improvisers during their upcoming tour of Germany. In April, 1968, the clandestine project was completed. Karel survived a terrible auto crash and sent photographs to ESP, which were utilized on the LP cover as a symbolic reference to the plight of the Czech people. A must for anyone interested in European jazz and the history of its relationship with the '60s …
Music From Europe
Recorded in Baarn, Holland on December 21st, 1966, Music From Europe was a strong statement of European free jazz from one of its first and strongest leaders, Gunter Hampel. Over the beautifully structured compositional suites are strong blowing and improvising by both reedmen (Hampel, Breuker) and the elastic rhythm section (Veening, Courbois).
Barrage
Paul Bley recorded the compositions of Carla Bley with a quintet that included Eddie Gomez, on the evening of October 20, 1964, at Mirasound Studios, with Alfy Wade as engineer. His group included Milford Graves, Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra, and Dewey Johnson.
In Search Of The Mystery
In Search of the Mystery, Gato Barbieri’s debut album as leader, was recorded March 15, 1967, on the heels of his work on Don Cherry’s famed Blue Note recordings: Complete Communion and Symphony for Improvisers. This avant-jazz masterpiece from the Argentine tenor saxophonist shows off his volatile, shrieking sound to full and unrelenting affect, fueled by the twin interweaving strings of cellist Calo Scott and bassist Norris Jones (Sirone) and Bobby Kapp’s impressionistic drum splatter. Recorde…
Hard Vibe
2025 stock Talibam! delights in creating music that cannot be pinned down within the safe-spaces of existing genres. With each new album, Talibam! reinvent their methodological palette in order to bolster a fresh clarity of joyous auditory surprise, something their fans have come to depend on. Talibam! focus on compositional clarity, with reverence for their diverse interest in genre. On Hard Vibe, they push the pulse of motorik rhythm through a psychedelic jazz filter. This time out, they have …
For Sepp (Selections From The Edgar Allan Poe Suite)
Over the course of five decades, the legendary Austrian free jazz collective Reform Art Unit (and their offshoot groups) have collaborated with countless musicians, including Don Cherry, Carla Bley, Evan Parker, and Jim Pepper. Documented collaborations with free jazz notables include Impressions (Kovarik's Musikothek, 1978) with Anthony Braxton and Clifford Thornton; Subway Performances (Granit, 1994) and Illumination (InRespect, 1995) with Sunny Murray; and With Milo Fine (Granit, 1999). Milo …
Obliquity
2025 stock Obliquity is a free jazz record, if you'll forgive the use of such a hoary, old fashioned phrase. Its scorching, heads-down momentum, rhythm and drive places it in direct line of descent from the fierce originators of the genre: Ayler, Sanders, Graves, Frank Wright. It also swings. At times it dances.
Obliquity is a free jazz record through the prism of the improvisational movement in Europe, though. This is no attempt at polite revivalism or looking back/up to the 1960s. Wilkinson/Ed…
3 Of A Kind (Live At Iklectik)
2025 stock The trio of Wilkinson, Edwards and Noble continue to plot their course ever outward and ever upward. These new songs, recorded in South London at that wonderful performance space - at the heart of the improve scene here at this moment - Iklectik , are the very beating heart of improvised music. It’s not that they are good, or even representative – such relative terms fail to express the continuum of which these sounds are a key part. This is music that evades the strictures of scienti…
Mama Too Tight
Originally released in 1967, Mama Too Tight stands as one of the most daring and structurally innovative albums from Archie Shepp, a pivotal figure in the free jazz movement and African-American cultural protest of the 1960s. Distinct from his more explosive works, this album showcases a refined compositional complexity, featuring avant-garde marching-band-style arrangements, masterful horn orchestrations, and a unique blend of humor and improvisational tension.
The title track, Mama Too Tight, …
Let the Spirit Out/Live at 'Mu' London
Big tip! This is it! Chicago spiritual jazz master Kahil El'Zabar delivers one of the most powerful live recordings in recent memory! Captured over two unforgettable nights at "mu" in London - July 15th & 16th, 2024 - this is music as ancient ritual, as communion, as healing force. El'Zabar created new material specifically for these performances, alongside reimagined arrangements of classics like Wayne Shorter's "Footprints", Gershwin's "Summertime", and Duke Ellington & Juan Tizol's "Caravan".…
Seeing the Way the Mole Tunnels
Seeing the Way the Mole Tunnels by James McKain, Damon Smith and Weasel Walter immerses listeners in an unmediated environment of spontaneous improvisation, where baritone saxophone, double bass and percussion fuse into a dense lattice of collision, momentum and subterranean drift. Their interplay balances volatility, swift exchange and the elusive logic of movement beneath the surface.