Jazz /
Classic Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note Sessions 1963-1970
It Was The Sixties. Blue Note Was Where It Was At. And Bobby Hutcherson Was At The Center Of It."
Sempre Notte - Live Songs
"We are very proud of adding to our artists log such a great musician, immense composer, poet: Michael Mantler. I always admired his work since I was a kid and I think all of his records are in my collection. In a way it was quite natural for two other great artists to be involved in this brilliant project: long time Mantler collaborator John Greaves and the amazing Annie Barbazza. I hope you enjoy this live recording as much as I do and appreciate the care we all put in making this stunning alb…
Brass Conspiracy
Composer, trumpeter, and educator Frank London has been a central figure of the Downtown Scene since the mid 1980s. A founding member of the Klezmatics, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and Hasidic New Wave, he has worked with everyone from LaMonte Young, Itzhak Perlman, John Cale, and Allen Ginsberg to Gal Costa, Lester Bowie, and Iggy Pop. This exciting project is a startling new take on the deep tradition of music for brass and percussion and is informed by Latin, New Orleans, Soundtrack, Ragti…
Hannigan Sings Zorn Volume Two
Volume Two documenting Barbara Hannigan’s collaboration with Downtown alchemist John Zorn presents four dramatic pieces for voice and ensemble—three composed expressly for Hannigan! Liber Loagaeth, a meditative composition for voice and string quartet that lies somewhere between a spell and a prayer—Star Catcher, a powerful tour-de-force for voice, piano, and rhythm section—Ab Eo, Quod, scored for voice, cello, vibes, electronics, and drums—and a Zorn classic, Pandora’s Box, his dramatic take on…
Hannigan Sings Zorn Volume One
A remarkable meeting of two musical forces of nature finally available on recording!
Ballades
This third CD from the dynamic piano trio of Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches Smith is a delightful surprise--and one of Zorn's greatest achievements. Exploring a wide variety of tempi, moods, and feelings the compositions dive deeply into the parameters of melody, harmony, hythm, and texture, stretching the ballade format to its limits and beyond. The trio, three essential members of Zorn's inner circle, performs with passion, imagination, virtuosity, and a telepathic improvisational inte…
Her Melodious Lay
Julian Lage and Gyan Riley have a magical rapport, a deep mutual respect, and have recorded some of Zorn’s most melodious and intimate compositions. In addition to the many books of music written for their trio with Bill Frisell, they have also worked together as a duo on The Bagatelles (2015), Midsummer Moons (2017), Book Beri’ah (2019), and Quatrain (2023). For this fifth duo CD Zorn turns again to William Shakespeare for inspiration and has composed a varied collection of ballads, dances, lul…
The Hermetic Organ Vol. 13 - Biennale Musica Venezia
Zorn's first appearance at the world renowned Venice Biennale was a spectacular one. Invited to perform The Hermetic Organ at the famed 17th century Palazzo Pisano, he was surprised to find two small antique organs opposite one another on the small stage of its intimate concert hall. His performance that day was one of the very best Offices of The Hermetic Organ—a wild, acoustic affair that takes full advantage of the rich reeds, flutes, and horns of these two outstanding instruments. Zorn ran b…
Lamentations
Zorn's lush and seductive compositions for the magical trio of Frisell-Lage-Riley are some of his most beautiful 21st century creations, and this seventh CD in their ever-expanding series is their best yet. A dramatic and colorful tribute to the expressive Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, Lamentations contains four extended pieces that unfold like exotic flowers—gorgeous music with a dark philosophical edge. These master musicians—three of the greatest guitarists in the world—work together with a profou…
Volatile Object
Tip! The second album from the high-caliber improvising trio Fictional Souvenirs captures a visceral meeting between three of improvised music’s most idiosyncratic, elusive figures. On Volatile Object Pat Thomas (piano and electronics), John Butcher (saxophones), and Ståle Liavik Solberg (durms) were recorded live at London’s Café Oto in January of 2023.
The Last Temple vol.2
The Last Temple is a live recording of this extraordinary trio at the Alchemia in Krakow. Since the concert was quite long, we divided it into 3 formats: 1) The Last Temple vol. 1 - vinyl 9" EP 2) (this one) The Last Temple vol. 2 CD 3)The Last Temple vol. 3 vinyl 12" LP (180g black vinyl) The Trzaska, Haker Flaten, Nilsen Love trio played a concert tour in Poland in March 2024. A combination of one of the most famous sections of the world's intuitive jazz (e.g. The Thing) and one of the most fa…
The Last Temple vol.3
The Last Temple is a live recording of this extraordinary trio at the Alchemia in Krakow. Since the concert was quite long, we divided it into 3 formats: 1) The Last Temple vol. 1 - vinyl 9" EP 2) The Last Temple vol. 2 CD 3) (this one) The Last Temple vol. 3 vinyl 12" LP (180g black vinyl) The Trzaska, Haker Flaten, Nilsen Love trio played a concert tour in Poland in March 2024. A combination of one of the most famous sections of the world's intuitive jazz (e.g. The Thing) and one of the most f…
Berkeley Lecture, 1971
One for the ages here. Unearthed from the ESS archives and officially released for the first time ever, a previously unknown half-hour from cosmic mythologist and sound scientist Sun Ra's 1971 U.C. Berkeley course "The Black Man in the Cosmos." Ra's soft-spoken intensity is underscored by the sound of chalk on the board as he ambles effortlessly through his potent and prescient ideas. The class session closes with two musical tracks, a piano version of "Love In Outer Space" and a blistering Moo…
Kon.Takte
"Kontakte makes contacts between acoustic instrumental sounds and electronic music, its multidimensionality and its invitation to time travel, all promised a future in which humanity might transcend the limitations of material reality. In Spiegelung and Geschichte der Gewalt the electronic sounds emerge as transformations of this reality." – Christopher Fox
Wisdom Through Music
Biggest Tip! 180 gram Vinyl Edition. Gatefold Cover. Recorded in New York City and Los Angeles, California, and was released in 1973 by Impulse! Records. Wisdom Through Music, with its smaller line-up - Sanders is joined by flutist James Branch, pianist Joe Bonner, bassist Cecil McBee, drummer Norman Connors, and percussionists Badal Roy, James Mtume, and Lawrence Killian. - consists of five tracks. Most notable is "High Life," on which Sanders emulates the West African style of music with roil…
To March Is To Love
If cellist/composer Janel Leppin’s wonderful and widely celebrated 2022 solo debut album Ensemble Volcanic Ash was a creative eruption, her follow up To March Is to Love is a glowing magma flow that greatly expands her singular band’s sonic terrain. The project thrums with immediacy as Leppin and her all-star sextet honor their musical ancestors and reflect on disquieting times. Bandcamp Daily declared “There’s no end to the melodic intensity of Ensemble Volcanic Ash. Even at its lushest and mo…
Village of the Pharoahs
Building on the back of their recent, stellar reissue of Eddie Gale's “Ghetto Music”, Elemental Music continues their long-standing initiative to make important works from the history of jazz available to a new generation of listeners with the much needed and long overdue, first ever vinyl reissue of Pharoah Sanders’ towering 1973 classic “Village of the Pharoahs”. Easily some of Sanders’ most radical music ever laid to tape, unfolding as a bristling hybrid of modal, spiritual jazz and driving f…
Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe
Big Tip! 180 gram Vinyl Edition. Gatefold Cover. One of the last records made by avant sax legend Albert Ayler – a really mind-expanding album that's unlike anything else he ever did! By the time of the record, Ayler had made a full round trip between the New York and European jazz scenes – leaving important influences wherever he went, and trying desperately to pick up new ones the further he moved on. Here, he's working in a style that's a bit like that of Archie Shepp at the time – still ste…
Frice
Before Don Cherry appeared in Ornette Coleman's quartet, the band's trumpeter was Bobby Bradford. Responsibility for his family dissuaded him from his career as a nomadic musician. It's a well-known story, but it's hard not to wonder "what would have happened if Bradford had stayed in New York and continued to create with Coleman?" This thought is even more intriguing when we learn that the marriage, which dominated the development of the young musician, broke up in 1970.I like to think that if …
Ephemeral Shapes
We have a special relationship with Ivo Perelman, so when his latest trio with Cuban-born and hugely respected pianist Aruan Ortiz and Spanish-born but French-based friend of our label Ramon Lopez finally came about, we felt that their first studio meeting had to be in our catalog. Their first album, Ephemeral Shapes, was recorded in Catalonia's Rosazul studio under the delectable ear of Ferran Conangla himself. We are all the more pleased that the band has entered the roster of the famous Akamu…