Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

In this quartet Amado gathers three of his strongest longtime influences: German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, Norwegian double bass player Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and American drummer Gerry Hemingway. For Amado this band represents a deep dive into his own formative roots, something he hasm been dealing with more and more in these last few years. With Schlippenbach, Håker Flaten and Hemingway by his side, Amado has the perfect context to explore the classic materials he considers to be th…

Live recordings of heavy weigh Japanese saxophone wizard Akira Sakata Europen tour in 2022. In Greece together with Giovanni di Domenico: piano, Giotis Damianidis: electric guitar, Petros Damianidis: double bass, Stephanos Chytiris: drums; in Italy with di Domenico, Damianidis and Balázs Pándi on drums; and in Belgium with di Domenico, Damianidis and Aleksandar Škorić on drums.

Demon's Dance is an album by American saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded in 1967 for Blue Note, but not released until 1970. It features McLean in a quintet with trumpeter Woody Shaw, pianist LaMont Johnson, bassist Scotty Holt and drummer Jack DeJohnette. "The record retreats a bit from McLean's nearly free playing on New and Old Gospel and 'Bout Soul, instead concentrating on angular, modal avant bop with more structured chord progressions... While Demon's Dance didn't quite push McLean's soun…

Ugetsu: Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers at Birdland is a live jazz album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers released on Riverside Records in October 1963. The album was recorded at Birdland in New York City. The original LP had six tracks and producer Orrin Keepnews stated in the liner notes that "there were other performances taped that night that couldn't be fitted into the resulting album". The Jazz Messengers' tour in Japan had ended a few months before this live performance; then the band d…

Hailing from Cape Town, tenor saxophonist Winston Mankunku Ngozi (1943-2009) is a venerated figure in the pantheon of South African jazz. Inspired by Coltrane while rooted in indigenous folklore, he released the classic album Yakhal’ Inkomo at the outset of his career with the Mankunku Quartet in 1969. Backed by the Cliffs, Alex Express documents Mankunku’s return to the studio in 1975 with a handful of new and original compositions and his inimitable tone on full display. Shaking off the burden…

Hailing from Alexandra and nicknamed "Ratau" (meaning "lion"), saxophonist Mike Makhalemele (1938-2000) was a force of nature with a robust yet soulful tone and seemingly endless breath. He embraced the pop music scene as an enthusiastic collaborator and staked his territory at the intersection of township grooves with modern currents in soul, funk and disco. As a solo artist, he delivered a formidable run of albums in the 1970s that that made him the most prolific recording artist in South Afri…

Bringing together Johannesburg’s two saxophone titans for a supergroup recording project was a visionary move by Jo’Burg Records in 1976. Following the success of Makhalemele’s debut The Peacemaker and Mankunku’s long-awaited sophomore release Alex Express, which both appeared in 1975, the bar had been set very high. Enamoured by their jazz contemporaries, the session was concocted by members of an exciting new South African rock group called Rabbit, who formed a backing group consisting of guit…

Tip! *2023 stock* "A cutting-edge collage of the Muhammad Ali vs. Mac Foster documentary held at the Budokan in April 1972, with performances by the Yosuke Yamashita Trio (w/ Takeo Moriyama and Seiichi Nakamura). An incredible album, and an incredible cultural moment as well – as Japanese avant piano legend Yosuke Yamashita pays tribute to the great Muhammad Ali – on the occasion of his visit to Japan for the World Heavyweight match in 1972! Half the record features instrumental selections with …

Tip! * 140g vinyl, cover art silkscreened on recycled cardboard. Edition of 300  * Rauhan ja nautinnon puutarhassa (In the garden of peace and pleasure) is a meditative sound piece created by Pasi Salmi and Simo Laihonen, which paints a serene sonic space where the listener can rest and wonder. In terms of style, the album floats somewhere between impressionism, avant-garde jazz and ambient music, without falling into any of these categories in particular. Simo Laihonen (b.1982) is a percussioni…

*150 copies limited edition. Silkscreen printed cardboard box.* Finnish free jazz trio Ho Chi Moon released this cassette in July 2023 on the country's experimental/jazz label Ultraääni Records. It contains two incandescent sets. Don't miss this opportunity as it was instantly discontinued.

*2023 stock. 100 copies limited edition* Mesfin’s recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7” singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia’s 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation. Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974…

*2023 stock. 100 copies limited edition* Mesfin’s recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7” singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia’s 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation. Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974…

With a Yamaha organ and a dream, Pops Mohamed started his musical journey in the mid-1970s as the bandleader and composer of Black Disco, creating a hip melange of chill-out jazz with futuristic drum machine sounds and spiritual overtones. His cosmic organ transmissions were accompanied by two of the most sought-after session players on the South African scene, the sax and flute wizard Basil Coetzee, who had risen to fame in 1974 as one of the soloists on the hit “Mannenberg,” and Sipho Gumede, …

Introducing the 2nd Volume of Super Biton of Segou’s Afro.Jazz.Folk collection, led by Malian conductor Amadou Bah, also known as “The Armstrong Malian”. Deviation Records is thrilled to present this collaboration with The Mieruba Label Team, showcasing the diverse musical roots of 1970s Mali, combining Afro-Latin percussion, Mandingo songs, jazzy brass, and funky guitar. The album also features the captivating ArtCollage of Emma Margo incorporating visuals of Segou, Mieruba Art Center, and Fran…

*2023 stock* "The mid 1970s was an exciting time for free improvisation and a great deal was happening all over the world as like minded musicians were drawn to each other by a magnetic pull that had us crossing oceans and large distances of land to work together. England, America, Italy, Germany, Holland, Canada, Japan, Australia and many other territories all boasted scenes of various sizes, and players were mixing and matching in a wide variety of formations, across several generations. Recor…

*2023 stock* "There are no coincidences in life. Everything responds to the principle of cause and effect. In all that exists, what often seems to be the result of “chance happening” always comes from a precise and definite source located “somewhere out there,” but that in fact rests deep within each one of us. Everything is linked. There is a reason for everything that we find on our path, even if we do not understand what its purpose really is at the time of its first manifestation. It is ofte…

*2023 stock* "I have a vivid memory of the time I first met Steve Lacy in Milan: I had finally the opportunity not only to know but to perform with one of the myths of the avant-garde scene of the time. As hermetic and polite as his music, Steve was the man who, with his phrase 'play what you feel' tore down the curtain that separated my technique from my creativity. Clang swas the fruit of a number of concerts and two weeks we spent together, sometimes talking, sometimes just simply in silence,…

*2023 stock* When life started 4 billion years ago, Mars was also a blue planet. It lost its atmosphere and ever since then, there has been red and dead. It’s our own senselessness that we’re pushing our planet in the same direction. It’s a culture crisis rather than a climate crisis, one that can only be solved if we go right to the core of how we live as human beings. Jazz has always had a big spiritual connection with life and our place in the cosmos, searching for answers and finding meaning…

*2023 stock* "I started my musician career in 1970 as devoted jazz fan and hard practicing drummer. But I was also interested in electronics and experimental music, in improvising and composing. My goal was to blend in an unique form of musical expression all my interests, dream that 30 years later, I can happily say that I fully accomplished. Following the previously released Ictus collection in two discs (ICTUS 503) presenting the best of my early music recorded in solo and with my groups, her…

*2023 stock* This award winning CD contains the masterpieces of the percussive art of Andrea Centazzo. Realized in 1980, has been re-mastered and augmented with new pieces in 1993. This album took Andrea Centazzo at the peak of his percussionist career.Indian Tapes is not, as one might be led to think, an album inspired by the music of native Americans (which consists mostly of simple monadic and monorhythmic forms of expression) but an original work of art which pays homage to these peoples, to…

*2023 stock* "hi Andrea - here it's just cold - I'd love to have some real snow here like we used to have in my childhood, even up to the 1980's!   My children have never been in snow up to their knees and their knees are not that tall!" I wrote these words to Andrea as we discussed our upcoming performances and recording during his visit to NYC in February 2009.   As they say,"Be careful what you wish for..." So it snowed.   Not a blizzard, but it was snow and it came down relentlessly. We play…

*2023 stock* Andrea Centazzo, LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams met for the first time in December 1978. They recorded the first part of this album in 1979 and the second in 2010. An exquisite and celebrated example of improvised music.

*2023 stock* Violinist LaDonna Smith and Guitarist Davey Williams teams up with Andrea Centazzo in this third release of their complete recording collection. Recorded in NYC at the Stone during the Ictus Nights Festival celebrating 35 years of Ictus, this CD is a must for improvised music lovers.

*2023 stock* Having been fortunate enough to witness these three masters of improvisation reconvene after nearly thirty years of separation at the 2010 Improvisor Festival, I can say with the utmost confidence that time has not diminished the creative fire that first led them to collaborate so many years ago. Driven by the same passion and intensity for sonic shapeshifting that sparked their first European and American tours together in the late 1970's- and some of the first transcontinental int…

*2023 stock* This concert was recorded during the Vilnius Jazz Festival, 15th October, 2017 at Russian Drama Theater, Vilnius, Lithuania. Line-up consists of Evan Parker - soprano and tenor saxophones, Barry Guy - bass, Paul Lytton - drums and percussion. Sound Engineer: Valdas Karpuška, mixed by Evan Parker. Mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Original cover painting by Paul Lytton, design by Oskaras Anosovas.

*2023 stock* A tandem of two ingenious personalities presents an improvised music album - French guitarist Marc Ducret and Lithuanian saxophonist Liudas Mockūnas. These musicians have collaborated for several years already - they both are featured on bands such as Toxikum and Megaphone with Stefan Pasborg and Paul Brosseu also with Copenhagen Art Ensemble.

*2023 stock* "Flanked by a pair of stalwarts who, in his own words, “have a history going back over thirty years”, guitarist Terrence McManus brings the right attitude and a considerable number of no-frills approaches to an instrument that, especially in jazz, has the potential to become the mother of all commonplaces. On the contrary, ever since the opening track “Written In The Cracking Of The Ice”, an unexpected subversion slashes the ears: not a clean pitch in sight, clumsily introverted str…

*2023 stock* "Recorded at Roulette in New York City, Channels of Consciousness is a rollercoaster of polyrhythmic madness, which is hardly surprising regarding the fact that the rhythm section consists of Hooker on drums and voice, Sanga on percussion and Adam Lane on bass. The whole set starts with the three outlining the musical framework before Dave Ross (guitar) and Chris DiMeglio (trumpet) join the crew contributing tons of cracked solos full of fragmented and dislocated phrases. The tracks…

Violinist Billy Bang made his recording debut as a leader with the Survival Ensemble, the first working band he ever led, on New York Collage in 1979. Bang, saxophonists Bilal Abdur Rahman and Henry Warner, bassist William Parker, and percussionists Rashid Bakr and Khuwana John Fuller played incendiary free jazz more clearly indebted to the New York avant-garde of the preceding decade than any album Bang would record again. The music’s urgency and passion arose from the exhilaration of artistic …

*2023 stock* "Though modern, “avant-garde” jazz is an ensemble music often based on collective improvisation, solo performance is its own extraordinarily fruitful sub-area of investigation for the creative improviser. Without a reactive, interpretive partner (or several), the solo recital blurs the lines between composition and improvisation as the performer enters a world of unfettered development. Greene has been performing and recording solo since the 1970s, and these settings have yielded so…

"I was already familiar with Pascal Niggenkemper's work as a result of the release, Klippe by Thomas Heberer, early this summer and a superb trio with Robin Verheyen and Tyshawn Sorey, PN Trio. So this was always going to be an exciting adventure to see what his new trio would put forth. And the new album, Upcoming Hurricane, pretty much says it all. This is a heavy storm of sound that comes on quietly but resonates brightly over 60+ minutes. Clean, open and improvised, Niggenkemper is a brillia…

*2023 stock* Katarsis4 - saxophone quartet from Lithuania founded by Arminas Bižys, Kazimieras Jušinskas, Algirdas Janonis, and Danielius Pancerovas. Their music moves between structurally free improvisation, which makes it sound each time differently, as well as academic music and the motives of Lithuanian folk music. The saxophone quartet creatively presents the instrument itself - extending the use of saxophone by unusual methods. Also, the quartet not only uses extended techniques for extrac…

The 1970 album For Children by Eero Koivistoinen was originally released by the book publishing company, Otava, which was responsible for his earlier two albums as well. Jazzpuu/Sähkö Recordings  reissued For Children in 2006 as did we in 2016, yet both of these releases have been hard to find ever since. This time around Svart brings this important piece of Koivistoinen's career, a successful amalgam of acoustic jazz and funky fusion back on the market on a limited Svart exclusive blue vinyl ed…

Odysseus, Eero Koivistoinen's first proper jazz album, gets its title from the wandering spirit of its songs, traveling from one mood to another. Performed by the Eero Koivistoinen Quintet & Sextet, because Koivistoinen wanted to extend his standard quartet (Koivistoinen-Sarmanto-Laine-Hietanen) to a quintet and invited trumpetist Bertil Lövgren to join. Also Juhani Aaltonen is questing on two tracks. Odysseus is an excellent, youthful package of forward-thinking jazz played by ambitious young j…

*2023 stock* "This is a stellar freely improvised session featuring Rodrigo Amado on tenor saxophone, Goncalo Almeida on bass and Marco Franco on drums, recorded live in Portugal in December of 2015. "Shadow" opens the album with scraping bowed bass that is recorded beautifully, giving the sound a physical immediacy and presence. After the epic bowed bass opening, Amado's raw, rending saxophone and Franco's measured percussion enter, imposing their power upon the proceedings, burning a path thro…

*2023 stock* Music for soprano sax and water prepared keyless overtone saxophones.

*2023 stock* "Recorded in Hasparren, in the French basque county, we find two of the country's most eloquent free improvisers in a fantastic duo album. Daunik Lazro is on baritone sax and Joëlle Léandre on bass. Their music is a sheer delight. It is subtle, nuanced, powerful and sensitive, flowing in the most natural kind of way, together in the same direction. [...] Beautiful, beautiful ... and rich." - Stef Gijssels

*2023 stock* "Riley’s music has often been called reserved and constructivist, maybe because of his classical avant-garde background. However, his approach is by no means unemotional, there is a very beautiful lyricism in his style. On “Live with Repertoire” you can see this if you compare his version of “Round Midnight” with the one by Miles Davis, whose interpretation of the classic Monk tune sounds like a soundtrack to a French film noir in which the protagonist strolls through a deserted Par…

*2023 stock* "In December 2018 I had a four-night residency at the Bitches Brew jazz club in Yokohama. These concerts were organized by Mr Kenny Inaoka, founder and editor-in-chief of the webzine JazzTokyo.com and a prodigious jazz record producer and Seiichi Sugita, the owner of the Bitces Brew. They managed to invite some of the greatest improvisers from the Tokyo area to join me for four concerts in a row. This album captures some sound memories of those unforgettable performances with fantas…

*2023 stock* Double concert of sax titan Evan Parker and Italian electronic musician Walter Prati. The first CD is a reissue of Hall of Mirrors released in 1991 on MM&T label. Digitally recorded at FX studio Milan, February 1990. The second CD, Pulse, was recorded in May 2016 at the Limonaia of Villa Strozzi, Florence, during Tempo Reale festival.