Jazz /
Saturnian (Solo Saxophones, Volume 1)
Recorded live in concert at the Abrons Arts Center, NYC on October 15, 2009, Saturnian documents master saxophonist David S. Ware's triumphant return to performance following his kidney transplant in May 2009. This performance prompted features in The New York Times and on NBC Nightly News.Ware, in full peak of form, performed three extended pieces, each one on a different horn. "Methone" is on the saxello and "Pallene" features the stritch. David has played these lesser-known members of the sa…
Live At The South Bank
Awesome, 10/10 on Digitalis "The late Steve Reid, veteran jazz drummer and percussionist and Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), the British electronic musician/producer young enough to be his grandson, present the fifth and final installment of their momentous synergy. The music on this double LP was recorded in concert on June, 20 2009 in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London's Southbank Centre, as part of the Meltdown Festival curated by free jazz legend Ornette Coleman. For this marath…
Seven Compositions (Trio) 1989
"The great avant-garde reed player Anthony Braxton (who on this set switches between alto, C-melody sax, clarinet, flute, soprano and sopranino), bassist Adelhard Roidinger and drummer Tony Oxley play five of Braxton's complex originals, Oxley's "The Angular Apron" and the standard "All the Things You Are." As usual Braxton's improvising is quite advanced and original but is colorful and fiery enough to always hold on to open-eared listener's attention. This is one of literally dozens of …
The Minimalism Of Erik Satie
"[...] Satie, the original "Enfant Terrible", was a strange man with strange thoughts that produced strange music with strange titles that don't seem so shocking today ("Jack-in-the-Box", "Driveling Preludes for a Dog", "Dried Embryos"), but considering that he was born two centuries ago, this bad boy of classical music deserves a very close look.Satie lived an unconventional life and demanded the same from those who attempted to sneak a peek into it. For example, his notes to Vexations r…
Creative Orchestra (Köln) 1978
"The Koeln concert shows us these positive vibrations marching through "the complete continuance of creative music," and on towards the next millennium. The "success of the future" is not a lost cause as long as there is music like this in the air."-Graham Lock"Although Anthony Braxton does not play on this double CD (whose contents were released for the first time in 1995), his presence is certainly felt. He conducts the band through a fairly free improvisation and five of his compositio…
Sunrise In Different Dimensions
A great live recording of Sun Ra and his Arkestra from 1980 in Switzerland, originally released as a double LP, and remastered for CD in 2010 (two pieces have been excluded from the original LP release). The concert featured a ten piece ensemble playing a mix of originals, standards and modern jazz compositions, including pieces Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis/Tad Dameron, Coleman Hawkins, Billy Strayhorn, and Duke Ellington. This is a good example of later Sun Ra configurations, with Sun R…
The Bleeding Edge
London's fiercest free improvising saxophonist Evan Parker meets Downtown New York cellist Okkyung Lee and trumpeter Peter Evans for a series of superb duos and trios on "the bleeding edge". "The art of trio improvisation is taken on here by three pitch producing instruments each from a different family: reeds, brass and strings. Each player comes from a different continent but the music speaks of unanimity. Purely acoustic real time improvised music continues to develop."- label press
Gratuitous Abuse
The London based improvising string trio Barrel of Alison Blunt on violin, Ivor Kallin on violin & viola, and Hannah Marshall on cello, all members of London Improvisers Orchestra and performers at the 2007 Freedom of the City. "These three musicians have been performing in various combinations with others on the London improvising scene for several years. As well as the numerous small groups they have participated in, all three are members of the London Improvisers Orchestra. About six years a…
Fast Talk
The London improvising scene duo of vocalist Kay Grant, a former Downtown NY arists, and clarinetist Alex Ward, have been playing together for decades, here recorded in four live performances and a studio session."Singer Kay Grant left the Downtown New York scene some twenty years ago and crossed the Atlantic. Around the same time, schoolboy clarinettist Alex Ward donned long trousers and played in public with Derek Bailey. Since then, they have both been vital members of the London improvising …
Music(S)
Music(s) is the intimist portrait of Japanese composer Otomo Yoshihide.Music(s) is the intimist portrait of Japanese composer Otomo Yoshihide.In 1990, he founded the mythic group 'Ground Zero' produced by John Zorn, and is one of the major players on the current Japanese scene. An adept of free jazz and noisy music, he travels around the globe with his various jazz ensembles as well as solo on guitar or with his astonishing turntables. This double DVD presents a talented artist through th…
'Brud: Volumes I-III
Brud is a three volume compilation of recordings from 1995 to 2011 by Andre Vida, morphing seamlessly between a sense of total irreverence and the sublime. His spontaneous compositions and notated works are the angled mirrored counterparts of a transient saxophone driven performance language, drawing on elements of 1970s performance art, new music, improvisation cult, folk and pop hybrids, channeling them into asymmetrical tunes of feral beauty. BRUD traces the development of Vida's wayw…
The Beat Generation
After several years spent searching for a publisher for On The Road, in 1957 Jack Kerouac s fortune finally changed as he literally became a star overnight, thanks to rave reviews by the New York Times and others who heralded Kerouac as the voice of a new generation. It was during this initial period of fame (1957-1959) that Kerouac also recorded a trio of albums. His first effort, Poetry For The Beat Generation, was recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1957 with soon-to-be pop icon Steve …
Free rock
Dennis Duck (ds), Fredrik Nilsen (b), Tom Recchion (mock cello, strangaphone), Keiji Haino (g), Rick Potts (g). Recorded in 1982. A definite, honest-to-goodness blast from out of the deepest vaults, bringing together Haino and a trio of wildly surreal pranksters from the Los Angeles Free Music Society scene. An amazing archive find!
Limaro
Xavier Charles (clarinet), Nicolas Desmarchellier (guitar), Ulrich Phillipp (doublebass), Eiko Yamada (flute) and Burkhard Schlothauer (violin). Recorded live in concert direct to digital stereo by Uli Böttcher 18-06-07, Bergkirche-Wiesbaden.
Crumbling in the Shadows Is Fraulein Miller's Stale Cake
A triple CD limited box set of 3 CDs and a 48 page booklet, introducting 2 new studio CDs of solo bass, and a reissue of William Parker's out of print 1995 solo bass album "Testimony". A strictly limited/one-time only edition of 1000 copies (987 to be exact) specially designed box set containing 3 albums of William Parker solo bass compositions/performances in full tandem with a 48-page booklet of all-new William Parker writings (poems, dreams, meditations and more). Very powerful and prof…
(Fake) The Facts
After the runaway success of the Akita/Gustafsson/O'Rourke LP One Bird Two Bird (DEMEGO 016LP), Swedish sax legend Mats Gustafsson returns to Editions Mego with another storming collaboration. Now a resident of Vienna, he teamed up with experimental artists dieb13 and Martin Siewert for a live and studio session. (Fake) The Facts is the result. A dense fog of sound comes from all directions, but whereas the general impetus is a full-on attack, the trio finds enough restraint to create a deepe…
And That's The Story Of Jazz...
And that's the story of jazz... Get it? Well, maybe you had to be there when legendary saxophonist Akira Sakata, guitarist Jim O'Rourke and bombast rhythm crew of percussionist Chris Corsano and double bassist Darin Gray (aka Chikamorachi) jumped in the van for a Japanese tour. This two CD set documents their 2008 jaunt -- not the first and far from last -- in blistering detail. Shades of Last Exit, Coltrane's Live in Seattle and even Kousokuya appear here but this quartet has nailed its own uni…
Shinjuku Growl
Smalltown Superjazzz is very proud to present two new albums by The Thing. And this time it is The Thing with guitars! And none others than two of the best guitar players in the improv world today; Otomo Yoshihide and Jim O`Rourke. Both albums are recorded live at Pit Inn in Tokyo, Japan. Shinkjuku Growl with Jim O`Rourke was recorded the 4th of February 2008 and Shinkuju Crawl with Otomo Yoshihide was recorded the 2nd of October 2007 (and was also recorded by Jim O`Rourke). These two live docum…
Diskaholics Anonymous Trio
Smalltown Superjazzz is proud to to rerelase the debut album by Diskaholics Anonymous Trio. The album was released 10 years ago on the now defunct Crazy Wisdom/Universal label, and the album has been unavailable since then. The trio creates a pulsing, massive and monumental sound. Free-jazz, noise, electronic ambience, drone music and punk all mixed. The result of these three titans clashing together is an intense blow-out. Raw, grandiose and brutally beautiful. The album features three l…
Goldsmiths
A previously unissued 1972 concert by the original version of Iskra 1903 - Paul Rutherford (trombone), Derek Bailey (guitar) and Barry Guy (double bass) - extraordinary performances, plus 2 short extracts from another concert. "Iskra 1903 was one of my favourite groups. I cannot remember hearing a performance that I did not enjoy, although inevitably some were better than others. The previously unissued concert on this CD was arguably one of their best.I first heard this recording about ten year…