Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Produced in the twilight of the '80s in London and originally released on white-label LP with homemade rubber stamp impression, Witch is the mysterious and powerful debut from poet, artist, and musician Leslie Winer. It's an infectious patchwork of d…

finally ZU are back, with an amazing new line-up. Full album to follow in summer.

In December 1979, two Art Ensemble of Chicago members - Joseph Jarman and Don Moye along with the great South African bassist Johnny Dyani gathered together under the name of Black Paladins. Inspired by the words of the great black poet Henry Dumas, …

One of the essential albums of 70’s creative jazz, and a landmark recording in the second wave avant-garde movement of that era. The music of the late great saxophonist and composer Julius Hemphill presents a strong combination of Blues roots, free e…

Good vibrations and resonances are distributed along 9 tracks, which explores worlds of peace. Jungle, abysses, distant stars, every place can be right where express the Cosmic Love. Thanks to the usual blend of traditional and exotic instruments, in…

*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* The latest in John Zorn‘s second Masada songbook, the highly melodic and dynamic Book of Angels, the 10 songs on Alastor come courtesy of master composer and violist / multi-instrumentalist Eyvind Kang. Though Ka…

Locus, the seventh album by the Chicago Underground Duo (Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor), follows on the heels of their acclaimed 2012 Northern Spy release Age of Energy. Bits of breakbeat and Afropop are heard within the jazz, ambient and electronica e…

"All of two exceptional Worcester (Massachusetts) and Los Angeles concerts: clarinet and cornet duos and solos in improvisations on original compositions. Even those who know Carter and Bradford's work in larger groups will be astounded. The origi…

Violinist Coombes explains things perfectly in his hilarious liner notes. Beethoven, he says, realized that the piano and violin sound horrible together, the instruments literally hate each other, and gave up after ten sonatas. "For us to try and …

Fingerpainting is the first solo release of Greek percussionist and electronic music composer Christos Chrondropoulos. The main source of inspiration for this one sided, 45 rpm, solo percussion album are the documental recordings of musicological rec…

Solo release by Antoine Chessex, Fools presents studio material recorded in 2008 in Berlin. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Chessex is his ability to take a single instrument Ña tenor saxophoneÑ and seamlessly move between the hallmarks of music…

Peter Brötzmann, alto, tenor & baritone saxophone, e-flat clarinet, tarogato. Harry Miller, double bass. Louis Moholo, drums. On Opened, But Hardly Touched, the Brötzmann-Miller-Moholo combination, displays the most accessible approach of the live tr…

Not enough is heard from Brooklyn-born bassist Adam Lane. He boasts an impressive track record, illuminated by a series of outstanding recordings, mainly on the CIMP label, but culminating in the acclaimed Ashcan Rantings (Clean Feed, 2010). Nothing …

Daunik Lazro - baritone & alto sax. Jean-François Pauvros - electric guitars. Roger Turner - drums & percussion. Tracks 1 and 2 recorded live at Instants Chavirés (Montreuil) by Jean-Marc Foussat and Dominique Pauvros on 7th November 2008. Tracks 3 a…

Recorded 9th February, 2004 at Steam Room Studios, London. Recording engineer Jon Wilkinson. Photos by Gérard Rouy except photo of Tony Bianco by Christopher Trent. Mastered by ArÅ«nas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Design by Oskaras Anosovas. Produced by D…

All the music is improvised by Jean- Luc Cappozzo, Gerry Hemingway and Christine Wodrascka. Recorded in October 18th 2012, live in Le Carré Bleu, Poitiers, France. Recording, mixing by Miké Goupilleau. Photos: Framboise Estéban (photos of the musicia…

All compositions by Max Johnson (Max Johnson Music ASCAP). Recorded 20th December, 2012 by Tom Tedesco at Tedesco Studios, Paramus, NJ. Mixed by Eivind Opsvik at Greenwood Underground, Brooklyn, NY. Mastered by Tim Cramer at Cramersound, New York, NY…

CD1: Edward "Kidd" Jordan – tenor saxophone, Alvin Fielder - drums, percussion, Peter Kowald – bass. Recorded on 28th April, 2002 at Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, New Orleans, Louisiana / Coordinator - Eduardo Young / Engineer - John Crut…

Sophie Agnel, piano. Olivier Benoit, guitare. Recorded at Césaré, July 2011. Highly recommended ! 'In my mind, the music of Sophie Agnel and Olivier Benoit has always contained something like a disclosure of the intimate. They are not overly prolific…

Featuring two American ex-pats on bass (Barre Phillips) and drums (Stu Martin), and English saxophonist (John Surman), The Trio is a monster 2LP of avant-garde and free jazz originally released on the Dawn label in 1970. By the time this double album…

Originally released in 1971, 'Tales Of The Algonquin', is one of the finest artifacts of the British modal and free jazz scene of the 1960s/1970s. Johns Surman and Warren, like their contemporary Mike Westbrook, take the big band form and flip it on …

Originally released on Deram in 1967, 'Celebration' is one of the most important albums of the 1960s British progressive and avant-garde Jazz scene. The Mike Westbrook Concert Band included some of the UKs most important jazz figures of the time, inc…

All for now, by Thollem McDonas (Piano, Voice) and John Dieterich (Guitar). Celebrating their first public collaboration, All for now is one of those special moments, when the empathy and complicity between two players emerges into something far wide…

Wasteland Jazz Unit is a Cincinnati duo by Jon Lorenz (saxophone) and John Rich (clarinet). Caustic Gate is no exception to their previous works, consolidating the reputation theyve built in the past times in the lineage of great mavericks and art pr…

Berlin based improviser Olaf Rupp combines multiple elements and parameters into one very unique and personal idiom, whether he plays acoustic or electric guitar. Recorded last year in Berlin, "AuldLangSyne" inspired by a traditional Scottish poem is…

Recorded in Vienna during Winter on a snowy night, Berlin-based musicians Magda Mayas & Anthea Caddy present on "Schatten" a dense and piercing improvisational statement. Focusing mainly on texture and structure,but also the percussive possibilities …

Falaise is the first meeting between two major players of the Portuguese improvisation landscape. For those paying attention, neither should be a stranger by now. Besides being a powerhouse bassist with extraordinary technique, Hernani Faustino is on…

Long awaited monolithic boxset release from Manuel Mota, his second so far on Dromos. Material spreads from solo electric and acoustic to various live performances across the five discs. After more than a couple of decades of activity one might belie…

Dave Rempis, alto, tenor, baritone saxophone. Ingebrigt Hoeker Flaten, bass. Frank Rosaly, drums. Tim Daisy, drums. The Rempis Percussion Quartet is a free - improvising whirlwind that draws inspiration from a shared interest in West African and Lati…

Tenor saxophonist Edward Kidd Jordan and drummer Alvin Fielder have been a fixture in their southern outpost for nigh on forty years, but they've rarely been heard to such good effect as on Trio and Duo in New Orleans. This wonderful two CD set bring…

Dredd Foole, vocals, Paul Flaherty, horns, Steve Baczkowski, horns, Chris Corsano, drums, Bill Nace, electric guitar. 

On the jazz front with these blogs I get exposed and in turn expose you to a fair number of names you may not know well. In the free-avant realm that has something to do with the underground nature of much of the music. I am glad to hear the music a …

Even for the standards of NoBusiness, a label that sometimes features artists who haven’t been very well known so far, YAPP is a really young band, all of the band members seem to be around 30. It’s Bryan Rogers ­on tenor saxophone, Alban Bailly ­on …

For avant modern jazz piano trio music at its free best, you can't go wrong with RED Trio. And their LP on No Business (NBLP 67) is as good a place as any to start. They give us three supercharged cuts. Hernani Faustino's double bass cavorts, rumbles…

While it would be an exaggeration to suggest that there was a house style for the adventurous Lithuanian No Business imprint, the European saxophone trio nonetheless forms a significant strand in its output. Recent winning entries in the format have …

Finally reissued, the debut album by this psychedelic band mixing etnic and african influences with the colors of the desert. Deluxe Edition, Gatefold Cover on Tobacco's Paper, 180 gramms in transparent vinyl splashed in black, postcard, numbered …

Paul Hubweber, trombone. Philip Zoubek, prepared piano. The whole of a duo concert on trombone and prepared piano, recorded at L'Archiduc in Brussels - a bar whose art deco interior is featured on the cover. This is the second CD by this duo followin…

Michel Doneda (saxophones), John Russell (guitar) and Roger Turner (percussion). Recorded at Studio Honolulu in France (2009). 'What story can a non-figurative music tell if not that of the men that made it ? The memory is adjusted to the shape of th…

Taagi – which takes its title from the Apache word for “three” - is his first trio recording with bassist Aaron Gonzalez and drummer Stefan Gonzalez. Recorded on successive nights during May 2009 performances in Dallas and Austin, this album represen…

Recording during concerts in Chicago by Mikolaj Trzaska - saxophones, bass clarinet; Steve Swell - trombone; Per-Åke Holmlander - tuba; Tim Daisy - drums