Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

It’s not often that Aerophonic Records has put out recordings by bands that are first-time groupings. There are a few notable ones, including AR024 and 026 – Of Things Beyond Thule Volume 1 and 2 featuring Joe McPhee, Tomeka Reid, Brandon Lopez, and …

John Cassavetes’ directorial debut Shadows was a largely improvised film set in the bohemian jazz scene of 1950s New York; often referred to as the first truly independent film of American cinema, it featured a brief disjointed soundtrack improvised …

2024 stock. Critics often complain that small-group sessions comprised of members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra are somewhat disappointing; this is definitely not the case with this session led by Clark Terry, recorded during a 1959 tour of Europe …

The premier ensemble of Radical Jewish Culture, Masada is one of Zorn’s most popular, personal, long-lasting, and powerful projects. Here you find the mother lode—the long-awaited Tzadik release of the original quartet’s first studio recordings. Rele…

Originally recorded and released in 1977, the Instant Composers Pool's Tetterettet is the first classic of the band's larger incarnations. Founded in Amsterdam in 1967 by saxophonist Willem Breuker, pianist Misha Mengelberg, and percussionist Han Ben…

Temporary Super Offer! * Limited LP reissue, and the first time the album has been in print on vinyl since its initial release* of Dudu Pukwana, Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg's Yi Yole, originally released in 1979. Recorded at the ICP Jubileum, a …

"When I play I think of how the phrases move as a dance, or something in nature like a bird or a shooting star.” – Don Cherry

2024 stock. pSiritual jazz album by the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, led by legendary Chicago percussionist Kahil El’Zabar, an artist in a league of his own, acknowledged throughout the world as the leader in the vanguard of spiritual and afro-futuristi…

2024 stock. The legendary multi-percussionist and spiritual jazz master Kahil El’Zabar continues his quest of spirit through groove in his collaboration with tenor sax colossus, David Murray. ‘Spirit Groove’ is the divining moment upon their incredib…

Temporary offer! For 1971’s Black Unity, Pharaoh Sanders added groove to foundation of spiritual and free jazz he had explored on his previous Impulse! albums. The result is a piercing and emotive 37-minute rhythm-driven title track exploration of Af…

Tip! The second in our Mr Bongo series opening the vault on classic recordings from the fabled Groove Merchant Records catalogue. This time the spotlight turns to the Hammond B3 organ maestro Lonnie Smith, as we proudly present a reissue of his cosmi…

2024 Stock. Reissue on 180 grams vinyl. For “Afrika”, originally released in 1984, South African expatriate bassist Johnny Dyani enlarged his group to a septet from the quartet formation he had used on prior Steeplechase recordings and, in the proces…

"The Found Tapes: Live in Los Angeles is a box set from Tribe Records co-founder Phil Ranelin, celebrating a trio of LA club performances from 1978 - 1981 which remain especially significant to the visionary trombonist. Backed by a young Billy Childs…

Trio with Daunik Lazro on tenor sax, Benjamin Duboc on bass and Mathieu Bec on drums. The album is entitled Standards Combustion, 9 tracks, mostly jazz standards, 2 Ayler compositions, 2 by Coltrane, 1 by Lacy and 1 by Shorter… Recorded at Les Instan…

It’s Monk’s Time is probably the most appropriate title for a Thelonious Monk album. The fact that he was on the cover of Time Magazine in February of that year (1964) shows how important the jazz composer and pianist was. It is also an essential par…

*2024 stock* Released in 1976, Eternity was Alice Coltrane's first album for Warner Bros. after eight wondrous records on Impulse! Combining the drones and textures of India, the gospel and R&B of her Detroit youth and the dissonance of modern classi…

*2024 stock* This recording was made on the day of the fortieth anniversary of saxophonist Mario Schiano's first jazz concert. He is joined by longtime collaborators, trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini and bassist Bruno Tommaso, all of whom engage in ni…

*2024 stock* This concert was recorded live on November 29th, 1975, during "New Trends in Italian Jazz", a series of concerts held at the State University, Milan, and has never been released before.

"Between 1968 and 1970, the P.E. Hewitt Jazz Ensemble recorded three LPs. Self-released at the time in small runs (50 to 100) by teenaged bandleader, composer, pianist, and vibraphonist Phil Hewitt, they documented an enthralling and energetic — and …

lll人 = Daichi Yoshikawa + Paul Abbott + Seymour Wright. lll人 came from London in 2012, and played there, and internationally: Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Dala Floda, Glasgow, Hong Kong, Ljublana, Paris, and Tokyo. With lll人 the tools are familiar, …

Saxophonist Omicil builds atmospheres then upends expectations in this free-jazz homage to Haiti’s successful 18th-century slave insurrection - The Guardian

A raid on the values of oriental jazz master and pioneering ethnomusicologist Lloyd Miller.

Hot Casa Records present Togo Soul 2: Selected Rare Togolese Recordings from 1974 to 1989.

Double CD box, perfect replica of the LP edition, with extensive booklet. The venerable Holidays, having already had an incredible 2023, returns with their final offering of the year and what might just be their most ambitions release to date, Sun Ra…

Killer unreleased 1973 post-bop, avant jazz album from Argentina, with highly political texts. The missing link in Argentina's jazz history finally sees the light. Coraje Buenos Aires was recorded in 1973, conceived as a follow-up to the historic Bro…

First visit archive offers previously unreleased recordings of historic and musical importance. "When, in this music, he succeeds in fusing the emotional (translated into its lyrical and dramatic qualities) pas- sage of ritual with the complex archit…

"Marion Brown was already defying categorisation in 1966 when he recorded Three For Shepp, whose six tracks open Three For Shepp To Gespächsfetzen Revisited. Brown’s opening “New Blues” and Archie Shepp’s closing “Delicado,” though compelling,are re…

When Mars Williams dove into his vault to excavate several recordings for a Mars Archive series on Corbett vs. Dempsey, he immediately landed on a concert date from a decade earlier. The event, recorded at Chicago's Elastic Arts Foundation in 2012, f…

From a night of music in Holland that's become legendary among NRG Ensemble enthusiasts, Hold That Thought presents a blazing concert of the quintet's unique sound. With Mars Williams and Ken Vandermark on reeds, Kent Kessler and Brian Sandstrom on b…

At the tail end of 1996, saxophonist Mars Williams and drummer Hamid Drake took the tall corner stage at Chicago's Empty Bottle for two sets of duets. The rock club had just started a weekly Jazz & Improvised Music Series, curated by Ken Vandemark an…

2026 much-needed small repress. Hardcover Edition, large format. Labyrinth is a massive hardback book, 375pp in length, printed on high-quality art paper, with an embossed cover and cloth quarter-binding, written by Richard Morton Jack. This beautifu…

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

VERY last copies  Pharoah Sanders recorded the songs that comprise Thembi in the winter of ’70/’71, in between  sessions with Alice Coltrane that would eventually become her masterpiece Journey In Satchidananda LP. The same compelling spirituality th…

2024 Repress. ESP-Disk present a reissue of Pharoah Sanders Quintet, originally released in 1965. Recorded on September 10, 1964, prior to his well-known association with John Coltrane, this eponymous album (later renamed Pharoah's First) is the debu…

2024 stock. Famous as an improviser and a rock guitarist (Henry Cow, Art Bears, Residents, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, French/Frith/Kaiser/Thompson), Fred Frith is still highly under-rated as a composer. Since relocating to Germany in the early '90s, Fr…

2025 Repress. Akuphone in collaboration with Annihaya present Rats Don't Eat Synthesizers, the long-awaited second album by The Dwarfs Of East Agouza. Hailing from the Agouza district of Cairo, Egypt, this brilliant trio consists of Alan Bishop (acou…

Pure Virgin Vinyl, 180 Gram, Audiophile Grade, Limited Edition. Alfred Lion and Max Margulis established the Blue Note label in 1939, with photographer Francis Wolff becoming involved shortly afterwards. The caliber of the musicians that recorded for…

Much has happened to Tomeka Reid, who was already one of jazz's definitive figures in the 21st century, in the 4½ years since her last album by this all-star quintet. Most notably, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022, one of the most prest…

The legendary release by Ronnie April's Positive Energy, pressed by Ronnie on his own Jude imprint and distributed only locally by him without success, leading to the disappearance of all but a few copies. An impossibly rare holy grail which has chan…

Temporary Super Offer! - From the cosmic creative musical mind of Swiss/Catalan studio whizz, Zeleste Nightclub engineer, Video Nasty film composer, occasional Jaume Sisa (Música Dispersa) collaborator and future electronic music therapy pioneer come…