Jazz /
Lähtö Matkalle
*2023 stock* "This band has a certain Finnish (and forestral?) nature, like e.g. Pekka Pohjola's music too. The composer is the guitarist Pekka Tegelman (who later wrote and played for singer Liisa Tavi among others, by the way). The sound is rather mellow, besides electric guitar the keyboards are in the key role. Lähtö Matkalle is progressive with longer compositions, the keyboardist had changed and some other new players arrived for this album - another reason for sounding a bit different. If…
In a Violent Way
BPJ producer Matt Parker's debut concept recording, finally receiving an official release. Created using the techniques of legendary jazz producer Teo Macero, and inspired by a love of Sci-Fi and progressive jazz and rock. Featuring guest appearances from Stone Foundation members Rob Newton and Anthony Gaylard.
Egypt Strut / Kahn El-Khaleely
*2023 stock* Drummer and multi-instrumentalist Salah Ragab was a central figure in the history of jazz in Egypt. A sometime collaborator with Sun Ra, Ragab founded the Cairo Jazz Band in 1968, the same year that he became the head of the Egyptian Military Music Department. The Cairo Jazz Band was Egypt's first big band, mixing American jazz with North African music, combining jazz instrumentation and musical style with indigenous melodies and instruments, like the nay (bamboo flute) and the baza…
Bakishinba: Memories Of Africa
“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 …
Metropolis
Music On Vinyl repress of the left-field UK jazz classic, 'Metropolis', by Mike Westbrook Orchestra from 1971. Featuring the amazing Norma Winstone on vocals
Mwandishi
After releasing their Warner Bros. debut, the Herbie Hancock Sextet underwent a major transformation in the early '70s. Over the course of a year, every member was replaced (except Herbie Hancock himself and bassist Buster Williams) and each adopted Swahili names. (Williams even led the group in occasional sessions of Buddhist chanting.) Hancock chose the moniker Mwandishi (meaning 'composer'), and the Sextet became unofficially known as the Mwandishi Band. The lineup's first album -- simply tit…
Fat Albert Rotunda
Fat Albert Rotunda is the venture into jazz-funk by keyboardist Herbie Hancock. The record is centered around the music Hancock wrote the Fat Albert cartoon show. It's one of the records which appeared in the period between his landmark album Maiden Voyage of 1965 and his 1973 classic Head Hunters. Fat Albert Rotunda is a unique item in Herbie Hancock's long and diverse catalog, with funky tracks like "Fat Mama" and modern jazz-oriented tunes like "Tell Me A Bedtime Story". The sextet which is …
Crossings
Crossings is the second album in the experimental sextet trilogy Herbie Hancock released early 1970s. His electronic movements are further explored and the whole sound comes alive in the three long tracks this album consists about. The album opens with some African drums before moving on to some of the unearthed sounds the sextet created for this album. Centerpiece "Sleeping Giant" is nearly 25 minutes long and is divided into five funky and groovy parts. A transcendent experience that has grown…
Sept Jeunes Et Fiers Maris
*Rare original* "ARFI is an improvised music group from the south of France that continues to evolve, involving not only musicians but also cooks and street performers in its search for more freedom of expression. One of the core bands of the ARFI, with all the main improvising musicians, was the Marvelous Band, released on their own label in 1985. Carnivals on street corners, street performers, the hints of foreign lands wafting from the back alleys - the original landscape that lies at the hea…
Big Beat
*300 copies limited edition. In process of stocking* Nick Ingman has had a long career - as a composer, arranger and conductor. Big Beat is just one nugget from his legacy, but it's certainly a big one. Was involved in the Eurovision Song Contest on several occasions, leading the orchestra for Olivia Newton John (1974) and writing the live arrangements to 'Making Your Mind Up' (1981) and 'One Step Further' (1982).
Afro-Rock
*300 copies limited edition. In process of stocking* Small band featuring brass and percussion. Argentinian artist born in Buenos Aires in 1941. In 1975 he moved to Gran Canaria, Spain, where he created the first jazz school of the island.
Coniunctio
** Edition of 300. In process of stocking ** Recorded in Supraphon's Prague studios in Dejvice in March 1970. Jointly created by the bands Blue Effect and Stivin's Jazz Q Praha. The result of this process is forty minutes of music in which the influence of external environments, the immediate ability of each participant, and the predetermination in regard to traditions which shaped their musical development to-date, are expressed by new beauty which contains both logic as well as free, imaginati…
Obscurer Subjectivity
*In process of stocking* "Wild, wooly, wet, wacky, and quite wonderful new outing from Discus’s primo sound-warping sextet, led by arch poet/spoken word maven Bo Meson. Eccentric is but one mild way to describe the spontaneous wordplay, improvisational acrobatics, and general weirdness to be found percolating across this bafflingly odd disc. Behind Meson’s stream-of-consciousness phrasing lurks guitarist Andy McAuley, synthesist Jez Creek, saxophonist Martin Archer, bassist Peter Rophone, and ce…
Les Poumons Gonflés
"On this album les 3 fous became 4 with the arrival of keyboard player Jo Thirion, and for the first and only time they had the same sax player for 2 consecutive albums. In addition to the expanded line up, EFL's fourth full length release saw the emphasis shift to relatively short, focused songs and in many ways saw them realise the abundant potential that they displayed on their early albums.
The fundamentals of EFL remained in place, despite the changes. Guigou Chenevier and Ferdinand Richard…
727 / 16
*100 copies limited edition. 2023 sock* When Christopher Shannon (of bands Bart and Possum) and Benjamin Pullia started High Alpine Hut Network, the intention was to explore cosmic extensions of house music. However with the addition of Jason Bhattacharya on drums, HAHN's recording sessions rapidly became a site of experimentation where members would generate raw material through structured improvisation and sheer spontaneity. Through this process, the project eventually evolved into a collabora…
Dimension 5
*2022 stock* "While not the absolutely earliest of this excellent bassist, bandleader, and composer's projects, Dimension 5 still features a photograph on the back cover that has prompted comparisons with nervous high school kids at a dance, all dressed up but afraid to ask anyone to boogie. Except John Lindberg is already holding a bass in the picture, so doesn't need a partner, and in the process of creating this recording was putting his best foot forward not to boogaloo but to establish hims…
To Hear The World In A Grain Of Sand (World Music - Live At The Donaueschingen Festival)
** original copy ** "...Of course, they are all just 'grains of sand' in the universe of world music - and yet, a grain of sand, a drop of water, can be a symbol of the entire universe. In this way, the title given to his composition by German composer and saxophone player Berndt Konrad - 'To Listen To The World In A Grain Of Sand' - so beautifully expresses what this concert stands for." (from the CD liner notes by Joachim-Ernst Berendt). Live Recorded at the Donaueschingen Musiktage (Contemp…
Never Never Land
'The British trumpeter and composer Henry Lowther, who first made an impact in the 1960s and released the well received album Can't Believe, Won't Believe (Village Life) in 2018, came to jazz via a circuitous route. After playing cornet in a provincial Salvation Army band, he moved to London around 1960 to study violin at the Royal Academy of Music. While a student, he encountered improvised Indian music and albums by Sonny Rollins, discoveries which encouraged him to commit to jazz, playing tru…
1996-1997
Mishagas: John Colpitts (drums), Scott Daniel (alto sax), Chris Lee (guitar).As the original CD says, “all music born in Brooklyn”.Remastered by Josh Bonati in 2021-2022Art and design by Dan SchechterOriginal CD was self-released on POE (Proof of Existence) Records in 1998.
Vol. 2
Tip! Despite the title of the album, it is the Tullio De Piscopo's third work, recorded in 1976. Comprising nine tracks in total across its two sides, “Vol. 2” falls somewhere between fusion and prog, straddling darker, brooding temperaments with joyous, funky lines. Predictably, as is nearly the case with music of this sort, the playing and artistry is top-notch, the band locked together with remarkable precision, but the journey that “Vol. 2” takes is far from expected. Interspersed throughout…