Jazz & Improvisation / Jazz-Rock

Of Filipino descent, the expressive keyboardist, vocalist, and composer Flip Nuñez enjoyed a varied career in jazz. After backing Bev Kelly, Jon Hendricks, and others in the 1960s, Nuñez impacted in the Latin jazz-rock act Azteca. The marvellous My Own Time And Space, his only solo album, showcases his versatility; the Latin cadences of Willie Colon and former Santana bassist Tom Rutley and the keen jazz phrasings of guitarist Michael Howell and drummer Vince Lateano make superb backing for Nuñe…

The 1970 album For Children by Eero Koivistoinen was originally released by the book publishing company, Otava, which was responsible for his earlier two albums as well. Jazzpuu/Sähkö Recordings  reissued For Children in 2006 as did we in 2016, yet both of these releases have been hard to find ever since. This time around Svart brings this important piece of Koivistoinen's career, a successful amalgam of acoustic jazz and funky fusion back on the market on a limited Svart exclusive blue vinyl ed…

*2023 stock* Sampler of some of the most iconic figures in the British jazz scene. Comes with a book of 92 pages that contains the artist' profiles, brief history of British jazz and related discography. Notes on each track written by the composers. English/Italian text.

Space Trip by Appendix is a cult record released in 1973 on the legendary Amigo catalog, the longest-running independent label in Sweden. This amazing Spiritual Jazz-Funk/Fusion LP was very hard to find. Finally available again, fully licensed and remastered, with original artwork. This album is a killer one in its entirety, with no fillers. Some of the best spiritual jazz on record!

*2023 stock* "Consciously more percussive -- and more commercial -- Szabo's newly formed sextet was clearly up to the challenges of combining rock with jazz. More an instrumental-pop confection, Magical Connection doesn't quite live up to its promise. But even as Szabo covers pop hits by Carpenters, Buffalo Springfield and John Sebastian, he often plays with great wit and solos with energetic dexterity." - AllMusic

What a record! The outstanding Solar Plexus, the much-loved third album from Ian Carr and Nucleus, was first released on Vertigo in 1971. Inevitably, original copies are now very tricky to score and, like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well. This Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.

On their 5th studio album, Connection, Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog have pushed their long-brewing tension between traditional pop songcraft and avantgarde improvisational music to the breaking point, bridging their customary genre-agnostic approach with elements of glam boogie, minimalist disco, psychedelic boogaloo, garage-punk-against-the-machine agitprop, and so much more. Recorded at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, NY and mixed by Ben Greenberg (Danny Elfman, Depeche Mode, Lamb of God) the albu…

The first duet album by Rhys Chatham and David Fenech, two well-known musicians of the experimental scene. It is a long piece of music in a minimalist spirit, where the two guitarists meet and merge with Rhys’ trumpets, flutes and vocals and David’s small percussion.This record has an organic feel and natural development that makes it unique. Tomorrow starts tonight ! Rhys Chatham is best known for his compositions for electric guitar orchestra… he began his musical career as a harpsichord tuner…

*2022 stock.* You know you're into something good when you open the album you just bought and find a lyrics sheet, then play it and quickly realise the record is actually instrumental. The unruliness that defined Costa Blanca's short-lived career resulted in such nonsensical contradictions, and helps understand why one of Spain's best jazz-rock bands of the 70s never had a proper breakthrough. Hailing from sun-bathed Alicante in the Spanish Levantine coast, Costa Blanca shared the stage with som…

Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice proudly present a brand new compilation series: Fusion Global Sounds. 9 rare and hidden tracks produced between 1970 and 1983 in various parts of the world. As a fine collector of Jazz-Funk and Fusion for many years, Charles Maurice selected some of his favorite forgotten productions, as he previously did for the AOR Global Sounds, French and Brazilian Disco Boogie Sounds compilations series. This time, recordings come from Sweden, Switzerland, South Afric…

*2023 re-issue.* Behold! Yes, Blue Butterfly, one of the absolute stunners on the revered Selected Sound, is finally available for all the beat-heads. Heavyweight library funk with a psychedelic touch, the super in-demand Blue Butterfly from *deep breath* Hardy's Jet Band, Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff, Jan Troysen Band and Orchestra Gary Pacific - was originally released in 1971. Incredibly ahead of its time, it's been rare and sought-after for decades. For many aficionados, this is the best Select…

**300 copies**  Mr. Nakayasi releases the Don Kapot debut album. The group consists of baritone saxophonist Viktor Perdieus, Giotis Damianidis (this time not as a guitarist, but as a bassist) and drummer Jakob Warmenbol. The last two can also be found together in Abschattungen, Giovanni Di Domenico's big band. In other combinations the three cross each other separately with Nest and Punk Kong, among others. On Don Kapot we note parallels with Morphine in top gear, especially because of the way t…

Never broadcasted and unreleased sessions by Dutch keyboard players Rob Franken and Jan Huydts alongside Scope drummer H. Zomer. Session which took place in Feb. 1976 and were stored in VPRO archives untill discovered by journalist Frank Jochemsen who searched for material to use for a radio special about Rob Franken..Check soundbites and discover these unheard and never broadcasted dope jazz funk sessions which will in particulary appeal to fans of the Fender Rhodes piano. Rob Franken was a tal…

The classic restored. No extra tracks, just this legendary release as it was originally conceived. Kew Rhone was made soon after Peter and John left Henry Cow, at Carla Bley and Mike Mantler’s Grog Kill studio in New York (they both appear on the CD). Fellow conspirators included singer Lisa Herman and drummer Andrew Cyrille. It’s one of those records which sums up a moment; a creative moment in which ideas have come into clear focus, and just need to be got down; an historical moment at which a…

*2023 stock* Machine Mass started out in 2011 as an idiosyncratic MoonJune power duo made of longtime collaborators American drummer Tony Bianco (Elton Dean, Paul Dunmall, Evan Parker) and Belgian guitarist Michel Delville (The Wrong Object, Vegir). Hailed as a « feisty and rebel rousing exhibition that contains a surfeit of diametric contrasts and smoldering exchange » (All About Jazz), it has since then morphed into various forms and ventures involving guests such as Dave Liebman (Inti, 2014) …

100 copies, colored 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.

In 1973, four Englishmen who loved Jazz, Rock and Groove decided to record an independent album at Zelia Studios in Birmingham. The result was Poliphony, which had few hard copies and became a rarity among Jazz Rock collectors. The core of the jazz rock quartet Poliphony came together in Birmingham around 1971 on the initiative of the young student and pianist Dave Bristow, who invited guitarist Richard Bremmer to join the line-up that also included Bob Boucher. The last musician to join Polipho…

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.

Evil in Oslo represents the Hedwig Mollestad Trio at a critical juncture in their musical development. It was released on the same day as their studio offering Black Stabat Mater. Though both are comprised of Mollestad compositions, they couldn't be more different. Black Stabat Mater is tighter, its musical terrain is more easily discerned as jazz-rock. Evil in Oslo is a different beast. Recorded in two clubs, its tracks feature jams from Mollestad's first three albums in four medleys. It's a si…

Rune Grammofon mainstay Hedvig Mollestad joins forces with legendary 12-piece Trondheim Jazz Orchestra on her latest prog-jazz-metal opus.

*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…

*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…

Under The Sun is the follow-up to the astonishing Roots and contains yet more absolutely essential Nucleus material. Originally released on Vertigo in 1974, Under The Sun was never re-pressed and of course those original copies are now very tricky to score. Like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press. Under The Sun opens with the crisp, medium tempo “In Proc…

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

*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…

Contemporary German artist Albert Oehlen invited Steamboat Switzerland to create music for his solo exhibition Tramonto Spaventoso at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, 2021. Oehlen and the experimental Swiss ensemble had already collaborated in 2019/2020 at the Serpentine Galleries (London). The recorded instant compositions draw connection with Oehlen’s own visual strategies in which he interprets and transforms John Graham’s painting Tramonto Spaventoso (Terrifying Sunset) (1940–49).

is Eero Koivistoinen's seventh album and finds him in the company of other excellent Finnish musicians: pianist Heikki Sarmanto, guitarist Jukka Tolonen, bassist Pekka Sarmanto and drummer Reino Laine, plus American drummer Craig Herndon. Except for Tolonen, who is mostly associated with jazz-rock fusion due to his membership in the legendary Finnish bands Tasavallan Presidentti and Wigwam, the rest of the players are all pillars of the Finnish modern jazz scene and all are virtuosi on th…

*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…

*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…

*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…

The debut album by post-punk/funk group, Pigbag - Formed from creative jam sessions in punk’s aftermath, the young group gathered steam after convincing Simon Underwood to join the fun following his departure from The Pop Group. Mixing punk, funk, jazz, ska, reggae and afrobeat into a bewitching brew, this vinyl reissue is the first time this album has been on wax since 1982.

The first official release of the June 1970 Montreux Jazz Festival concert featuring trumpeter Ian Carr’s pioneering Nucleus performing with US vocalist Leon Thomas on a set of Thomas’ repertoire. The collaboration with Thomas is (in Ian Carr's words) a combination of the “rock thing...with the roots of the music”. The set kicks off with "The Creator Has a Master Plan," originally the thirty minute plus opus found on Pharoah Sanders' 1969 album Karma. This version although only half the length i…

"Crazed time signatures abound as musicians from the West look East for inspiration, infusing their rock and jazz sounds with vibes looted from India and the Far East. A true marriage of Western and (Middle) Eastern music with a fuzzed-out psychedelic edge.Released originally in 1969, Middle Eastern Rock is a unique, compelling fusion record from Armenian-American oud player John Berberian. The Rock East Ensemble, Beberian’s backing band, consists of the artist’s standard group, which specialize…

Come for the leopard, stay for the stone cold jams. Yet another thrilling, funky-prog jazzy-rock fusion beauty from Ian Carr’s Nucleus. Originally released on Vertigo in 1975, Alleycat was never re-pressed so those original copies are now very tricky to score. Like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press. Alleycat was the last Nucleus album recorded for the V…

Those already familiar with the classic 1970 Lansdowne Recordings album Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises by Neil Ardley, Don Rendell and Ian Carr will immediately recognise the four compositions on this EP from the closing segment of that collection. The versions included here however, are taken from a separate session recorded around the same time and reveal that Rendell had a grander vision for them than simply to round off a collaborative album. Not only are the tracks here nearly 20…

'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…

*In process of stocking* Semantics was a jazz supergroup consisting of Elliott Sharp, Ned Rothenberg and Samm Bennett. Elliott Sharp, born in Ohio in 1951, began playing the piano at the age of six and started to perform concerts two years later. He soon gave up the piano, first in favour of the clarinet and later for the guitar. Sharp became intrigued with all types of experimental music, from contemporary classical to free jazz and sophisticated rock. He studied anthropology at Cornell Univers…

Semantics was a jazz supergroup consisting of Elliott Sharp, Ned Rothenberg and Samm Bennett. Elliott Sharp, born in Ohio in 1951, began playing the piano at the age of six and started to perform concerts two years later. He soon gave up the piano, first in favour of the clarinet and later for the guitar. Sharp became intrigued with all types of experimental music, from contemporary classical to free jazz and sophisticated rock. He studied anthropology at Cornell University, where he played in a…

On Natura Morta, Sven Wunder is exploring art as a bridge between nature and the human ability to judge and observe in eleven musical compositions with brightly colored textures and an emphasis on vibrant melodies.

By welcoming the beauty of imperfection and simplicity, Sven Wunder applies the timeless wisdom of wabi sabi on this musical journey. What you can hear is filtered through Ukiyo-e (which translates as “pictures of the floating world”), which illustrates everyday life, as well as through Japonism, the study of Japanese art, and more specifically its influence on European works.