Jazz /
Vista
180g Vinyl LP! Pressed at Third Man in Detroit! 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"…
The Magic Of Ju-Ju
Opening with the 18+ minute track of the same name, Archie Shepp’s ‘The Magic of Ju-Ju’ takes on a fevered pace as the centrepiece of this date from 1968. Shepp lets loose from the beginning as he’s joined by Beaver Harris, Norman Connor, Ed Blackwell, Frank Charles and Dennis Charles, all on percussion. The initial pace never dissipates throughout the title-track’s run. The additional tracks on Magic of Ju-Ju are a departure from the first, sitting more in a traditional realm. The album is a va…
Attikos
*2025 stock* "A “meeting of spirits” between Greek singer Savina Yannatou and legendary free jazz bassist Barry Guy recorded live in Amsterdam, May 2010, where they performed at the famous Bimhuis Club. The music consists of free improvisations and a composition by Barry Guy, alongside two traditional songs arranged by Savina Yannatou and Barry Guy.The architects Ilya and Emilia Kabakov imagined a vertical opera space of several floors to be built within a cooling tower at the Zollverein Collier…
Morning Glory
*2025 stock* New recording from the free jazz trio of Agustí Fernández (piano), Barry Guy (bass) and Ramón López (drums and percussion) to follow their much acclaimed 'Aurora' album. The album includes a second ‘bonus’ disc of music recorded live in New York. "... Morning Glory rises as a monument dedicated to all music; music that has come and gone, music in the making, and music yet to come. Any genre, any emotion, any referent finds expression in this work, where introspection (“An Anonymous …
Some Other Place
*2025 stock* "“We are the place in which we dwell.” In a universe such as improvised music where, particularly in an ensemble, chance plays some kind of role, Agustí Fernández and Barry Guy did not by chance name this opus Some Other Place, paradoxical as it may seem at first sight. Much rather, it is a deliberate plight to give to this composition a title that brings up the notion of otherness, which is markedly present in both their careers. Many areas were scoured, at times under the command …
Fox Fire
*2025 stock* "There was a sense of excitement as the trio opened their first set in Birmingham of a mostly north England tour. Adjectives such as spiritual, energized, even devotional all come to mind. The meeting with Ken Vandermark in a classic trio formation of Saxophone (doubling clarinet), bass and percussion was suggested by Mark Sanders reacting to a tour proposal by the indefatigable organizer of Jazz events in the U. K. Tony Dudley-Evans. The music was like an initiation, a very special…
Tarfala
*2025 stock* "Listening to the tapes of this live concert from Culturen Västerås, persuaded me that certain attributes of the playing of Mats Gustafsson and Raymond Strid are indeed bound with “Terroir”. There is probably a useful Swedish word describing this, but the French word nevertheless seems appropriate in describing a sense of place, something earthy and powerful. My thoughts moved to volcanoes and in particular glaciers, which of course abound in Sweden. The explosive power of the volca…
Topos
*2025 stock* When Evan Parker, Barry Guy and percussionist Paul Lytton renewed their association at l’Auditori in Barcelona in March 2006, they chose to call the resulting CD ZAFIRO, or “Sapphire”. The following day, the trio was joined by Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández at the same venue to record the Topos album. The chemistry changes to an almost microscopic world of shifting colours and densities prompted by Fernández’s mercurial articulations of the piano keys and the strings inside the in…
Aurora
*2025 stock* "In this provocative journey towards lost innocence, the pianist imposes restraint in the use of instrument not only upon himself, but also asks his colleagues Barry Guy and Ramón López, to simplify their interventions in a similar way. Who would have thought it of these three indomitable, red-hot hyper-virtuosos? However, this three-way understanding goes back a long way, for they have been generating high-voltage spontaneous combustion together in different formats for years, and …
Zafiro
*2025 stock* One live improvisation of over an hour that zips by with the velocity of a three-minute single, Zafiro confirms that one of improvising music’s most enduring partnerships – 25 years and counting – is still a potent and electrifying force. Refining their interaction every time they play together – saxophonist Evan Parker, bassist Barry Guy and percussionist Paul Lytton don’t lack for other gigs, but express instinctive rapport here. Veteran British improvisers, the three use a variet…
Pulsation
2025 much-needed repress. On May 27th 1983, drummer Masahiko Togashi and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, two pivotal figures in the Japanese free jazz scene that had been working together since the 1960's, performed and record this unique set at Zojoji Hall in Tokyo. At the time, Japanese jazz musicians were trying to find their own voice, welcoming creative elements coming in from the USA and Europe. The two musicians were at the fore-front of this generation, with Takayanagi developing his own …
Ghost Parades
Tip! Guilherme Granado makes his first solo appearance on the Keroxen label under the guise of his Goat Unity project, the result of a plethora of collaborations with musician friends and foes. A São Paulo native, Guilherme has been quietly building a reputation for being the go-to guy for loop based beats and groovy basslines. He has played and recorded with Mauricio Takara in Hurtmold (4 albums) and he’s also part of São Paulo Underground (also with Takara and Rob Mazurek). He also performs, p…
Min Bul
We are pleased to announce the upcoming reissue of “Min Bul”, a milestone of Norwegian rock and jazz, included in the renowned Nurse With Wound list, from the band whose leader was a young Terje Rypdal. Recorded in the Rosenborg studio in September 1970, with Egil Eide as engineer, “Min Bul” is a highly experimental work for its time that grew out of the Samklang projects at the Henie-Onstad Art Center, where director Ole Henrik Moe encouraged adventurous composers and improvising musicians to j…
Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises
*2025 much needed repress!!!* Recorded in '69, Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises is irresistible on two counts. First, for its daringly conceived and brilliantly performed music, inspired by Greek folk songs and instrumental textures and deep enough to reveal all its treasures only after many repeated listenings. Second, for being recorded at the moment when the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, a major force in British straight-ahead jazz since '62, had broken up and Carr's equally influent…
Play Mary Lou Williams
It's very rare that Discus Music commissions the actual musical content of a new release from the artists. In this case Martin Archer enjoyed a live gig by the duo so much, which had included one Mary Lou piece, that he suggested to Adam and Johnny after the gig they put together an entire programme of her music for this CD/DL. MLW is, after all, one of Martin's favourite artists.
Adam and Johnny both understand and demonstrate in their playing that new music does not appear out of nowhere. Any …
Identical Sunsets
2025 stock After a chance meeting in a taxi line at Lisbon Airport, a surreal intertwining of tours emanated. In between the lasers, confetti and face-painted fans at Plymouth Pavillions and Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Chris Corsano left the Björk mega-tour to get down to business alongside the imaginative Paul Dunmall for some vital improvisation at Slak Bar in Cheltenham, England.
This wonderfully recorded live set begins with Dunmall swirling away on the border pipes (he may be the preeminent …
Breathing In The Walls
2025 stock Chicago power-jazz trio Tiger Hatchery proudly comes out of the ESP-Disk' free jazz tradition, as Forbes's playing makes clear, but there's an added noise-rock edge, especially in Billington's aggressive drumming, that keeps the sound modern. Young does much more than lay down the bottom, emerging as an equal member of their glorious cacophony. Their 2013 ESP release, Sun Worship, earned huzzahs from press and free-jazz aficionados.
Sun Worship
2025 stock Chicago power-jazz trio Tiger Hatchery proudly comes out of the ESP-Disk' free jazz tradition, as saxophonist Mike Forbes's playing makes clear, but there's an added noise-rock edge, especially in Ben Billington's aggressive drumming, that keeps the sound modern. Bassist Andrew Scott Young does much more than lay down the bottom, emerging as a fully equal member of their glorious cacophony. This is one of the most powerful albums in the storied 50-year history of ESP-Disk', and that'…
The Hated Music
2025 stock "Hard to believe it has been 18 years since this set was first issued, but that’s what the calendar says. Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano had been playing together for a while before this. I seem to recall rehearsals outdoors in Hartford beneath stretches of raised highway under construction. But that may have been Chris and Pete Nolan, back when Pete played guitar. Who can remember exactly? It’s been a long time. But I do remember we put this set together because it seemed essential …
Divus 3
"...it rises, becomes bitter, deflagrates and concludes with an invocation, resumes with lightness, continues with sweetness and ends in oblivion like a comet's tail that has crossed a solar system and continues its journey.”
Divus is the duo from Rome comprised of electronic musician Luciano Lamanna and saxophone player Luca T. Mai (Zu, Mombu). The collaboration between Lamanna and Mai developes in new territories suprisingly far from their usual sound. Their influences coming from techno and j…