Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Itaru Oki – trumpet, bamboo fluteNobuyoshi Ino - bassChoi Sun Bae - trumpet

Port of Call is a studio-recorded duet by Klaus Treuheit and Lou Grassi. The latter is an American drummer who runs the gamut of ragtime (Max Morath) to no time (Gunter Hampel, Burton Greene). Treuheit is a German pianist who studied under Herbie Hancock and modern classical composer George Crumb. Mostly co-composed, this Port takes in the elemental blues, as on “Mysterioso IV”. This series of duos has a somewhat free-ish conversational cast, especially in “L’Space Sonore”, while “Lament #PB III…

Peter Evans - piccolo trumpetJohn Butcher - tenor and soprano saxophonesFrédéric Blondy - pianoClayton Thomas - double bassPaul Lovens - selected and unselected drums and cymbals

A beautiful live representation of the energy of the Bitches Brew years – one that has Miles Davis and the group really letting loose with free-flowing, modally-inspired lines – cooking up an incredible blend of acoustic and electric sounds at once! There's a bit of funk here, but not much – and although guitar is sometimes used strongly, it's often not as noisy as in later live sides. Instead, the whole group gels together beautifully – an unlikely assortment of players that includes G…

Bengt Berger and Kjell Westling did a live radio broadcast in 1977 and released it on vinyl. This is a cd rerelease. The music we played is improvised, restless and of very high density (many notes in short time). Ett Minne för Livet (A Memory for Life) was a muscian’s collective in Stockholm during the seventies, part of the progressive music movement in Sweden. Iskra, Spjärnsvallet, Vargavinter, Archimedes Badkar, Bitter Funeral Beer Band and Bolon Bata were some of the bands taking part…

Ernesto Rodrigues - violaMaria do Mar - violinGuilherme Rodrigues - celloMiguel Mira - double bassAndré Hencleeday - tenor psalteryMiguel Almeida - acoustic guitarMaria Radich - voicePaulo Curado - flutePaulo Chagas - oboeNuno Torres - alto saxophoneBruno Parrinha - clarinet & bass clarinetFernando Simões - trumpetEduardo Chagas - tromboneAbdul Moimême - electric guitarCarlos Santos - electronicsMonsieur Trinité - percussio

All three reissues of the fantastic free / spiritual jazz french Cohelmec Ensemble at a special price.Souffle Continu Records present the first vinyl reissue of Cohelmec Ensemble's Hippotigris Zebra Zebra, originally released in 1971. The Cohelmec Ensemble celebrate, above all, the pleasure of collective music-making. A group without a designated leader, they base their approach on reciprocal listening, but also on a dialogue between written and improvised material, in which all members have an …

** Edition of 200 copies ** Istanbul-based free music ensemble Konstrukt perform alongside special guest Alexander Hawkins building the perfect groove in a sweaty Cafe Oto on August 10th 2015. Two sets from the same night, each a 40 minute long improvisation. First set is a psychedelic warm-up where the Turkish quartet welcomes Hawkins in a whirlwind of hypnotic funky tunes going electric in the Miles Davis way. The second set starts with Hawkins piano keys bouncing along a silent background soo…

This very rare British jazz album from 1968 gets the Jazzaggression reissue treatment with improved sound, new liner-notes and additional CD and digital download inside. Comes with new pictures and new liner notes from the band members. The Bird Curtis Quintet which consisted of Ian Bird (Tenor Sax) John Curtis (Trumpet) Raymond Shea (Piano) Daryl Runswick (Bass) and Tim Woolley (Drums) released the 5-track masterpiece in 1968 with only 100 copies pressed. The release also comes with new picture…

Gatefold sleeve. Esoteric, modal, and progressive jazz, inspired by Islam and recorded between 1957-1988. Songs ancient and divine - the seventh volume of Jazzman Records' acclaimed Spiritual Jazz series examines the influence and impact of Islam on four decades of jazz innovation. Through Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, the civil rights era in America saw African American liberation politics famously associated with Islamic belief. This was not the first time that radical developments in Afric…

this is Big D jazz live material gets released here for the first time. The players are Marcus Belgrave (trumpet), Vincent York (alto sax), Rick Roe (percussion), Marion Hyden (bass) and Lawrence Williams (drums).. Limited to only 70 copies, so order fast! "A rare live session from Tribe Records legend Marcus Belgrave – a record that has the Detroit trumpeter working strongly here on his home turf with a very well-matched quintet of musicians! The work is maybe a bit more straightforward …

A rare and unique meeting of two master musicians, deep and mysterious at times. Recorded on October 27th, 1979 at Centro Jazz St. Louis in Rome, Italy. The musicians are Mal Waldron (percussion) and Johnny Dyani (bass). Limited to only 70 copies, so order fast! "A fantastic pairing of these two ultra-hip musicians – working together in a very open-ended, stretched-out live setting – with maybe an even freer feel than their better-known album together from a few years later! The music is r…

Against the odds of geography - continuously coming together within various collaborations and combinations of the three, Giovanni Di Domenico, Jim O'Rourke, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto have begun to assemble one of the most exciting bodies of organized sound to have appeared in recent years. The trio’s second outing under the moniker Delivery Health is no exception to the rule. Recorded in Tokyo between 2012 and 2013 and emerging on the ambitious Silent Water imprint, Hard Off sidesteps signifiers and e…

"Brotzmann Box" is a beautiful box set containing 3 albums by German free jazz master Peter Brötzmann. The first volume of the album is "Full Blast" (JW 1) with Brötzmann (alto and soprano sax, tárogató) playing in a super Swiss-German trio with Marino Pliakas (electric bass), a member of Swiss Steamboat, and Michael Wertmuller (drums), one of the best musiciand of the Berlin music scene and member of the group Alboth. Together these three musicians create a truly unique musical cosmos that lies…

Since they first emerged on FMP in 1971, a series of recordings - often referred to as the Berlin Trilogy, have represented an axis point in the history of Jazz.  Made earlier the same year by Peter Brötzmann, Fred Van Hove, Han Bennink, and Albert Mangelsdorff - Elements, Couscouss de la Mauresque, and The End quickly became legendary for their towering artistry and worth, but their larger contextual concern - with how they came to be, was an answer to a quite multilayered war being waged in th…

Back in stock! 2016 repress of this landmark afro-jazz album from South Africa! Matsuli follow up their brilliant Dick Khoza reissue with a deep spiritualised afro-jazz album from 1974! An urgent Batsumi sound, reverbed-drenched, propulsive, tight-locked drums and mesmerising bass. Some of the tracks here featured on Strut's fabulous 'Next Stop To Soweto' compilation. Out of print since the 1970s, and never issued outside of South African in its entirety.  

Two different duets between reedman Sylvain Kassap and percussionist Hamid Drake – one live, one studio – recorded six years apart, but sounding wonderful together in this double-length package! The first section is live – and features some very long, open improvisations – with Kassap on a range of clarinets, mostly in the bass range, plus chalumeau as well – as Drake opens up his drum kit with that special sort of magic that's made him a key percussionist in the legacy of rhythm-free drummers l…

"In Rova's translation of Ascension into contemporary practice, Coltrane's Ascension remains as a great gift for the energy it presents, for the sheer unfailing intensity with which it fights toward its collective freedom. The original is a major work of art, not merely an episode but a larger process. Rova's substantial achievement consists in assuming the responsibility of Coltrane's great original, treating it not simply as a memento of liberation but as a tool for it as well."(Stuart Broomer…

A great reunion of the Jeff Parker/Rob Mazurek duo – a pair who've only continued to grow strongly in the years since their Chicago Underground classics – and who bring all that sense of energy to play in their music! The sounds here represent the deeper, more mature styles that both musicians have hit – a way of almost being more powerful by being less aggressive – especially from Mazurek, who's got this wonderfully gentle touch on his horn at times – wrapped up in these waves of sound that com…

"An "air of unreality" characterizes the best free improvisation. This performance-captured during last year's Vision Festival in Manhattan's Judson Church-definitely ranks among the best on record this year. Part of this unreality has to do with finding beauty and gratification in uncertainty, something that so often makes reality difficult to bear. Another part is transcendence, both of person and pedigree: the idea of a musician effaced by their instrument, and then by their creation. Music t…

"Illtet is here to cure one's ills while shaking up one's beliefs, to make you react, think, feel and not just sit still. Just listen!"(Rogue Art). Crossing NY and Chicago artists, the quartet of Mike Ladd on vocals & synth, Jeff Parker on electric guitar, Tyshawn Sorey on drums, trombone & electric piano, and HPRIZM/High Priest on synth create thought-provoking spoken environments of intense improv.

"So, listen closely, and savor the sounds: treat them with delicate abandon, indulge in their intricately measured poignancy; but don't forget to relax (a little) and enjoy: You are in the hands of a master soul traveler."(Steven Loewy, excerpt from the liner notes). Trombonist Steve Swell is one of the stalwarts on the NYC free jazz scene as both a player & an educator. This studio recording from June 2015 features a top flight band comprised of Swell’s longtime collaborators (William Parker &…

Joe McPhee and Raymond Boni at Hulsey Recital Hall on the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) campus on April 20, 1985. Joe McPhee - soprano saxophone, electronics and voice; Raymond Boni - electric guitar and electronics. The complete was concert inspired by the words of Eric Dolphy: "When you hear music, After it's over, It's gone, In the air, You can never capture it again."

Joe McPhee and Ingebrigt Haker Flaten at the Sugar Maple/Okka Fest on Saturday, June 6th, 2015. Joe McPhee - tenor and soprano saxophone. Ingebrigt Haker Flaten - double bass. Recorded live by Dave Zuchowski. Mastered by Martin Siewert in July/August 2016.

Beside Trost releasing artists Chris Corsano (projects with Akira Sakata, Massimo Pupillo, Joe McPhee, and Mette Rasmussen, to name a few) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (The Thing), with this new formation, the label works with the active US cellist and composer Daniel Levin. Daniel Levin is "one of the outstanding cellists working in the vanguard arena" (All About Jazz), "ridiculously fluent, virtually overflowing with ideas" (New York City Jazz Record), and "very much the man to watch" (Penguin G…

Following the death of German trombonist Johannes Bauer in May 2016, Peter Brötzmann decided to pay tribute to the many years of comradery and collaboration he and Bauer shared, from Globe Unity in the '70s to the Peter Brötzmann Group and the Chicago Tentet. This disc presents a previously unreleased recording of a beautiful live duo performance from Osaka, 1997, which had been waiting in Brötzmann's archives for a release. Peter Brötzmann: tenor and alto saxophones, tárogató, B-flat clarinet; …

The initial vinyl edition comes with a CD. The debut album from this Norwegian-American trio consists of two long tracks that move between intimate lyricism and hardcore expressionism, shaping one of the strongest free jazz offerings we have heard for quite some time. Filipino-American Jon Irabagon has topped both the Rising Star Alto Saxophone and the Rising Star Tenor Saxophone categories in Down Beat´s critics polls and been named one of Time Out New York´s 25 New York City Jazz Icons. …

The Gate is Dan Peck, Tom Blancarte and Brian Osborne. Formed in 2008, and originally named Dan Peck Trio, the band has developed an aesthetic that is unique and uncompromising. Dividing time between improvisation and Dan’s compositions, the music ranges from bleak landscapes of near-­silence to massive, horrifying sound sculptures. The Gate seeks to break down and confuse the conventional roles of a horn-bass-­drums ensemble, revealing the most raw and elemental aspects of organized sound. "Poi…

Per-Ake Holmlander is born in 1957 in Skellefteå in the very north of Sweden. Holmlander received his diploma in classical tuba in 1983 at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm with Michael Lind as a teacher. Holmlander has always worked simultaneously with improvisation, jazz and rock music as well as classical and contemporary music.As an improviser Holmlander has worked with - Eje Thelin, Marilyn Crispell, Paul Lovens, Folke Rabe, Phil Minton, Sten Sandell, Sven-Åke Johansson, Mats Persson,…

Roger Turner, drums. Witold Oleszak, piano. Recorded in 2012.'Both players are equally skilled in anticipating the moment at which exposed, entwined resonances will peak and yield their richest fold of textures. They can also both intuit, superbly, whether a given sound should be enhanced or, favouring momentary silence, they should cancel it out. Their closely-considered duets on this album make for a detailed, absorbing experience, every moment yielding the anticipated unexpected.'

"A significant part of the success is down to the amazing tour de force by Norwegian experimental vocalist Stine Janvind Motland who brings an affecting mix of vulnerability, sexuality and sheer prowess to the party. Gustafsson selected a line from each of 20 favorite Little Richard songs to serve as the basic text for Motland to embroider. Via a graphic score Mats Gustafsson also ensures ample solo space for his illustrious cast, as well as composed sections peppered throughout the performance.…

Roger Turner, studio drumset and cymbals. Witold Oleszak, inner piano. Recorded in 2010.

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 building toward a mor…

CD version. “Divine music is a curative virtue; it is a gift from God that brings healing and comfort to the soul. This music can uplift one’s spirit up to a higher dimension of being that is filled with peace and joy. Divine music is the sound of true life, wisdom, and bliss. This music transcends geographical boundaries, language barriers, age factors; and whether educated or uneducated, it reaches deep into the heart and soul, sacred and holy, like an Infinite sound of glory entering the Lord…

"The DKV Trio formed in the summer of 1994. Our early years of work took place in Chicago at The Bop Shop on West Division Avenue, the Lunar Cabaret on North Lincoln Avenue, and at the original Velvet Lounge, when it was still on South Indiana Avenue. The band's first album, a limited edition CD recorded by Malachi Ritscher at the Lunar Cabaret and released by Bruno Johnson on his label, Okka Disk, underscored a transformation that was taking place on the Chicago music scene - new groups, new pl…

A monumental 8xCD box overview on Joëlle Léandre (born 12 September 1951 in Aix-en-Provence, France) a legendary double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation. A staggering, foundational body of work from one of the most radical and influencial avantgarde performer of the 20th century. In the field of contemporary music, she has performed with Pierre Boulez's Ensemble Inter Contemporain, and worked with Merce Cunningham and John Cage. Both Cage and Giacinto Sc…

** very last copies, be fast**  a very rare (only two original copies ever sold, both close to $2.000; and mysterious album: nobody knows who plays on it but most probably everybody'll agree that this it's one of the rarest (discovered only now after probably more then 35 years ?!) and koolest spiritual jazz/soul funk/rare groove album ever recorded. available here for the 1st time, check dull knife !" punzmann

"vibrant unissued live set which moves from free passages (side a) to more ethnic influences atmospheres (side b). my fav Kalaparusha (one of the real outsiders) album so far; those new live tracks sounds totally different from the the black saint studio album which was rec. only two days after ?!" punzmann Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, an outstanding saxophonist was a founding member of the AACM, Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a pioneering Chicago avant-garde coaliti…

* 180 gr. White Vinyl. Digitally remastered at 192 khz and 24 bit. From the original master tapes * Originally released in 1977. "Although Claudio Rocchi is probably better known for his earlier material on other labels, his offering on Cramps from 1977 A Fuoco  is a good showcase for his own talents (vocals, synthesizers, songwriting, and production) as well as his knack for surrounding himself with top notch musicians. Ostensibly a pop-singer, his skillful mastery of dynamics and clever arrang…

The second Venegoni album, Sarabanda, continues onward from the first, perhaps replacing some of the experimentalism with refinement, and some of the subtlety with a willingness to rock. Indeed, the album opener sounds almost like it could be some lost Dixie Dregs tune from around the time of their second album. Other tracks are permeated with high- flying fusion riffs, some tropical, folk and ethnic influences, and despite the fact that this album features less vocals overall than the fi…