Jazz /
Robyn Rocket And People You May Have Heard Of
What happens when you bring together familiar faces at London experimental music venue Café OTO, Charles Hayward (drummer Abstract Concrete, This Heat) and John Edwards (double bass), and the Total Refreshment Centre (hub of new london jazz scene recording studio ) like Alabaster DePlume (singer and saxophonist) and Danalogue (synths from Soccer96, The Comet is Coming), and the learning disability autism art scene like singers/spoken word artists Sebastian Golgiri and Dean Rodney Jnr (Fish Polic…
The Complete Pharoah Sanders Theresa Recordings
The Complete Pharoah Sanders Theresa Recordings reveals the revolutionary saxophonist's misunderstood 1980s period. Seven discs capture Sanders integrating avant-garde fire with melodic tradition, featuring collaborators like John Hicks, Elvin Jones, and Bobby Hutcherson. Essential rediscovery of an artistic evolution long dismissed by critics but blazing with spiritual intensity and technical innovation.
The Uppercut: Live At Okuden
2015 release ** "Matthew Shipp, the supreme jazz pianist of his generation, and Mat Walerian, the finest Polish jazz woodwind player of his, have combined their talents in concert on several occasions. This album documents one such event on May 15, 2012. Shipp hardly needs an introduction at this point thanks to a career of over a quarter century, including not only many acclaimed albums under his own name but also a long and prominent tenure in the David S. Ware Quartet and a vast array of coll…
Packet
1995 release ** "This work had its origin in the '60s. That's when I met Irene Aebi and Frederic Rzewski in Rome. The three of us have been working together ever since. The Living Theatre (founded by Julian Beck and Judith Malina in New York) was at that time very active in Italy and, as the most powerful and innovative theatre group anywhere, was becoming part of all our lives. I knew them from New York from the late '50s (The Connection, The Brig), and so did Frederic, who had composed and pla…
Resonance
1997 release ** Daniel Carter, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, trumpet, piano, voice - Randall Colbourne, drums, piano - Paul Flaherty, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, voice - Raphe Malik, trumpet, piano - Sabir Mateen, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, piano, voice.
Montreux II – Recorded Live At The Montreux Festival, 1970
Recorded at the 1970 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and produced by Helen Keane, Montreux II (originally issued on the CTI label) was the second of Bill Evans’ Montreux concert recordings to be released, following the Grammy Award-winning Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival (1968). It features the leader accompanied by Eddie Gomez on bass, and Marty Morell on drums. According to AllMusic writer Ken Dryden, the concert finds “the pianist in peak form” presenting “a terrific live perfo…
Further Conversations With Myself
Further Conversations with Myself, released on the Verve label in 1967, was Bill Evans’ sequel to his 1963 Grammy Award LP Conversations with Myself. As on that initial album, here all the pieces are unaccompanied solos with piano overdubs. On Further, however, he plays just two pianos instead of the three he had previously employed. According to AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow, “The program is brief, but Evans plays quite well throughout. In particular, his versions of Johnny Mandel's ‘Emily’ an…
Reflections Of A Golden Dream
Lonnie Liston Smith was one of the most important musicians to emerge in jazz in the 1970s. His 1975 album ‘Expansions’ is one of the foundation stones of modern dance music and his recordings have been sampled by many of the biggest artists in the world. His music was a cosmically inspired spiritual interpretation of the music he had been making during his time with Pharoah Sanders, Gato Barbieri and Miles Davis.
Released in 1976,“Reflections On A Golden Dream”, the follow-up to “Expansions”, w…
...How Time Passes...
A fascinating blend of jazz and contemporary classical influences, How Time Passes is the debut album from the envelope pushing trumpeter and composer Don Ellis.
Known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of time signatures, Ellis began his long career in the New York Citys post bop and avant-garde jazz scenes of late 1950s. Most notably he appeared on Charles Mingus Mingus Dynasty, and albums by George Russell and Maynard Feguson. But he also worked with, among ot…
Blues For Smoke
Jaki Byard was a visionary multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, teacher, and pianist. His early experiences with classical music fused seamlessly with a deep passion for jazz, shaping his unique style. While he mastered numerous instruments including trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and drums the piano became his main voice. By the early 1960s, he had established himself as a dynamic and forward-thinking player, joining Charles Mingus's ensemble and contributing to seminal works like Mingus, …
Relativity Suite
*2025 much needed repress!* Reissue of Don Cherry's 'Relativity Suite', recorded with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra in 1973. At this time, Cherry was becoming increasingly interested in Middle Eastern and traditional African and Indian music, having traveled extensively and studied with Indian musician Vasant Rai. This suite of songs was particularly influenced by the Indian karnatic singing tradition, as can be heard from the very opening moments of the album. Featuring Carla Bley on piano, Cha…
The Endangered Species
In 1980 Bobby Wellins was commissioned to write a suite of music, which he called ‘The Endangered Species’ because, in his words: “Some years ago there was an oil spillage which washed ashore in Bognar Regis where I live. The guillemots were being pulled out in a dreadful state. One reads about such things, but to see for oneself a bird's life being taken away from it is quite horrific. Their lives are short enough anyway. It brought home to me very directly the damage we are inflicting on ourse…
Native Dancer
"One of Shorter's best-selling albums from the '70s was Native Dancer, a Brazilian-oriented jazz-fusion masterpiece that boasts Herbie Hancock on acoustic piano and electric keyboards, and employs such Brazilian talent as singer Milton Nascimento (a superstar in Brazil) and percussionist Airto Moreira. Everything on this melodic, consistently lyrical effort is a jewel, and that includes Hancock's "Joanna's Theme," as well as pieces by Nascimento ("From the Lonely Afternoons" and "Ponta de Areia"…
On The Beach
Cosmic Jazz present a long-awaited reissue of their legendary 1967 masterpiece Philip Cohran and The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, often referred to as "On The Beach." This soul-jazz phenomenon captures one of the most crucial missing links in American music history, bridging the cosmic explorations of Sun Ra's Arkestra and the earthbound funk revolution that would define the Chicago sound. Phil Cohran, one of the founding members of the AACM and former trumpet player in Sun Ra's Arkestra from 195…
Improvvisazioni Quartetto
1997 release **
Rotella Variations
2003 release ** "“The human voice must not be limited only to a conventional language, but is an inexhaustible source of natural musical instruments. If it is coupled with jazz it becomes a double musical instrument”: Mimmo Rotella dixit, and here is a combative group of Italian jazz musicians, stimulated by the maestro in his eighties, puts the theory into practice. The Rotella Variations therefore materialize in nineteen episodes of mostly short duration, often introduced or concluded, contami…
¡Arriba! Con Montego Joe
1994 release ** "Everything about this album, from the artist's name and album title to the rather cheesy cover photo of a smiling tuxedo-clad man on a beach surrounded by congas, suggests to a cynical eye that Arriba! Con Montego Joe is kitschy exotica on par with Martin Denny or Les Baxter. And while that style of music has its fizzy charms, it turns out that Arriba! Con Montego Joe is something much meatier. Collecting the entirety of the two albums Montego Joe (born Joseph Sanders) made for …
Ambleside Days
1992 release ** "A stunning album of duets performed by John Taylor and John Surman composed by the former. This recording documents the longstanding musical relationship between the two Johns captured by Jan Erik Kongshaug at Rainbow Studios in Oslo. Some of the most beautiful music you will ever hear."
Sunsets:Anthology Of Creative Music 1976-2006
2012 release ** "Ndikho Xaba left South Africa in 1964, an exile from his homeland who eventually found his place in San Francisco’s vibrant spiritual jazz scene of the late 60s. A songwriter, bandleader, pianist, and inventor of percussion and woodwind instruments, Xaba played alongside contemporaries like Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, and Sun Ra.."
News From The North
1993 release ** "This aggressive trio of improvisers is unified by one idea throughout this session: that none of them gives a damn what the other thinks. It's a liberating notion and one not often seen on the other side of the Atlantic. In this set of tracks, the ancient drummer of British free jazz, Tony Marsh, is pitted in with the ever-youthful Paul Rogers and the energetic youngster Simon Picard on tenor. Marsh is the key to the communication as well. His swooping cymbal work and shifting f…