Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

“Members of the dispossessed, won’t you lend me your ears!”

"A long life can contain a certain amount of waste. Live long enough and posterity doesn’t notice the  occasional unproductive gap. A short life adds value to every moment and every creative act. This new  issue of Albert Ayler’s brief association with Don Cherry includes further material from their time in  Copenhagen, a period when the saxophonist daily reinvented the themes that were coursing through  his mind, breath and fingers. These are not a collector’s fetishes. These are fresh document…

"Given their distinct backgrounds and individualistic sense of creative process, it’s not surprising to discover that the sounds Levin, Mariam and Miguel generate do not fall into common improv tactics, stylistic clichés, or the isolation of chance. There are individual characteristics that affect our perception of the flow, cessation, and singularity of events heard here, and serve to identify and intensify the moment." – Art Lange

A live recording from a piece premiered at the 2023 Cheltenham Jazz Festival, and later recorded at The Vortex. Laura Jurd was commissioned to write this piece for scored ensemble plus improvising quartet, and the resulting piece balances the composed and improvised elements beautifully in the fast moving 45 minute work which is very much in the tradition of the best British jazz. Laura writes - "I don’t think I’ll ever forget hearing Paul Dunmall play for the first time. Whilst aware of his gra…

A set of  high intensity free jazz interactions captured live at The Vortex, London in early 2024. Brackenbury and Bianco have worked together as a duo for a number of years and this is their third Discus Music release, following their opening fire music statement Rising Up (112CD) and the mystical Hildegard von Bingen + Coltrane inspired Wayward Mystic (140CD). The addition of Pope and O’Gallagher expands the duo into a formidable improvising quartet. Tony Bianco writes: “In this world overwhel…

At the beginning of the 80s, guitarist Jean-Francois Pauvros and trumpeter Jac Berrocal invented the trio Catalogue, responsible for a rather provocative crazy rock with its saturated voices and decadent lyrics... We remember "Khomeini Twist" from the 1982 album "Penetration". After Jean-Pierre Arnoux's brief appearance, Gilbert Artman sat behind the drums for three explosive vinyls which were to mark their era to the point of still resonating today. Sound recordist Jean-Marc Foussat, a long-tim…

Jazz in Australia at its best with incredible sessions from autumn 1960 – three masters with unbelievable musical control and understanding. This album was recorded at the El Rocco club six weeks after the group was formed, and the boys claim they were only just becoming accustomed to one another’s playing. In all, they cut thirty different titles in two 3-hour sessions, all of which were one take only. This in itself is incredible as the resulting takes never fall below top-level

The hard-swinging Three Out were attracting large and enthusiastic crowds in Sydney and shared the bill with such names as Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Teddy Wilson and Sarah Vaughan. Here we find them continuing in the same exciting manner as their first album, 'Move'. The Three Out are joined by four horns on the second half of this album from 1960. The session has the flavour of the hard jazz of the American Masters of the sixties, particularly the "Big Soul Band" type from Chicago and N…

Huge Tip! Never before released recording of the Sensational and Banned Turkish Theater Play by James Baldwin and Engin Cezzar, Istanbul 1970. Licensed by Gökhan Akçura, author of Engin Cezzar's autobiography, who was personally entrusted with the original master tape by Engin Cezzar. "One of the most shocking and daring plays staged in Turkish theaters was banned by the Istanbul Governorship on February 7, 1970. The ban on the play, which was watched by 30,000 people in 60 days, did not last lo…

Back in stock ! The piano trio material included in this reissue, constitutes a body of work which was never released in LP format during Sonny Clark's tragically short life. Clark was an underrated master of the hard bop genre who had a very subtle, artful touch. On this date, he exhibits the influence of Ahmad Jamal and Red Garland (a lighter sound) and less of the Bud Powell-inspired, hard-driving bebop lines. The arrangements are simple and concise; the tunes are all well-known standards. So…

Unearthed in 2005 by staff at the Library of Congress, At Carnegie Hall is an incredible performance delivered on 29 November 1957 by jazz giants Monk and Coltrane, together with bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik and drummer Shadow Wilson. Far superior to that captured at the Five Spot five months earlier, At Carnegie Hall shows Coltrane finding his own sax sphere as Monk explores the limits of experimental excursions on the keyboard; Monk is in his element on ‘Crepuscule With Nellie’ and Trane shows hi…

San Francisco is an album by jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson and saxophonist Harold Land, released on the Blue Note label in May 1971. The album features a shift away from the usual hard bop-post-bop style pursued previously by Hutcherson and Land, and shifts towards jazz fusion.

"Of all of McLean's Blue Note dates, so many of which are classic jazz recordings, Destination Out! stands as the one that reveals the true soulfulness and complexity of his writing, arranging, and 'singing' voice." - All Music

*2024 stock* "Vibraphonist, singer and producer Roy Ayers is a master of many musical styles and genres, from acid-jazz, jazz-funk to romantic ballads and dance tracks. While many of his contemporaries seemed to fail when they tried different sounds, Ayers always made sure a certain of musicality and identity was apparent in all of his work. In 1970 Ayers signed Polydor Records and released Ubiquity which had Ayers in a looser and a less formal atmosphere. Even at its loosest, Atlantic still had…

2024 stock. Federico Ughi, New York drummer, improviser and producer releases a new studio recording to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of his very first album, recorded when he resided in London, UK. The theme of the album is Ughi’s experience of home, and how it has evolved, living between Brooklyn, New York, his native Rome, Italy and all the places in the world he has passed through while touring. It’s Ughi’s deeply personal meditation on all the incredible things he’s gotten from travelin…

Federico Ughi Together with Leo Genovese and Brandon Lopez Explores the Spaceways in the New Multidimensional LP ‘Infinite Cosmos Calling You You You, Vol. 1’

2024 stock. Dave Tucker says that he brought this disparate group of musicians together for a live performance at London’s Cafe Oto last March on “an educated guess,” predicting that the artists - Mark Sanders (Drums & Percussion), Pat Thomas (Piano & Keys), Dave Tucker (Guitar) and Thurston Moore (Guitar) - would be able to create something extraordinary through improvisation. The condition of their encounter would later become the collective’s name, an “Educated Guess” and the eponymous title …

“A blissfully ecstatic sprawl of spiritual-jazz explorations of the most transcendent order” – Brooklyn Rail

One of the most important musical partnerships in English Free Improvisation was the duo of Tony Oxley and Derek Bailey. Their long standing friendship began as early as 1963 with the group Joseph Holbrooke (including composer/bassist Gavin Bryars) and lasted over forty years. These recordings were created in the studio in 1975 and catch them at their peak. Also included is Oxley’s touching tribute to Bailey, a dynamic new piece for electronics and percussion recorded live at the recent Bailey t…

From Elemental Music comes the long overdue vinyl reissue of one of greatest and most standalone albums in both the legendary Blue Note catalog and the history of American jazz: the longtime Sun Ra Arkestra trumpeter Eddie Gale’s 1968 debut “Ghetto Music”. A towering hybrid of free jazz, spiritual jazz, and gospel, infused with politics of Black Nationalism and self-determination of its era that culminate in a writhing, heavy sound like nothing else, it’s one of those records that pulls the rug …

Evan Parker made his first trip to North America as a performer in the fall of 1978 touring solo in the US and Canada. His landmark solo record Monoceros had been recorded in April. This is a recording of his first solo performance in New York City. While it may lack the sonic fidelity of Monoceros, its raw passion makes a statement to the New York audiences lucky to have been at Environ that October evening.

LP – strictly limited one-time edition / 500. Jacket printed on reverse board, includes insert with full credits & liner notes by William, Ellen, and Steven. A beauty. Includes full-res download card/code of the total work (w/ 3 bonus tracks). Cereal Music is indeed William Parker’s first spoken word album – poetry and observations from a profound life devoted to the path of finding truth in beauty and speaking truth to power. Hard to believe this hasn't happened before! Parker’s words are furth…

CD Edition. 6-panel digipak, printed on heavyweight stock reverse board. Per AUM standard, a beauty. Notes/poem by WP & photos on inners. Heart Trio features three lifelong-devoted fellow travelers on the path of healing through sound. World-renowned & revered bassist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, improvisor, community leader William Parker has performed and recorded extensively with both master pianist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, inveterate performer Cooper-Moore & master …

To celebrate saxophonist/flutist Henry Threadgill's career retrospective at the 2024 Big Ears Festival, Pi Recordings  release both Volumes I & II of This Brings Us To together in a limited-edition double vinyl set. Featuring his long-running band, Zooid, the two volumes were originally released in 2009 and 2010 even though the music was all recorded at a single session. They were his first releases in eight years, longer than any hiatus in his career, a time that allowed for the gestation of wh…

Of the early stars of MPB (Música Popular Brasileira), Chico Buarque was one of the first to become a certifiable pop star. With his warm, nasalinflected croon, elegant phrasing, and considerable skill at lyric writing, Buarque (who is handsome to boot) became extremely popular with women, who loved his understated sensuality. In 1974, Buarque recorded Sinal Fechado, after having his music censored numerous times by the Brazilian military dictatorship during the ‘70s. By the time of this recordi…

** 2LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Heavy sleeve and obi ** I had no idea that Ryo Fukui had left behind such a sound source. This is a completely unreleased live performance recorded on June 8, 1977. The recording was done at Sapporo's live house "Vidro" by Masataka Ito, the producer of Fukui's "Scenery" and "Mellow Dream” albums. It is exactly the performance of the Fukui Trio from that period, but at the same time, it has an overwhelming energy and freshness that is not found in studio recordings…

Recorded at Munich’s Muffathalle twenty years ago, in September 2004, this previously-unreleased concert recording of the Tomasz Stanko Quartet is a fascinating document, capturing a developmental chapter in the music between the song forms of the Suspended Night repertoire and the improvised areas that the Polish musicians would explore on Lontano.  The Munich show was a highlight in a year in which the Stanko Quartet played a record number of gigs, with extensive tours of the US and Europe.  T…

On My Prophet, Oded Tzur together with his quartet of pianist Nitai Hershkovits, bassist Petros Klampanis and the new group member Cyrano Almeida on drums, continues on the idiosyncratic musical path he has carved out for himself – a flowing jazz idiom that seamlessly combines multiple forms of expression –,  while delving deeper into the meditative and highly concentrated realm of improvisation. In the process, the saxophonist presents some of his fiercest playing yet. The quartet’s synergy is…

This concert recording from Munich’s Schwere Reiter performance space features improvisation with an expanded palette of possibilities. “To work with these colours is a great challenge and joy!” says bassist Barry Guy of the glowing and ever-changing tints, timbres and tones radiating from Jordina Millà’s freely associative piano.  Like Guy, Millà is both a player of prodigious technical capacity and a fearless improvisational explorer, and her highly creative use of the piano interior opens up …

The Błoto quartet had made a comeback six months ago with their first singles in over two years dropping “Szlam” and “Ścieki”. These tracks were pressed on a 7-inch vinyl by Astigmatic Records, but this only whetted the appetites of the band’s mud-loving fans, as the singles sold out instantly. And so, the band's musical onslaught continues. Ahead of their upcoming LP “Grzybnia” set to release in autumn 2024, Błoto is putting out another bacteria-laden 7-inch to conclude this brief series of sin…

"Masters of musical tension. Maintaining tension, resolving tension. It's an integral part of improvised music, but of this international trio in particular. Rodrigo Amado and Dirk Serries first bonded over a couple of duo concerts in the summer of 2018. With his roots in (free) jazz, lauded Portuguese saxophonist Amado became an intriguing sparring partner for the Belgian guitarist, who's been involved in a more abstract style for some time now. With English Andrew Lisle, a drummer with an extr…

This is British improvised music at its absolute finest. Three giants of the UK scene – pianist Robert Mitchell, double bassist Neil Charles, and drummer Mark Sanders – locked in a room at Café Oto in February 2022, no safety net, no second takes, just forty minutes of pure telepathic interplay. The result is devastating. Vol. 2 captures the second half of The Flame's legendary debut performance – and if Vol. 1 was a revelation, this is the confirmation. Three extended pieces that move from tend…

CD edition. Solo album by Walter Prati, here back on his cello driving us through an illuminating and sublimative journey. Walter Prati’s composition for cello seems to interpret this range of facets, these transparent and elusive angles. Contemplative music, to a certain extent, but also ready to express fragments lyrically, and their rushing to compose a mosaic. For reasons I cannot explain, I catch a glimpse of several iridescent colours, between turquoise and hard blue with odd crimson strip…

Mozo Mozo was founded in 2018. Moritz Haberkorn (guitar, FX), Michael Masen (sax), Christoph Kirmaier (bass, FX) and Lukas Wöber (drums) played many intense session before forming the group. Their aim was to bring original free jazz to a young audience. Their live shows are legendary - their gigs are complex, performative and combine elements of jazz and rock. In 2021 Felix Linhart took Moritz Haberkorn's place with the former concentrating more on his solo projects like Morast. The name Mozo Mo…

Michael Fischer is a musician, composer andinstant composition conductor. He works on the immanence of language within sounds, their sculptural and dramatic evidence, on the tenor saxophone, the violin, on cd-player setting and conducted instant compositions, in improvised and experimental music / noise / soundscapes. Collaborations in literature - focus experimental poetry, dance, performance, installation, video. Next to his long standing collaborations such as duo Bagg*Fish with drummer Marco…

Frank Gratkowski studied woodwind instruments at Hamburg University. He constantly works on extending the repertoire of his instruments: solo and in various groups, large or small. He uses unusual techniques to play his instruments and sees himself as working in contemporary improvised music. Composition and improvisation are both equally important. In 1995 he founded the first Frank Gratkowski trio with Gerry Hemingway on drums and Dieter Manderscheid on bass. Since then, he is part of various …

Mark Holub’s (Led Bib, Blueblut) new band Anthropods returns with their second album. This follow-up to the warmly received self-titled debut album, described by Jazzwise as a, “richly eclectic set of enjoyable and unclassifiable music celebrating the joy of collectivity”, brings the band into new directions, exploring the spaces between composition and improvisation. The composition of the suite began at the culmination of two years of working together, Holub elaborates: Anthropods for me was a…

Initially founded in 2015, after a period of shuffling members and names, Halcyon Daze settled on its final lineup by early 2016 of then-high schoolers Ivan Cunningham (saxophones), George Adzick (woodwinds), Nicholas Christenson (guitars), and Samuel Stroup (drums). At this point, the band entered its peak of activity within the Twin Cities jazz scene of the time, performing at many of its most prominent venues and DIY spaces while building up an extensive songbook of original compositions and …

2024 stock. Alèmayèhu Eshèté is no less than one of the great voices of the heyday of modern Ethiopian music, the swinging sixties which, in this country, went on until the fall of the Emperor Haile Sellassie 1 in 1974. On a par with Tlahoun Gèssèssè, Bzunèsh Bèqèlè or Mahmoud Ahmed, Alèmayèhu is a star at the top level of the constellation that once lit up the wild nights in the capital.

The re-release series of original Ethiopian classic vinyl continues -- the finest Ethio jazz by Mahmoud Ahmed and his band from 1975 plus two tracks from 1978.