Jazz /
Anger Dance
1991 release ** Saxophone sextex composed of Ad Peijnenburg, Dies LeDuc, Frans Vermeerssen, John Tchicai, Klaas Hekman, Mariette Rouppe Van Der Voort play music by Peijnenburg, LeDuc, Vermeerssen, Tchicai, Hekman, Rouppe Van Der Voort and Henry Cowell.
Istet Serenade
2009 release ** ""Istet Serenade" is foray into the area of music space that represents the core of Roland's sound philosophy, Isophonics. The theory of composed improvisation of stillness in the fluidity of constant change. The thingness of actualized sound in the nothingness of acoustic evaporation and recreation from the source of the indwelling presence. This occurs at a speed which defies conscious comprehension but which reveals abundant spiritual revelatory aspects. It requires a state of…
The Walkman
1988 release ** Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet is a saxophone quartet based in the Boston area, from 1980 to the present, specializing in improvised music and original compositions by its members. The group recorded one LP on its own label and five CDs for the Coppens label (Amsterdam), and made nine trips to Europe to perform at clubs, concerts, and festivals, one midwestern US tour, and many appearances around New England and in New York City.
Live At The South Bank
2025 stock ** "On South Bank - the most vital and essential document of Reid and Hebden's five-year partnership-- it feels clear that, at least onstage, they were finally able to go the distance. The invocation "Morning Prayer" opens slowly, circling in space with a meditative calm. For 17 minutes, the pair traces lines around the other's rhythm, Hebden's electronics and keys shaping a cradle for Reid's busy tom-and-cymbal patter, and vice versa. Back in 2006, on Volume 1, "Morning Prayer" felt …
(Y)earbook Volume 1
1992 release ** The first in a three volume compilation (each available separately) of 114 improvisers from around the world, covering a wide variety of approaches to improvisation. Includes Henry Kaiser, Splatter Trio, and Randy McKean.
On Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds
2025 stock ** "The innovative, boundary-smashing work of Nicole Mitchell, whom Chicago Reader music critic Peter Margasak has hailed as the “greatest living flutist in jazz”, has contributed new life to Afrofuturism in the 21st Century. A voracious reader of science fiction since her youth (Afrofuturist author Octavia E. Butler in particular has exerted a heavy influence on her music), the musician, composer and educator has released a string of albums that fold themes centered around technology…
Live
1991 release ** "Jon Rose, Peter Hollinger, Johannes Bauer & Dietmar Diesner live in Victoriaville in 1990."
Tales Of A Voice
1991 release ** "The singer's vocal style is characterized by an enormous vocal range and a particularly accentuated use of the voice as an instrument (cf. Scat or Bop vocals). The constant change of intonations and phrasing as well as different timbres, the mixture of cantilènes and squeaking or cooing noises with overtone singing creates a confusingly diverse sound world of strong tension, which always comes into its own not only in solo performances, but also in ensemble playing, without domi…
No Train
1998 release ** "This is a change of pace for West Coast musician Steuart Leibig, who is joined here by saxophonist Vinny Golia and drummer Billy Mintz for a mix of Leibig compositions and thoroughly improvised numbers. Leibig leaves his violin at home, instead focusing on contrabass guitars, while Golia muscles his way on baritone and soprano saxophones. The composed pieces are loose constructs; a different course from the leader's earlier penchant for densely layered colors. If the disc has a …
Improvvisazioni
1995 release ** "This engaging little slab reflects a 1995 recording date between Evan Parker's saxophones, Antonello Salis' piano and accordion, and Mauro Orselli's drums and cymbals. Featuring nine variously timed improvisations, this works simply because of the sheer delight and will of the performers. Here, texture means nothing, tonality means nothing, listening means nothing. The reason for being, the raison d'être, if you will, is simply action and reaction and more action. This is consci…
Something Cool
*2025 stock* The only album released by Barbara Moore under the name of the four-piece chorus group Voices In Latin on UK Morgan/US Pulsar in 1968. The album features a light Latin sound and scat & chorus.
Original Gravity
1988 release ** "This is what you get when you put three nutcases like Tony Bevan, Greg Kingston, and Matt Lewis in a room together with their instruments and a case full of toys to play with and turn the tape machine on. Actually, it was recorded live in 1988, so there was the concert's respectability to hold them back somewhat, but not much. This is free improvisation completely realized, articulated, and cacophonously executed in front of a live audience by a group of musical troublemakers wh…
Beches Brew
1990 release ** "Swedish drummer Bengt Berger made one masterpiece, "Bitter Funeral Beer", an astonishing world jazz album beyond category, that is as hypnotizing as it is guaranteed to move you to tears as well. On Beches Brew, he combines it all, great compositions, with great influences from Indian traditional music, alternated with more or less interesting Scandinavian folk, silly beer brawl songs and boppish pieces. The band consists of Thomas Gustafsson on soprano and tenor saxophones, Jon…
Waterway
2025 stock ** "The quirky acoustic trio of German improvisers Udo Schindler on clarinet, saxophone, cornet, and Euphonium, Johannes Ollinger on acoustic guitar and toys, and Dine Doneff on double bass, waterphone, and toys, the odd instrumentation adding surprising textures and disorienting angles to really fine dialog, technically, melodically, and eccentrically. Two preformances are captured, one at Pollat Pavillon in Munich, Germany in 2015, the other from Schindler's own Salon fur Klang+Kuns…
Hell Dunkel
2025 stock ** "Live recordings from Pöllat-Pavillion in Munich, Germany in 2015 from this seriously fun spontaneous collective improvising trio of Udo Schindler on reeds, cornet, euphonium, and monophonic analogue synthesizer, Philipp Kolb on trumpet, tuba and live electronics, and Sebastiano Tramontana on trombone, voice and whistling; expect the unexpected! "
Procession Of The Great Ancestry
1989 release (RARE) ** "Recorded in 1983 in Nessa's Acme studio in Chicago, Procession of the Great Ancestry is among Wadada Leo Smith's most obscure, but ultimately most satisfying, recordings. Featuring Kahil El'Zabar, Louis Myers, Joe Fonda, John Powell, Mchaka Uba, and Bobby Naughton, this was the first album to showcase Smith's expansive vision, which included all forms of black music -- from the myriad languages of jazz to gutbucket blues, reggae, and various African folk musics as well as…
This Is Our Lunch
1996 release ** "The recording debut of Affinity finds the quartet (Joe Rosenberg on soprano, tenor saxophonist Rob Sudduth, bassist Michael Silverman and drummer Bobby Lurie) exploring nine Rosenberg originals and Eric Dolphy's "Hat & Beard." The music is essentially free bop, with strong solos from the two saxophonists, alert interplay from Silverman and Lurie, and an attractive group sound. This music rewards repeated listenings and acts as a strong beginning to this important if underrated b…
Urban Magic
2003 release ** "A lesser-known set from the Art Ensemble Of Chicago – a CD originally packaged with an Italian magazine, now presented here on its own! The performance is from 1997 – and the group features Lester Bowie on trumpet, Roscoe Mitchell on reeds, Malachi Favors on bass and percussion, and Don Moye on assorted percussion – all in a style that shows all the relaxed, confident modes of the group in their mature years. The ensemble's almost more compelling here than on some of their bette…