Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

** 2021 Stock ** Centrifuga Records presents Distill by Rasmus Oppenhagen Krogh. The vinyl is pressed at the danish pressing plant Nordsø Records in an edition of 300, of which 250 will go for sale. High end quality product, for high quality music!

** 2021 Stock ** Centifuga Records presents Melt, the first LP from Nicolai Kaas Claesson's Melt Quartet. 70's Free Jazz style, inspired by Ahmad Jahmal, Keith Jarrett, Sun Ra etc. Nicolai Kaas Claesson‘s quartet generates some serious intensity with the most casual delivery.  It’s free jazz that’s laid back and cool, and yet hits like a right cross thrown by a pro.  It’s got an old-school feel that brings out the nostalgia for the avant-garde 70s, when that particular phase of jazz’s evolution …

** 2021 Stock ** Actions 1966 67, is a selection of recordings by TCJQ. The music is truly unique an is among the absolute best from the Scandinavian avantgarde jazz scene at that time. We are proud to make this recording available on vinyl for the first time, and to be able to tell the full story of TCJQ on a 4 pages insert. Enjoy!. Liner Notes – Tim Thorlund Boisen. Painting – Franz Beckerlee. Photography By – Jan Persson, Ole Henning Hansen. Remastering– Joachim Michaelis. Cover design – KLD …

Centrifuga Records presents Floating Islands by Lotte Anker, Gerald Cleaver and Craig Taborn. The album is a live performance recorded during CPH jazz festival in 2008. Floating Islands was issued on CD in 2009 on ILK music, and finally we are able to make this superb recording available on vinyl in a collaboration between ILK, Insula Music and Centrifuga. Saxophones – Lotte AnkerDrums – Gerald CleaverPiano – Craig TabornMixed and Mastered By – John FomsgaardRecorded live at Borups Concert Hall

** 2021 Stock. High quality vinyl, with original insert and new liner notes on printed innersleeve ** More than 40 years after its original release, the recording of the Marc Levin Ensemble’s Songs Dances and Prayers will be reissued, both on vinyl and digitally. Until now it has only existed in the original vinyl form, making it difficult to obtain, which is why we decided to make this magnificent recording easily available again. Though Marc Levin is often characterized as a Free Jazz musician…

**Original 1979 vinyl edition of the album. Few copies available. Sealed copies** A post-free masterwork, recorded in Milan in 1978. This is an extraordinary encounter between George Lewis's electronically modified trombone and the flute, alto sax and bass clarinet played by Douglas Ewart, a giant of impro jazz, often at Lewis's side. Both George Lewis and Douglas Ewart create arresting, complex music here, in ways that powerfully contrast and powerfully pull together. The two are prodigious mus…

** Edition of 75 White Vinyl ** If you’re reading this and know the incredible careers of Chris Corsano (US), David Maranha (PT) and Richard Youngs (UK) you can already imagine what you’re getting into… or maybe not. Opened up to virtually infinite possibilities, this is a blessed gathering by three of the most idiosyncratic and illuminated artists working in the sprawling field where the most defiant and unmapped music converge. Leading figures of the unnameable, each of them on his own has cre…

**2022 Stock. Originally released in June 1973, audiophile pressing taken from the original analog tapes** It had been preceded by ECM duo albums with Barre Phillips and with Derek Bailey as well as the cooperative band Circle’s great Paris Concert, but Conference of the Birds, recorded in 1972, was Dave Holland’s first album as a full-fledged leader. An album of driving, progressive jazz it is also of historical significance as the only occasion when Sam Rivers and Anthony Braxton, two of the m…

**CD edition** Fire! Orchestra tracking new paths and reaching new levels of excellence, still honoring their 12-year-old vow of presenting a fresh approach to improvised music. Their debut album, You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago, was released in 2009 to wide international acclaim. "The basic strategy of pairing the expressive energy of free jazz with a sturdy sense of groove has yielded something potent and self-contained" --New York Times. Between this and Defeat there´s been five albums, includi…

**CD Edition** Live was mostly recorded on November 1st, 2019, at Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin, Germany, during the 2019 edition of JazzFest Berlin. For Angel Bat Dawid and her band Tha Brothahood – which includes Deacon Otis Cooke, Viktor Le Givens, Xristian Espinoza, Norman W. Long, Dr. Adam Zanolini, and Asher Simiso Gamedze – it was the first stop of their first European tour.  Forty-eight hours before the show, Angel and members of the band were on their way to the airport in Chic…

**300 copies** “Profile” is the first and only Ken Rhodes LP as a leader. This intimate and rare recording captures an explosive concoction between a blues attitude, a jazz approach and a funky swing. Though an acoustic performance, this LP offers overwhelming grooves, breaks as well as introspective moments . The upbeat and funky title track “The Profile” foreshadows the raw grooves of the session.The composition is driven by a percussive and obsessive bassline which embraces the funky rhythms …

This special bundle collects both the Joshua Abrams LPs reissued by Aguirre, namely the following:Natural Information (2010)Represencing (2012)Since his emergence on the Chicago scene during the 1990s, the bassist and composer, Joshua Abrams, has woven a quiet and incongruous path. He is one of those rare talents who seems to place himself entirely in the service of music. Remarkably prolific, creatively ambitious, and seemingly indifferent to categorization or genre, it is as likely to encounte…

** Edition of 103 hand-numbered copies. Gold vinyl ** Pianist and composer Alice Coltrane shimmers on a set of her original tunes and honors the legacy of her husband, saxophonist John Coltrane. She also duets with host Marian McPartland in Trane's "Giant Steps" and "Miles' Mode". Coltrane opens the program with two of her compositions: "Transfiguration" and "Prema". Her skill as a harpist is reflected in the sparkling, light treble notes of her right hand; with the other hand, she brings the br…

**CD edition** Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London’s Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-minute performance, inspired …

** Edition of 300 copies. Hard cardboard gatefold cover ** To Keith... “You were so afraid of death, you spoke about it often… often with lucidity, with reason, but this fear disappeared very quickly when you sat down at the piano… There, the demons vanished, The ghosts disappeared, the beauty s 'installed… Your piano, you caressed it for so long, barely out of adolescence. In 1975, in Nancy, you deployed nearly a hundred feet to play your music, this "Septober Energy", the energy that one has a…

Strut present the first ever compilation bringing together classics and rarities from the seminal spiritual jazz and conscious soul label Black Fire, spanning 1975 to 1993. Formed by DJ and record producer Jimmy Gray in Richmond, Virginia, and following in the footsteps of other influential black-owned independent labels like Strata-East and Tribe, the foundation of Black Fire coincided with saxophonist James “Plunky” Branch returning to Richmond from New York to form Oneness Of Juju. The band’s…

"From A Love Supreme to The Sex Machine!" The personal musical mantra of the late Philadelphia reedman Byard Lancaster informed an open-minded and varied lifetime in jazz. Strut presents one of Lancaster’s lesser known classics, ‘My Pure Joy’, recorded in 1992 for Black Fire. Lancaster had initially cut his musical teeth with the avant-garde on New York’s Lower East Side in the 1960s (famously on sessions with pianist Dave Burrell and drummer Sunny Murray) and in Paris during the ‘70s after an a…

Strut continue their in-depth archive reissues from the Black Fire label with a definitive edition of JuJu’s ‘Live At 131 Prince Street’, recorded in 1973 at Ornette Coleman’s gallery in New York and featuring a previously unheard recording of the Pharoah Sanders composition "Thembi". After forming in San Francisco while working on the Marvin X theatre piece ‘The Resurrection of the Dead’, JuJu began to hone their uncompromising fusion of Afro-Latin rhythms with free and spiritual jazz before si…

Temporary Super Offer!  Musicians as different as Bill Dixon, Wadada Leo Smith, Axel Dörner, Susana Santos Silva have experimented with the lonely, no-safety-net discipline of solo trumpet playing. It is one of the hardest avocations in music: no harmony instrument, no pedal notes, no supportive pick-up if things go wrong. Schmid seems to follow in that line and yet the solo performances on Augmented Space, for all the extreme discipline of his technique, seems very different to the artists abov…

John Coltrane played the long game. Longevity in life wasn’t his lot; his fortieth year being his final bow. That circumscribed career, particularly in its final decade, evinced a trajectory of creative ascendancy that was as indelible to improvised music as it was omnipresent in impact. Charlie Parker arguably wears the posthumous mantle of most influential saxophonist, but Coltrane suggests a close contender in terms of ineluctable clout on those who play the instrument. Practice and the pursu…

The third instalment of Trevor’s accounts of the seeds and growth of free improvisation in the UK, The London Musicians’ Collective (LMC), spans a 30 + year period and tells the story of one of the most celebrated of all British organisations for the experimentally inclined. With many illustrations of LMC festivals, adverts, fliers, posters, etc, the book follows the twists and turns of this most polymorphic of collectives, interleaving these with contemporaneous societal, cultural and political…

**In process of stocking** BBE Music presents J Jazz volume 3, the latest in its definitive compilation series exploring the finest modern jazz from Japan. Since the first volume in February 2018, the J Jazz compilation series has showcased some of the most creative, inspired, and sought-after jazz recorded in Japan during a golden period spanning the 1960s to the 1980s. Illustrating the richness and versatility of the composers and musicians on this collection, the music spans a wide yet cohere…

**In process of stocking** BBE Music presents the seventh release in its highly acclaimed J Jazz Master Class Series: ‘Evolution’ by Shintaro Quintet. Recorded in 1984 and originally released on the private label Streetnoise Records, ‘Evolution’ is a perfect example of stately modal jazz with every one of its five tracks composed by band leader and bassist, Shintaro Nakamura. A cut from the album, ‘A Blind Man’, was included on the BBE Music compilation ‘J Jazz – Deep Modern Jazz from Japan 1969…

**In process of stocking** BBE Music presents the sixth release in its acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: ‘Stop Over’ by Hideto Sasaki – Toshiyuki Sekine Quartet +1. Released at the height of the electric fusion era, ‘Stop Over’ is an all-acoustic hard bop killer, sounding like the Jazz Messengers on speed. When it was originally issued on the private Smile label in 1976, only 100 copies were pressed, making ‘Stop Over’ one of the most sought after and rare LPs in the J Jazz canon. Trumpeter H…

**In process of stocking** The fifth release in the BBE Music J Jazz Masterclass Series has the perfect combination of rarity and exceptional musicality that inspires seasoned collectors to break out in a sweat. Animals Garden by Miyasaka + 5 was originally issued in 1979 on the cult private Japanese label ALM and is reissued for the first time in a 180Gram 2LP edition.Animals Garden was a one-off project led by master drummer Takashi ‘Bear’ Miyasaka and features a powerful and progressive jazz …

**In process of stocking** BBE Music presents the fourth release in their acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: Topology by Makoto Terashita and Harold Land. Originally released in 1984 on the cult Aketa’s Disk label, Topology captures a surprising yet fascinating and engaging collaboration between a young Japanese jazz pianist and an elder American statesman of jazz.Reissued by BBE Music for the first time since original release 36 years ago, Topology showcases the extraordinary compositional an…

BBE Music is proud to present another instalment in the J Jazz Masterclass Series: East Plants by Takeo Moriyama, one of Japan’s finest jazz drummers. A genuine ‘under the radar’ album known only to a handful of Japanese jazz collectors, East Plants is now available again, reissued for the first time as a double 180g LP, with exact reproductions of the original artwork, obi strip and insert. It also comes with the original notes fully translated. This reissue is fully endorsed by Takeo Moriyama …

**In process of stocking 5CD boxset includes poster, CD booklet, 5 CDs in cardboard wallets, housed all together in a clamshell box ** The radical discovery by Amir Abdullah of 5 two-track master tapes in the care of Hermine Brooks ­– widow of innovative Detroit drummer Roy Brooks – of the Charles Mingus Quintet recorded live in Detroit at Strata Concert Gallery is cause for some serious celebration. These electrifying recordings took place during Mingus’ week-long residency in February 1973. Th…

**In process of stocking** Following on from the welcome revival of Lyman Woodard’s classic ‘Saturday Night Special‘ and drummer, Bert Myrick’s ‘Live ’n Well’ – which features the epic ‘Scorpio’s Child’ – BBE Records continue to dig deeper into the vaults of Detroit’s Strata label with The Contemporary Jazz Quintet album ‘Location’. Working in conjunction with 180 Proof’s Amir Abdullah BBE are poised to unearth a steady flow of hard to find or previously unheard gems from the short-lived but con…

**In process of stocking** Rescued from relative obscurity by DJ Amir’s 180 Proof Records, BBE is delighted to present a gem from the tiny yet highly influential catalogue of Strata Records. Preceding New York’s Strata East, Detroit’s original Strata label issued only a handful of underground titles in the early 70’s, making it a ‘holy grail’ imprint among jazz lovers and record collectors the world over. Released by Strata in 1974, Bert Myrick’s ‘Live ‘n Well’ was originally recorded by Strata …

** Limited Edition of 300 Clear Vinyl ** This is Jack Wilson's debut album as a bandleader, originally released in 1963 for Atlantic label, featuring a young Roy Ayers on vibraphone, bassist Al McKibbons and drummer Nick Martinis. Jack Wilson was a fine and often underrated pianist and composer who played with many great names such as Gene Ammons, Jacki Mclean, Esther Phillips, Lou Rawls, Johnny Griffin, Ertha Kitt, Lambert Hendricks & Ross, Antonio Carlos Jobim... This is a lively studio sessio…

The Many Faces of Harry Beckett is the first publication dedicated to the life and work of the legendary Barbados-born British progressive jazz trumpeter. It fulfils author John Thurlow’s lifelong ambition of creating a book which would pay a fitting tribute to his hero. Harry’s career spanned more than fifty years, encompassing thousands of gigs across the globe, and over 220 currently known recordings. His exquisite playing led to him perform with many of the world’s most famous acts in a myri…

**Strictly limited to 500 copies. Digipak with bonus tracks and liner notes by Richard Williams** Jazz in Britain presents Forget To Remember: Live Vol​.​2 1970 by The Ray Russell Sextet featuring Harry Beckett. Previously unreleased live session recorded at the Aeolian Hall 2, New Bond Street, London on the 2nd January 1970. All tracks from the Ray Russell tape archive.

Since its first iteration in 1979, Vario has appeared in some fifty different versions, with a great variety of musicians, also actors, dancers, and filmmakers. It's the brainchild of Günter Christmann, a powerhouse of improvised music in Germany whose influence is out of scale with his acclaim. Since his emergence on the scene in the early 1970s, including appearances on classic FMP outings such as Rüdiger Carl Inc.'s King Alcohol (CVSD 032CD) and the eponymous Peter Kowald Quintet LP (CF 015LP…

The duo of saxophonist Larry Stabbins and percussionist Roy Ashbury was a mainstay of the London improvised music scene in the early 1970s. They recorded their lone LP, Fire Without Bricks, in 1976, and issued it in a tiny edition on the cooperatively run Bead label. Stabbins has toggled between more pop-oriented projects like Working Week and Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA Orchestra and adventurous free music in bands led by Peter Brötzmann and Tony Oxley. Born in Wolverhampton and based initially i…

Unearthed by The Mighty Zaf for BBE Music, Into A New Journey by Ambiance is an impossibly rare and sought-after private label spiritual jazz masterpiece from 1982 with Latin, Brazilian and Afro overtones. Ambiance was the ‘nom de guerre’ of an ever-shifting jazz collective headed up by Nigeria-born, LA-tutored multi- instrumentalist, arranger, producer and photographer Daoud Abubakar Balewa. Balewa studied composition and jazz improvisation at the feet of innovators such as Frank Mitchell (Art …

We're delighted to announce the reissue one the most sought-after European private press spiritual jazz albums: The Magnetic Atmospher by Clarence Peters Quartet. Never reissued in its entirety before, The Magnetic Atmosphere is a solid album of deep, post modal spiritual jazz that will appeal to fans of the Strata East, Tribe, and Black Jazz labels. Resident in France since the 1970s, drummer Peters recorded the album with a French rhythm section: Patrick Gauthier on piano, and Jean-Jacques Ave…

Original artwork tip-on 700 gram cardboard. Black polylined innersleeve. Insert sheet Q&A with Lloyd Miller by Tony Higgins + original archive pictures on 350 gram Bristol paper. Made with the intention of exploring and experiencing the various musical and cultural perspectives of a territory as vast as that of Persia, "Near And Far East" is a significant historical document that transcends the restrictive concept of territory but rather inhabits a space of absolute time. The album's content is …

**2021 stock. In process of stocking** Heavyweight Vinyl / U.S.A. Original Glued Prints on Thick Cardboard / handily gluing / Original Black and White Private Press artwork. Originally issued in 1972, Space Walk was the final album recorded for the famed Lansdowne Studios by iconic British saxophonist, the late Don Rendell. Reissued for the first time on LP in a strictly limited run, Space Walk sees Don Rendell extend the signature sound he developed as part of the legendary Rendell-Carr Quintet…

Original Glued Prints on Thick Cardboard / handily gluing / Original Black and White Private Press artwork/ 100 copies limited edition worldwide. Legit reissue of this obscure privately pressed album from 1975. Black Fairy is a fairy tale, but not in the traditional sense. When writing this play, i did not want to re-create the types of fantasies which are so common in Childrens theater. There is no kind of magic that can relieve black children from the oppression that retards their development.…