Jazz /
Earth Mother
*Much needed repress* As part of the widely respected BBE J Jazz Masterclass Series, Koichi Matsukaze‘s incredibly rare and much sought after album Earth Mother sees a deluxe repress on BBE Music. This is the third highly anticipated release in the series. Regarded as one of the most sought-after yet elusive albums from a pivotal era in Japanese jazz, Earth Mother was originally issued in 1978 on ALM, a private label home to some of the most innovative jazz, contemporary classical and free impro…
Animals Garden
*2023 stock* The fifth release in the BBE Music J Jazz Masterclass Series has the perfect combination of rarity and exceptional musicality that inspires seasoned collectors to break out in a sweat. Animals Garden by Miyasaka + 5 was originally issued in 1979 on the cult private Japanese label ALM and is reissued for the first time in a 180Gram 2LP edition.Animals Garden was a one-off project led by master drummer Takashi ‘Bear’ Miyasaka and features a powerful and progressive jazz group includin…
East Plants
*2023 repress* BBE Music is proud to present another instalment in the J Jazz Masterclass Series: East Plants by Takeo Moriyama, one of Japan’s finest jazz drummers. A genuine ‘under the radar’ album known only to a handful of Japanese jazz collectors, East Plants is now available again, reissued for the first time as a double 180g LP, with exact reproductions of the original artwork, obi strip and insert. It also comes with the original notes fully translated. This reissue is fully endorsed by …
Succo di formiche
Written and recorded with the goal of creating a one-movement suite in the least amount of time possible, "Succo di formiche" reflects the archetypal joy of music making, the spontaneous impulses underlying its formation, and a love of the record album form.
Bengt "Frippe" Nordström
Second edition. 300 copies, all parts identical to the first edition For the past decade, Mats Gustafsson has fastidiously produced and compiled the most thorough and comprehensive collection of archival solo recordings of the late legendary Swedish saxophonist and eccentric archivist of free music activity in Sweden, Bengt “Frippe” Nordström (1936–2000). Bringing together rare and unreleased recordings taken from an extensive collection of home-recorded solo sax improvisations, it documents his…
Sam Jesteś Pompa Vol. 2
Remont Pomp (repair of pumps) is a band playing ethnic, avant-garde and improvised music, which was founded in 2003 at the Polish Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities Koło in Gdańsk, created by the association's charges. The band's inspiration is ethnic music with an emphasis on the richness of African music. Remont Pomp also discovers the space of experimental music by playing unusual instruments and objects not usually associated with music. The band uses a variety of instrume…
Live 1989
Third volume of Masahiko Togashi archives features a concert by a trio consisting of Masahiko Togashi, Haruna Miyake, and Yuji Takahashi held on July 8, 1989 at Fukaya Egg Farm. Supervised by Masahiko Satoh.
Flowers In Space
*300 copies limited edition* "This is the first LP (following a cassette) released under Drew Gardner’s name and it’s a doozy. Drew is a guitarist, probably best known as a founding member of Elkhorn (although his musical partnerships with Jesse Shepard go back way further than that), and his recent work with Jeffrey Alexander’s Heavy Lidders has also been noteworthy as hell. The band here is a trio with Andy Cush (Garcia Peoples) on bass, and the extremely well documented Ryan Jewell on drums. …
Sightsong
The reputation of members of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), of which Abrams is a founding member, has long been one of adventurous, dangerous, and difficult music. But in fact, much of the music created out of this organization shows enormous appreciation of the blues and earlier jazz forms. Sightsong is a splendid case in point. The album opens with four duets (two dedicated to Chicago legends Wilbur Ware and Johnny Griffin) which have a swing, a groove, and a…
Plays Martin Denny
*2023 stock. 300 copies limited edition* For the kids (6+) & family play MaiTé, the girl and the bird, Bruno Vansina was inspired by the famous exotica of Martin Denny and Les Baxter. His compositions, rearranged by colleague Pierre Vervloesem, remained true to the originals, but have a very contemporary feel to them as well, and soon started to lead a life on their own. This resulted in a new band - the 7-piece Orchestra Exotica - that performs the playful and multicolored music of Denny and Ba…
St. Cecilia
*2023 stock. 300 copies limited edition* The cooperation between Bruno Vansina (saxes - see also ORT007 Vansina Orchestra) and Teun Verbruggen (drums - see also almost all on Rat-Off) makes the pivot of this trio that was formed at the conservatory of Brussels in 1996. They got their initial inspiration from the trio recordings of Sonny Rollins 'Live At The Village Vanguard'. The music of Miles Davis Sextet with John Coltrane and Canonball Adderley, and the music of Chet Baker had it's influence…
Intrusion
*2023 stock* Machine Mass started out in 2011 as an idiosyncratic MoonJune power duo made of longtime collaborators American drummer Tony Bianco (Elton Dean, Paul Dunmall, Evan Parker) and Belgian guitarist Michel Delville (The Wrong Object, Vegir). Hailed as a « feisty and rebel rousing exhibition that contains a surfeit of diametric contrasts and smoldering exchange » (All About Jazz), it has since then morphed into various forms and ventures involving guests such as Dave Liebman (Inti, 2014) …
Cliffs
When the best American sax player of the moment ( grammy, pools, magazines) James Brandon Lewis meets one of the most interesting French fretless bass electronic visionary Floy Krouchi and French avant-garde drummer Benjamin Sanz and they spend a week improvising in the south of France, they come with one of the best contemporary jazz album of the year!
We Will Intersect
Adrian Lim-Klumpes and Nick Calligeros originally met 15 years ago under the dynamic of teacher and student, respectively. After finishing school, Adrian became a mentor to Nick and 15 years on from originally teaching him the fundamentals of improvisation, they have formed this group together. This album was conceived in one take, with only one simple, predetermined structural element guiding them. Everything you hear on the album is completely improvised. Nick says: "I feel my musical approach…
vilevilevilevilevilevilevilevile
Tao Forms is chuffed to present this exquisite new solo bass work by young maestro Brandon López.On moving to NYC a little over a decade ago, López began making himself indispensable within many creative music scenes, from the New York Philharmonic to the DIY basements of Brooklyn. As with all bass players of great skill & commitment, López has been prolifically active because he has been in high demand & has made himself available. The Cleveland Review of Books noted: “This is virtuosity as vo…
Astral Plains
Peace Flag Ensemble are a free jazz collective from Saskatchewan. Their sophomore LP, Astral Plains, arrives July 18 via We Are Busy Bodies.
In The Dark
Allen Lowe writes: In the Dark is a commemoration (sic) of the worst time of my life – a period of time during which, having been operated on to remove a cancerous tumor in my sinus, I slept for only brief periods of time. Sometimes I made it as long as two hours continuously, but most often I dozed off for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, maybe an hour – encamped as I was on my couch, trying not to wake my wife as I wandered in the dark contemplating the long night ahead. Sometimes I turned the televisi…
America: The Rough Cut
Allen Lowe writes: "America: The Rough Cut is my statement not only on American music and American song, but also my commentary on the way American musicians of all styles handle that old-time music and those old song forms . . . The old things -- not just the blues, but gospel music and pre-blues shouts and language, plus hillbilly/minstrel song and medicine show irony -- reflect a disinterest in the polite trappings of (primarily but not only white) society, an implicit rejection of basic tona…
No Joke!
ESP is proud to present a new William Parker album in collaboration with his wife Patricia Nicholson. No Joke! is unapologetically political, facing down injustice and inequality and other “in”s with artistic integrity and “outside” music.
World Construct
Throughout his long and prolific career, Matthew Shipp has presented several different and impressive trio formations. Among the featured members have been bassists William Parker, and Joe Morris, and drummers Guillermo E. Brown, Whit Dickey, and Susie Ibarra. In 2015, two other premier players, bassist Michael Bisio, and drummer Newman Taylor Baker stepped in as the rhythm section on The Conduct of Jazz (Thirsty Ear). Their fourth album as a unit, World Construct makes the group the most enduri…