Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Following a few years spent living and playing in Scandinavia, an unknown saxophone player by the name of Albert Ayler returned home to the USA to begin imposing his revolutionary style of jazz on the world. Having recorded his debut album, My Nam…

After a few years spent living in Sweden and touring with Cecil Taylor's Jazz Unit, Ayler moved to NYC to begin imposing his revolutionary style of jazz on the world through a number of groundbreaking records. Spirits, recorded at Atlantic Studios…

BR worked with Adam Kriney of La Otracina and Owl Xounds on the Owl Xounds/Family Battle Snake split cassette back in May 2007, and its great to have this raging free jazz improv psyche out bunch back on Blackest Rainbow again for this awesome LP. 'S…

Horsky Park (Another Timbre) documents the refined improvisational encounter of Tiziana Bertoncini - an Italian violinist with deep classical and contemporary training - and Thomas Lehn, renowned for his mercurial analog synth work. The duo’s sound i…

An incredible double CD from trumpeter Leo Smith's Organic with Michael Gregory, Pheeroan AkLaff, Angelica Sanchez, Skuli Sverrisson, Brandon Ross, &c &c... incredible electric and acoustic jazz from the legendary improviser and innovator!"Lauded …

Saxophonist Carlos Garnett recorded with Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis and Art Blakey. His 1974 spiritual jazz album features an amazing line-up of Reggie Lucas (Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins), Buster Williams, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Alex Blake (Sun Ra)…

A new series designed by Clare Cooper. Xavier Charles is an active clarinetist in the world of improvised music, known from a variety of constellations and ensembles like Dans les arbres and Contest of Pleasures. This is his first solo release for So…

s of Weston's compositional framework based on a cycle of pentatonic scales. Tessellations I explores the possibilities of improvising with a pre-established form as a soloist and was conceived for acoustic piano. (The composer recorded a version in …

'My role in bringing together this group was to provide a new context for the diverse talents of these musicians. From the outset, the aim of the group was to explore the range of possibilities at the intersection of jazz and computer music.' Adam Li…

The whole of the performance at the 2010 Freedom of the City festival by the 38-strong LIO. Conductions by Alison Blunt, Steve Beresford (featuring guest Leon Michener), Philipp Wachsmann, Caroline Kraabel, and Dave Tucker (featuring guest Ishmael Wa…

Evan Parker (soprano saxophone, sample collection, co-composition), Matthew Wright (live sampling, turntables, co-composition and sound design). In which the studio becomes the arena for an expanded method of improvisation where successive layers of …

...Every trio without a piano, or without a drums, or as in this case without a double bass, gains in incline what it loses in “balance”. It only takes a little sometimes. Everyone plays at ease across. Everyone can split themselves. There are no mor…

William Parker has long taken an active role in the presentation of his own art (self-produced records/CDs, concerts, festivals, publications) and that of others.  That initiative continues with this major work, an anthology of musician-to-musician i…

The great surprise with the French quintet Hubbub comes with seeing them in performance before you’ve heard one of their recordings. Five men walk on stage, two carry saxophones, one a guitar, the pianist and drummer sit down at their instruments. It…

Recorded at Incus HQ, London, in October 2010, this duo is a delight that should refresh even the most jaded ears. Lol Coxhill and Alex Ward are both veteran improvisers and regular participants on the London scene, so it was inevitable that they w…

With a career now spanning over 40 years and more than 100 recordings, Joe McPhee has shown that emotional content and theoretical underpinnings are thoroughly compatible — and in fact, a critically important pairing — in the world of creative imp…

Vinyl edition of this joyous improvised music drawing on South African roots and European free jazz from Chris McGregor and a group including Evan Parker, Louis Moholo, Barre Philllips, &c.  This album only had a few test pressings at the time of…

RESTOCKED: I wrote these tunes in 1968 when Micheal Cosmic and i were students at the AACM School of Music. i revised Love life & games in 2008. i had a band going on then with Micheal Cosmic. we played students concerts with Roscoe Mitchell. he also…

Thomas ! Thomas wrote me one day and said to me to check out some audio called So long ago in Berlin... wow, i immediatly fell in love with that sound, really 60's and melancholic in a way... those were the rec. of a mini Tour that Norris Jones set u…

Roy Brooks ! what can i say about one of the greatest jazz drummers ?! a man who paid his dues, who lived an hard life...who's Detroit Jazz ! started to play in the 50's with Yusef Lateef, spent 5 years with Horace Silver doing the hard and the bop, …

'A new series designed by Clare Cooper. M.O.S. is Ingar Zach's second solo release for Sofa, six years after the critically acclaimed 'Percussion music'. M.O.S. reveals a large and almost monolithic sound world. Zach's horizontal bassdrum (gran ca…

Monumental! Who could have imagined back in 1969 that a German label religiously dedicated to uncompromising free-jazz would outlast the Berlin Wall? Such is the ongoing tenacity of Free Music Production, and its story is told in this intriguing 1…

'Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto saxophone), Will Guthrie (drums) and Clayton Thomas (double bass). Taking the form of a minimalist power trio of saxophone, bass and drums. Recorded in 2009, IN focuses on the tour that nearly killed them - Jean-Luc couldn…

Improvised music with exception of Irinia-Kalina' solo. Mark Dresser (bass), Irina-Kalina Goudeva (bass), JC Jones (bass), Barre Phillips (bass) and Bert Turetzky (bass). Recorded by Ori Winokur, edited, mixed and mastered by JC at the Kadima Stud…

"Soul Jazz Records are re-releasing this classic release of deep spiritual jazz by Steve Reid and The Master Brotherhood, entitled Nova available for the first-time at mid-price. There is also a one-off limited-edition vinyl repress of 1000 copies…

the second full-length album by the  experimental/free-jazz quartet 7k Oaks, live recorded in concert at the  InterAct Festival in Hasselt.  This new release is at the same time a  confirmation of their musical background as well as an ex…

Easily one of the most coveted and sought-after of all jazz LPs is the elusive Holy Grail that is Roy Brooks' Ethnic Expressions. It's not just rarity that makes a record of this nature so desirable, nor is it the compelling music within -- sometim…

Very loosely related in selected affinity to the late Austrian saxophonist and artist Hans Koller, this younger version has played football with clubs such as TSV Oberlauringen and Dynamo Kebab, has studied ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental a…

This recording is my attempt to play Evan Parker. Seven tracks were recorded in STEIM's Studio 3, trying to reflect the liveness of Parker's solo recordings. All of these are single takes with minor edits at the beginnings or ends. Two interlude trac…

A keenly awaited recording from the long standing collaboration and friendship between Fernandez and Saura. They have worked together in many different groupings but this is the first time their specific duo music involving piano and live sampling…

“Jean Derome (flute, alto saxophone, etc.) and Lê Quan Ninh (percussion) are both leading figures in improvised music. They are also active in other musical genres such as jazz and contemporary music. They were invited by Tour de Bras make an enti…

New Jooklo finnish formation, this time with great guitarist Topias Tiheasalo joining the compact trio of saxophonist Virginia Genta, drummer David Vanzan and bassist Tero Kemppainen, whom have been working together for the past three years now. The …

Jason Kahn - amplified percussion. Vincent Millioud - violin. Bo Wiget - cello. Christian Weber - contrabass. Recorded in Zürich, 2008. Cover design Jason Kahn.

Frode Gjerstad (alto sax, bass clarinet) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) recorded 2000 by Frode. Cover art by Terry Nilssen-Love. 'Two men sitting on a balcony, old friends, right before dawn. Maybe sipping some nice cups of tea, maybe even something s…

"The Art of the Improviser", a 2XCD, is Shipp's most audacious attempt yet to answer the enigmatic question of what it means to be a modern jazz musician. Already having explored the possibilities of electronically infused jazz on critically acclaime…

"Group ONGAKU, founded mainly by students at Tokyo National University of Fine Art & Music, was the 1st collective musical improvisation group. The group began their activities in 1958, & from the naming of the group in 1960 onward continued until so…

Two releases in one, Otherways was a 2nd generation free improvising group from London performing in '73; and Free Space was a group assembled in '73 by John Stevens with Trevor Watts, John Russell, &c.  The bulk of this CD features Otherways, a 'sec…

An amazing live date from Sun Ra & The Arkestra – recorded in Cairo in 1971, with a very transcendent sound overall! Ra and the group are clearly inspired to be working in the shadow of the pyramids – and their music sometimes has Eastern overtones, …

A CD containing the limited edition Recommended LP release that has been out of print for the last 12 years - though much in demand, since it comprehensively covers the diversity of the Arkestra's work - via Africa, through Ellington and all the way …

The Necks in quiet mood recorded at a concert recording in Townsville, Thuringowa, Northern Queensland. Though many Necks' pieces open with - or eventually arrive at - some discernable groove, Townsville just floats in a state of suspension from begi…