Jazz /
Blue To Red
*2023 stock* When life started 4 billion years ago, Mars was also a blue planet. It lost its atmosphere and ever since then, there has been red and dead. It’s our own senselessness that we’re pushing our planet in the same direction. It’s a culture crisis rather than a climate crisis, one that can only be solved if we go right to the core of how we live as human beings. Jazz has always had a big spiritual connection with life and our place in the cosmos, searching for answers and finding meaning…
Spirale (Jazz Cu Paul Weiner)
“Spirale”, initially released in 1976, is one of the essential recordings of Eastern European modal Jazz. The masterpiece recorded by Paul Weiner, a pianist from Timisoara, a city in Romania, has been transformed into a cult LP and not just because it is a source of samples.
Electric Byrd
Considered by some to be trumpeter Donald Byrd's last worthwhile jazz recording, Electric Byrd is a high-flying relic from 1970. This album can be understood as Byrd's formidable response to the musical challenges set down by trumpet-rival Miles Davis with his epic Bitches Brew recordings from a year earlier. Clearly Miles is the ghost presence here, with distinct echoes of his sound permeating the vibe of this exploratory set. Byrd demonstrates on his three originals that he, too, was a force t…
Puna
Huge Tip! Oiro Pena is a Finnish jazz collective helmed by prolific composer Antti Vauhkonen. Their last album, Puna, recorded in bedrooms, studios and other salubrious locations around Helsinki during 2022, is a mix of lo-fi spiritual jazz, experimental, and avant-garde music forms. It includes four vocal tracks recorded with Merikukka Kiviharju, which feature both original lyrics and those sourced from traditional Finnish folk songs. Vauhkonen first attracted attention as saxophonist in the gr…
Vista
Saxophonist Marion Brown ended his '70s stint at Impulse! Records with this serene and colorful album. It features musicians such as drummer Ed Blackwell and bassist Reggie Workman, plus Stanley Cowell on acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes. While Brown wrote the blissful coaster Vista, the five other compositions are well-chosen, starting with an inviting version of Cowell's "Maimoun" and an impressionistic and deeply meditative take on Stevie Wonder's "Visions".
At The Village Vanguard 1961, Revisited
'Mention of Motian and LaFaro brings us to this disc, perhaps belatedly. But other than observing that the music is presented here following immaculate and unprecedented sound restoration, what more needs to be said about it? What more, usefully, can be said? The performances are as close to perfection as makes no difference, and as close to immortality, too, and if you are still reading thesenotes, you will not need to be told why.' – Chris May
Executive producer’s notes: 'Once you start to …
Ancient Africa
Ancient Africa represents Nat Birchall’s official follow-up to last year’s universally acclaimed Mysticism of Sound. Nat once again plays all the instruments here, tenor and soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, bass, drums and percussion. But this time around the Korg synth is replaced by piano as Nat wanted to utilise a more “classic” Jazz sound to express his musical visions. He has also arranged the songs for multiple horns, with melodies and harmonies played by up to five different instruments …
Nafs At Peace
2023 Repress. Jaubi continue the Nafs journey, which commenced with the single “Satanic Nafs” (featuring the remix by legendary LA producers The Gaslamp Killer & Mophono) released in March 2021. Now Jaubi draw on the elements of North Indian classical music, Hip-Hop and modal/spiritual jazz in their debut LP entitled “Nafs At Peace”.The journey officially began back in April 2019 when London’s multi- instrumentalist and 22a Record label boss Ed “Tenderlonious” Cawthorne and Polish pianist/compos…
Joy
Super rare 1970s British jazz from Joy: Chris Francis, James Dvorak, Frank Roberts, Ernest Mothle, Keith Bailey reflecting the young, multicultural, vibrant flavours of mid-70s London. Funky, hip, committed, Joy is one of the forgotten gems of London jazz.
Spirits
New Zealand’s jazz luminaries have assembled to form an all-star cluster: The Circling Sun.
Alchemy In Jazz
Besides being a leading session musician in Milan's jazz scene between the 60s and 90s, Italian pianist Oscar Rocchi created a number of exquisite library albums in the pop-jazz genre. These include among others "Erbe Selvatiche", "Pop-Paraphrenia" and "Woman's Colours" (the latter co-written with his friend Giancarlo Barigozzi) as well as "Alchemy in Jazz", which is now available in digital format for the first time ever. Originally released on Ring, an imprint of Edizioni Minstrel, the album w…
Damisi
Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue for the first time Harold Land's classic LP 'Damisi,' recorded in Los Angeles for Bob Shad's Mainstream Records and released in 1972. Featuring Buster Williams (b), Ndugu (ds), Bill Henderson (keys) and Oscar Breashear (tp) the album was recorded at a crucial time when Land was shifting to a more spiritual sound. The session is a superb mix of Funk and modal Jazz and feature the monster groove "In The Back, In The Corner, In The Dark" as well as the deep, med…
Live At Lovely
Japanese master drummer Takeo Moriyama returns to BBE Music’s J Jazz Masterclass Series in a majestic live set showcasing his exemplary musicianship and stature as one of the leading names in Japanese modern jazz. Recorded in December 1990 at the jazz club Lovely in Nagoya, this set sees Moriyama’s quartet deliver an exemplary session of the finest modal, post-bop and spiritual jazz. Moriyama is backed by long-time colleague Fumio Itabashi on piano and the group perform a stunning rendition of I…
Kemo-Sabe
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 playing with power and vigour. The Kemo Sabe album features bassist Osamu Kawakami, who has performed and recorded with such J Jazz figureheads as Sadao Watanabe, Isao Suzuki, and Kunihiko Sugano. Sax duty is by Toshiyuki Honda, leader of the popular fusi…
First
*Much needed repress* BBE Music present the latest in the acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: Kohsuke Mine ‘First’, the debut album by one of the leading artists in the new wave of modern jazz that swept Japan in the late 60s and early 70s. ‘First’ epitomises the shifting sound of the Japanese modern jazz scene of the time, characterised by rich textures and tones, kinetic rhythms, punctuated by urgent, angular melody lines. Reissued for the first time since original 1970 release, Mine is joine…
Tachibana
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 Japan 1969-1984 threw much needed light on this fascinating era and presented a range of artists and music that surprised and delighted all who heard it. A key track on the compilation was one of the rarest and least known: Dead Letter by the Tohru A…
East Plants
*2023 repress* BBE Music is proud to present another instalment in the J Jazz Masterclass Series: East Plants by Takeo Moriyama, one of Japan’s finest jazz drummers. A genuine ‘under the radar’ album known only to a handful of Japanese jazz collectors, East Plants is now available again, reissued for the first time as a double 180g LP, with exact reproductions of the original artwork, obi strip and insert. It also comes with the original notes fully translated. This reissue is fully endorsed by …
The Piano
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 such as "My Funny Valentine", "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come" while also performing four original compositions.
Joy
Super rare 1970s British jazz from Joy: Chris Francis, James Dvorak, Frank Roberts, Ernest Mothle, Keith Bailey reflecting the young, multicultural, vibrant flavours of mid-70s London. Funky, hip, committed, Joy is one of the forgotten gems of London jazz. Originally released in 1976, Cadillac and Joy are delighted to offer the first CD/Digital reissue of this great album - remastered by Keith Bailey and including extra, previously unissued, material and a vinyl reissue of the original release i…
Sightsong
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 organization shows enormous appreciation of the blues and earlier jazz forms. Sightsong is a splendid case in point. The album opens with four duets (two dedicated to Chicago legends Wilbur Ware and Johnny Griffin) which have a swing, a groove, and a…