Jazz /
11th Street Fire Suite
11th Street Fire Suite is a post-BAG (Black Artists Group) classic. An emotionally ranging set of blues-drenched duets by alto saxophonist Luther Thomas and flutist Luther C. Petty, it's one of the great documents of the St. Louis creative music diaspora, a wild ride through turbulent and beautiful terrain on a slab of vinyl that's as rare as hen's teeth in its original form. Relocated from their midwestern hometown to New York City, Thomas and Petty entered the studio in 1978 with a fellow musi…
Secrets
*2023 stock* Secrets is a jazz-funk album by keyboard player Herbie Hancock. It is also Hancock's seventeenth album overall. Participating musicians include saxophonist Bennie Maupin and guitarist Wah Wah Watson.
The album clearly followed from its predecessor Man-Child. As ever, Paul Jackson's basslines were critical, and the other regular member Bennie Maupin continued to provide most of the solos alongside Hancock. Man-Child had seen the addition of electric guitar to Hancock's sound, and Sec…
Stream
European fusion at its best ! Philip Catherine has been on the forefront of the European jazz scene since the sixties, working with the likes Chet Baker, Larry Coryell, Tom Harrell, NHOP, Stéphane Grappelli, Charles Mingus. At the age of 18 he toured Europe with Lou Bennett and in 1971 Jean-Luc Ponty asked him to join his quintet. In 1971 he made his first record under his name - Stream – with a stellar line-up comprised of Freddie Deronde (bass), Frédéric Rottier (Drums), Giggs Whigham (trombon…
Tapestry Koto & The Occident Sea
'Tapestry: Koto' is a 3-album series produced by Nippon Columbia in the mid-1970s dedicated to one of the main instruments of Japanese traditional music: Koto. The beauty of the trilogy curated by composer Kiyoshi Yamaya, whose chapters are respectively dedicated to Sea, Hillside and Country, lies in the fact that they are a modern translation of tradition using newer and more avant-garde sound idioms, integrating the koto with jazz musicians. An original mix, a 'crossover’ that allows for the a…
Phalene I / IV
*300 copies limited edition* Two long-lost recordings from Marc Moulin's Placebo band, and it's earliest incarnation, Kiosk. Debuting unreleased outtakes from Placebo's second album, '1973', and the first ever official reissue of the proto-Placebo single by Kiosk. Originally pressed in tiny numbers in 1970 as a promotional release for Moulin's Sunday night radio show, Dimanche Musique, at RTB, Brussels. Taken from the only existing mastertapes, just recently resurfaced!
Crashin' From Passion
Red Vinyl Edition. In the 1970s, Betty Davis defied genre and gender by pushing her voice to extremes and embracing the erotic. She articulated a kind of pre-punk, funk-blues fusion that had yet to be normalized in mainstream music – a style that few musicians have come close to replicating. As one of the first Black women to write, arrange, and produce her own albums, Betty was a visionary who disregarded industry boundaries and constraints. Raw, unapologetic and in full control, Betty paved th…
They Say I'm Different
Bomb! Black Vinyl edition. One can hardly imagine the genre-busting, culture-crossing musical magic of Outkast, Prince, Erykah Badu, Rick James, The Roots, or even the early Red Hot Chili Peppers without the influence of R&B pioneer Betty Davis. Her style of raw and revelatory punk-funk defies any notions that women can’t be visionaries in the worlds of rock and pop. In recent years, rappers from Ice Cube to Talib Kweli to Ludacris have rhymed over her intensely strong but sensual music.
There i…
Betty Davis
Bottle Clear Vinyl Edition. Betty Davis was a musical maverick with vision. Image, substance, sex, and grit combined with a badass band that could deliver the funk bed backbone to the sultry music between the sheets. After cutting two notorious discs for the Just Sunshine label (Betty Davis, and They Say I’m Different), and Nasty Gal for Island Records, Davis went to work on her most personal and expressive record yet. After capturing 10 hard-hitting tracks in 1976 at the remote Studio In The Co…
Is It Love Or Desire
Gold Vinyl. Betty Davis was a musical maverick with vision. Image, substance, sex, and grit combined with a badass band that could deliver the funk bed backbone to the sultry music between the sheets. After cutting two notorious discs for the Just Sunshine label (Betty Davis, and They Say I’m Different), and Nasty Gal for Island Records, Davis went to work on her most personal and expressive record yet. After capturing 10 hard-hitting tracks in 1976 at the remote Studio In The Country (Louisiana…
Jazz Al Folkstudio
Back in 2021, we bore witness to the reissue, by Dialogo, of the Rome based ensemble Spirale’s lone 1974 self-titled LP, a towering obscurity of 1970s Italian jazz. Made of up Gaetano Delfini (wind instruments, vocals, percussion), Giancarlo Maurino (saxophone, flute, percussion), Corrado Nofri (piano, marimba, mbira, siren, Jew’s harp), Giuseppe Caporello (contrabass, guitar, percussion) and Giampaolo Ascolese (drums), the band ranks among the most sinfully neglected outfits of its moment, 1970…
Polygamy
On the course of our deep research, we sometimes discover a hidden thread that unites musicians, songwriters, artists, and poets linked by music. Mustafa's 'Polygamy' is no exception. Apart from the music - the main reason we decided to work on this first ever re-press, a jewel at the crossroads between jazz funk, spiritual jazz and proto rap - are the many other things that make Mustafa an intriguing and fascinating character. For starters, he was a childhood friend of the Ayler brothers with w…
Roundtrip
First CD edition. Remastered from the original master tapes. OBI Strip, Twelve pages booklet with exclusive pictures and liner notes. After more than 45 years forgotten in the personal archives of Jean Schwarz, Transversales Disques is very happy to release this previously unpublished recording which brings together the great Don Cherry and his friend, composer Jean Schwarz, pioneer in electro-acoustic music and member of G.R.M. This concert was recorded in 1977 at the Paris MIX festival (Théatr…
Live '71: The Kenny Wheeler Big Band & Friends
A soaringly joyous album from British trumpeter Kenny Wheeler – one that has him leading a larger group in a style that resonates with similar projects of the time from artists like Mike Westbrook or Michael Gibbs! Wheeler delivers some magnificent trumpet and flugelhorn solos – very much at the more straightforward, soulful side of his range – and the ensemble is overflowing with work from top-shelf contemporaries – including Mike Taylor on some key electric piano lines, next to Mike Osborne on…
Damisi
Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue for the first time Harold Land's classic LP 'Damisi,' recorded in Los Angeles for Bob Shad's Mainstream Records and released in 1972. Featuring Buster Williams (b), Ndugu (ds), Bill Henderson (keys) and Oscar Breashear (tp) the album was recorded at a crucial time when Land was shifting to a more spiritual sound. The session is a superb mix of Funk and modal Jazz and feature the monster groove "In The Back, In The Corner, In The Dark" as well as the deep, med…
Steve Lacy - The Ictus Archives Vol. 2
Tip! The final two LPs in the latest Ictus batch, “The Ictus Archives Vol. 1” and “The Ictus Archives Vol. 2”, both draw on the same period that the veteran saxophonist produced “Clangs” and “Trio Live”, both recorded in 1976 during of two weeks that he was touring Italy with Andrea Centazzo, released in 1976 and 77 respectively, and reissued in 2021’s batch. Gathering four sides of material, issued as two individual LPs, we are offered an incredible insight into that moment’s striking collabo…
The Ictus Archives Vol. 1
Tip! The final two LPs in the latest Ictus batch, “The Ictus Archives Vol. 1” and “The Ictus Archives Vol. 2”, both draw on the same period that the veteran saxophonist produced “Clangs” and “Trio Live”, both recorded in 1976 during of two weeks that he was touring Italy with Andrea Centazzo, released in 1976 and 77 respectively, and reissued in 2021’s batch. Gathering four sides of material, issued as two individual LPs, we are offered an incredible insight into that moment’s striking collabo…
The Bay
Tip! *250 copies limited edition* On the same trip to the United States that produced “U.S.A. Concerts” and “Environment for Sextet”, Andrea Centazzo also connected with the San Francisco-based Rova Saxophone Quartet, formed the previous year by Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Andrew Voigt and Bruce Ackley (all playing various saxophones). While not as well-known now as they once were, over the last 40+ years the ensemble has produced dozens of albums and collaborated with diverse figures like Anthony …
U.S.A. Concerts
Super Tip! *250 copies limited edition* The Italian imprint, Ictus, was founded in 1976 by percussionist and composer, Andrea Centazzo, and his wife Carla Lugli. Running for just under a decade, until relaunching during the mid-2000s, the label produced a couple of dozen highly highly celebrated releases, the majority of which loosely fall under the banner of free jazz. Ictus’ second batch of releases from the label’s historic archives logically begins with Andrea Centazzo’s “U.S.A. Concerts”, …
Planets
Since 2018, BBE Music has been leading the field in reissuing rare modern jazz from Japan’s golden period spanning the late 60s to the early 80s. The J Jazz Masterclass Series continues to present the finest in Japanese jazz with 'Planets' by Masaru Imada Trio + 1. Originally released in 1977 as a private press album, 'Planets' showcases the refined playing and sophisticated compositions of one of Japan’s leading pianists, Masaru Imada. In a fifty- plus year career he has released over 40 albums…
At The Room 427
The ninth album in BBE Music's J Jazz Masterclass Series presents ‘At the Room 427’ by Koichi Matsukaze Trio Featuring Ryojiro Furusawa, a rarely heard exemplar of post-modal power bop and free jazz. Delivered by a trio playing with an intensity and energy that draws on classic Eric Dolphy and mid-era Coltrane but definitely with its own particular vibe, At the Room 427 is an exemplar of febrile improvised jazz that could only come from Japan. This deluxe reissue sees a welcome return to the J J…