Jazz /
First Encounter
After playing with Mingus, Coltrane, Lady Day and Abbey Lincoln, inventive jazz pianist Mal Waldron moved to Europe and first reached Japan in 1970, where he met Idaho-born double-bassist Gary Peacock, who had played with Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Bill Evans and free-jazz giant, Albert Ayler before moving to Japan to study zen Buddhism.First Encounter, recorded in Tokyo in 1971 for French producer Herve Bergerat, shows that the intense pairing was quite natural, the harmonic dissonance of Waldron’s…
John Cassavetes' Shadows
For the first time on vinyl, Charles Mingus's great score for the legendary 1959 directorial debut of John Cassavetes, Shadows. Much has been said about the controversial relationship between these two masters."The score encapsulates Cassavetes's and Mingus's unique approaches to both improvisation and composition in their respective media, illuminating the oppositional nature of jazz to mainstream cultural production and the underbelly of race relations in 1950's America." - Ross Lipman
The Tradition
"Alternative Fox present a reissue of Archie Shepp's The Tradition, originally released in 1978. Avant-garde giant Archie Shepp made an indelible contribution to experimental jazz. Double-LP The Tradition was recorded in Rome in 1977 for Horo Records with drummer Clifford Jarvis and bassist Cameron Brown; the raucous Hooray For Mal has shades of be-bop, while Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Lady is largely tackled by Shepp on upright piano (with gorgeous soloing by Brown); Things Have Got To Chan…
Retribution, Reparation
Available on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1984, Outernational Sounds proudly presents Build An Ark pianist Nate Morgan’s second outing for the celebrated Nimbus West label – the conscious and spiritualised sounds of Retribution, Reparation.
Spirits Known and Unknown
Leon Thomas' debut solo recording after his tenure with Pharoah Sanders is a fine one. Teaming with a cast of musicians that includes bassist Cecil McBee, flutist James Spaulding, Roy Haynes, Lonnie Liston Smith, Richard Davis, and Sanders (listed here as "Little Rock"), etc. Thomas' patented yodel is in fine shape here, displayed alongside his singular lyric style and scat singing trademark. The set begins with a shorter, more lyrical version of Thomas' signature tune The Creator Has a Master P…
Vodooo
Black Saint present a reissue of the Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet's Voodoo, originally released in 1986. Voodoo shows the Sonny Clark soulful hard bop conception as seen through the oblique perspective of a NY Downtown all-star quartet featuring John Zorn (alto sax), Wayne Horvitz (piano), Bobby Previte (drums), and legendary bassman Bill Drummond.This unique and iconic album stands as one of Zorn's first declared tributes to the art of an influential musician and composer. All compositions are …
Rhythmatism
**1.000 copies on coloured vinyl** Drummer and composer extraordinaire Steve Reid’s Rhythmatism is one of his deepest and most radical of albums of all time and features some of the heaviest jazz players - Arthur Blythe AKA 'Black Arthur', Charles Tyler, David Wertman and others – joining Reid. The album was originally released on Reid’s own Mustevic Sound label in 1976.As a radical jazz artist, Steve Reid played with an extraordinary group of artists – including Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, …
Mingus at Antibes
You can be sure that jazz fans in the year 1960 were unfamiliar with Charles Mingus’s LPs Blues and Roots or Mingus Ah-Um when they poured into the Pinède Gould Arena at the Antibes Jazz Festival held in Juan-les-Pins, France on 13 July. At any rate, as can be seen in a short video clip, all the seats were occupied. In addition, a really good trumpeter was there, whose name would later resound throughout Europe: Ted Curson. What is more, the legendary Bud Powell, who lived in France, was invited…
Koolin Out
Jazz drummer Greg Adams was active on the Los Angeles experimental jazz scene of the early 1980s. Based in the working class coastal town of Long Beach, California, and with longstanding ties to the industrial east coast city of Wilmington, Delaware, Adams sought to hearken back to the naturalistic form of be-bop, which is why he recorded the material on Koolin Out in a live session with no overdubs in April 1983. Privately pressed in minute quantities as the sole entity on his own hip city impr…
After the Rain: A Night For Coltrane
**500 copies** In the beginning there was John Coltrane. Teodross Avery experienced an epiphany at 13 when he first heard Trane’s Giant Steps. He emerged in the mid-1990s with two critically hailed releases for GRP / Impulse! Avery’s long and productive journey has taken him down many musical paths, from gigs with jazz legends and hip hop stars to sessions with NEA Jazz Masters and platinum pop albums. With his Tompkins Square label debut After the Rain: A Night For Coltrane, Avery has found his…
Journey Into Nigritia
Legitimately available again on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1983, Outernational Sounds proudly presents a major statement from a crucial figure on the Los Angeles jazz underground – pianist Nate Morgan’s spiritualised deep jazz classic, Journey Into Nigritia. How many 16 year olds would have the confidence to walk up to a revered bandleader at a gig, and inform him that one day they’d be playing together? As improbable as it sounds, this is how pianist Nate Morgan intr…
Step!
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, the group delivers a strong and amazing moment of spiritual jazz. Also features Kunji Shigi (trumpet), Takashi Furuya and Shoji Nakayama (drums). Produced by Takeshi Jujii. Recorded on August 25, 1973. Le Très Jazz Club keeps on exploring the Three…
Physical Structure
Le Très Jazz Club keeps on exploring Japanese jazz and the Three Blind Mice catalog with the reissue of this amazing 1976 record by drummer George Otsuka. Unavailable for more than forty years, the album is released for the first time outside of Japan. Physical Structure is an amazing jazz-fusion record featuring Fumio Karashima on piano and Fender Rhodes and Shozo Sasaki on tenor sax. Check the surprising and sublime cover of Naima which alone justifies to get this record! Personell list: Georg…
Eastern Standard Time
Following hard on the heels of BBE delving into the archives of Detroit’s Strata Records and delivering their widely acclaimed and hugely in-demand exploration of J Jazz, comes another crate digger’s delight - Ralph Thomas' Eastern Standard Time, which dropped in the USA back in 1980, on the obscure Zebra Jazz imprint. LA based DJ, producer and music supervisor Mathieu Schreyer discovered this gem for BBE. This is the is the kind of “spiritual’ jazz gem that appears on YouTube and upon checking …
Ask the Ages
Prepare yourself for the first ever vinyl pressing of legendary free jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock's seminal final album Ask the Ages, in a strictly limited edition 45rpm double 12” edition. Sonny's classic final album swings between deep, lyrical melodicism and passages of pure fire music and features jazz legends Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophone and Elvin Jones, member of the John Coltrane Quartet, on drums. The album was produced by Bill Laswell and originally released in 1991 on his Axiom …
Live
If you've missed out on bassist Torbjörn Zetterberg, now's your chance to play some catch up ball. He's one of creative music's most eloquent exponents, having emerged from the fertile Swedish jazz scene around 2005. With his band Torbjörn Zetterberg Hot Five, he began a fruitful relationship with the thoroughly excellent Moserobie label, run by his frequent band mate, saxophonist Jonas Kullhammar, and by the time he was making records like Skildrar Kvinnans Kamp and Och Den Stora Frågen, Corbet…
Live at Romu Jazz
**250 copies** Here comes a special duo recording, featuring the crème de la crème of the younger generation of Finnish players – Max Zenger and Teemu Åkerblom. A unique live set that stands the test of time, hear Max and Teemu improvise their way over five original compositions, using alto saxophone, flute and double bass with bow. Rich in detail and a surprisingly fresh set of songs. Very seldom do you get superlatives about something from the players themselves, but swear I heard a bird say “…
An Avant Garde of Our Own: Disconnected Works 1980-2018 (8CDBox)
Saxophonist/guitarist/composer/music historian/ provocateur Allen Lowe spans the history of jazz in his music in a way that few besides Jaki Byard, Beaver Harris, Steven Bernstein, and Air have ever done, intertwining blues, early jazz, bebop, and the avant-garde. A prolific composer who was incorporating American roots music into his jazz decades before it was hip, he has led project bands featuring a broad array of jazz greats ranging from Doc Cheatham, Randy Sandke, Joe Albany, Don Byron, Ken…
Lonely Woman
*2022 stock* Guitarist Masayuki "Jojo" Takayanagi (1932-1991) was a towering leader in the Japanese jazz world. His first influence was Lennie Tristano, but through the 1960s and 1970s he explored and pushed the boundaries in free form jazz, leading a group called New Direction, among others. Ever a fighting spirit, in 1982, shortly after recovering from a life-threatening medical condition and surgery, Takayanagi decided to take on a challenging task for any guitarist: To record an entire solo …
Tibet
Grey-area LP reissue, originally released as Eternal Now on Sonet Records in 1973. Don was living in Sweden at the time and made 2 great spaced-out records (in the freeform "Universal Music" style) for Sonet (Live Ankara being the other) -- the prior CD reissue of this material has seemingly disappeared into the wind. If this album had been made by some Vietnam vet living in a windowless cove in Northern California -- with a picture of leaves on the cover, no less -- it would have made the NWW l…