Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Blue Note, here comes the first releases of a new series of LPs, entitled Great Reid Miles Covers, that celebrates the extraordinary and famous covers created by graphic designer and photographer Reid Miles, the artist who gave an unmistakable image to the albums of the blue label and also wrote an unforgettable page in the history of graphic design of the 20th Century. For this series, the new masters were processed by Kevin Gray from the original anal…

Patty Waters is a visionary avant-garde vocalist and composer, best known for her groundbreaking 1960s recordings for the legendary free jazz label ESP-Disk. Captivated by the music of Billie Holiday, she sang with Bill Evans, Charlie Mingus, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock before coming to the attention of Albert Ayler, who introduced her to ESP-Disk's Bernard Stollman. The rest is history.Recorded with pianist Burton Greene, Waters' haunting 1966 debut Sings juxtaposes a side of hushed self-com…

The first vinyl reissue of Bertil Strandberg Kvintett’s Cirrus album is now available on Frederiksberg Records, following on earlier Scandinavian Jazz reissues by Christian Schwindt Quintet and Carsten Meinert Kvartet. In 1973, a snowstorm almost prevented the band from making it to the studio to record this album. Cirrus, released in 1974 in tiny numbers, has since become a heralded object among jazz aficionados. Now 45 years later, Cirrus is finally available on vinyl again and comes with an i…

Original cosmonaut Sun Ra was one of the jazz world’s most individual and eccentric talents. Born Herman “Sonny” Blount in Alabama in 1914, he became Sun Ra during the 1950s, proclaiming that he was born on Saturn and focusing on outer space due to what he saw as the perpetual faults and failures of mankind on earth. Pursuing an unorthodox musical method which meant that no two recordings nor performances were ever alike, he persued various incarnations of his Arkestra throughout the decades. Th…

Guitarist Harry Case is an unsung hero of the Atlanta funk scene of the 1970s and 80s. He was part of the band that issued the legendary material credited to drummer Steveland Milne’s Alias, Stevo, put together under the aegis of Calvin Arnold, with trumpeter Tommy Stewart in charge of musical arrangements. A full decade after the baffling and highly sought-after Musica Negra release, Case’s debut solo album, Magic Cat, was issued by Ichiban Records, the label established by the british blues an…

Jazz drummer Greg Adams was active on the Los Angeles experimental jazz scene of the early 1980s. Based in the working class coastal town of Long Beach, California, and with longstanding ties to the industrial east coast city of Wilmington, Delaware, Adams sought to hearken back to the naturalistic form of be-bop, which is why he recorded the material on Koolin Out in a live session with no overdubs in April 1983. Privately pressed in minute quantities as the sole entity on his own hip city impr…

Pioneering keyboardist Joe Zawinul will always be remembered for spearheading the fusion project Weather Report and for his input on important Miles Davis LPs. After classical training in Vienna during his youth, Zawinul began working with leading Austrian jazz musicians in the early 1950s, including the pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda, and after moving to the US in 1959 he joined Maynard Ferguson’s big band, accompanied Dinah Washington and Sweets Edison and rose to prominence in Cannonbal…

Gifted american pianist Keith Jarrett is one of the jazz world’s greatest musicians. Born in suburban Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1948 with a mixed european cultural heritage, Jarrett was a child prodigy that played piano at the age of two, appeared on television, aged five, and gave his first classical recital, aged seven. After studying at the prestigious Berklee college of music, he moved to New York in 1964 to perform at the Village Vanguard and then joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Drumm…

**500 copies** First release from the first time trio of legends Susan Alcorn, Joe McPhee and Ken Vandermark. Invitation to a Dream is not only the first recorded statement, it is also a document of the very first meeting of the trio. Back in 2016 we asked Alcorn and McPhee to play a duo set at our favorite festival Cropped Out in Louisville, KY, and after getting our minds blown we knew we had to get the duo into a studio to record an album. After a few failed attempts due to schedules and bad …

A Night In Alchemia was recorded by Joe McPhee (trumpet and saxophones), John Edwards (double bass) and Klaus Kugel (drums). The improvisations of this trio always have exceptional sound and are filled with inventive, interesting, innovative and bright decisions. Eclectic ideas, organic stylistic allusions, sound experiments, moody and sudden changes, contrasting pieces, an influenze of various jazz styles and musicians unique sound – all these elements are gently combined together. The music is…

Jeb Bishop - trombone, Russ Johnson - trumpet, Jason Roebke - bass, Frank Rosaly - drums. Re-Collect has a bright and innovative sound, all compositions are played in especially expressive and dynamic mood. Suggestion, driving playing manner, passionate and unique style, creativity, luminous and dramatic culminations which calm down to silent and relaxing pieces – these are the main elements of this quartet’s music. Four great jazz improvisers are playing together and each musician has his own a…

Jerome Kitzke - Piano, Readings and Vocal, Steve Rust - Electric and Acoustic Basses, Harvey Sorgen - Drums and Percussion - They are not a political party, but given all the different musical points of view brought to bear by these three veteran improvisers, a delicious Big Tent in sound is created when drummer / percussionist Harvey Sorgen, bassist Steve Rust and pianist / vocalist Jerome Kitzke come together. The resulting music is possessed of raw energy or delicate filigree and everything i…

Five Spontaneous Ones was recorded by Albert Cirera (tenor and soprano saxophones), Rafal Mazur (acoustic bass guitar) and Nicolas Field (drums). The three improvisers are featured stars of the avant-garde jazz scene. Albert Cirera has an organic and expressive playing technique, impressive virtuosity, wide musical knownledge and unique sound. Rafal Mazur fuses together the tendencies of contemporary academical and experimental music, basics of avant-garde jazz and the newest tendencies of exper…

Matthew Shipp – piano, Gordon Grdina – oboe, guitar, Mark Helias – bass. All three of these musicians are master craftsman of their instruments and have received critical accolades from far and wide. Matthew Shipp has been called to as “truly one of the leading lights of a new generation of jazz giants.” Mark Helias has been hailed as “one of the finest acoustic bass players in the contemporary jazz avant-garde” and Gord Grdina needs no introduction and has aptly been referred to as a “force of …

Solar Wind was recorded by Robert Dick (glissando flute, bass flute, contrabass flute, piccolo, voice), Joëlle Léandre (contrabass, voice) and Miya Masaoka (koto, percussion). Three independent jazz masters base their music on different characters, styles and expressions. All three of them have original and expressive style, rich musical language, wide musical knownledge and ​unique sound. Musicians are the central figures of international free improvisational music and avant-garde jazz scene. T…

Jay Rosen - drums, Brian Willson - drums. Recorded by Alfredo MArtin at Whitman Hall, Brooklyn College, December 10, 2008. From The Mystery Brothers, here is a wonderful performance of drum concertos, written and performed by Brian Willson, the great drummer / percussionist / conductor, and fellow master drummer Jay Rosen. The production / recording is nothing short of amazing and pristine. Here's a prime example of how the drums are indeed a melodic instrument. Willson and Rosen explore the ins…

Simon Rose - baritone saxophone, Steve Noble - drums. Recorded 4th February 2018 at Jazz North East, Bridge Hotel, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. What an unbelievable night of free improvisation the audience were treated to at The Bridge on Sunday night. Two amazing instrumentalists combined to produce two sustained sets of riveting and uncompromising jazz. Individually, both musicians were absolutely superb - I have never heard a baritone sax played with such energy and range before. Steve Noble…

The vitality you hear on Antique Blacks is a testament to the unique energy of the community around The Foxhole Cafe in Philadelphia, as Ra honed his unique brand of Afro-Futurism through the late 60s and 70s. Cosmic theatre, spiritual chants, and experimental electronics make this record an essential document that was ahead of its time. Ancient to future! The 1970s saw change in Sun Ra's recorded output, and as far as we can tell, the content of his live performances. By the middle of the decad…

2017 Release. The composer, bandleader and reedist Willem Breuker, who died in July 2010 at the age of 65, is often omitted from contemporary assessments of Dutch jazz, where the primacy of pianist Misha Mengelberg (1935–2017) and drummer Han Bennink feels indisputable. Those two musicians left a huge impact on the Amsterdam music scene through the work they created in the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra—work that carries on through Bennink and pianist Guus Janssen, who took over the piano chai…

There is no doubt that Misha Mengelberg was an excellent, even a great, jazz pianist.  He was already close to that when he recorded with Eric Dolphy at the end of the latter’s career and he certainly was there by the mid ‘60s, when he was leading a quartet with alto saxophonist Piet Noordijk and drummer Han Bennink. But Mengelberg, like Bennink, was a musical maverick rarely content as a performer to play ‘just’ jazz and this is reflected on the solo record Pech Onderweg, recorded 40 years ago …

*Edition of 300. 2022 stock* French-born, Amsterdam-based clarinetist Joris Roelofs has built his career balancing intense discipline and deep commitment to post-bop tradition with a measured exploratory streak. He’s worked extensively in the Vienna Art Orchestra and he maintains a wonderfully buoyant trio with the American rhythm section of Ted Poor and Matt Penman. But this new recording suggests that his attraction to freedom is growing stronger. Icarus is a lovely duo project with the vetera…

Dutch drummer Han Bennink, who turns 75 next month, has been an unrelenting creative force in jazz and improvised music since the early 60s. In 1964 he played on Eric Dolphy's legendary final record, Last Date, and in '67 he formed the Instant Composers Pool with pianist Misha Mengelberg (who died two weeks ago) and reedist Willem Breuker. He has an instantly recognizable sound—loud, chaotic, furiously swinging—and he's applied it to hundreds of records. He's all about improvisation, so leading …

2026 stock, reduced price. Trumpeter Bill Dixon and pianist Cecil Taylor, friends going back to their Truman-era school days, associated copiously in nearly every artistic fashion -- except making music together. Duets is their only meeting in studio apart from both artists appearing on Taylor's 1966 landmark Blue Note LP, Conquistador. In 1992 they made the briefest summer festival tour to Italy and France, budgeting in two additional days for this recording session. That musical output was pre…

Following the success of Wewantsounds' Alice Clark RSD edition featuring an extra 20-page booklet, the label reissues the standard version of Alice Clark's highly sought-after soul jazz classic produced by Mainstream Records' Bob Shad in 1972. Featuring original artwork, remastered sound making this reissue is the first official reissue of Alice Clark's original album for decades, a long overdue release of one of the best Soul albums ever recorded. When it comes to legendary albums, very few can…

Originally released in 1974, Doug Carn's final album for the Black Jazz label, and a set that pushes even farther than his previous efforts! Jean Carn isn't in the group this time around, but the set does feature a totally great twin-vocal approach – with singing by Joyce Green and John Conner, blending their voices together in a style that's right up there with the most righteous 70s jazz experiments by Horace Silver or Billy Gault! This vocal balance really brings a new sort of power to Carn's…

Doug Carn created a personalized strain of jazz music that expressed a loving hopefulness. He found a home at the Black Jazz label, where African-Americans called the shots and, of course, racial tension was nonexistent. Who was this 22-year-old whose first album, Infant Eyes, sold very well away from the machinations of the music industry? Once a child prodigy on piano and alto saxophone, Carn had attended Jacksonville University on a full music scholarship and afterwards performed on the Flori…

**2019 stock, reduced price** The Headhunters' Straight From the Gate was their second album and was released in 1977. Originally started as a jazz-fusion band fronted by Herbie Hancock, members Paul Jackson, Bennie Maupin, Michael Clark, Paul Potyen, Derrick Youman and Obsidion Blackbiyrd delved further into jazz-rock and fusion sounds and recorded the album at The Automatt studios in San Francisco. The Headhunters use a wide range of instruments. From the electric piano, to tenor and soprano s…

**2019 stock, reduced price** Still riding high from Listen Here, Eddie Harris really started experimenting here with a dazzlingly eclectic LP that must have left his new fans wondering just who the real Eddie Harris was. There is good old Latinized funk in the opening cuts, Free at Last and 1974 Blues, but what was one to make of the next one, Smoke Signals, with its interplanetary Echoplexed electric sax and ethereal wordless female voices? Then it's on to a long-limbed Coltrane tribute on pia…

**2019 stock, reduced price** Why some artists achieve the recognition they deserve while other equally talented ones don't depends on many things. But one thing is clear, that obscurity does not always mean lack of talent. Regardless, it is always a pleasure to discover little known but immensely gifted musicians and it is really a great pleasure to hear the reissue of The Diamond Five's Brilliant!. The Diamond Five, a Dutch quintet led by pianist Cees Slinger, was founded in 1959 and lasted un…

**2019 stock, reduced price** Milestones was Miles Davis' third Columbia release after 'Round About Midnight (1957) and Miles Ahead (1957). The recording was made during one of Davis' most creatively intense periods, preceding his recording of the soundtrack for Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud (Fontana, 1958) in late 1957 and the subsequent recordings of Cannonball Adderley's Somethin' Else (Blue Note, 1958) and the repertoire that would become Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959). Milestones is significant …

**2019 stock, reduced price** Frank Cunimondo has an extensive discography, having recorded with nearly every artist from Pittsburgh. In addition, he has shared the stage with a number of jazz stars including: Sonny Stitt, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Urbie Green, Lee Konitz, Louie Bellson, Joshua Redman, Phil Woods and Frank Rosolino. The Frank Cunimondo Trio is also a fixture of the Pittsburgh Jazz scene. In the 80s Frank owned a jazz club in Pittsburgh called 'Cunimondo's Keyboard Jazz S…

**2019 stock, reduced price** Frank Cunimondo has an extensive discography, having recorded with nearly every artist from Pittsburgh. In addition, he has shared the stage with a number of jazz stars including: Sonny Stitt, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Urbie Green, Lee Konitz, Louie Bellson, Joshua Redman, Phil Woods and Frank Rosolino. The Frank Cunimondo Trio is also a fixture of the Pittsburgh Jazz scene. Frank's most popular recording Feelin' Good (from the album The Frank Cunimondo Trio…

On this double album, the Albert Ayler Trio consisted of Ayler, bassist Torbjörn Hultcrantz and drummer Sune Spångberg. These four dissonant songs recorded during their live performance on 24 October 1962 were issued on the Bird Notes label in Sweden as Something Different!!!!!! and reissued overseas as the first edition of The First Recording. The tracklist includes a barely-recognisable rendition of the showtune I'll Remember April, an off-kilter take of Sonny Rollins' The Stopper - retitled R…

**2019 stock, reduced price** Mickey Baker, also known as Mickey "Guitar" Baker, was an American guitarist. He is widely held to be a critical force in the bridging of rhythm and blues and rock and roll, along with Bo Diddley, Ike Turner and Chuck Berry. His musical style was influenced by saxophonist Charlie Parker. In the 50s Baker did sessions with The Drifters, Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Louis Jordan and many more artists. During this time, Baker played on numerous hit records.…

For this historical concert held at the Yubin Chokin Hall, in Tokyo on May 14, 1986, the legendary Japanese drummer Masahiko Togashi brought together an amazing line-up with such modern jazz luminaries as Steve Lacy (soprano sax), Don Cherry (pocket trumpet) and Dave Holland (bass). This particular album consists of four previously unpublished tracks (on vinyl), including some highly regarded Lacy's compositions such as The Crus and Quakes, and Don Cherry's African flavored anthem called Mopti. …

**1000 copies** Otoroku is extremely proud to present the first vinyl reissue of one of the most legendary free jazz records ever produced. Originally released in 1978 on Ogun recordings, Louis Moholo Octet’s Spirits Rejoice! is a high achievement in the movement of the era as it soars beyond oppression with a raucous and spiritually uplifting surge of movement and melody. Featuring Harry Miller, Johnny Dyani, Keith Tippett, Evan Parker, Nick Evans, Radu Malfatti and Kenny Wheeler, this is forme…

To believe in serendipity - that’s the operative word when it comes to alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson’s soul-jazz hit, Alligator Bogaloo, the opening track from the leader’s heralded -artistically and commercially - album of the same name, released by Blue Note in 1967. The tale of its origin has been told so many times that it holds mythic status of affirming the power of improvisational jazz. For his LP session at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs, N.J., studio, Lou finished recording five tr…

Right from the stop-start bass groove that opens The Emperor, it's immediately clear that Ethiopian Knights is more indebted to funk - not just funky jazz, but the straight-up James Brown / Sly Stone variety - than any previous Donald Byrd project. And, like a true funk band, Byrd and his group work the same driving, polyrhythmic grooves over and over, making rhythm the focal point of the music. Although the musicians do improvise, their main objective is to keep the grooves pumping, using their…

Paris-born, New England-raised, long-time Chicago-residing Makaya McCraven has been at the forefront of genre-redefining movements in jazz since 2015, when he introduced the world to his unique brand of ‘organic beat music’ on the breakout album In the Moment. Culled, cut, post-produced and re-composed by Makaya using recordings of free improvisation he collected over dozens of live sessions in Chicago, through incubation and experimentation In the Moment established a procedural blueprint that …

**Bundle edition, LP + 7"** Souffle Continu Records present a reissue of Baroque Jazz Trio's self-titled album, original released on Saravah in 1970. Mixing Baroque, free-jazz, and world music, the unique album of the Baroque Jazz Trio (which is in fact 3/5 of the Bach Modern Quintet) is a difficult-to-label sound object which is far from being typical of the psychedelic sounds associated with the early 1970s. Because, although fusion with Indian music (amongst others) and jazz (but also pop) wa…