Jazz /
Yatagarasu
2012 release. The great German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brotzmann (also playing clarinet and tarogato on this album) is joined by Masahiko Satoh on piano and Takeo Moriyama on drums on this exciting and frequently thrilling album which was recorded in November of 2011 in Krakow, Poland. The title track “Yatagarasu” leads off the album with wailing saxophone, piano and drums. It’s interesting to hear Brotzmann perform with a pianist, something that I have rarely heard him do. He even drops out…
Eklisia Sunday
2013 Release. Recorded live in front of a small audience on May 15th, 2011 at Eklisia - an old chapel built in the 17th century in Gümüşlük, a small village near Bodrum - this improvisation features the Konstrukt collective - which is Korhan Futacı (tenor & soprano saxophones), Umut Çağlar (electric guitar), Özün Usta (double bass, djembe, gong, bells), Korhan Argüden (drums) - incredibly enriched by the presence of Peter Brötzmann (on tenor), Hüseyin Ertunç (acoustic piano, küstüfon, gong), Doğ…
Diversity
To celebrate the forty years of career of the Slovenian musician the label Not Two has now releases Diversity, a sumptuous box of five CDs recorded live and in studio in the company of the best of the old and new European avant-garde, with Evan Parker, Lotte Anker, Phil Minton, Rafal Mazur & Agusti Fernandez among others. Zlatko Kaucic is an elusive musician. When you expect him to be in a specific sound place, he is already somewhere else. Kaucic is a musician who has developed a very personal …
Ailanthus/Altissima: Bilateral Dimensions of 2 Root Songs
2010 release. Deluxe collector's item issued in a limited edition of 475 (numbered). 81 minutes of duet recordings with Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley. The pieces were selected by the musicians from ten hours recorded during their two weeks at New York's Village Vanguard in 2008. Comes in a gatefold sleeve; Accompanied by museum-grade folio, including exclusive original poetry by Cecil Taylor and paintings by Tony Oxley. Personnel: Frank Lowe - tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, voice, perc…
Greek Fusion Orchestra Vol.1
Kyriakos Sfetsas formed GFO in 1976, in order to accomplish an ambition dating back to his 1960's Avant-garde period in Paris: to create a piece of work that would expand the boundaries of Greek traditional music. The result is a Progressive-Jazz Fusion masterpiece comprising complex and intriguing compositions, and performed by Athens' best musicians of the day. Sfetsas grew up on the island of Lefkada where he studied classical music from an early age at the local conservatory. At the same tim…
African Rhythms & Blues
Classic and sought after afro jazz. Essential and hard to find album with tons of true killer afro funk breaks: First reissue of original debut LP by African jazz band “Mombasa” led by Lou Blackburn and recorded 1975 at Cornet studio in a Cologne. One of the really shining recordings in the genre - deep spiritual jazz with pulsating african rhythms, funk bass and heavy brass, including nice DJ-spins “Nairobi”, “Kenia” and “Shango”, comes with original cover artwork. Some used to call it “a strip…
Complete Nat Hentoff Sessions
This release presents all existing recordings made by Cecil Taylor for the legendary Candid label. Produced in 1960-61 by celebrated jazz critic Nat Hentoff, these recordings are essential to the history of modern jazz and feature such star sidemen as Archie Shepp, Clark Terry, Steve Lacy, Billy Higgins, and bassist Buell Neidlinger, who was the original leader on half of these sessions. A complete 1961 Taylor septet sessions produced by Creed Taylor, and his entire 1957 quartet performance at N…
'66 - '76
Hugh Masekela was one of the world’s finest and most distinctive horn players, a musical celebrity who built up a dedicated global following thanks to his unique blend of jazz, South African styles, and music from across the African continent and diaspora. The albums that Masekela recorded in this period, from 1966 to 1976, were impressively varied. He was already a fine horn player and powerful singer, and his songs ranged from exquisite to angry and experimental. It may seem extraordinary that…
Reflections: Steve Lacy Plays Thelonious Monk
Jeanne Dielman presents a reissue of Steve Lacy's Reflections, originally released on New Jazz in 1959. The legendary reeds-man Steve Lacy takes on the brilliant compositions of Thelonious Monk. Reflections is a glorious quartet session with Lacy on soprano sax, accompanied by the great Mal Waldron on piano, as worthy a pianist to take on the tunes of Monk as one could imagine, along with Buell Neidlinger on bass, and the amazing Elvin Jones on the trap kit. Though it's only Lacy's second record…
Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe - Fragments of Music,
"Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe is a powerful and often ignored recording from the Albert Ayler catalog. It is a prophetic statement dealing with guilt, confusion, sorrow, and hopes of redemption. A powerful rhythm section of Bobby Few on piano, Stafford James and James Folwell on bass, (Folwell on electric fender bass), and Muhammad Ali on drums manage to take a backseat to the prominent vocals of Ayler's business associate and girlfriend Mary Parks, listed on the record as Mary Mar…
Cheol-Kkot-Sae (Steel.Flower.Bird)
Cellist Okkyung Lee explores her Korean roots in an amazing long-form composition combining electronics, improvisation, composed melodies and noise with Korean traditional music, performed with the superb ensemble of John Edwards (bass), Ches Smith (drums), John Butcher (sax), Jae Hyo Chang (Korean percussion), Song Hee Kwon (Pansori singing), and Lasse Marhaug (electronics).
The piece unfolds like a ritual, making these disparate and unusual pairings seem totally organic and natural. Performed …
Jazz Liisa 17
In January 1973 an impromptu supergroup took over the airwaves on the Jazz Liisa series. Saxophonist Juhani Aaltonen, pianist Esa Helasvuo, join bassist Teppo Hauta-Aho and drummer Edward Vesala in a special one-of-a-kind show of contemporary, revolutionary jazz.
Jazz Liisa 18
The final part of the Jazz Liisa series sees the extraordinary cult percussion artist Edward Vesala lead a 9-piece ensemble. Recorded in 1974, shortly before the recording of his legendary Nan Madol album, this is a rare chance to hear Vesala live on air during his early creative period.
Disarm
"Thurston Moore brings [his] Rock n’ Roll consciousness to a series of free-improvisations with Polish experimental drummer Adam Gołębiewski. Indeed there is no doubt that they were channeling the passion, emotional intensity and the totality of the experience in the halls of Warsaw and Gołębiewski’s hometown, Poznan, in May 2014, when these sessions were recorded. Moore and Gołębiewski met and played together for the first time in 2013, in a trio with Yoko Ono. Gołębiewski had already played wi…
Live At Islington Mill
**Limited edition of 100 copies only on Green vinyl** Comes with one insert. Backwards proudly presents a new Konstrukt vinyl release! Live at Islington Mill finds Konstrukt working with 2 amazing guest artists Graham Massey (of 808 State) and David McLean (of the Tombed Visions label). This live recording from last year finds the Turkish group and their guests filtering free jazz through a 70’s era-Miles approach. Konstrukt has been making a name for themselves for a quite a while now with an i…
Trusciant
The second and last Il Baricentro album reinforces the jazz-fusion trend that had already been dominantly relevant for the band's debut effort. Here, in "Trusciant", it is quite clear that the combo led by the Boccuzzi brothers has a strong focus on the funky jazz framework that was at the moment functioning in the limelight of American NE and NW coasts' musical scenes. The resulting sonic amalgam is adequately augmented with an exotic swing by two guest percussionists, which help Il Baricentro …
Brand
“Brand” is the new trio of Gary Smith (guitar), Silvia Kastel (voice and synth), Ninni Morgia (guitar). On this recording Gary Smith produces the playing for which he’s considered a master of avant guitar: multiple layering, complex grainy textures, dense counterpoint, influences of birdsong. Fused with the guitar of Ninni Morgia, which floats between minimal movements of primordial electronics, pre-war slide blues and Hendrix-esque feedback. Over, and blending with them, Silvia Kastel’s moaning…
Sound Gates
Guitarist Ninni Morgia, after playing with countless improvisers such as Peter Evans, Daniel Carter, William Parker and lots others, is here in a duo together with master Italian drummer and percussionist Marcello Magliocchi. Marcello Magliocchi has been active since the early 70s and has played and recorded with amazing artists like Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Peter Kowald, Mal Waldron, John Tchicai, Joelle Leandre and countless others. He also put out his work on Andrea Centazzo’s Ictus label and…
Noth
Seminal NYC ensemble Zs present their first release on Social Noise: the label dedicated to documenting a career in telepathic collaboration. Noth was recorded live at Cafe Oto in London in April 2017 and, in their usual maximalist (un)convention, features Sam Hillmer on tenor sax, Patrick Higgins on guitar and electronics, Greg Fox on drums and electronics, and Michael Beharie on electronics. Frenetic, impassioned, intentional and above-all connective improv explorations intended to cause neuro…
A History of Nothing
Great dedicated music by four strong individual players, brought together by Rodrigo Amado -- intense communication with room for outbreaking solo-parts but always held together through a vision of playing together, all the time exiting and interwoven with beautiful melodies. Personnel: Rodrigo Amado - tenor saxophone; Joe McPhee - pocket trumpet, soprano saxophone; Kent Kessler - double bass; Chris Corsano - drums.