Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Rag captures the best from a series of freely improvised meetings between saxophonist George Cartwright and percussionist Davu Seru, recorded at various Minneapolis venues over the course of 2009. Cartwright – longtime leader of Curlew, and owner…

In improvised music, double bass and drums have a very different role to that in rock or jazz. Freed of the duties of “the rhythm section,” they are featured as much as any other instrument, without having to wait in line for their turn to solo. T…

Grey-area exact LP repro edition, originally released on Fahey's Takoma label in 1967. Charlie Nothing was the fractured-psyche pseudonym of author, organic farmer, beekeeper and philosopher/clown Charles Martin Simon, inventor of the dingulator (…

In view of the band's assertion that this is a program designed to be listened to in one sitting, it seems a little impertinent to discuss highlights. The seven tracks that make up "Throat" seem a little arbitrary in view of the overall discontinu…

The first song on side A, Brainville, is such a great start, a walk down a busy street full of fascinating people all going somewhere. Everyone's in a good mood. You are among an intelligent group of people with senses of humor. They like to laugh…

Die Schachtel is proud to present a recording that embodies the virtuosity of Thollem McDonas and Stefano Scodanibbio in the spirit of Claude Debussy's rebellious creativity.  As Terry Riley wrote: “Anyone who has heard Thollem or Scodanib…

Awesome analog recordings from this quintet of European Free Improvisers taken from their 1975 Incus LP, and a previously unissued recording live at London's Little Theatre Club, 1973. 'The 1975 release of the Teatime LP introduced the outside world …

RESTOCKED: 2-CD collection of the ex-leader of legendary Afro-spiritual/deep funk/free jazz group from 1970s Ohio (later in SF), The Pyramids. Their music is one of the most deep attempts by African-Americans, deep sounds like Strata-East, aggressive…

Determined to continue collaborating with revolutionary blitzkrieg musicians in perpetuity, Talibam! Matt Mottel and Kevin Shea were set up on a blind date with Alan Wilkinson by Bo' Weavil Recordings for a London basement show in May '08. Like a lat…

A monographic box-set collection aimed at recounting the most beautiful chapters that revolutionised the history of jazz. This new series was launched in March 2010 with the simultaneous release of four box-sets, including albums by some of the artis…

A special project fully produced by William Parker for his own Centering Records imprint and dedicated to his Aunt Carrie Lee & Uncle Joe (who is pictured on the album cover) – they celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary on August 6th, 2010. Wi…

"The controversial and influential Naked City Black Box couples two of Zorn's most extreme and violent creations. Torture Garden (1991) presents Naked City's intense and groundbreaking music combining free jazz, bebop, r&b, country, funk, rockabi…

10 CDs documenting three full concerts from March, September & November 1978 at the Horseshoe Tavern; 8 hours of excellent music, well recorded and available here for the first time (none have been on bootleg lists) and a long radio interview with…

UK free jazz guitar icon in unreleased solo material remastered from the original reel-to-reel recordings recorded in London, 1974, Bailey playing mostly electric guitar.  Previously unreleased recordings, remastered from original reel-to-reel tapes.…

restocked, very last copies : awesome LP reissue on Qbico's new label Sagittarius A-Star, unreleased before and limited to 200 copies only "one day i was reading a book about the Milky Way... the name for the black hole at the center of our galaxy wa…

The release of this, our fifth album, coincides with the tenth anniversary of our first concert together, in Philadephia in 2000. Thanks to all the friends, fans, promoters, and producers who have made it possible for us to continue playing, recor…

This is a great live performance of the best Lithuanian contemporary jazz musicians played live at the small punk club in Vilnius. That was a hot night. Liudas Mockunas - tenor, baritone and soprano saxophonesEugenijus Kanevicius - bass and e…

On Journey, violinist India Cooke and bassist Joelle Leandre improvise in that exalted state of grace that every improviser hopes to attain. It’s a state in which everything they play just works. It’s as if they can’t play a bad note or make a sound …

 'It could be a walrus. Some very large, ungainly, semi-aquatic creature expelling air through a hole layered with tissue and fat and hairs. But then multiple apertures open at once and the creature just spouts information, chaotic from one angle, st…

The Respect Sextet, a young New York jazz group, plays music by Sun Ra and Karlheinz Stockhausen, drawing comparisons between the two composers and asking how the idea of space shaped their work.

Norton recently took a rocket ride into the vaults of El Saturn Research and arrived back on Earth with a motherlode of unissued early R&B, doo wop, soul and general weirdness featuring Sun Ra and his Arkestra backing a variety of artists. This serie…

nterstellar vocal group numbers and doo wop from the Sun Ra vaults – a couple rare release and a bunch of previously unissued numbers featuring The Cosmic Rays, Crystals, Nu Sounds and Juanita Rogers – teenage vocal group numbers, bits of bebop an…

 "The recording and release of Onecept celebrates David S. Ware's 50th year of singular and profound saxophone artistry; a studio session specifically arranged for same featuring Ware on three saxophones - saxello, stritch, tenor - along with fellow …

In some ways, Commitment was typical of many bands of their time. Between 1978 and 1984, they enjoyed a modest success by the subterranean standards of the Lower East Side. They struggled for gigs during the waning years of the New York loft scene…

“Prism” is the result of the collaboration between upright bassist William Parker and Italian guitarist Ninni Morgia. William Parker needs no introduction; a master player of his instrument, Derek Bailey described him as “one of the few ones left wh…

lucky restock, VERY few copies left...A special friend said to me that he waited a while before unhidden the most precious gem from his vast Sun Ra's archive... Big bang!" Recorded August 11, 1986. Sun Ra- piano, synth, voice, Tyrone Hill- trombone…

Phil Musra, Micheal Cosmic, Hüseyin Ertunç; Intex/Cosmic labels... these are LEGENDARY names from the US underground jazz music scene of the 70's... They released one LP under each name and if you got one of those rare gems, you'd easily feel LUCK…

Michel Doneda (saxophone soprano) and Taavi Kerikme (piano). Recorded in april 2008 in the studio of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre by Tammo Sumera and in december 2009 in Kanuti Gildi AAL by Ats Treimaa. Mastered by Margo Kolar. Design by …

Limited to 500 copies, groundbreaking reissue for one of the best Sun Ra album... In the winter months of 1977-1978, philosopher, pianist and bandleader Sun Ra was in Italy. The Italian tour resulted in releases on Sun Ra's own Saturn label, all of w…

Drivan is a new band project from Norwegian electronica star and graphic designer, Kim Hiorthoy, featuring a line-up of pan-Scandinavian pals: Swedes Lisa Ostberg and Louise Peterhoff and Kristiina Viiala of Finland. The group met while working o…

Bassist Kent Carter chose the ensemble of two string and two wind players from amongst the most experienced musicians in Europe to record the studio and live compositions in this exceptional 3 CD set. "The meeting of four of the most experienced m…

For a decade jazz cornetist Josh Berman has been a mainstay of the post-Vandermark generation of Chicago improvisers, a wide circle of ambitious musos who meet up in varied ad hoc or fixed settings: a circle including all the pla…

A duo improvisation between French trombonist Mathias Forge and Brussels-based improviser Olivier Toulemonde, recorded live in Sheffield in January 2010, with and without audience. Pie'n'mash – its title playfully referencing the traditional London w…

An improbable yet utterly compelling duo pairing tuba and spinet – two instruments rarely heard together in musical history, brought into dialogue by German tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and Swiss spinet player Christoph Schiller. Recorded in Cologne in…

A duo encounter between two of the most distinctive voices in European improvised music: Welsh violinist Angharad Davies and German trumpeter Axel Dörner. Recorded in December 2008 at a West London house, A.D. documents an intimate meeting between tw…

Norway's Smalltown Supersound label is just one of those imprints that you have to keep an eye on, because if not you're sure to miss out on some nugget of psyched avant-metal or North European disco that you'll be kicking yourself over neglecting in…

Legendary recordings by Johansson and friends, precursor of today´s minimalistic impro. Includes 30 minutes solo by sax player Frippe Nordström. CD I recorded at Club Litfass, Berlin, 1968; CD 2, track 1 recorded at SR, Stockholm, 1970; CD 2, tracks …

Four-CD box of duo improvisations for saxophones, drums, percussion and electronics by Anthony Braxton and Gerry Hemingway, their first recorded collaboration in twelve years, made at Wesleyan University in August 2007.

Awesome new LP, just arrived, Referencing the delicate artistic printing method, this nonet recording presented by Harris Eisenstadt on drums and compositions, Michael McGinnis on clarinet, Jason Mears on alto saxophone, Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon, M…

The performance on this LP was recorded live at Roulette in New York last year. I have appreciated Knuffke's playing and music before, and I will do it again here. His tone is always full and warm, and he's a master at taking tough bends easily. Th…