Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

*2026 repress* "One of the most important records ever made, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme was his pinnacle studio outing, that at once compiled all of the innovations from his past, spoke to the current of deep spirituality that liberated him from addictions to drugs and alcohol, and glimpsed at the future innovations of his final two and a half years. Recorded over two days in December 1964, Trane's classic quartet-- Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison -- stepped into the studio and …

Talented jazz composer, conductor, arranger, trombonist and keyboardist Michael Gibbs’ two albums for Deram, dating from 1970 and 1971. Gibbs recorded with Graham Collier, Johnny Dankworth, Kenny Wheeler and  in the late 60s, before starting his recording career. As a producer and arranger, Gibbs has worked with a who’s who of artists including Whitney Houston, Joni Mitchell, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Peter Gabriel and many more. Digitally remastered and slipcased. Extensive new notes by Cha…

The Don Rendell - Ian Carr quintet, created in 1963, was,a small Brit jazz group that took the country by storm and was well received in Europe and in limited circles in the United States. The band developed a unique sound that came out of hard bop and moved through many different phases, developing a unique musical language before they reached the mountain top of creative expresión.

Two years after the death of his mentor and boss, John Coltrane, and just before signing his own contract with Impulse!, Pharoah Sanders finally got around to releasing an album as a leader apart from the Impulse! family. Enlisting a cast of characters no less than 13 in number, Sanders proved that his time with Coltrane and his Impulse! debut, Tauhid, was not a fluke. Though hated by many of the jazz musicians at the time - and more jazz critics who felt Coltrane had lost his way musically the …

"These powerful performances from Copen­hagen and Bordeaux, released officially here for the first time, and the Newport Festival in the U.S., provide further evidence of the music’s collective necessity – the true ensemble co­ordination which Ayler adopted, elaborated and romanticized, from his awareness of historic New Orleans precedents." - Art Lange

“I didn’t realise it at the time, but this recording, made in 2006, marked a change in my musical thinking. All the elements came together – my roots, the use of blues structures and the lifelong search for expression in music. I had unlimited time to think, to return again and again to a subject, to dig deeper into the blues.Falmouth is a large town by the sea in Cornwall. This recording was made at Falmouth Arts Centre on the Steinway grand in the main gallery where my wife Kate had a show. Th…

Taupe’s latest album release, "waxing | waning" delivers jazz experimentalism, ‘skronk’, avant-rock, and electronics, by the Glasgow-based trio, due out via Minority Records. Across its seven tracks, "waxing | waning" captures Taupe’s approach – bold and boundarypushing – shaped by a fresh shift in the band’s dynamic and compositional approach. Taupe’s "waxing | waning", co-composed and realised by its players in a studio that was once an undertaker’s premises in Glasgow, is an absolutely affirm…

Theta Seven – OUA’s seventh and final album – arrives a shade under 3 years since its predecessor. As with previous releases, basic tracks, either using simple compositional ideas or freely improvised, were recorded live in the studio by the full band over a frenetic 2 day period. These tracks were radically edited and collaged by Martin Archer, and finally overdubbed and arranged by Martin Archer and Jan Todd working in tandem to arrive at the seamless continuity of sound heard on the finished …

A heretical symbol of Rare Groove, with its alternative and avant-garde ferocity! Irvine Weldon's 1973 masterpiece, which continues to have a wide influence around the world even today! Although it is based on jazz, it is a work released in 1973 that is more soul/funk than the first album, and reflects more experimental and political aspects and ideas. For over 30 years, it has been loved by diggers all over the world and reigns at the top of the rare groove as a most wanted item, and today the …

The 2018 release of Universal Beings, in many ways, feels like the moment that the gates swung open for both Makaya McCraven and International Anthem. On one hand, it's a four-sided communal showcase of the inter-city exchange that had started to develop in the “new jazz” hubs, collecting group improvisations from New York, London, Chicago, and Los Angeles. On the other, it is an editing and post-production masterclass – the MVP of McCraven’s “organic beat music” concept – and a landmark moment …

Ars Ludicra is the third studio album from Peter Evans’ group Being & Becoming, recorded in 2024 at the legendary Van Gelder Studios in New Jersey. Featuring Evans on a range of trumpets, piano, and electronics, Joel Ross on vibraphone and synth, Nick Jozwiak on bass and synth, and Michael Shekwoaga Ode on drums, the album captures the band in peak form during a period of extensive touring and intense musical development. The sound of the group has changed radically from what was heard on their …

*2026 stock. Includes score samples, photos, and more Kandinsky artwork* The highly anticipated second album from Being & Becoming. The LP features a continuous journey through 4 distinct musical compositions, symphonic in scope and delivery. The download (included with the purchase of the CD & LP) also includes the title track, recorded live in concert at the Jazz Gallery in the Spring of 2023. The music on this record has been workshopped, performed, and refined over two years, and introduces …

"Silva has created what could perhaps best be described as “ambient jazz”. That in itself seems like a contradiction, ambient being at odds with the spontaneity of jazz, and jazz being so vivid. But here we are. It’s partly the texture of the musical sounds that merits comparisons with jazz - far from the purely electronic soundscapes of Eno, early Tangerine Dream etcetera. Rather than tone and atmosphere over musical structure and rhythm, this is tone, atmosphere, musical structure and rhythm. …

"Tonight At Noon" compiles tracks from two earlier recordings sessions: one session from 1957 with Jimmy Knepper on the trombone, the drummer Dannie Richmond, Saxophone player Shafi Hadi and the pianist Wade Legge, which were released on the album "The Clown" (Atlantic 1260). The second session took place in 1961 with Booker Ervin and Roland Kirk on the saxophone, Knepper, the bassist Doug Watkins, Mingus at the piano and Richmond on the drums, and was released on "Oh Yeah" (Atlantic SD 1377). T…

*400 copies limited edition* Brooklyn-born trumpeter and composer Adam O’Farrill, hailed as a leading light of the new American jazz scene, announces his bold new quartet project Elephant. With this ensemble, O’Farrill expands his sonic language into a fresh, genre-blurring space that fuses the intimacy of the jazz quartet with the emotional depth of 20th‑century minimalism and the rhythmic urgency of contemporary electronic and dance music. Elephant features a powerful lineup: O’Farrill on trum…

On Shadows, Magnus Carlson & The Moon Ray Quintet reconvene after a decade apart to steep 8 songs in late‑night jazz grain: slow burns, noir ballads and subtly psychedelic covers where Carlson’s voice moves like smoke through the band’s velvet swing.

Super tip! Holy ghost music. The real deal. The sound of four men tearing a hole in the fabric of what jazz was supposed to be and letting something else pour through - something ancient and raw and utterly new. In their short time together, Albert Ayler and Don Cherry created a body of music that genuinely exists in the moment. Oblivious to rules and aesthetic boundaries, they played what they felt on their nerve-ends, embracing mistakes and wrong turns as part of the experience of making art i…

August 1961. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Max Roach - the man who reinvented jazz drumming alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s, the co-leader with Clifford Brown of the definitive hard bop quintet until tragedy struck in 1956 - enters the studio with something to say. Something that cannot wait. Something that demands a new language. The year before, Roach had recorded We Insist! Freedom Now Suite for Candid Records, a searing response to the Civil Right…

August 10, 1964. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. A young saxophonist from Philadelphia enters the studio to record his first album as a leader for Impulse! Records. At his side, as co-producer, stands the man to whom he owes everything: John Coltrane. Archie Shepp was twenty-seven years old when Four For Trane was recorded - an age that in 1964 jazz still meant being an emerging voice. Born in Fort Lauderdale but raised in Philadelphia - the same Philadelphia as Coltrane, eleven…

*100 copies limited edition* Confront Recordings, the vanguard of adventurous music since 1996, proudly unveils Be S-Mart, a riveting new album capturing the spontaneous brilliance of improvising masters Steve Beresford, Pierpaolo Martino, and Mark Sanders. Be S-Mart emerges from the heart of live improvisation, where Beresford's eclectic electronics and prepared piano wizardry collide with Martino's bass textures and Sanders' propulsive, ever-shifting drums. This trio forges a sonic landscape t…

*100 copies limited edition* "Ben Bekele does not exist. At least not the one I'm thinking of. It's a mix of memories and fantasies from the mid-80s when it was my father who visited Ethiopia, returning with two small drums, a couple of pictures and tons of tales. One of them was a story of a boy named Bekele, who taught him a traditional Ethiopian song. Father passed this song on to us, as best as he could - now I'm having doubts as to what the message is actually about - but back then I was fa…

We Release Jazz is very happy to announce the limited vinyl edition of Ill Considered's transcendent new live album Live in Jura, an expansive document of the trio's 2023 performance at Spiegelberg Festival - now available as a double LP with a bonus D-side, housed in a heavyweight sleeve with obi and an original artwork by Vincent de Boer. Captured in the heights of Saignelégier, Switzerland, in the middle of a pasture overlooking the Jura mountains, Live in Jura bottles the singular Ill Consid…

*250 copies limited edition* Mozaik began its journey under the oppressive aura of the 1980 coup in Turkey, singing songs of freedom from all around the world, eventually stepping into the more controversial areas of jazz, progressive rock and fusion with their own compositions. Whilst the post-coup music scene was dominated by apolitical pop music, Mozaik produced sophisticated lyrics and composed songs in unusual structures. With a dynamic crew and a rotating list of songwriters in the band, M…

Superb and underrated early '80s jazz fusion album showcasing authentic Brazilian grooves by one of the country's most famous flutists and saxophonists. Originally released by Som Da Gente, 1981 is a grooving fusion of baião rhythms, jazz funk, and Brazilian soul. Featuring his Gallery club band, Costita soars on sax, flute, and clarone, backed by Roberto Bomilcar and Dirceu. Recorded with full creative freedom, this rare LP captures the free spirit of Brazil's '70s & '80s jazz scene. Hector Cos…

After releasing two astonishing albums of original material with his remarkable debut Fuchsia Swing Song (1964) and the follow-up Contours (1965), multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers went another direction on his third Blue Note album A New Conception (1966) by presenting a set of standards that were given riveting interpretations with a quartet featuring Hal Galper on piano, Herbert Lewis on bass, and Steve Ellington on drums. Despite the well-worn repertoire—including the chestnuts “When I Fall I…

Thereupon is the long-anticipated return of the all-star collaborative trio Fieldwork, which has been described by NPR as a “power trio for the new century.” This long-standing collective comprises three internationally revered innovators of contemporary music: alto saxophonist-composer Steve Lehman, pianist-composer Vijay Iyer, and drummer-composer Tyshawn Sorey. In the seventeen years since their last recording, Door (Pi), all three musicians have climbed to the pinnacle of the creative music …

Jazz fans rejoice: Curtis Fuller's seminal debut album, New Trombone, originally released on Prestige in 1957, is back in the spotlight. At just 23 years old, the Detroit-born trombonist arrived on the scene with a fluent, innovative style that marked a bold evolution for the trombone in jazz. Backed by an all-star quintet – Sonny Red on alto sax, Hank Jones on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums – Fuller delivers a powerhouse hard-bop session. The album bursts open with three …

Pianist Pat Thomas, saxophonist Seymour Wright (both of [ahmed]) and drummer Paul Abbott - the latter two working as XT - deliver a remarkable set of new music, each, re-imagining improvisation and synthetic ideas with acoustic and electronic tools. This monumental new suite Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary)* released by We Jazz Records on 30th January 2026 is spread across three release formats, the complete album includes more than 2 hours and 15 minutes of music recorded live in London and Zuric…

Pianist Pat Thomas, saxophonist Seymour Wright (both of [ahmed]) and drummer Paul Abbott - the latter two working as XT - deliver a remarkable set of new music, each, re-imagining improvisation and synthetic ideas with acoustic and electronic tools. This monumental new suite Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary)* released by We Jazz Records on 30th January 2026 is spread across three release formats, the complete album includes more than 2 hours and 15 minutes of music recorded live in London and Zuric…

For a few fleeting moments during a sunset, the sky is cast a vivid shade of amber. A dramatic flare of colour, a moment belonging to both the day and the night. It is within this vibrant, ephemeral world, that Mongolian-born, Munich-based Enji has written her new album Sonor. Sonor is a record full of life and optimism, from an artist finding the beauty of existing between two worlds, much as a sunset does. Between the cultures of Mongolia and Germany, tradition and innovation, nostalgia and ex…

Together with the saxophone player Eddie Harris, Les McCann was responsible for one of the best-sold albums in the whole history of jazz – "Swiss Movement" (Atlantic SD-1537). It was his debut album on the Atlantic label. 1968 saw the release of "Much Les" and elaborated it with new aspects of what McCann did best in his early years: his core sound was enhanced with a string section and Latin percussion. The result is convincing, appealing, and captivating throughout and is considered an underes…

Ornette Coleman, who died in June 2015 from cardiac arrest, must be counted as one of the most influential musicians in the jazz genre. His importance does not only lie in his ground-breaking recordings in the late Fifties and early Sixties, but lies more significantly in the educational effect of his work – in the fact that he always went beyond himself to the very end. Just a little more than a month after his ground-breaking release "Free Jazz", Coleman recorded the present album, in which he…

Listen Ship is the latest masterpiece in the ever-expanding sound world of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Threadgill, whom The New York Review of Books recently described as “one of American music’s great Romantics and a lifelong seeker of the sublime.” The new work is a suite for six acoustic guitars – including individual stylists such as Bill Frisell, Miles Okazaki and Brandon Ross – and two pianos that utilize Threadgill’s unique intervallic syntax to illuminate his idiosyncratic visi…

"An album that puts jazz at the center. Emanuele Cisi records his first release for Mono Jazz (Right Tempo) returning to those elements from which everything begins and in which everything is fulfilled. With melody and swing, a deep sense of blues—not just as a style but as a fundamental state of music—and spirituality, the improvisation here becomes a space where the pieces reveal themselves as springboards for self-expression. Rushin’ is not merely a collection of references and tributes, alth…

Is an open dialogue of polarity possible? A dialogue of human existence in the cosmos and in nature, set against the backdrop of contemporary technology? That the feeling of being torn or detached is permanently inscribed in human nature is a truism. Yet we don’t always recognize the nature of this detachment—sometimes it seems like a separation from something immense, completely different from what humanity itself is. From a certain perspective, one could say that the many myths, symbols, ritua…

Remedy, the boundary-pushing collective known for their raw improvisational prowess, today announces the release of Remedy + Aki Takase, a luminous fusion of avant-garde jazz and experimental soundscapes. Teaming up with Japanese piano virtuoso Aki Takase—celebrated for her collaborations with legends like Lester Bowie and her pivotal role in global free jazz—this album marks a triumphant meeting of generations and genres. Recorded live in Berlin's vibrant jazz scene, Remedy + Aki Takase capture…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly announces the release of SOM-HI!, a breathtaking new album capturing the raw, telepathic interplay of four European free jazz visionaries: pianist Agustí Fernández, trumpeter Artur Majewski, saxophonist Albert Cirera, and drummer Ramon Prats. This recording erupts with the unbridled joy and ferocity of spontaneous creation, pushing the boundaries of improvisation into exhilarating new territory. Recorded live in Barcelona, SOM-HI! distills the quartet's collective fire i…

The boundary-pushing trio known as Last Dream Of The Morning – featuring soprano saxophone titan John Butcher, double bass maestro John Edwards, and percussion innovator Mark Sanders – proudly announces the release of their electrifying new album, Sharp Illusion. This recording captures the group's unparalleled chemistry in a whirlwind of spontaneous sonic invention. Emerging from a legacy of fearless improvisation, Sharp Illusion distills the trio's decades of collaborative fire into six tracks…

Fundacja Słuchaj proudly announces the release of This Anger is a Liar, a searing new album from the powerhouse trio of Portuguese saxophonist José Lencastre, bassist João Hasselberg, and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood. Captured in a single, electrifying studio session, this collection of fully improvised music confronts fury, deception, and catharsis head-on, transforming personal turmoil into collective triumph. Lencastre's tenor sax cuts through like a blade—fierce, lyrical, and unyielding—whi…

Trombone titan Ray Anderson and tenor sax visionary Ivo Perelman invite listeners into the mystical forge of creation with their electrifying new album, 12 Stages of Spiritual Alchemy. Released today via Fundacja Słuchaj, this duo recording captures two masters of free improvisation transmuting raw sound into pure gold across twelve transformative tracks. Anderson's growling, buoyant trombone weaves serpentine lines and thunderous bursts, while Perelman's tenor sax erupts in fiery spirals and ha…