Jazz & Improvisation / Jazz-Rock

Tom Penaguin returns with Tom Penaguin II, a compelling new album that expands on the sound, spirit, and identity established in his previous work. Confident yet exploratory, the record captures an artist moving forward without losing sight of what makes his music distinctive. Across the album, Tom Penaguin blends atmosphere, melody, and emotional depth into a collection of tracks that feels both intimate and expansive. Tom Penaguin II is a record shaped by contrasts: reflective moments meet bur…

A precursor to the New York All Stars project, this album was one of the earliest overseas recording ventures by the then up-and-coming sound creator Jun Fukamachi, and stands as a landmark work that helped define the dawn of J-Fusion. The New York sessions featured Randy and Michael Brecker, as well as the late Anthony Jackson. Representing Japan were an exceptional lineup of musicians, led by Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami, who plays drums on every track, alongside Kazumi Watanabe, Rei Ohara, Akira …

Reissue of Hiroshi Suzuki’s glorious jazz-fusion-funk Holy Grail Cat. Cat was recorded in October 1975 at at Nippon Columbia Studio, while Hiroshi Suzuki was visiting his home country of Japan after moving to Las Vegas in 1971 to play with Buddy Rich and perfect his craft. Back on his old stomping grounds, the man known as Neko (Cat) immediately reunited with his dear friends for an epic two day session of groove magic. The chemistry was still intact. The skills and style had grown. The result, …

*2023 repress* Caz Plak İstanbul proudly presents Okay Temiz's Oriental Wind - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival 1982 LP. A fantastic cocktail of Turkish Jazz which has unique rhythm sections like 9/8 , 7/8 , Anatolian Rock and Funk. Okay Temiz perfectly demonstrates the immersive layers of Turkish music. Never before released until now, a Turkish Jazz Magnum Opus is unearthed in collaboration between Istanbul-based Caz Plak and Montreux Jazz Festival. The performance by Okay Temiz's "Oriental Wind…

Huge Tip! Never before released recording of the Sensational and Banned Turkish Theater Play by James Baldwin and Engin Cezzar, Istanbul 1970. Licensed by Gökhan Akçura, author of Engin Cezzar's autobiography, who was personally entrusted with the original master tape by Engin Cezzar. "One of the most shocking and daring plays staged in Turkish theaters was banned by the Istanbul Governorship on February 7, 1970. The ban on the play, which was watched by 30,000 people in 60 days, did not last lo…

The Munich band Embryo was founded in 1969. "Opal" was her first album. Released on the OHR label in 1970. The band led by Christian Burchard (2018) combined numerous genres into one huge crossover project. Jazz rock, folk, blues, soul, contemporary music, and world music. Even if "Opal" doesn't sound as perfect as later recordings, the album is considered to be very influential. Embryo themselves describe their style as follows: Pop music is the appropriate level of communication for Embryo, ju…

New vinyl edtition as part of the "Luminessence" Series, presented as a tip-on gatefold including new photos from the archive. “I personally feel this is a great record and recommend it to everyone. It’s positive and hot and simply excellent.” – Gary Burton   Pat Metheny had debuted at ECM as a member of Gary Burton’s band on the album Ring in 1974, but Bright Size Life, his first studio recording as a leader, was the album that decisively put him on the map as a bright new force, with something…

2025 much needed repress!! Since its formation in 1969, Soul Media had been advocating a fusion of jazz and rock. The next step along that line was this album, In the Groove, recorded in 1973. The sharpness of jazz is brought to the forefront, with rock melting in to give it an edge, and funk injected to imbue it with power and resilience. The result was a strong, sophisticated, and simply "cool music" that could not be categorized within existing genres such as jazz rock, jazz funk, or fusion. …

An adventurous instrumental jazz-rock fusion album that captures the free-form chemistry between keyboardist Howard Wales and guitarist Jerry Garcia. The record blends jazz improvisation, psychedelic rock, blues, funk, and progressive influences into fluid, exploratory compositions driven by Wales' inventive keyboard work and Garcia's expressive, melodic guitar playing. Supported by musicians including John Kahn, Bill Vitt, and Martin Fierro, the album emphasizes spontaneous interplay over conve…

“Memories of a Loser” presents Juan Belda & The Bit Band at their most focused and fully realized. Blending jazz, rock, electronics and experimental composition, the album refines the core elements that have defined the project into a more cohesive and direct musical statement. The result is a record that moves with clarity while preserving its exploratory edge. Structured compositions and open passages coexist naturally throughout the album, driven by a strong sense of atmosphere and interplay …

La rueda infinita de Hans continues the exploration initiated by Juan Belda & The Bit Band, expanding their language through a conceptually structured and musically ambitious work. The album brings together a stable ensemble of outstanding musicians from the worlds of jazz and experimental music: Jorge Pardo, Enrico Barbaro, Juanjo Ortí and Epi Lorente. Their collective virtuosity shapes a sound that moves freely between composition and improvisation, precision and openness. Throughout the recor…

With No encuentro la tónica, Juan Belda & The Bit Band push their musical language further into unpredictable territory. The album unfolds as a restless and multifaceted work where jazz, experimental rock and electronic textures intersect freely. Rather than following a fixed stylistic path, the music constantly shifts perspective, moving through dense arrangements, sudden rhythmic turns and moments of spacious improvisation. The ensemble once again brings together a remarkable group of musician…

With Carretera mágica, Juan Belda & The Bit Band continue their journey through a musical territory where genres dissolve and direction emerges from collective exploration. Although its language can loosely evoke the broad landscape of jazz rock, the album ultimately resists precise categorization. Instead, it unfolds as an open musical route shaped by interplay, texture and evolving momentum. The core ensemble once again features Jorge Pardo, Juanjo Ortí and Enrico Barbaro, joined by collaborat…

This is the first stop on Sven Wunder’s musical journey. Wunder takes the listener somewhere around the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea, around the Levantine Sea, where he paints a colourful portrait and illustrates the regions flora through sound.

*2026 repress!!!* What an unbelievable record. From the wild cover to the iconic breakbeats, Roots from Ian Carr’s Nucleus is one of the dopest albums we know. This is seriously thick, funky-prog jazz-rock heaven. Originally released on Vertigo in 1973, other than a couple of versions at the time for other territories, Roots was never re-pressed since so it’s gone on to become another one of those impossible to find records. Maybe it was a little too out there for the time, but it’s aged very, v…

The first ever reissue of one of the great hidden artifacts of early prog and fusion: 'Power On!', the second and final full-length by the little-known Frankfurt ensemble From, originally issued by the German arm of CBS in 1972 and now returned to print by Free Flow Archive. Building upon and radically expanding creative ground pioneered by Miles Davis on 'In a Silent Way' and Herbie Hancock on 'Mwandishi', alongside roughly contemporaneous efforts by Soft Machine and The Nice, the sounds of Fro…

The second volume in the Reference series from AlAy, the Basel imprint curated by Werner X. Uehlinger, gathers twenty two sides that document one of the great partnerships of modern jazz: trumpeter Fats Navarro and composer, arranger and pianist Tadd Dameron, captured across seven New York studio sessions between January 1947 and January 1949, with sonic restoration and mastering by Michael Brändli and new liner notes by Art Lange. Navarro, gone at twenty six, made perhaps the deepest impression…

A vibrant blend of Finnish jazz-rock, featuring intricate arrangements, modal harmonies, and memorable melodies. The result is an immersive, forward-thinking listening experience

One of the most distinctive and influential instrumental ensembles of the 1980s, Steps Ahead injected urgently needed vitality into a stagnating fusion landscape with their own brand of intelligent, living jazz. With N.Y.C., their debut for Intuition, the group returned in an electrifying new incarnation and with a dynamically reimagined sound. Co-founder Mike Mainieri assembled a constellation of seasoned virtuosos for this session: drummer Steve Smith (known for his work with Journey and his o…

*Warehouse Find !!!* After the space-time experience and the translation into music of the Bible of Japanese civilization, the Fulukotofumi, the following year, in 1973, Hiromasa Suzuki pushes his research and experimentation beyond the borders of his own country by venturing, with the usual companions of adventure (Kunimitsu Inaba, Hideo Sekine, etc.), along the lights and shadows of the Silk Road. A backward journey in search of the musical and cultural sources of mainland Asia, from the gates…

*Warehouse Find !!!* The Fulukotofumi is the most important and ancient historical chronicle of Japan. The content of this work becomes an inspiration for the creation of a sound transposition of the legends and myths that most marked the spirit and inspiration of Hiromasa Suzuki, as a musician and as a high-level composer. The music that is concentrated between these grooves is a representation of the best that moved in the early seventies in the jazz-rock orbit at an international level; in ad…

Australian progressive fusion-jazz-symphonic rock act Pantha burst from the mid‑1970s with a uniquely spirited record, Doway Do Doway Do !?!!, a thrilling hybrid of rock, jazz, Latin American rhythms, West Indian grooves and occasional Zappa‑styled eccentricity. Originally released in 1975, the album showcases the group’s deft ability to marry virtuosic musicianship with irresistible danceable energy. Doway Do Doway Do !?!! draws on the Santana hallmark of driving rock over Latin beats but expan…

The first leader album by Ryo Kawasaki, a jazz and fusion guitarist whose talent was recognized by Gil Evans and who went on to work internationally. The album presents a cool cosmic sound, including "Agana," where Kawasaki delivers breath-taking guitar playing over high-speed percussion, and the dazzling jazz-funk number "Phil." East Wind was a ground-breaking jazz label established in 1974 through the full cooperation of Ai Music, as it was then known, and Nippon Phonogram, as it was then know…

The scent of fresh greenery rising into the air. A youthful Hidefumi Toki weaves a vivid and beautiful story through a one-horn quartet. Making his professional debut while still in high school, Hidefumi Toki went on to perform with groups led by New Herd, Isao Suzuki, Terumasa Hino, Ryo Kawasaki, and Fumio Itabashi. From the late 1970s onward, he also collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Tatsuro Yamashita, contributing broadly to Japan’s music scene across jazz, fusion, and pop.This album, re…

Edition of 400, on black vinyl. This is pure gold for the electro-Miles Davis’s lovers.  The great saxophonist Gugliemo Pagnozzi directs his band in compositions built on improvisation flows that unfold starting from a minimally organized accompanying rhythmic cell in continuous transformation and in the making, which in turn is developed and modified during the executive-improvisation flow chasing instant dialling. Pressed at Optimal Media.

Once again studio master / composer / bassist Guy Segers assembles a huge cast of progressive musicians to perform / improvise 8 new pieces. Guy's methods of composition and collage remain as before, but each new Eclectic Maybe Band release brings a new perspective to the music. This time round harder, more brittle sounds emerge from an album with a very punchy attitude. A mixture of avant pop and progressive complexity.

Joining their newly launched Luminessence audiophile vinyl-reissue series, the legendary imprint, ECM, digs deep into their own vaults and comes up with an absolute gem: the guitarist John Abercrombie, the bassist Dave Holland, and the drummer Jack DeJohnette’s groundbreaking 1975 LP “Gateway”. Rooted in approaches drawn from free jazz and unquestionably springing from both Holland and DeJohnette’s time working in Miles Davis’ electric fusion band at the end of the 1960s and early '70s, it’s a r…

Reissue of the Japanese group Air featuring percussionist Yuji Imamura. Seems like half split between moderate Jazz Rock with monster improvised parts and outlandish Avant Jazz with strong percussion minimalism and tribal rhythms, the instrumental arsenal is huge and promising (various strings, winds, keyboards, electronic equipements). Two side long instrumental tracks, the material is mostly based on individual soloing depending on each musician.

2023 Stock. The second live recording of the duo by Keiji Haino and Masataka Fujikake released just five years after the previous work "Tomorrow, the alphabet will disappear." While retaining the steel-like strength of the previous album, this is a rock album that pursues his core expression only with guitar, vocals and drums . Keiji Haino – guitar, vocals Masataka Fujikake – drums. If HARD is raised to the power of several tens, will the grains of light pour down? Recorded at Stormy Monday Yoko…

BBE Music’s celebrated J Jazz compilation series reaches its fifth and final volume in early 2026, culminating in a track list that maintains the exceptionally high standard first set with volume one back in 2018. This final volume features a selection of tracks that is as diverse as it is deep, reflecting the rich and varied Japanese jazz scene that spanned from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, a golden era of innovation and creativity. J Jazz volume 5 sees compilers Tony Higgins and Mike Pede…

While most holidaymakers in Greece lounge by the pool, soak up the sun on sandy beaches, or pick up a few souvenirs, British jazz pianist Greg Foat took a different path last year. Inspired by the island of Samos, he returned not with trinkets, but with Impressions of Samos – a captivating album blending synthesizer, grand piano, and traditional Greek folk instruments with immersive field recordings. Teaming up with Sokratis Votskos and The Giorgos Pappas Trio on Blue Crystal Records, Foat craft…

Kosuke Mine’s electric album, with a strong rock and funk flavor, is set for reissue as part of "Spin This Now!" Vol. 9. This classic album shines with the outstanding combination of Mine’s saxophone with a wah-wah pedal and Mikio Masuda’s psychedelic keyboards. Label Introduction: East Wind was a groundbreaking jazz label established in 1974 through the full cooperation of Ai Music, as it was then known, and Nippon Phonogram, as it was then known. Over a period of about five years, the label pr…

A classic album recorded in 1976, featuring a superb lineup including Sam Jones, Kazumi Watanabe, and Fumio Karashima, with expansive cello solos. Highlights include an exhilarating duo number with the seasoned bassist Sam Jones, as well as Kazumi Watanabe’s hip guitar solos throughout. Label Introduction: East Wind was a groundbreaking jazz label established in 1974 through the full cooperation of Ai Music, as it was then known, and Nippon Phonogram, as it was then known. Over a period of about…

“An ambitious, brand new album has reached the Japanese jazz scene. It is ‘Bakimba – Memories of Africa.’” This is how Akira Ishikawa Count Buffalo Jazz And Rock Band’s album was advertised by the Japanese press in 1970. The Japanese jazz artists were bravely approaching the rock scene, and their choice became an inspiration to jazz-rock groups like Takeshi Inomata & Sound Limited, Jiro Inagaki and Soul Media, and more. The blending between jazz and rock was born in the United States, thanks to …

Available for the first time since its original release in 1980, this is compelling, funky, exploratory jazz from Melbourne, Australia. The album opens with the floating Song For Bobby, a downtempo gem with the heartbeat aura of Herbie Hancock’s Butterfly; Orchestral Excerpts (From The Symphony Of Life), In The Basement and City Of Stone are high-grade fusion jams with one eye on Weather Report and Return to Forever, the other on the organic Australian sound of Alan Lee and John Sangster. The al…

Louis Matute unveils Dolce Vita, a bold and vibrant album. Recorded at the legendary La Frette Studio, this record blends Honduran heritage with Brazilian influences, merging jazz, groove, Caribbean rock and vintage textures into a poetic and deeply committed work. Having gained recognition at prestigious festivals, Matute collaborates here with remarkable artists such as Joyce Moreno, Dora Morelenbaum, Gabi Hartmann and Rico TK. In March 2025, Louis set up camp at La Frette, a rock-tinged, vint…

Skilled guitar dances over the ultimate groove by Marcus Miller and Omar Hakim. This important Japanese fusion album was recorded by guitarist Kiyoshi Sugimoto, who was extremely busy at the time as a first-call musician, together with Marcus Miller, Omar Hakim, and Warren Bernhardt, who were in Japan for Kazumi Watanabe’s "To Chi Ka" tour. The lively playing of Marcus Miller, then 21 years old and just before being discovered by Miles Davis, is a must-hear.

A fresh new studio album by powerful Russian Free jazz band Brom, now with a fourth player (guitar and electronics). Press about their last album (Sunstroke, Trost): "It is a reverent and thoughtful performance, with powerhouse electric bass at its core, leading to a fast and furious conclusion." - Jazzandbluesblogspot"Moscow based power jazz trio Brom are a group that push against musical boundaries and allow such diverse genres as rock, noise, free jazz and improvisation to leak into their eve…

*2025 stock* "Sadly, many will hear Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt's latest LP, Made Out of Sound, as 'not-jazz,' though it would be more aptly described as 'not-not-jazz.' In a better world, it would warrant above-the-fold reviews in Downbeat, or an appearance on David Sanborn's late-night show (if someone would only give it back to him). More likely, we can hope for a haiku review on Byron Coley's Twitter timeline to sufficiently connect the various improvised terrains trodden by this long-time d…

“On Loan with Gratitude was my first vinyl recording as leader released in 1977. Graham Collier started a label ‘Mosaic’ and invited me to record specifically for it. The times were fortuitous with BBC engineer Pete Freshney being able to record at the BBC transcription studios in Shepherds Bush. There was an excellent piano in situ, Pete was an excellent jazz engineer and fan, plus the studios were affordable. I led the quartet for approximately 10 yrs which included regular BBC Jazz club and J…