Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Milestone reissue, one of the greatest singular sonic gestures of the 20th century.. Soprano saxophone solos recorded in 1986 in St. Paul's Church, Oxford by the late Michael Gerzon"Six years after Six of One, Evan Parker proposed another solo album. The Snake Decides features the man, his soprano saxophone, and a gifted sound engineer in Michael Gerzon, to whom Parker pays tribute in the liner notes to the CD reissue (a reissue that sticks to the original album, no bonus material on this one). …

Their earliest meeting on record - the complete London (Wigmore Hall) concert (organised by Emanem), featuring them both at the top of their form. Highly acclaimed by both enthusiasts and critics. Reissue of 4006 which contained the concert section of Emanem 601. "These twelve duets between African-American avant-gardist Anthony Braxton and Brit Derek Bailey are remarkable for several reasons, not the least of which is that this is the first recording of these two seminal figures performing in t…

"Trinity represents the second installation in The Unheard Music Series efforts to resurrect Joe McPhee's early '70's work on the CjR label, soon to be completed withUnderground Railroad and Pieces Of Light. This brilliant trio recording of blues inflected out-soul from '73 follows up on hugely successful Nation Time, recorded a year later. Originally issued in '73 in an edition of 1000, Trinity has not available since. John Corbett has remastered Trinity from original tapes; the LP had to be se…

*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Larry Ochs may be best known as one-quarter of the Rova Saxophone Quartet, the Bay-area group, which, in its near-40 year history, has created large-scale works with composers as diverse as Terry Riley and Barry Guy. Ochs’ projects outside of Rova have often been just as noteworthy. He first assembled The Fictive Five for a performance at his 2013 residency at The Stone and this recent recording testifies to the way the band’s strengths realize Ochs’ composi…

2015 release ** Fogh Depot is not just a collaboration between three musicians weaving a cozy melancholic cocoon in the midst of a looming, cold, unwelcoming metropolis of Moscow. It’s a creativity lab where complex cryptoanarchic ideas rigidify in the viscously flowing Phrygian mode, while the simple and naive piano melodies sweep the listener right back to childhood. Fogh Depot’s debut album contains eight stories told by different people in different places. "Anticyclone" feels like a massive…

2025 stock ** "All-star quartet Last Exit garnered its reputation with a string of unrelentingly forceful concert recordings in which it pushed the energy style of free jazz to its limits. When the group went into the studio, though, a very different sort of album emerged -- very different not only from all their other output, but even from anything else ever heard from anyone at that time. Because of that, when it was released in 1988, some fans and critics didn't know what to make of it. This …

Otoroku is proud to present the second recorded outing from the universe shifting free jazz trio of Evan Parker, John Edwards and Chris Corsano. This trio have been playing together for 9 years, sometimes expanding into quartets with the like of Noah Howard, John Russell, Joe McPhee, John Coxon & Paul Dunmall. The material on this LP was recorded during a 4 night residency by Corsano at Cafe Oto in August 2014.  All material recorded live, no editing or post production. As raw and libera…

Trost presents the first vinyl edition of Sprawl, the intense and beautifully harsh collaborative project of drummer Michael Wertmüller (16-17, Alboth!, Full Blast), originally released on CD in 1997. Remastered and re-cut by Wertmüller and Alex Buess. The original release of this work marked the beginning of Trost's cooperation with Peter Brötzmann, after they organized an Alboth! show with Wertmüller. Wertmüller's intention for Sprawl was to gather the musicians he appreciates most and has wor…

"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…

***restocked, very last copies** "2nd and final set from that legendary concert, here's a review i found on the net about part I: Unbelievable previously unreleased live electric Miles blow-out from January 1974: this is a mind-blower, with the electric group at an insane high energy over-amped peak. Not many live recordings exist from 1974, the same era as Dark Magus etc. Here Miles is paired with Dave Liebman, guitarist Pete Cosey, Reggie Lucas, Michael Henderson, Al Foster and Mtume and the f…

**restocked, very last copies** "two things make this record so special: it fills a void in Miles' discography as during this period he stayed away from the scene for a while and 2nd these unissued tracks have such an unique sound that you'll not hear anything like that on any other Miles Davis albums (here he plays mostly organ). so futuristic and ahead of it's time (as it'll probably be also in the next few years)." punzmann

Third - and sadly last - chapter of the archival recordings fixed on tape by Hartmut Geerken during his stay in Kabul in the 70s. Insistency! was recorded at the Goethe Institut of Kabul on same day of the duo session of Hyndukush Serenade - May 22, 1977 - but sees also Maqsud Schukurwali and Ghafur Rasul - members of the Free Jazz Group Kabul - joining Geerken and John Tchicai and playing an insistent anthem, featuring also an eight year old Olaf Geerken at congas. On side B, the music g…

Three British albums produced by Peter Eden and released in one year – 1970-1971 – are the matter of this attractive box set, with contributions from legends of British jazz and indeed classical giants – bassist Barry Guy (born 1947) has since made a name for himself in the more lofty world of early music, though not exclusively so. Saxophonist Mike Osborne’s Outback is the first of the discs, a bold, explorative record comprising just two tracks from his trio, the first of which, So It Is, …

Killer vinyl only release by John Lindberg and Anil Eraslan. Born of a mystical and astounding spontaneous sonic adventure in Istanbul during the summer of 2010, this cello and contrabass duet is dedicated to delivering journeys of unbridled spirit-driven musical messages directly immersed in–the-moment. Their message speaks straight to the soul of all the intrepid beings willing to take the invitation to viscerally experience this rollicking adventure of sound explosions and subtle sensibilitie…

400 copies. Cornetist Bobby Bradford and saxophonist Frode Gjerstad have been performing together since they were first introduced in 1986 by drummer John Stevens . Bradford and Gjerstad’s associations date back almost 30 years to their pivotal posts in Detail, Stevens’ short-lived quartet with bassist Johnny Dyani. A bond forged, they reconvened in a variety of contexts over the intervening years. Their most recent collaboration took the form of a quartet with bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and…

new album by the trio comprised of Martin Küchen – tenor and soprano saxophones, Jon Rune Strøm - double bass, Tollef Østvang - drums, released in a edition of 300. Not Quite All Included or Some Included might be appropriate names for the trio of Swedish saxophonist Martin Küchen, and Norwegian bassist Jon Rune Strøm and drummer Tollef Østvang. Reason being that the repertoire on Melted Snow partially replicates that on Satan in Plain Clothes (Clean Feed, 2015) by All Included, which comprises …

Tip! New album by the trio comprised of Giovanni Di Domenico, Peter Jacquemyn and Chris Corsano, recorded 31st October 2013 at Studio Grez, Brussels by Giovanni Di Domenico and released in a edition of 300

restocked, Mindblowing reissue!! "The impact of Carter's music stems from his ability to straddle freely the old and the new - combining a genuine melodic/rhythmic impulse with explorations of a more purely rhythmic/harmonic nature. His tone on his instruments, especially the clarinet, is round and wooden like a song, yet there's a certain revelry in sound - textural and timbral - for its own sake. He likes to work with contrast, moving in and out of tempo, altering the flow through dynam…

Awesome archival CD covering the entire production by The Free Jazz Group Wiesbaden, a quartet with the odd instrumentation of reeds (Dieter Scherf), trumpet (Michael Sell), guitar (Gerhard König, who also played flute) and percussion (Wolfgang Schlick). They released two appropriately schizoid LPs on Scherf’s LST label in 1969 and 1971 (Frictions and Frictions Now, here collected) before disbanding. This is a stunning copy of their first very rare private press side, 1969 Frictions, a spectacul…

Featuring Martin Kuchen on alto sax, Johan Berthling on bass and Steve Noble on drums. I haven't heard this yet but I must admit that Martin Kuchen is one the best, most creative, diverse and inspired saxists we've heard from Scandinavia in the past decade. Check out any discs from his bands: Angles, Exploding Customer, Trespass Trio or All Included and you will hear some of the best playing around! Bassist Johan Berhling is also a member of Angles, Fire! Orchestra and projects with Ken Va…

**2009 release, long out of print, very few copies available** Mooko was the first installment of a short-lived "power trio" comprised of Japanese free saxophonist Akira Sakata, bassist Bill Laswell, and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. At the time of this recording, the latter two were deeply into their Last Exit project, a band with whom Sakata sat in during their tour of Japan. This trio is a bit like a pared-down version of Last Exit, without the incendiary guitar work of Sonny Sharrock…

**2005 release, long out of print, very few copies available** This disc is a real brain ripping free jazzing blast from the past. Togashi Masahiko may be a name you have already encountered if you are a bit acquainted with Japanese free hardcore blowing jazz. He was the man responsible for churning out Japan's first free jazz disc being “We Now Create” for which he got assisted by Takayanagi Masayuki and Yoshizawa Motoharu amongst others. The following year in 1969, he teamed up with another ha…

**2006 release, long out of print, very few copies available** OK, if obscure and hard to track down Japanese avant-garde and free jazz is your thing then look no further. This disc, released in 1969 is a hard nut to come by since due to extremely poor sales only a handful of copies and some promo copies are known to have hit the streets, making it now one of the hardest free jazz documents to track down. This one comes on bloody red wax. But all this idle talk aside, it's the music that really …

The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicago's AACM in the late 1960s. The Art Ensemble is notable for its integration of musical styles spanning jazz's entire history and for their multi-instrumentalism, especially the use of what they termed “little instruments” in addition to the traditional jazz lineup; “little instruments” can include bicycle horns, bells, birthday party noisemakers, wind chimes, and a vast array of percussion instruments (including f…

This is the free jazz record that everyone wants. Its long, mythic history is shrouded and whispered about because of it rarity. Church Number Nine was recorded on March 7, 1970, but remained buried until it was released in 1973 on the Calumet label, a Parisian venture that instantly evaporated into thin air. Only 300 copies of the album made it into circulation; the rest were apparently destroyed. The line-up is one of free jazz's greatest, the same quartet as Frank Wright's legendary BYG …

2015 restock. First time vinyl reissue of Joe McPhee's classic CJR LP from 1969. Exact repress of the original artwork. Trumpeter and saxophonist Joe McPhee's first album, Underground Railroad, has been virtually impossible to find on vinyl, issued in an edition of 500 copies on Craig Johnson's CJR label -- it was recorded next to Johnson's house at the Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York. It sold out and was never reprinted on vinyl until now. Underground Railroad is comprised of thr…

Recorded live at a crucial period of its existence, this Angouleme May 18, 1980 is a splendid testimony of the Willem Breuker Kollektief, a flagship of the new European jazz orchestra. Founded in 1974 to set to music the musical and social ideas Willem Breuker, the WBK brought together musicians that were somehow his students, and he had leverage their individual qualities although initially many of them were not properly improvisers as could be  colleagues such as Bennink, Mengelberg, Maarten A…

Thomas Johansson, trumpet. Mats Äleklint, trombone. Julie Kjaer, alto saxophone. Klaus Holm, alto and baritone saxophone. Per Ake Holmlander, tuba. Ketil Gutvik, electric guitar. Tommi Kernen, electronics. Jon Rune Strom, double bass. Christian Meaas Svendsen, double bass. Andreas Wildhagen, drums. Paal Nilssen-Love, drums. Christian Obermayer, sound engineer. All music by Paal Nilssen-Love. Live at Bimhuis, Amsterdam 7th May 2015.Produced as a promo and tour record for the North American tour …

2015 restock of this cosmic/spiritual jazz masterpiece. Grey area exact repro, originally released on Perception in 1973. A welcome reissue of this pure underground jazz classic from Newark, NJ's own Larry Young. He's in 'out' mode here, putting aside his more well-known styles (as heard on his classic Blue Note LP Unity) and laying down some Arkestra-style jamming alongside the shredding of James Blood Ulmer and some other underground cats. A killer melting of  cosmic, Eastern, Afro and fr…

Joe McPhee: clarinet, pocket trumpet, flugelhorn, soprano, alto and tenor saxophone. Paal Nilssen-Love: drums and percussion. Produced by Lasse Marhaug and Paal Nilssen-Love. Joe McPhee and Paal Nilssen-Love have played together in bands like The Thing, The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet and Two Bands And A Legend since 2000 but in 2007 they started playing as a duo as well. PNL Records is proud to present 'Candy' a 7CD box-set that documents the developement of that duo with seven recordings ma…

One of a kind and kind of esoteric John Tchicai unreleased kind of funk live sessions!" ~Punzmann. Quartet: John Tchicai - alto, soprano sax and vocals, Ole Thilo - piano, Peter Warren - bass, Pierre Favre - drums. Group: John Tchicai - alto, flute, percussion, Peter Oye - guitar, percussion, Hugo Rasmusen - bass, Aage Trangaard - drums. Limited to only 30 copies with paste-on cover, so order fast!

"No free music here but probably the most lyrical, warm, melanchonic and sophisticated playing by Mr. Brown, unreleased stuff recorded at the legendary Funkhaus, live!" ~Punzmann. Marion Brown - alto sax, Brandon K. Ross - guitar, Jack Gregg - bass, Steve McCraven - drums. Limited to 30 copies only with paste-on cover, so order fast!

“What’s Happening?” for me is one of the most exciting european jazz compositions of this year. Il will always remain a mystery for me the fact that brilliant Italian jazzists do not find greater recognition. In American jazz the italo-american “jazz-men” come immediately after musicians of colored and jewish origin. No other nation has given America vatid jazz representatives as Italy. In Europe however – and above all in Italy – Italian jazz musicians are almost completely unknown.” Joachim-Er…

**CD version** Eraldo Volonté is a veteran of italian jazz: he is one of those characters that are always seen wherever there is good jazz to play or listen to. With a difference from many pioneers, however, Volonté has never lost even a shred of his enthusiasm, even if he has been playing professionally for more than a quarter of a century and like almost all of is colleagues, in Italy, has had to adapt and be part of an infinite number of bands playing all types of music. His enthusiasm has ke…

Edition of 150 copies only "Spine-tingling free improv fire-blast from an international quartet with deep underground roots. Italian reeds player Genta and drummer Vanzan form the basis for all Jooklo aktion (Duo, Golden, Stellar, et al.). Norwegian reeds dude Stiberg and guitar/electronics manager Jon Wesseltoft also collaborate in Maranata. Together in Olso in 2012, the quartet laid down this very hard-blown and stylish session. There are let-ups in the attack, but there aren't many. Broken…

One of those records that keeps cropping up on Greatest Albums of All Time lists, and one whose historical significance can’t be denied — the crazy rhythms, the spirit of unconstrained innovation - and it's pure listening pleasure. "Thought by many to be among the most revolutionary albums in jazz history, Miles Davis' Bitches Brew solidified the genre known as jazz-rock fusion. The original double LP included only six cuts and featured up to 12 musicians at any given time, some of whom were alr…

Reflecting on his studies with guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, Otomo Yoshihide plays one of Takayanagi's favorite electric guitars, a 1963 Gibson-175, to record 6 extended and informed free improvisations, including Ornette's "Lonely Woman" and "Song for Che"."It's been a quarter-century since I broke away from my teacher, Masayuki Takayanagi. In recording this album, I used a 1963 Gibson-175 electric guitar that had been one of Takayanagi-san's favorites. The occasion that led to this guitar com…

As a sax player, Junji Hirose has been a prominent figure on the free jazz-improvised music scene since the 1970's. But he has another side: he collects everyday odds and ends and puts them together to create instruments which he uses in noise performance. Hirose calls these noise instruments SSI (self-made sound instruments). In 2013, he released the CD SSI-4 (hitorri-997). This is his new release, SSI-5. To make the SSI No. 5 instrument, he put together about 30 vinyl chloride pipes and, using…

British free improvising guitar master John Russell's 60th birthday gig at London's Cafe Oto is celebrated in a duo with Phil Minton, a trio with Henry Lowther & Satoko Fakuda, in a trio with Evan Parker and John Edwards, and in a duo with Thurston Moore. John was off the scene for several months prior to this gig (Dec, 2014), mainly in hospital under observation for a serious heart condition, but he was determined to play this ... "On approaching my sixtieth birthday and how to celebrate the fa…

Much needed reissue of Emanem 4301, a classic concert and studio performances from '70-'72 by the innovative trio of Paul Rutherford (trombone, piano) Derek Bailey (guitar) and Barry Guy (double bass), which was a much expanded reissue of the early and legendary Incus LP of the same name. "What a feast! A three-CD set (totaling more than 190 minutes) compiled from six concerts featuring three of the leading British free-jazz improvisers of the 20th century: trombonist Paul Rutherford, guitarist …