Jazz /
Taking the Dog for a Walk
After Sunny’s time now, his authoritative portrait of the American Free jazz drumming legend Sunny Murray, Luxembourg filmmaker Antoine Prum turns his attention to the British Free Improvised Music scene in this new feature-length music documentary. Branching out from a three-day festival in Berlin conceived and organised for the purpose of the film, Taking the Dog for a Walk maps the scene of British Improvisers, past and present, retracing the road that led from its emergence and emancipation …
Sunny’s Time Now
The documentary feature Sunny’s time now explores the life and work of the avant-garde drummer Sunny Murray, one of the most influential figures of the Free Jazz revolution. Through a series of interviews with key time witnesses as well as historic and contemporary concert footage, it reassesses the relationship between the libertarian music movement and the political events of the 1960s whose social claims it so intimately reflected. It also recounts how the most radical forms of musical expres…
N.E.W.
Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu presents a live concert by N.E.W. recorded at Cafe Oto, London, 17 January 2012. The album includes three tracks performed by Steve Noble - drums, John Edwards - double bass and Alex Ward - electric guitar.
And All Those Cats
**2020 small repress* This is a terrific-sounding Italian compilation of sounds by Sahib Shihab, the great saxophonist and flutist who is criminally under-recognized for his contribution not only to the language of hard bop, but for his multi-dimensional look at world music and his influence on soul-jazz and the harder swinging big bands that recorded for MPS in the 1960s and '70s. A complete iconoclast, Shihab followed the beat of his own drummer and that is clearly on display here, in recordin…
Companionship
*2022 stock* Jazz music has more than its fair share of overshadowed figures that whilst contributing much to the music have little presence in its collective conscious. One such musician is the talented multi-reedist, Sahib Shihab. Born Edmond Gregory, as he was known before he adopted the Muslim faith in 1946, Sahib Shihab’s music background shows a deep and significant evolution, influenced by Thelonious Monk, Dizzie Gillespie (his experience in Dizzie’s band marked Sahib’s switch to Bariton…
Seeds
Reissue of this classic and extremely sought-after 1969 modal jazz rarity recorded in Europe by ex-pat US saxophonist Sahib Shihab! An original might cost you upwards of a hundred pounds so we're very pleased to be able to offer this rare gem to you.
My Point of View
Rearward presents Eraldo Volonté, “My Point of View” – remastered. All the tracks, recorded - from May to November 1963 - at Durium Studios, Milan are now released with liner notes by Arrigo Polillo.
Hard Luck Soul
If musical accomplishment is anything to go by, the members of the Ohio Penitentiary 511 Jazz Ensemble would immediately be given their pardon. Their privately-pressed LP from 1971 is a legend in obscurity, and a master class in what can be achieved in the most trying of circumstances.
The 511 Jazz Ensemble was made up entirely of serving prisoners in the Ohio State Penitentiary. It was founded in 1971 to give those prisoners with a musical aptitude an opportunity to be productive and creative. …
Elevation
Born in Paris, raised in Vienna, resident in Ibiza, saxophonist and composer Muriel Grossmann embodies the borderless, pan-continental energies of contemporary European jazz. Her music emerges from the lineage of European jazz that’s absorbed the progressive music of Coltrane, Dolphy and Sanders.
Today, she cites players such as Illinois Jacquet and Lester Young in the same breath as the masters of the avant-garde, and her playing marries the directness and eloquence of the older generation with…
Rue Chaptal
It is a few minutes after ten-thirty on Monday evening, February 17, 1969, in Ronnie Scott’s, 47 Frith Street London W I.
On this particular Monday at Ronnie’s something special is about to happen. A new attraction is to begin a two-week engagement at the club, and this attraction is out of the ordinary. The word has got around, from people who have seen one of the concerts which preceded this opening and others who know the band from records or foreign festivals, that this is a team not to be m…
Volcano
It is a few minutes after ten-thirty on Monday evening, February 17, 1969, in Ronnie Scott’s, 47 Frith Street London W I.
On this particular Monday at Ronnie’s something special is about to happen. A new attraction is to begin a two-week engagement at the club, and this attraction is out of the ordinary. The word has got around, from people who have seen one of the concerts which preceded this opening and others who know the band from records or foreign festivals, that this is a team not to be m…
Volcano / Rue Chaptal
*2022 stock* "I remember standing at the bar,' he recalls, 'and seeing Johnny Griffin arrive. He said to me, 'Gigi, you're going to hear some strong shit tonight.' And he wasn't kidding. The band was so powerful and driving, so together, like one tremendous all-purpose instrument." Gigi Campi "It was marvellous. People used to applaud in the middle of the arrangements – showing their appreciation of some of the tutti or soli passages. It was really one of the greatest musical experiences of my l…
Parole e Musica
*2022 stock* Helen Merrill has done something very few others have done in the world of jazz for, just with one record, she has come to be considered one of jazz’s greats. Usually a budding new star has to do quite a bit of waiting before he or she can be acclaimed. It all depends on the public’s opinion of the musician’s merits. Sarah Vaughan—amongst the singers —and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley—among the instrumentalists—have had to take their place in the queue awaiting the people’s favourabl…
Quartetto Di Lucca
*2022 stock* It is quite rare to discover on the Italian Jazz scene a successful ensemble, which passed unscathed through years. Bands are usually weakened or put in crisis, most of the times caused by sudden changes in line-ups.
The “Quartetto di Lucca” is a band of young players which formerly were part of the amateurial “Hot Clubs” and some years ago debuted among the pros.
The quartet of Lucca, however, has a peculiarity of its own, the ability to defend the results and the continuity of a f…
Jacques Pelzer Quartet
*2022 stock* In every artistic field it is hard to understand how critically important first impressions are. I am talking about those quick and uncontrollable connections, like an electric shock, that originate from the direct proportion between the work of art standing before us (a picture, a poem, a piece of music) and our feelings. The critical judgement as such requires a deep meditation and the artistic work in question should be examined probably in the microscopic detail of the cultural …
Swing im Bahnhof
*2022 stock* The Kenny Clarke-Fancy Boland Ensemble has its headquarter and management in Cologne. Many international recordings and releases presents the lineup of the Clarke-Boland in trio, quartet, sextet and in bands with 13 and 21 musicians from all over Europe. This time, they were a sextet that traveled to Rolandseck, a German ensemble with no Germans.Kenny “Klook” Clarke is one of the heads of the bebop movement. He was also one of the founders of the Modern Jazz Quartet and he is consid…
The Remembering
Luca Mannutza, born in Cagliari, Sardinia, in 1968, has spent more than half of his entire life as a jazz musician, under multiple roles: from being a simple passionate listener and a researcher he soon became interpreter, composer, arranger and producer, everything in the name of a musical genre that since the early ’90s has literally obscured anything else.
Therefore, we find Mannutza debuting alongside big personalities such as Paolo Fresu, Emanuele Cisi, Maurizio Giammarco and Bebo Ferra, an…
Fabrizio Bosso Plays Enchantment – L’incantesimo di Nino Rota
The enchanting atmospheres, the daydreams, the sketches and the caricatures of some other legendary film scenes. This and much more will live in one of the most anticipated records of the year: “Enchantment, the spell of Nino Rota”, the Tribute to Nino Rota, gentle and sweet man, always smiling, as brilliant in writing music as much as modest in all other aspects of life, that Fabrizio Bosso pays to him with the extraordinary participation of the London Symphony Orchestra, on arrangements and di…
Ukitusa
Starring the multi-awarded vocalist Cleveland Watkiss and pianist Antonio Figura, “Ukitusa” was recorded in July 2011 in an open, mountainous region of Northern Italy in a peaceful town in the vicinity of Udine. Five musicians from three different countries came together with open ears and hearts to create a special collection of music. The genesis of the band was interesting. Through Antonio Figura, the nuclear member of the group, each of the musicians had some prior contact with at least one …
Lunar
Lunar is a journey into the magical freedom of Lorenzo Tucci and Luca Mannutza. Hardly ever happens in jazz music to be caught by a charming madness, a folly vein whose effect is so attractive as disarming. It’s not about listening to an improvvisation, which is something unexpected by its nature. It’s about the true freedom of expression of a journey into sound whose route is shaped by this madness, something that can be unleashed without fear only by someone with strong skills and total contro…