Jazz & Improvisation / Modal

* 2022 Repress. Wow! * Pianist Imada Masaru was 42 years old when he recorded this album in 1975. His adventurous spirit led him to use the electric piano for the first time in a recording, and thanks to his musicianship, he made it sound like he'd b…

The desire to discover and delve into new and unexplored areas of music has turned attention on the Japanese jazz scene of the 1970s, often regarded as its gilded age. The recent ground-breaking sell-out BBE compilation J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz from …

BBE Music continues its highly acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series with Kemo Sabe, the debut album from pianist Masao Nakajima. Recorded in 1979 on Yupiteru Records, it’s an elusive beast in the field of J Jazz and balances delicate and refined playi…

As with Directstep (recorded one week previously), this album was recorded, and originally only released, in Japan. It was one of Hancock's most successful albums in Japan, perhaps because it was entirely solo piano. Hancock tackles jazz standards su…

Grey-area LP reissue, exact replica of the original * ldris Muhammad's legendary first album for Prestige, a great synthesis of the disparate elements that went into the era's Spiritual Jazz, Grooves, Soul and Free Experimentation and an indication o…

The reputation of members of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), of which Abrams is a founding member, has long been one of adventurous, dangerous, and difficult music. But in fact, much of the music created out of this …

*2023 stock* Japan's legendary drummer steps out here with a killer combo – definitely a "big 4", given that the group features excellent tenor work from Hidehiko "Sleepy" Matsumoto, plus Fender Rhodes and acoustic piano from Hideo Ichikawa! George K…

Studio Mule present their third reissue of Fumio Itabashi with Rise And Shine: Live At The Aketa's, originally released in 1977. Rise And Shine Live At The Aketa's was his second release of 1977, and it was recorded at legendary Jazz Club in Tokyo. T…

'Pharoah Sanders' "Shukuru" is noteworthy as being the album that reunited Sanders with vocalist Leon Thomas, who sang on some of Sanders' most endearing and powerful compositions-- among them the legendary "The Creator Has a Masterplan". Thomas only…

"Following my recent phone call with Prof. Benson, I left him to continue his 92nd birthday celebrations with his family. We’d talked about his life, his music, his achievements. Throughout our conversation it struck me what a kind, humble and pleasa…

*2023 stock* First recording of Eric Le Lann under his name in 1983. Around him, a group composed of Césarius Alvim on bass, André Ceccarelli on drums and Olivier Hutman on piano and Rhodes which escorts the sublime phrasing of a trumpet entirely pla…

Gideon Nxumalo was a key figure during the formative years of South African jazz in the 1950s and 60s, helping shape a modern African jazz sound as a composer, arranger and pianist and contributing to the scene as a music teacher and radio presenter.…

Privately pressed by the artist in an edition of 400 copies - blue vinyl

The William Penn Jazz Ensemble was formed by American composer and flutist Leslie Burrs. Throughout the 1970s, Leslie performed with several major jazz and funk artists, including Grover Washington Jr., Kool & The Gang, and most notably, with Del Jon…

Due to overwhelming demand for our 5LP boxset which sold out on the day of release, here are the first ever official individual re-issues of all five of the iconic Lansdowne recording sessions by the legendary UK jazz combo, the Don Rendell/Ian Carr …

2021 Stock. LP version. There are few Australian originals in jazz, but vibraphonist Alan Lee surely ranks among the best. Australian jazz is and always will be an interpretation of the American art form, but throughout his long career Lee has plough…

Following her successful debut album After Dark, new ideas have led Whiting to create Lost in Abstraction. More than the expected ethereal washes of sound, the album playfully embraces her many influences into a soundscape of modernity. With rhythmic…

A compilation of lost tracks by the Zurich based Sextet “Jazz Community”. One of the most important Post-Bop and Modal Jazz bands from Europe, that featured the exceptional brass section of Hans Kennel (tp, flh), Paul Haag (tb) and Heiner Althaus (ts…

This is the first ever reissue of the lost debut LP by Jamaican tenor saxophone player Fitz Gore and his experimental group The Talismen from 1975. The work was originally released on Gore’s GorBra label and delivers an introspective, sensitive form …

*2022 stock* At the Jazz Festival which took place in Sanremo in March ’66, out of the seven bands present only one was Italian; that is of course if you exclude Guido Manusardi, an Italian pianist that has been living in Sweden for years. What I’m t…

Tip!  When artsts self-releases their own recordings, they do so in the hopes that a hit might develop, or even better, a sphere of influence might form. In a lot of cases these records provide a stamp of existence and intent – a sonic business card …

** 2021 Stock ** Don’t let the date fool you, released back in 1983 this modal to slightly free jazz outfit from California takes you on a journey back to the late 60s and very early 70s, into the spiritual realms of greats like John Coltrane, Pharoa…

Before joining vibraphonist Terry Gibbs’ quartet in 1962, Detroit-born pianist Alice McLeod played intermissions at the Paris Blue Note and appeared on French TV with saxophonist Lucky Thompson, reaching Gibbs’ attention in a duo with vibraphonist Te…

'On Unity, jazz organist Larry Young began to display some of the angular drive that made him a natural for the jazz-rock explosion to come barely four years later. While about as far from the groove jazz of Jimmy Smith as you could get, Young hadn't…

One of the most influential and underground Hammond organists of the 1960's was "Big" John Patton as he was then known. If it was the groove that you wanted Patton was your Man and he made several albums for the legendary Blue Note label, many of whi…

It is unclear whether it was Wayne Shorter’s initial intention to do anything particularly ambitious during the two visits to Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in February 1966 that produced Adam’s Apple. Certainly, neither the repertoire—five recently compos…

Le Très Jazz Club present the first reissue of Naosuke Miyamoto Sextet's Step!, originally released in 1973. A fantastic modal jazz LP, led by Naosuke Myamoto on bass, with Masayoshi Yoneda on the piano and Takashi Goto on saxophone. On One For Trane…

Vinyl Only / Original artwork / Black Vinyl / 400 mcn paper / 30x30 cm insert with notes by Tony Higgins and graphic elaboration printed on 250 gram G.F. Smith Colorplan / PVC outers. Jorge López Ruiz is one of most versatile of musical talents to em…

Limited Clear Vinyl edition, 500 copies! Lateef at Cranbrook (also reissued as Yusef Lateef) is a live album by multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef recorded in 1958 at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and originally released on the Argo label. Saxophonist…

The Manchester trumpeter, composer and all-round northern new-music enabler Matthew Halsall might be a man with the open ears and eclectic energy to run a broad-based contemporary record label - but he's also a disciple of the meditative 1960s music …

Salute to the Sun: Live at Hallé St Peter’s documents a very special concert recorded at the iconic Manchester venue during lockdown.

It was in 1973, on the 14th of October, late in the afternoon; on a pretty Sunday under the Big Top in the heart of the “Parc de la Pépinière”, in Nancy; it was the “premiere”, the world first hearing, and it has so far remained the only one commissi…

*2022 stock.* Way back in the early 1980’s a group of young musicians mostly in their 20's played around the LA jazz scene in a loosely organized jazz/fusion ensemble under the leadership of woodwind instrumentalist/composer-arranger Dennis Dreith. T…

Miles Davis gave two concerts at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in 1960 as part of a Jazz at the Philharmonic package, one on April 9 and the other on October 15. Stunning european live performance from Miles with his early quintet featuring the magic of …

In 1964, John Coltrane and his quartet produced two great masterpieces in Rudy Van Gelder's studios, namely the albums Crescent and A Love Supreme. Between the two sessions the quartet entered the studio for another recording: the soundtrack of the F…

Edition of 500. The 'European Jazz Sounds' series, that started around 1960 with legendary albums by the Michael Naura Quintet, Tubby Hayes and Max Greger, sees a welcome revival! This first volume presents the early recordings of the renowned Joki F…

Limited edition double compact disc, in a gatefold digipack, of the never-before-released complete performance of the Don Rendell - Ian Carr Quintet at The Highwayman in November 1965. Includes a 20 page booklet with an essay written by Simon Spillet…

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 co…

*2022 stock. In process of stocking* “One of the first true moments of genius from saxophonist Nathan Davis – originally released in the mid 60s for the tiny SFP label – and a record that’s even rarer than his early classics for MPS! The sound here i…

*2022 stock* Graham Collier is one of the best known and most important British jazz composers and over a 40 year career, his list of compositions and commissions has grown to encompass ensembles around the world. He is well-known as an author and ed…