Jazz /
Mutima
A landmark recording in early creative improvised modern music, bassist Cecil McBee's recording for the Strata East label is an important document introducing him as a leader from the international jazz-based scene in New York City via his native Tulsa, OK and following a brief mid-'60s stint in Detroit. McBee as a pure musician has staggering technique, rich harmonic ideas, and an indefatigable swing, but it is as a composer that he is set apart from other musicians of this mid-'70s era.Life Wa…
Aktuala
Red Vinyl. Milestone! Faithful reproduction of the original release! 1973 Aktuala debut, a stunning overall work where you can hear a lot of different musical influences : avant-garde folk, mediterranean blues ,jazz improvisation, minimalism, african percussions, indian ragas all played with a true psychedelic feeling. The album was recorded in a few days in a totally acoustic dimension and the line-up seems to be a quintet of contemporary music more than a progrock group (although this music is…
Flavor
**500 copies** This is a cool jazz album all the way around. From the black and white hand drawing to the fact that it came out of Fresno, California (not exactly a hotbed for jazz) to the handful of styles present (straight ahead, funky, free, and even a raga), this record’s got it going on.High quality musicianship and some far out stoner tracks make this album stand head and shoulders above most of its private peers. Original very limited issue (rumour has it that only 300 copies were release…
Spiritual Jazz 10: Prestige
"Esoteric, modal and deep jazz from Prestige Records, 1961-73" - The tenth edition of our Spiritual Jazz series takes a closer look at the music Prestige was recording at the start of the 1960s. This was the period when the modal jazz sound pioneered by Miles and Coltrane was starting to percolate through the jazz underground.In its heyday, Prestige was the only jazz label that could hold a candle to Blue Note. Prestige was always quick off the mark to record new artists, and in the years after …
Spiritual Jazz: Esoteric, Modal and Deep Jazz From the...
**1.000 copies, remastered limited 2019 repress due to overwhelming demand that has seen the price of the original issue from 2008 tip the scales to over £100 on the secondhand vinyl market ** Jazzman Records presents the sound of the unsung musicians who – in the midst of the Vietnam War and the fallout of the Civil Rights struggle – created some of the most beautiful Spiritual and meditative music of the era. Sometimes funky, sometimes mellow, but always trying to say something about the world…
Baroque Jazz Trio + Orientasie/Largo
Souffle Continu Records present a reissue of Baroque Jazz Trio's self-titled album, original released on Saravah in 1970. This CD also includes tracks from the 7" Orientasie/Largo originally released in 1970, and reissued by Souffle Continue Records. Mixing Baroque, free-jazz, and world music, the unique album of the Baroque Jazz Trio (which is in fact 3/5 of the Bach Modern Quintet) is a difficult-to-label sound object which is far from being typical of the psychedelic sounds associated with th…
Mestari
Souffle Continu Records present the first time vinyl reissue of Perception's Mestari, originally released in 1973. To finally become oneself: that was the lesson, in the 1960-1970s, that European musicians attracted to improvisation had learned from American free-jazz. Following this idea, the musicians of Perception, whilst individually accompanying Mal Waldron, Slide Hampton, Johnny Griffin, or Hank Mobley when they played in Paris, decided early on to break free from what was going on across …
Kaeef Ruzadun presents The Creative Arts Ensemble
First time on vinyl, unrelease before recordings taken from thei legendary 'New Horizons' Album released in 1983 Creative Arts Ensemble was the only large ensemble group that emerged directly from Horace Tapscott’s legendary Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and community jazz group. Their debut, aptly named One Step Out, is a true gem of the Los Angeles jazz underground, and a crucial document of pianist and composer Kaeef Ruzadun Ali’s first recording as leader.A Los Angeles native, Kaeef was intro…
1977 Live Vols 1 & 2
"Aside from working with the influential avant-garde ensemble AMM, percussionist Eddie Prévost led some highly challenging British free jazz groups in the '70s. These sessions from 1977 showcase a project featuring Geoff Hawkins on saxophone, Gerry Gold on trumpet, and the phenomenal talents of Marcio Mattos on bass.With Prevost's always inventive and high-energy drumming holding it all together, the quartet explores the tradition of free jazz with the astute wit of classical musicians. The exce…
Resoundings +
"This recording from 1985 of the trio consisting of AMM percussionist Eddie Prevost, bassist Tony Moore, and soprano sax player Peter McPhail is an outstanding recording of avant-garde jazz which documents a trio of improvisers maximizing their focus on interplay and invention.This album will appeal to fans of avant-garde jazz and European improvisation, as well as listeners of bebop. The energy and interplay are most striking aspects of this recording, and, while it is very distinctively footed…
Positive Force
**CD version** From Milan, Italy, Al Doum and The Faryds return with a brand new LP of immaculate beauty. Fusing together free jazz, psych, eastern and Indian influences Al Doum and The Faryds create a mesmerizing mixture: the continuous, fluid sound of "Positiva Force" perfectly succeeds in expressing the parallel influences of ecstatic eastern/african sound and of the contemporary free, energetic, spirited sound, with a nice jagged, if not toxic guitar phrasing. Limited to 200 copies only“This…
Cucoma Combo
**CD version** Cucoma Combo. Above all, the new boiling energy of pan-rhythmic music, the awakening dance of joy, the experimental space for ambitious arrangements and free-improvised parts of colorful horns. From Black Africa to South America, we travel on paths of Congolese soukuss and Amazonian carimbò, between accents of Colombian cumbia, kalimba vibes and tribal voices. We find seeded traces of space-funk and afrobeat, with amazing acid keyboards and an enchanting female voice. The power of…
Epiphany
Honest Jon's Records present a reissue of Company's Epiphany, originally released in 1982. Epiphany \ i-ˈpi-fə-nē \ (1) a manifestation of the essential nature of something (usually sudden) (2) an intuitive grasp of reality through something (usually simple and striking) (3) an illuminating discovery or disclosure. All three definitions apply perfectly to this span of music recorded at London's ICA in July 1982. It's a miracle of group interaction, wonderfully paced, moving steadily between mome…
Moonscape
"Until now, relatively little has been known or written about this recording, but there are a few facts which we can now enlighten you with. This is a British modern jazz recording by the Michael Garrick Trio recorded in mid 1964. It precedes the October Woman recordings and was Garrick's first foray into longer sessions. The trio is as follows: Garrick on piano, Dave Green on Bass and Colin Barnes plays drums. One track was recorded with John Taylor on Bass instead of Dave Green.Originally this…
A Quiet Place / Both Sides Now
**2019 stock** "So, a classic pairing: Side A is KK - Karin Krog and A Quite Place, a mega rare single she made with Don Ellis back in 1970. Don't even bother trying to find a real one. Sublime exotic vocal jazz.Side AA is MM - Mark Murphy and his cover of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now, originally released on his This Must Be Earth LP (the only LP he made in the UK, with UK jazz dudes) that will eventually come out on Trunk but not yet. It's a really superb version of one of the best songs ever…
Uncovered Correspondence - A Postcard from Jaslo
Recorded at the concert hall of the Jasielski Dom Kultury (Jaslo Cultural Centre) in southern Poland on the 15th of May 2010."It is given to very few artists to have created a language entirely their own, but that is what AMM has done over the years, in various line-ups and configurations, with Eddie Prévost on drums as the only unifying element since 1965, and with John Tilbury on piano for the last two decades, here with just the two of them. You may like them or not, but they have made histor…
Granular
**300 copies** While g a b b r o, Hanne De Backer’s baritone sax project, used a no frills duo concept for its debut album, things take a different turn on Granular. With Marc De Maeseneer again by her side, this album also involves fellow Belgian experimentalist Raphael Malfliet on electric bass, as well as singular vocalist Agnes Hvizdalek.Taken from studio recordings, as well as the quartet’s performance at 2018’s Summer Bummer Festival, Granular turns fragmentation and attention for detail, …
Dead Leaves Drop
**300 copies** The term ‘supergroup’ often comes with tacky connotations, but this is the real deal. Through hard work and a tirelessly inquisitive spirit, Nate Wooley, Dave Rempis, Pascal Niggenkemper and Chris Corsano have become some of the most versatile improvisers of their generation. As From Wolves To Whales, they turn their imposing collective strength into a relentless new whole. Relentless, not just because of the energy levels or the generous amount of freedom, but because of the cons…
Fred Van Hove At 80
Stunning! **300 copies** Pianist and composer Fred Van Hove (°1937) was involved in the Big Bang of European free improvisation (Machine Gun by the Peter Brötzmann Octet), but also became one of Europe’s finest and most underestimated improvisers. Mostly known for his 70’s trio with Brötzmann and Han Bennink, Van Hove’s trajectory over the past four decades has been one of the brilliant, but unsung stories of the music.The new Dropa Disc release Fred Van Hove At 80 is an effort to rectify this i…
Trommels!
**300 copies, 2019 stock** Percussionist Kris Vanderstraeten is one of the unsung heroes of Belgian free improvisation. Since the seventies, he has been experimenting with his unique set-up and different collaborations: the trio Sureau, a duo with Timo Van Luijk, several performances / recordings with young experimentalists.Trommels! is Vanderstraeten’s second solo album. It lures the listener into a universe without rules, a place where intuition and imagination decide what happens. Vanderstrae…