Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* One of the most versatile and active proponents of creative music, Karl Berger is a living legend who has been expanding the Jazz language since the mid-'60s. A pianist, vibraphonist, composer, arranger, conductor and educator of astounding energy and creativity, Karl has worked with many of the greatest names in New Music: Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri, Anthony Braxton, Bill Laswell and countless others. Following up on his gorgeous 2010 releas…

*In process of stocking. 2022 stock* With the growth of saxophonist/composer/bandleader/producer John Zorn's Masada project into a veritable cottage industry that includes Masada Recital, Masada String Trio, Masada Guitars , Electric Masada and The Unknown Masada, it may be easy to forget how, ten years ago, his Masada Quartet, with trumpeter Dave Douglas, bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Joey Baron burst onto the scene with a series of ten rapidly-released studio records that combined a Jewish mu…

When Matthew Halsall released Salute to the Sun in November 2020, his first new album in five years, he shared the first fruits from an especially fertile period of writing and recording, which also gave birth to the music released here as The Temple Within. The recording sessions featured Halsall's then brand new band of hand-picked local musicians, brought together through weekly rehearsals and a monthly residency at Yes in Manchester, they forged an immersive, communal sound, drawing on spiri…

*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 200 copies.* Alto sax player Devin Brahja Waldman lives in New York and leads his own group Brahja and is a member of Heroes Are Gang Leaders and Land of Kush. He also helps run the label Fast Speaking Music with his aunt, celebrated poet Anne Waldman. Master drummer Hamid Drake needs no introduction. Waldman and Drake’s duo was recorded live at Elastic Arts in Chicago in December 2019. The title of the album, "Mediumistic Methodology", relates to a se…

*Limited edition of 200 copies.* Ideas generate electric guitar technique-- novel finger picking, manual LFO-- from which emerge Songs as technique recedes into the background. Listen to imagine adding your sound. In the moment, it happens: music made together. I am one person, ready. These songs are searching for people, for meaning. In one, I find it. The electric guitar as a folk instrument unfinished in its evolution, invites engagement in its becoming. I have chosen to add and also subtract…

*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 300 copies.* "Boiling Point" is the sophomore release from Gordon Grdina's Nomad Trio featuring Matt Mitchell (piano) and Jim Black (drums) and also follows up on 2021's Astral Spirits Grdina / Black duo release "Martian Kitties." The self-titled 2020 debut of Grdina’s Nomad Trio (Skirl Records) was hailed by PopMatters for setting up “loose structures for wild improvising [while also including] a healthy menu of hot unison licks and fleet melodies.” S…

*In process of stocking.* Few bands in improvised music seem to generate more palpable sonic friction than Brandon Seabrook’s trio with Cooper-Moore and Gerald Cleaver. The group produces a seriously tactile, almost psychedelic sound: the gut-punch of drums, the rumbling twang of diddley-bow, and the slashing, brittle crunch of electric guitar. On Exulations, the trio’s 2020 debut album on Astral Spirits, these sounds coalesced into gritty, propulsive improvisations possessed of an almost three-…

*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 500 copies.* The debut LP from RedGreenBlue posits a mesmeric, minimalist extension of Chicago's groove-based improvised music tradition. Over the course of two introverted, side-long pieces, the band patiently crafts hypnotic—yet still dynamic—sonic spaces using languid pulsations, careful shifts in colour, and occasional bursts of virtuosic urgency. It's music that hovers between worlds, unfurling a foundation of almost-ambient weightlessness that's …

*Limited edition of 500 copies.* Final Thaw is the debut from the new trio of John Kolodij (guitar), Jayson Gerycz (drums) & Dylan Baldi (saxophone). You will likely recognize Kolodij from his incredible Astral Editions album "First Fire • At Dawn" and you likely will recognize Baldi & Gerycz from Cloud Nothings (as well as Powers/Rolin/Gerycz, Monocot, etc)...and Iceberg doesn't really sound like any of those things, in the best way possible. "Final Thaw" features two sidelong workouts that bui…

*Limited edition of 500 copies.* A group here that features some key members from the American avant scene, but whose standout member might well be pianist Oscar Jan Hoogland – who contributed two originals to the set, and whose work on the keys seems to really direct the energy of this session that features fresh interpretations of tunes by Herbie Nichols and Thelonious Monk! The setting is quite a different one for saxophonist Keefe Jackson, but he's superb throughout – blowing tenor and sopra…

*Limited edition of 500 copies.* Coming on vinyl is a noteworthy release from guitarist Tashi Dorji and percussionist Susie Ibarra. Master of Time is a live performance commissioned for the exhibition of Bardo Now, The Second Buddha: Master of Time at the Tang Teaching Museum during a residency on April 16-18, 2019. Vinyl contains the tracks "Confluence" and "The Way of the Clouds".

*100 copies limited edition. In process of stocking* Dinzu Artefacts presents When The Circle Was Closed by Slow Bell Trio. Midwest trio that taps into the slower, more meditative side of improvisational music allowing for some deep listening.

First-ever release of cult Freddie Hubbard live performance recorded in 1973 at Maison De La Radio (ORTF) in Paris. Released in collaboration with Duane Hubbard and French Institut National De L'audiovisuel (INA), the double-LP set has been remastered for vinyl from the original tapes and comes in a gatefold sleeve including liner notes by Kevin Le Gendre. A mesmerizing live performance by Freddie Hubbard and his quintet recorded in Paris at Maison de la Radio (ORTF) on March 25, 1973. Featurin…

*2022 stock.* After more than three decades with the alto, heavyweight French artist and multi-instrumentalist Jean-Luc Guionnet arrives with his debut solo saxophone recording, a double-LP masterpiece, “l’épaisseur de l'air” (the thickness of air). Recorded in a barn in Brittany, the album merges texture, repetition, gesturality and architectural acoustics to create a definitive statement on the profound physical relationship between improviser and instrument. A student of Xenakis’ at the Sorbo…

* Pressed on a heavy weight single 70g magenta vinyl with a picture sleeve * A couple of magnificent Sun Ra gems on this heavyweight 7". Pressed at 33RPM on neon magenta vinyl. Side Epic - The Sun Ra Quartet, Dance of The Cosmo Aliens from Sun Ra's Disco 3000 album recorded in Milan Italy in January of 1978. featuring Sun Ra (keys), John Gilmore (tenor sax), Michael Ray (trumpet), and Luqman Ali (drums), with assistance from the Crumar Mainman synthesizer/rhythm box. running time: 8.30 cut at 33…

*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Penumbra, from the Latin paene (almost) and umbra (shadow), refers to the partially luminescent fringe of an opaque object, like the streetlight outlining the sole of a shoe hurtling towards your eye. Hypnagogic, from the Greek hupnos (sleep) and agōgos (leading), refers to the drowsy state before sleep. Crazy Doberman here comprises 17 players from the greater Europe of the Midwest. Basement glyphs. Who’s on the lease? And what’s under the rug. The owner pa…

In only his second date as a leader, 18-year-old trumpeter Lee Morgan was already emerging from the long shadow cast by Clifford Brown, and this session is another step in the trumpet prodigy’s molting. Still, the set may be as notable for the four hard bop compositions of Benny Golson – including the first appearance of the soon-to-be-standard “Whisper Not” – and a stellar band of (mostly) young turks that included Hank Mobley on tenor, Horace Silver on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, Charlie Per…

*2022 stock.* Way back in the early 1980’s a group of young musicians mostly in their 20's played around the LA jazz scene in a loosely organized jazz/fusion ensemble under the leadership of woodwind instrumentalist/composer-arranger Dennis Dreith. Those musicians, virtually unknown to all except their peers went on to illustrious touring and recording careers working with the biggest names in the music business and added their talents to scores of top charting recordings. Dennis himself grew in…

Transversales Disques proudly presents Ahmad Jamal Trio, Live in Paris 1971. Never heard before ORTF recordings performed live at studio 104, Maison de la Radio, Paris. This is the first official release with the full permission and cooperation of the National Audiovisual Institute (INA) coming in a Deluxe Edition - Classic Tip-On Jacket. Including exclusive pictures. Mastered from the original master tapes. "While be-bop musicians practise one-upmanship in terms of speed, Ahmad Jamal develops a…

*2022 stock.* You know you're into something good when you open the album you just bought and find a lyrics sheet, then play it and quickly realise the record is actually instrumental. The unruliness that defined Costa Blanca's short-lived career resulted in such nonsensical contradictions, and helps understand why one of Spain's best jazz-rock bands of the 70s never had a proper breakthrough. Hailing from sun-bathed Alicante in the Spanish Levantine coast, Costa Blanca shared the stage with som…

*In process of stocking* Jimmy Smith  was the most inventive and technically skilled organist of the Bop generation. Originally released in 1957, "A date with J.M." features performances recorded in the same year with Smith heading a sextet including a bunch of Blue Notes heavyweights such as Donald Byrd – trumpet, Lou Donaldson – alto saxophone, Hank Mobley – tenor saxophone, Art Blakey – drums, plus a guitar-organ-drums combo with guitarist Eddie McFadden and drummer Donald Bailey, and as one …

Limited edition of 500 copies.* What could possibly happen when two ultimate masters of soprano saxophone square off for their only recording of duets? Chirps is the only place to find out. Steve Lacy – the one who planted the flag for soprano saxophone in the ground of modern jazz, who established its iconic status, who devoted himself to the axe with monkish devotion, who brought shakuhachi breath and stairstep melody into its upper-register antics. Evan Parker – arguably the one who pushed th…

*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 500 copies.* German pianist Georg Gräwe, one of the most impeccable and imaginative improvisers in contemporary free music, made his debut recording, New Movements, in 1976, under the auspices of Free Music Production, the legendary Berlin-based organization run by Jost Gebers. At FMP’s Jazz Now festival, in April of that year, Gräwe presented his working band, a classic hard-bop configuration with trumpet, saxophone and rhythm section. Indeed, some ve…

*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 500 copies.* German pianist Georg Gräwe, one of the most impeccable and imaginative improvisers in contemporary free music, made his debut recording, New Movements, in 1976, under the auspices of Free Music Production, the legendary Berlin-based organization run by Jost Gebers. At FMP’s Jazz Now festival, in April of that year, Gräwe presented his working band, a classic hard-bop configuration with trumpet, saxophone and rhythm section. Indeed, some ve…

CD Edition. A lost bit of 70s Italian modal jazz, with spiritual overtones and global percussion from drummer extraordinaire Tullio De Piscopo – an incredible set of heavily rhythmic grooves recorded in Milan in 1978 – originally a tiny edition effort on Carosello Records, and the most impressive rediscovery yet from New Platform!  For the occasion, the Tullio De Piscopo Quintet meets Argentine percussionist Luis  Agudo, who played for years alongside Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell and later w…

CD Edition. One of the most popular session drummers in Italy, born in Naples but working in Northern Italy since the late 60's, Tullio De Piscopo had a brief contact with progressive rock when he played with New Trolls Atomic System in 1973-74, but all his solo production deals with jazz-rock and commercial and dance music. After a first drum teaching LP issued in 1974, Suonando la Batteria Moderna (Vedette VPA 8179), he produced the following year an album entitled Sotto e 'Ncoppa with a very …

*2022 stock* Numerology of Birdsong is the second album by Somersaults, following on from their 2015 eponymous debut on Two Rivers. Olie Brice and Mark Sanders have been heard as a bass/drum unit with the likes of Paul Dunmall, Evan Parker, Mikolaj Trzaska, Rachel Musson and Ken Vandermark. Chatting about their very favourite saxophonists and what their ideal trio combination would be, they both agreed that they’d love to do something with Toby Delius, best known as a member of the legendary Dut…

*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* This is an outstanding hour or so of improvised music that beggars belief that this was only the second performance by this particular line up. The first was on 02/02/2020, and the first palindrome, and this concert 2 days later at Cafe OTO, with the second palindrome, and hence the title of this wonderful set. What is quite amazing is how such a rapport between four musicians can be created and cemented so quickly. Each free to add, comment or step up to le…

In 1952, Thelonious Monk, joined by Bassist Gary Mapp, Drummer Art Blakey and Drummer Max Roach, drove to an early iteration of pioneering Sound Engineer Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey, and entered a small and tightly-managed room that Van Gelder had strict technical rules for. In those recording sessions, and again in 1954, despite Van Gelder's tight management and an out-of-tune piano with tinny fidelity, Monk produced some of the most glorious music of his entire recording career and …

Daniel Carter, William Parker, and Federico Ughi have been playing together since 2005, the year in which they recorded their first album The Dream. The band has performed regularly in the US and Europe ever since, gaining considerable success, with a 2010 European tour throughout Portugal, Spain, and Italy that resulted in the live album Navajo Sunrise (2012). In 2015 the trio started to rehearse with multi-instrumentalist Watson Jennison (Toronto, CA). As a quartet, the band toured the US and …

Led by poet/saxophonist/blurter Ted Milton, they were one of the oddest and most galvanizing bands from Great Britain’s post-punk movement. Surfacing a year after 1981’s live full-length In Berlin, their self-titled debut studio LP consists of seven tracks that strip funk and jazz-inflected no wave down to insanely logical essentials. These lean vehicles operated by Milton, his brother Jake (drums), and Pete Creese (guitar) get your hips twitching and your brain itching. The songs are both tight…

If life is about how we react to what is thrown at us, Sana Nagano chose wisely in the summer of 2020. After nearly half a year of anguished isolation, the violinist made an album of honest, graceful free improvisations with two of her mentors. Anime Mundi, out October 28th on 577 Records, pairs her with pianist/vibraphonist Karl Berger and drummer Billy Martin, veteran players at home in the unknown. And though recorded during the stressful first year of Covid, there is joy and curiosity in the…

*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 500 copies.* Literally translated from Italian, il bene comune means "the common good." Ineffable and ambiguous, the term in itself offers no intrinsic clues as to what its application should entail, although we generally view it in a positive light. Engaging in acts we perceive as furthering the common good can give us immense personal satisfaction, while participating in collective actions moved by this desire can be among the most rewarding experien…

Following the releases of Kepos (2014 El Gallo Rojo Records) and Elpis (2020 Skirl Records), the trio featuring Zeno De Rossi on drums, Francesco Bigoni on tenor sax and clarinet and Giorgio Pacorig on piano is ready to release its third album This Is Always, out on April 22nd, 2022 on Hora Records. Recorded live at the legendary Jazz Club Ferrara (aka Torrione), the trio renews a 10-year long fellowship. It literally becomes a collective; the fact should not be surprising, given the equal natur…

British Progressive Jazz releases a 5 track avant garde jazz album by Elton Dean Quartet. It contains previously unreleased live recordings from 25th February 1979, Teatro Cristallo, Milan, Italy. This is the first official release for what many fans consider to be the 'ultimate' lineup of Elton's Quartet. Booklet includes dozens of previously unseen images of the quartet by Sergio Balletti and Carlo Verri with extensive liner notes by Riccardo Bergerone and Roberto Ottoviano.

Tip! “Soundmusication” is the third and final album by Jamaican born tenorist Fitz Gore, another rare and beautiful spiritual jazz LP from the late 1970s. “Fitz had a very deeputopian faith in the right music, which could change the world and develop a real condition of peace, because it was supposed to move people`s feelings and actions to spiritual truth. He was convinced that music owned the healing power of the world” (Ulrich Kurth). Other players include Lukoki Mampasi on electric piano, Ob…

Diggers Factory present a reissue of Manu Dibango's Africadelic, originally released in 1972. The strange and majestic musical beast that is Africadelic was Dibango's follow-up to Soul Makossa (1972), but it was initially released on Louis Delacour's library music label, Mondiaphone, before Soul Makossa became an international phenomenon. As a Mondiaphone release, it was aimed at television and film producers seeking atmospheric background music, so the original titles are simply "Theme No 1," "…

Pharoah ‘Farrell’ Sanders (born 1940) is a leading figure in the world of jazz and one of the last living legends with connections to players like Sun Ra and John Coltrane. His tenor saxophone playing has earned him royal status amongst free jazz players, critics and collectors. ​Originally Sanders was interested in urban blues music, but his high school teacher exposed him to jazz and this took Farrell in an entirely new direction. Once completing high school Sanders quickly packed his belongin…

*2022 stock* Pharoah Sanders’ Moon Child from 1990, which bookended a decade of musical soul searching for Sanders. The acclaimed free jazz player is known to have a raw and abrasive sound, but reinvented himself on this album as a more traditional improviser capable of thoughtful deliberations. Moon Child is a grand old time throughout, and Sanders has never been more eminently sing-along-able as he is on its title track. The record was co-written with Horace Silver, George Gershwin and Abdulla…

A night-time haunt in the backstreets of Soweto run by a well-known bootlegger should have been a prime zone for nefarious underworld activities. Instead, it nurtured an underground of a different kind. Soon after its opening in 1973, Club Pelican became a spot where musicians steeped in the tradition of South African jazz began to cook up experimental sounds inspired by communion, competition and the movements in funk and soul blowing in from the West. Located in an industrial park on the weste…