Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

** 2021 Stock ** Don’t let the date fool you, released back in 1983 this modal to slightly free jazz outfit from California takes you on a journey back to the late 60s and very early 70s, into the spiritual realms of greats like John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, John McLaughlin and Miles Davis among others. A soul jazz treasure from the LA scene of the early 80s – a fantastic record that I rank with the best Strata East sides of the time! The group's led by alto saxophonist Dadisi Komolafe, and fe…

678 Records presents Exit 1971 by Ian Carr's Nucleus. Recorded on friday june 11 1971 in a small club called the Exit in Rotterdam The Netherlands. Amazing and unknown performance from legendary UK jazz prog fusion rockers Nucleus led by trumpet player Ian Carr. A rare set as regular guitarist Chris Spedding who was absent for unknow reasons was not replaced by another guitarist (often Ray Russell) but by a second keyboard player: Hywel Thomas. Ian carr -TrumpetBrian Smith - tenor sax. soprano s…

** 2021 Stock ** Primarily known as a conductor and composer than a performer, Vic Lewis was an important figure in British jazz from the early 1940's onwards. Born in North London July 29th, 1919, he started out as a rhythm guitarist (playing at three years old!) and also held the occasional cornet and trombone. His debut recording was in 1938 on a New York session featuring Eddie Condon, Pee Wee Russell and Bobby Hackett. During World War Two Lewis served in the Royal Air force and formed a ba…

First ever international reissue of one of the most sought-after albums from the Black Fire catalogue, Lon Moshe & Southern Freedom Arkestra’s life-affirming ‘Love Is Where The Spirit Lies’ from 1977. “Lon was creating his own path in his music life at this time,” remembers Black Fire’s Plunky Branch. “We had met in San Francisco and he had become an original member of JuJu during the early ‘70s. He then wanted to pursue his own music, primarily in jazz; he was an avant-gardist and loved Tribe, …

** In process of Stocking ** The tape of the very first Fela Ransome Kuti recording session has languished in a series of dusty cupboards and damp basements for 60 years. It’s a miracle that it has survived in such fine condition. The original Melodisc single, comprising side A of this release, was for long thought lost until a copy of the session acetate turned up and was reissued as part of the superb Soundway compilation Highlife on the Move (2014). However the two tracks on side B of this al…

** In process of Stocking. 2021 Stock ** Cadillac presents Night Time Is The Right Time - 60s' Soho Sounds by Dudu Pukwana & Bob Stuckey. Recorded at the legendary Ronnie Scott's Old Place, Gerrard Street, Soho, 1967/68 - Recordings from the artists' archives. These rare recordings feature the great South African altoist Dudu Pukwana in a combo with some of the key young players on the 60s London scene at the time and playing more like a young Jackie McLean than the free player of the Brotherhoo…

** John Fordham It would make an absorbing blindfold test to present a panel of interested listeners with a track from this disc and one from the same pianist's Little Klunk trio session for Decca, 40 years ago, and invite them to decide which one's played by the 71 year-old. Not that the early record didn't sound as fresh, witty and jostling with clamorous harmonies and sidelong melody as Tracey has done for most of his life, but that the later one is, miraculously, fresher still. If there's an…

** In process of Stocking. 2021 Stock ** Cadillac presents Don't Worry 'Bout Me by Bobby Wellins Quartet. Recorded At – The Vortex Jazz Club, Stoke Newington, London 16 Feb 1996. Tenor Saxophone, Bobby Wellins, Piano – Graham Harvey, Bass – Alec Dankworth, Drums – Martin Drew, Engineer, Mixed By – Dave Bernez, Mixed By – Victor Schonfield, Dave Bernez, Bobby Wellins, Producer – John Jack for Cadillac Music & Publishing with financial assistance from Shirley Thompson, Photos by Kent Matthews and …

Cadillac presents For Heaven's Sake by The New Stan Tracey Quartet. Recorded in Wembley, 14 September 1995. Engineered and mixed 3 October 1995. The opportunity to present this first recording by the New Stan Tracey Quartet has been an event of great importance to me for a number of reasons. It perfectly fulfils the motivation for the Cadillac Label's creation and continuance since 1973, to wit the documentation and dissemination worldwide of unique moments of creative music making by artists wi…

Cadillac presents The Crane River Jazz Band. John Jack reissued this album in 1996 as part of a projected series in honour of his friend and mentor Doug Dobell. This compilation brings together rare live and studio recordings from the early 1950s and includes extensive notes from Bill Colyer and Pat Hawes and rare photos from the Pat Hawes archive. This is the first time the album has been made digitally available. Instruments [Suitcase], Liner Notes – Bill Colyer, Executive-Producer [Assistant]…

Cadillac presents The Real Ken Colyer by Ken Colyer's Jazzmen featuring Pat Hawes, recorded live at The White Horse, Willesden, London, February 27, 1964. John Jack reissued this album in 2000 as part of a projected reissue of a number of 77 albums in honour of his friend and mentor Doug Dobell. Extra takes were added from the original session acetate. This is the first time the album has been made digitally available. Ken Colyer's life and musical career have been well documented, but many youn…

** In process of Stocking. 2021 Stock ** Cadillac presents The Last Night At The Old Place by Mike Westbrook Concert Band, recorded at Ronnie Scott’s Old Place 25 May 1968. Exactly 50 years on, a unique event featuring the music of the most exciting British jazz group of its time in full swing, released for the first time. Remembering John Jack
 Mike Osborne, Harry Miller, Paul Rutherford. So many good things were contained within the Mike Westbrook Concert Band of 1968 that it’s hard to know wh…

The Seventies should be acknowledged as a landmark period in creative music making in Britain and a potent influence throughout Europe. Whilst not economic paradise there was quite a bit of public funding beginning to come to jazz but the most important support was (and still is) the networks of dedicated Individuals throughout the country that provided unstinting support and platforms for the artists. A prime mover amongst these was the group of people in the Midlands that in 1976 came together…

** In process of Stocking. 2021 Stock ** Cadillac presents The London Concert by David Murray. Remastered from the original 2LP set (released in 1979) and including 2 previously unreleased tracks, Nairobia and Flowers For Albert (and reuniting the two halves of Murray’s Steps…). Recorded live at the Collegiate Theatre, London, England on August 11, 1978. Tenor Saxophone – David Murray, Cornet – Lawrence 'Butch' Morris, Piano – Curtis Clark, Bass – Brian Smith, Drums – Clifford Jarvis. Design [Or…

Newly discovered recording of two British Jazz Legends gets a welcome first release! This double album consists of, for the first time ever on CD, the Stan Tracey solo recording Live at Wigmore Hall, made for Cadillac Records in 1974. The re-release of this set is valuable enough in itself, but added golddust comes in the shape of the additional material - the previously unreleased second half of the evening - a duo recording with alto saxist Mike Osborne. Two of the greats of the English jazz s…

** In process of Stocking ** For many years Evan Parker, one of the greatest post-Coltrane saxophonists, has played a monthly gig at the London club The Vortex. These gigs in part illustrate Evan’s close ties with the fragile ecosystem of clubs that support the jazz world; the small venues that allow an intimate and powerful connection between the artist and audience that is at the heart of jazz creativity. Evan called these events his ‘jazz’ gigs, the knowing hyphenation an indication of the pr…

That William Parker is a bassist, composer and bandleader of extraordinary spirit and imaginative drive is common knowledge among any with an interest in the progressive jazz / any music scene of the past 25 years and more. What's become increasingly apparent, though, is Parker's stature as a visionary of sound and song -- an artist of melody and poetry who works beyond category, to use the Ellingtonian phrase. The latest multi-disc boxed set from Centering Records/AUM Fidelity devoted to Parker…

** 2021 Stock ** Those artists that have the courage to bare themselves are often warned to "brace up." Since few things in improvised music are considered as dangerous as allowing space to others. Someone might easily grab all of that space and position themselves as ringleader, in the contest that a concert sometimes is. The Seppe Gebruers, Hugo Antunes and Paul Lovens trio are definitely not at each other's throats, though. The title of their 2018 album recorded 2016, The Room: Time & Space, …

Anemic Cinema is a fresh instrumental quartet at the junction of (free) improvised music, contemporary classical and heavy metal. Created for Citadelic 2020 by guitarist Artan Buleshkaj, it features some of Belgium’s most adventurous young improvisers. The omission of a conventional bass instrument allows other instruments to assume this role (or not). This creates certain interesting compositional and improvisational challenges. The timbre distinct for (heavy) metal simultaneously provides an a…

Don't judge a man by the size of his discography. Paul Van Gysegem can only be heard on a handful of releases, but he played a crucial role in the development and visibility of improvised music in Belgium. More than half a century ago, he started inviting international heavyweights to Ghent and performed with many of them. Aorta, recorded by his Sextet in 1971, was one of the key documents of that turbulent era and was rightfully reissued by French Futura label in 2011. However, let's not focus …

** 2021 Stock ** Dust, darkness, headlights. Motion in the nothingness, the wasteland. Like a single, lost particle, the first track roams through this black night. Exposition. We discover. We see how form and shape come into being, how a construct creates itself: A civilization, buildings, people, interaction. Paths intersect and the tension bursts. The sharp baritone saxophone (Marc De Maeseneer) cuts through the air, drilling into ones ear. The conflict is physically tangible and we see that …

** 2021 Stock ** The cornerstone of an ensemble like Fundament is the creation of a corporeal acoustic tour de force, via XL-sound bodies, be it strumento a fiato, a corda and corde vocali. 5 double-basses; 1 tubax, 1 bass saxophone, 1 trombone; 2 bass tuba's, 2 baritone saxophones; 5 throat-singers: all indispensable parts of the ensemble. By using the strumento a fiato, the sound is created by the breath current causing the air column to vibrate. The power of the breath and the nature of breat…

** Including 7inch Single "Gisela (Lion Rock)" b/w "Summertime" (previously unreleased). Limited to 500 numbered copies. Heavy old school tip-on cover ** Perfect Toy Records presents Fitz Gore & the Talismen. Licensed by Gisela Gore. Tenor Saxophone – Fitz Gore, Bass – Gérard Ebbo - Obama Ngomo, Congas – Lamont Hampton, Drums – Emmanuel Dipanda, Guitar – Gil Nguema, Piano – Lukoki Mampasi.

Much needed repress. Originally issued by the seminal imprint Saravah in 1972, and among the most uncategorizable and sought after artefacts of the French avant-garde, Barney Wilen’s Moshi is nothing short of a masterpiece - long holding a coveted spot in the hearts of adventurous listeners and record collectors alike. A wild unkept cultural collage. A series of sonic experiments. A spiritual, psychedelic pilgrimage into the unknown - darting from one continent to the next, each of its tangents …

** 700 copies in black vinyl, inside a heavyweight reverse-board sleeve, flooded pocket, in hand stamped inner-sleeve. with insert ** Jeanne Lee (1939-2000) was an African-American vocalist, poet, composer, improvisor, activist and educator. In her 40 year career she performed with Archie Shep, Marion Brown, Gunter Hampel, Frank Lowe, William Parker, Andrew Cyrille, Anthony Braxton, Ran Blake, Billy Bang, Cecil Taylor, John Cage, Rashsaan Roland Kirk, Pauline Oliveros, Reggie Workman, and many o…

Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy continued his early exploration of Thelonious Monk’s compositions on this 1961’s Evidence Lacy worked extensively with Monk, absorbing the pianist’s intricate music and adding his individualist soprano saxophone mark to it. On this date, he employs the equally impressive Don Cherry on trumpet, who was playing with the Ornette Coleman quartet at the time, drummer Billy Higgins, who played with both Coleman and Monk, and bassist Carl Brown. Cherry proved capable of p…

Unbelievable new compilation of deep spiritual music by John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Oliver Nelson, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and other groundbreaking Impulse Artists.

** 2021 Stock ** Hōryū-ji or else Learning Temple of the Flourishing Law is one of the powerful Seven Great Buddhist Temples in Japan. Horyu-ji has entasis, in architecture, the application of a convex curve to a surface for aesthetic purposes. It also serves an engineering function regarding strength, the key word of this collaboration that brought together Sakata, Yermenoglou, Di Domenico and Damianidis in a two days live concert meeting in Duende jazz club at Thessaloniki in May 2018. The rec…

** 2021 Stock ** For his band Mephiti, Bogaerts can depend on guitarists Bert Cools and Ruben Machtelinckx, two exponents of a generation of string adepts who have worked themselves beyond the classic examples that elaborate on the blues. The sharpness of Bert Cools, on semi-acoustic and electric guitar, and the thoughtful and recognizable playing of Machtelinckx (electric) form a stream of dreamy, lyrical sounds, with the occasional strong outburst. Complemented with the klanklės handled by Lit…

** 2021 Stock ** Belgian baritone saxophone players Hanne De Backer and Marc De Maeseneer make music in their broadest available musical spectrum. Nevertheless, they go back for their very first release to the jazz and freejazz tradition and give it a personnal, contemporary and unique touch. For this recording (september 2016) they looked for the limits, colors and possibilities of the baritone saxophone in a perfectly resonating space at Het Bos in Antwerp.

* Edition of 300. Paste on covers/Inserts screened by Alan Sherry on Stoughton Tip-ons ** Solo Guitar 2 was recorded by Bill Nace in 2008, in a good-sounding room in Bennington, Vermont. This year the record, originally released as a now (nearly) extinct cassette, is reissued without it's mysterious and (maybe?) long-lost sibling Solo Guitar 1 (Like any good punk demo -- which, both aesthetically and energetically, Solo Guitar 2 is -- the thrill of discovery is made only sweeter by the potential…

Comet Records presents the Tony Allen & Afrika 70 reissue series with the classic late seventies first four solo albums of Tony Allen remastered and restored: Jealousy, Progress, No Accomodation for Lagos & No Discrimination, all coming in an heavy Deluxe Tip-On Jacket. Tony's solo album, No Discrimination, marks an important turning point in Tony Allen's musical life. Tony had recently left Fela Kuti's band, which was clearly an emotional yet necessary change as Allen sings of love and brotherh…

Comet Records presents the Tony Allen & Afrika 70 reissue series with the classic late seventies first four solo albums of Tony Allen remastered and restored: Jealousy, Progress, No Accomodation for Lagos & No Discrimination, all coming in an heavy Deluxe Tip-On Jacket. 1978's No Accommodation for Lagos, Tony Allen's third solo album, is an effortless Afrobeat masterpiece. The Afrika 70 band floats through two of Tony's heaviest and most churning compositions. With this album, we start to hear T…

Favorite Recordings proudly presents a reissue of the first and eponymous LP by Esperanto, a Venezuelan Jazz-Fusion masterpiece originally released in 1980. This rare and sought-after album recorded in Caracas by talented musicians could be likened to the best of the South American scene with strong Funk & Latin influences. Following the recent reissue of Sacbé, this one is a little wonder and a must-have for anyone interested in Latin Jazz-Funk & Fusion. Fully remastered and available as Gatefo…

Following in the footsteps of the landmark 1966 double-quartet recording by Joe Harriott and John Mayer, Indian born musician Amancio D’Silva produced some of the most adventurous and sophisticated recordings within the canon of ‘indo-jazz’, a term used to define a pioneering east meets west synthesis that reflected the shifting musical and cultural landscape of post-war Britain. An experiment which reached a pinnacle in 1972 with D’Silva’s seminal recording Dream Sequence by Cosmic Eye (The Rou…

Much needed repress. Since launching in 2017, the Parisian imprint, Transversales Disques, has set an incredibly high bar. Every release in their growing catalog - comprised of largely unreleased material by seminal artists like Bernard Parmegiani, Ennio Morricone, François Bayle, Philip Glass, Igor Wakhevitch, Ariel Kalma, and Luc Ferrari, among others - has sent us reeling in ecstatic, revelatory joy, yielding an ever increasing sense of anticipation and excitement about what they might have c…

In 1970 Miles Davis unleashed “Bitches Brew”. It sold a million and launched a new style of music: jazz rock. It was the culmination of the work of Miles and his musicians over the previous two years. “Directions In Music” illustrates its conception and immediate aftermath.

Piano-Drums Duos are the preferred playing arrangement of pianist Irène Schweizer. Her mastery of duets with important drummers of contemporary jazz are documented on numerous Intakt CDs. Han Bennink, Pierre Favre, Louis Moholo, Günter Baby Sommer, Andrew Cyrille and Joey Baron among them. The Chicago drummer Hamid Drake, born in 1955, and Irène Schweizer, born in 1941, have performed together on numerous occasions both in Europe and Chicago. Together they have appeared on the Intakt CD "Irè…

2021 release ** "Between 2009 and 2011, Swiss percussionist Christian Wolfarth released four 7"s presenting eight short examples of his playing. Utilising purely acoustic methods, they varied between remarkably electronic sounding drones to clattering asymmetrical rhythms with quite a range in between, and showed the process of Wolfarth finding a voice in what was already a widely researched area of sound. Scheer is a new solo disc of two pieces that consolidate those experiments in extended wor…

** Heavyweight 180g LP with tip-on sleeve. LP with printed inner sleeve with liner notes & pics ** As private pressings go, Ron Everett's 'Glitter of the City' is certainly one of the most obscure, controversial and mysterious of them all. Until now, the name Ron Everett has been practically unheard of outside his native Philadelphia, and only devoted funk & jazz enthusiasts have been aware of his album, originals of which are owned by literally just a handful of collectors scattered across the …