Jazz /
Descension "Out of Our Constrictions"
**CD edition** Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London’s Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-minute performance, inspired …
Script Original
** Edition of 300 copies. Hard cardboard gatefold cover ** To Keith... “You were so afraid of death, you spoke about it often… often with lucidity, with reason, but this fear disappeared very quickly when you sat down at the piano… There, the demons vanished, The ghosts disappeared, the beauty s 'installed… Your piano, you caressed it for so long, barely out of adolescence. In 1975, in Nancy, you deployed nearly a hundred feet to play your music, this "Septober Energy", the energy that one has a…
Augmented Space
Temporary Super Offer! Musicians as different as Bill Dixon, Wadada Leo Smith, Axel Dörner, Susana Santos Silva have experimented with the lonely, no-safety-net discipline of solo trumpet playing. It is one of the hardest avocations in music: no harmony instrument, no pedal notes, no supportive pick-up if things go wrong. Schmid seems to follow in that line and yet the solo performances on Augmented Space, for all the extreme discipline of his technique, seems very different to the artists abov…
J Jazz Volume 3: Deep Modern Jazz from Japan
**In process of stocking** BBE Music presents J Jazz volume 3, the latest in its definitive compilation series exploring the finest modern jazz from Japan. Since the first volume in February 2018, the J Jazz compilation series has showcased some of the most creative, inspired, and sought-after jazz recorded in Japan during a golden period spanning the 1960s to the 1980s. Illustrating the richness and versatility of the composers and musicians on this collection, the music spans a wide yet cohere…
Evolution
**In process of stocking** BBE Music presents the seventh release in its highly acclaimed J Jazz Master Class Series: ‘Evolution’ by Shintaro Quintet. Recorded in 1984 and originally released on the private label Streetnoise Records, ‘Evolution’ is a perfect example of stately modal jazz with every one of its five tracks composed by band leader and bassist, Shintaro Nakamura. A cut from the album, ‘A Blind Man’, was included on the BBE Music compilation ‘J Jazz – Deep Modern Jazz from Japan 1969…
Stop Over
**In process of stocking** BBE Music presents the sixth release in its acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: ‘Stop Over’ by Hideto Sasaki – Toshiyuki Sekine Quartet +1. Released at the height of the electric fusion era, ‘Stop Over’ is an all-acoustic hard bop killer, sounding like the Jazz Messengers on speed. When it was originally issued on the private Smile label in 1976, only 100 copies were pressed, making ‘Stop Over’ one of the most sought after and rare LPs in the J Jazz canon.
Trumpeter H…
Animals Garden
**In process of stocking** 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 …
Topology
**In process of stocking** BBE Music presents the fourth release in their acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: Topology by Makoto Terashita and Harold Land. Originally released in 1984 on the cult Aketa’s Disk label, Topology captures a surprising yet fascinating and engaging collaboration between a young Japanese jazz pianist and an elder American statesman of jazz.Reissued by BBE Music for the first time since original release 36 years ago, Topology showcases the extraordinary compositional an…
East Plants
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 Takeo Moriyama …
Location
**In process of stocking** Following on from the welcome revival of Lyman Woodard’s classic ‘Saturday Night Special‘ and drummer, Bert Myrick’s ‘Live ’n Well’ – which features the epic ‘Scorpio’s Child’ – BBE Records continue to dig deeper into the vaults of Detroit’s Strata label with The Contemporary Jazz Quintet album ‘Location’.
Working in conjunction with 180 Proof’s Amir Abdullah BBE are poised to unearth a steady flow of hard to find or previously unheard gems from the short-lived but con…
Vario 34 3: Free Improvised Music
Since its first iteration in 1979, Vario has appeared in some fifty different versions, with a great variety of musicians, also actors, dancers, and filmmakers. It's the brainchild of Günter Christmann, a powerhouse of improvised music in Germany whose influence is out of scale with his acclaim. Since his emergence on the scene in the early 1970s, including appearances on classic FMP outings such as Rüdiger Carl Inc.'s King Alcohol (CVSD 032CD) and the eponymous Peter Kowald Quintet LP (CF 015LP…
Fire Without Bricks
The duo of saxophonist Larry Stabbins and percussionist Roy Ashbury was a mainstay of the London improvised music scene in the early 1970s. They recorded their lone LP, Fire Without Bricks, in 1976, and issued it in a tiny edition on the cooperatively run Bead label. Stabbins has toggled between more pop-oriented projects like Working Week and Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA Orchestra and adventurous free music in bands led by Peter Brötzmann and Tony Oxley. Born in Wolverhampton and based initially i…
Into a New Journey
Unearthed by The Mighty Zaf for BBE Music, Into A New Journey by Ambiance is an impossibly rare and sought-after private label spiritual jazz masterpiece from 1982 with Latin, Brazilian and Afro overtones. Ambiance was the ‘nom de guerre’ of an ever-shifting jazz collective headed up by Nigeria-born, LA-tutored multi- instrumentalist, arranger, producer and photographer Daoud Abubakar Balewa.
Balewa studied composition and jazz improvisation at the feet of innovators such as Frank Mitchell (Art …
Music Of Inevitable Sounds
Trost presents Music of Inevitable Sounds by Luc Ex, recorded in Bologna, Teatro San Leonardo and Den Haag, Korzo, 2018. Mixed by Mika Szafrowski, mastered by Martin Siewert.
Joost Buis - trombone, Saartje van Camp - cello, Luc Ex - ac. bass, Renato Ferierra - bass/tenor sax, Pepe Garcia - percussion, Yedo Gibson - reeds, Nora Mulder - piano, Mika Szafrowski - guitar, Veryan Weston - piano/keystation, Nina Hitz - cello, Vladislav Psaruk - trombone.
Obzareva Duma
In winter 1976, a few years before Olexandr Shapoval headed up the well-known band Vodogray, a jazz band called Shapoval Sextet recorded three pieces "Kobzareva Duma" in live at the Donetsk Jazz Festival. The tape has been lost for almost 45 years, until now. The most radical, experimental and psych jazz recording from the Ukrainian Soviet-era found to date.
Composed and arranged by, flutes, saxophone: Oleksandr ShapovalTrumpet: Oleg AnapolskyElectric organ, piano: Oleg KoskoGuitar, spoken words…
Some Good News
Double CD documenting the magic meeting of one of the all-time great rhythm sections in jazz: percussionist Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker, with London’s brilliant Black Top (Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas) and Elaine Mitchener. Across two sets the quintet are infectiously energetic and inspired, striding from synchronised heavy groove to star bright solos, whilst incorporating dub effects, guimbri and sumptuous blues piano playing.
Formed by Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas but always real…
Contemporary Jazz
With nods to historical giants like John & Alice Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, and Jimmy Smith, Tramp’s brilliant Contemporary Jazz compilation traces the globe, capturing present day adventures in modal, spiritual, and groove oriented jazz, handpicked to prove that the artform is alive and well.
The Boyé Multi-National Crusade for Harmony
In response to the arguably self-righteous pronouncements made in the 1990s as to what jazz is and isn’t, Julius Hemphill (1938–1995) spoke up as he had done throughout his career. “Well, you often hear people nowadays talking about the tradition, tradition, tradition. But they have tunnel vision in this tradition. Because tradition in African-American music is wide as all outdoors.” This collection of music, this celebration of artistic collaborations that engaged Julius Hemphill throughout his…
East Of The Sun
* 2021 Stock * Instant Composers Pool presents East Of The Sun, a series of live sessions performed ICP Orchestra. Recorded March 18th, 19th, 20th 2014 by Kasper Frenkel, Electric Monkey Studio, Amsterdam. Mastered by Frank van der Weij. Artwork by Han Bennink. Photographs by Francesca Patella. Graphic design by Piet Gerards Ontwerpers. Thanks to: Cherry Duyns, Emma Fischer, Huub van Riel. Michael Moore clarinet, alto sax; Ab Baars clarinet tenor sax; Tobias Delius clarinet tenor sax; Wolter Wie…
Restless In Pieces
* 2021 Stock * Instant Composers Pool presents Restless In Pieces, a studio session performed by ICP Orchestra. Recorded October 21 & 22, 2015 by Kasper Frenkel, Electric Monkey Studio, Amsterdam. Mixed and Mastered February 9th, 2016 by Micha de Kanter, Mideka Music, the Hague. Ab Baars clarinet, saxophones; Michael Moore clarinet, saxophones; Tobias Delius clarinet, tenor saxophone; Thomas Heberer cornet, trumpet; Wolter Wierbos trombone; Mary Oliver violin, viola; Tristan Honsinger cello, voc…