Jazz /
Words & Music (The Last Bandstand)
"A small gift for a great Cecil Taylor history. On 23 April 2016, Jay Sanders organised and recorded a concert whose significance at the time was impossible to estimate. The great Cecil Taylor was accompanied by the wonderful musicians Okkyung Lee, Tony Oxley, Harri Sjostrom and Jackson Krall. After the concert, Cecil announced that it was time to return to the legendary formula he had used several times in his career, which served as an emblem of what was particularly important in his work.
U…
The Kármán Line
The Kármán Line is the threshold - the precise altitude at which the Earth's atmosphere ends and open space begins. Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble understood the metaphor immediately. This is music made at that exact boundary: grounded in groove and breath, but pulling steadily toward something without ceiling.
The story begins in Tokyo. Neil Innes - bassist, producer, the animating force behind ATA Records and its consistently remarkable Leeds-centred roster - and woodwind voice Chip Wickham were n…
Veins Of Rain
Masayo Koketsu and Nava Dunkelman met for the first time in this studio session. Koketsu’s inventive use of extended techniques and breath-infused wails filled the space with an experimental intensity. Dunkelman responded with a finely woven tapestry of percussive textures, her delicate rhythms binding their sounds together. Her sensitivity to nuance allowed Koketsu’s raw cries to blend effortlessly, as if the two had long shared a musical language. Their exchange was both electric and restraine…
Circle The Heart
Julius Hemphill was a visionary saxophonist and composer whose music fused avant-garde exploration with deep blues and gospel roots. Marty Ehrlich, one of Hemphill’s close collaborators and protégés, is a multi-reedist and composer known for his lyrical improvisation and commitment to extending Hemphill’s legacy through performance, composition, and curation.
This archival release of the duo from Julius Hemphill and Marty Ehrlich offers a rare, deep-listening window into their long-standing crea…
Thoughts
"When Freysteinn Gíslason sent me the raw recordings from Sundlaugin in Mosfellsbær, I heard immediately what he and his ensemble had captured: a group of musicians operating at the outer edges of what jazz can contain. My job wasn't to shape these performances in the traditional sense—they were already fully realized—but to bring clarity and force to a vision that refused easy categorization.
Thoughts is an album that exists in extremes. Not the extremes of volume or aggression alone, but of em…
Raga-Jazz Style
*2026 repress!!* Amazing re-issue on Outernational Sounds of the Indio Jazz Fusion rarity from 1968! Never before reissued, this legendary 1968 EMI recording is a revered Indian jazz rarity; a collectors’ holy grail. Raga Jazz Style is an original Indian excursion into Indo-jazz fusion. A one-away recording from the almost unknown Bombay jazz scene, it is among the few jazz LPs to hail from the subcontinent. Closely contemporary with the UK-based explorations of Amancio D’Silva, John Mayer and J…
Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises
British Jazz Explosion Series! Recorded in '69, Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises is irresistible on two counts. First, for its daringly conceived and brilliantly performed music, inspired by Greek folk songs and instrumental textures and deep enough to reveal all its treasures only after many repeated listenings. Second, for being recorded at the moment when the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, a major force in British straight-ahead jazz since '62, had broken up and Carr's equally influen…
Nimbus West CD megabundle
Specially priced bundle drawn from the catalog of Nimbus West, the American label widely regarded as the greatest single depository of West Coast avant-garde jazz. With the label's future uncertain and no represses planned, this is a final opportunity to explore one of the most vital and visionary corners of recorded jazz before it disappears from circulation for good. The bundle also includes The Tapscott Sessions Vol. 8, a touching tribute to Adele Sebastian and one of the most beautiful entri…
Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971
* Art Edition issued with different art work and sleeve design. * On a Sunday in the early 70s in South LA, you could easily find yourself standing in a high school auditorium, watching Horace Tapscott conduct the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra as they poured out music like a benediction. No tickets, no VIP list—just the community, gathered. This was music as civic duty, as spiritual practice, as revolution by other means. Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 captures one such afternoon, previo…
The Heart Is a Lotus
On The Heart Is A Lotus, The Michael Garrick Sextet with Norma Winstone trace a quietly radical path through British jazz: modal, spiritual and poetically inclined, with Winstone’s voice drifting inside the ensemble like vapor rather than standing in front of it.
Did You Tell Your Mother
Released in 1979, Tete Mbambisa's Did You Tell Your Mother delivers the ultimate blend of African groove with American modal grace, making it one of the all-time classic albums of South African jazz. With Mbambisa presenting original compositions at the piano alongside Basil "Mannenberg" Coetzee on tenor sax and flute, the acoustic quartet featured here is rounded out by Zulu Bidi from the band Batsumi on bass locking in with Dollar Brand drummer Monty Weber. This 2026 reissue presents a flat tr…
African Day
Awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town in 2023, pianist Tete Mbambisa (84) is a legendary figure in South African jazz. Supported by the cream of the local scene, his albums from the 1970s are among the most cherished vinyl documents from this golden era. A monumental archival undertaking, African Day compiles unreleased recordings from 1976 to resurrect a "lost" Tete Mbambisa double album that falls between his seminal works Tete's Big Sound (1975) and Did You Tell Your …
My Spare Time
On My Spare Time, Isao Suzuki steps out front on piccolo bass in a luminous set of standards and ballads, wrapping bossa, Ellington and songbook classics in a warm, conversational post‑bop glow with some of Japan’s finest players.
Cadillac Woman
On Cadillac Woman, Isao Suzuki steers his bass into sleek crossover territory, blending jazz‑funk, fusion and soulful vocals into a polished, club‑ready ride that still carries his unmistakable sense of groove and melodic finesse.
Daguri
On Daguri, Kosuke Mine Quintet channel early‑70s Coltrane fire into a distinctly Japanese voice, fusing spiritual intensity, modal lyricism and subtle exotic color into a taut, forward‑rushing statement that stands among Mine’s finest recordings.
Fuchsia Swing Song
Originally released in 1965, Fuchsia Swing Song marked the powerful debut of saxophonist Sam Rivers on Blue Note Records. Recorded at Van Gelder Studio with a stellar band—Jaki Byard on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums—the album reveals Rivers' innovative take on post-bop and hard bop styles. With its balance of structure and freedom, this session showcases the saxophonist’s adventurous spirit and deep harmonic intelligence. Part of the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series, this r…
Complete Communion
Complete Communion marks the stunning 1965 Blue Note debut of Don Cherry, the visionary cornetist best known for his work alongside Ornette Coleman in the late 1950s. This landmark session captures Cherry at a creative peak, leading a fiery quartet featuring Gato Barbieri on tenor saxophone, Henry Grimes on bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums. Together, they explore the outer edges of post-bop and free jazz, building long-form compositions that seamlessly weave multiple themes into unified, evolving…
Studio/Live
Savvas Christodoulou was born in Cyprus in 1949 and moved to Melbourne in 1950 as part of the great wave of Greek immigration following WW2. His story is long, involved and fascinating, and the liner notes and interview contained within the LP's 4-page insert tells the whole story.
Perhaps more briefly, what you need to know is that he released the Savvas studio LP in 1974 in an edition of 300 copies, and enjoyed such a strong local following that he sold out the 2,000-seat-capacity Dallas Brook…
Themes for Dreams
Themes For Dreams marks another left turn, finding Chicago-born and based musician, composer, and producer Will Miller at his most meditative, patient, and intentional. Across 13 gorgeous and strikingly cohesive tracks, the album eschews drums in favor of immersive melodies that float, dissipate, and linger. It's an album meant for rest, with arrangements so welcomely enveloping they feel like a warm blanket. While it's Miller's sparsest record yet, it still keeps his wildly collaborative ethos,…
Paddles
Uphill Game is an acoustic contemporary jazz quartet based in Bristol, UK, led by double-bassist & composer Riaan Vosloo. Uphill Game play open, dynamic, driving, delicate, exploratory, groove and melody focused music, inspired by the likes of the William Parker Quartet but with its own distinctive collective voice. Currently one of the UK's best-kept jazz secrets, the band is delighted to release its first album this spring, recorded live in the sumptuous acoustic of St George's Bristol.
Riaan …