Jazz /
Les Stances a Sophie
Soul Jazz Records are releasing for the first time-ever a long lost cult classic of French New Wave cinema on DVD. Les Stances a Sophie has been out of print for over 30 years and this is its first release ever outside of France. Filmed in Paris in 1970, this fully-subtitled film features killer music, groovy clothes and post-1968 revolutionary ideals. This super-rare film is now perhaps best known for its soundtrack from the legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago (who also feature in the film). The …
Far Cry
"Their music reaches from blues to jazz into space," proclaimed the original liner notes to this highly unusual psychedelic jazz blast, originally released in 1968. The demented seven-piece band hailed from Boston, which was in the throes of the notorious "Bosstown hype" when their album was recorded. Though it can be compared to contemporary acts such as Captain Beefheart and Blood Sweat & Tears, it has a distinctive sound of its own, blending howling vocals, biting electric guitar and avant-ga…
Live at the Electric Circus (NYC 1968) and Newport Jazz Festival
Chronologically beginning the label's in-depth survey of the lesser-known psychedelic era of Sun Ra (1968-1971), these discs were painstakingly mastered from first and second generation passes of Michael Wilderman's original recordings and sound better than any collector has ever heard them previously. The Electric Circus show features an unknown female singer who was with the group prior to June Tyson. The Arkestra on stage at Newport cover photo is published in high resolution for the first ti…
Live in Detroit
RESTOCKED, last copies around: an amazing collection of music -- the complete performances of the Sun Ra Arkestra during a one week stay at the Detroit Jazz Center in the early 80s! The massive 28 CD set offers a wonderful chance to see this creative ensemble in action -- as each night of the performances offers up something different -- a change in mood, a shift in style, and a wide array of songs that never fails to amaze us! These guys were hardly content to just run over the same music night…
Now and Forever
The Thing was originally formed in 2000 to play concerts and record music based around Don Cherry's compositions, along with original compositions. They've since played and recorded with Joe McPhee, with whom they released 3 albums, and joined with the Norwegian rock band Cato Salsa Experience for one album, again with Joe McPhee. Over the years they've expanded their repertoire to include work by Frank Lowe, James Blood Ulmer, Norman Howard, and rock bands like The White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeah…
Ray Warleigh\'s First Album
Firmly-established as one of Britain's leading saxophonists and flautists, Ray Warleigh is perhaps best-known for his contributions to albums by Nick Drake, Elton John, Paul McCartney, U2 and many others. This 1969 bachelor pad classic was produced by Scott Walker (for whom he acted as musical director), and features a plethora of renowned musicians, including Gordon Beck, Harry South, Terry Cox and James Galway. Never previously available on CD, it comes complete with rare photographs and compr…
Petit Oiseau
William Parker's Quartet is the premier outlet for his (and their) immense and timeless talents. The group's first two albums are universally recognized as still-revealing exemplars of modern music. Here now is the third album -- Petit Oiseau aka 'Little Bird' -- a wholly new set of melodically, harmonically and rhythmically advanced compositions rendered by one of the greatest jazz bands the world has yet had the good fortune to bear witness to. Insinuating melodies and counter-melodies, layers…
The Complete Machine Gun Sessions
Arguably the single-most important landmark in European free music: the original BRO Records LP restored to its '68 format, with two alternate takes, new liner notes by Brötzmann and John Corbett -- PLUS the only live version of 'Machine Gun' ever recorded. In 1968, there was a palpable sense of optimism in the air. This in spite of the fact that the shitheads seemed to have the upper hand, with the quagmire of Vietnam, the intractability of the American struggle for Civil Rights, Martin Luther …
Live at L'Usine
Using prepared piano (Anthony Pateras), prepared guitar (David Brown) and drums (Sean Baxter) this live concert of two improvisations was captured at l’Usine in Geneva, Switzerland in 2006, an exploratory conversation of dynamic structures and sound that implicitly references modern compositional approaches to keyboard, strings and percussion.
Formed in 2002 Pateras-Baxter-Brown have performed countless concerts throughout Australia, New Zealand and Europe, developing a worldwide reputation for …
New Music From Russia; The \'80s\'
An outstanding box, documenting the early 80's impro/experimental scene fro Russia - almost 10 hours of music, housed in a lavishly packaged box, with a 32 pages full color booklet, considered by the label itself as the most important release of the entire Leo Records catalogue "In a way the document is not only a summing up of a decade of new music in the USSR. It is also a summing up of Leo Records' activity during these ten years. The advances of Soviet new music were tremendous in spite of t…
La Via Lattea (dal contrabbasso al cielo)
A record for double-bass (adding here and there a cello and some recorded voices). Felice Del Gaudio mixes multiple tracks with his instrument and creates atmospheres keeping alwais a convinced attachment to his land (Basilicata, his native soil) and the popular roots, even if he uses a very free and creative language, peculiar to jazz, and also, as a learned composer, doesn't disdain atmospheres typical for chamber music. In short, a record following the path traced by artists like Renaud Gacia…
Generative Themes
very rare, long out of print studio recording from 1982. This marks the recording debut of John Tilbury (piano) in the group, plus the now reunited core of Prévost and Keith Rowe (guitar, electronics). Absolutely stunning improvisational "noise" from a very serious standpoint ensemble. One copy only available, new and unplayed
The Inexhaustible Document
rare original LP, recorded live in London on 1/10/87. Prévost, Rowe, Tilbury, and Rohan de Saram (cello). The organic control of sound on this disc is spectacular; pretty much a must for serious listeners worldwide. One copy only available, new and unplayed
Barkingside
Alex Ward (clarinet), Alexander Hawkins (piano), Dominic Lash (double bass), Paul May (percussion). An improvising quartet comprising four excellent young improvising musicians based in London and Oxford, none of whom have ever been to the outer London suburb of Barkingside. Two complete performances from concerts at Cambridge University and the 2007 Freedom Of The City festival in London.
Everything That Disappears
Tom Djll (trumpet, pocket cornet & preparations), Matt Ingalls (Bb clarinet, bass clarinet), Frédèric Blondy (piano), John Shiurba (electric guitar), George Cremaschi (double bass & electronics), Lê Quan Ninh (surrounded bass drum), John Bischoff (electronics), Tim Perkis (electronics), Gino Robair (energized surfaces & voltage made audible). Tom Djll put this electro-acoustic improvising nonet together when Frédèric Blondy and Lê Quan Ninh were visiting the San Francisco area, resulting in some…
Interference
Separately they are three of the best improvising musicians Melbourne has to offer. Together they're a force to be reckoned with. Bob Baker Fish, Cyclic Defrost, Australia. Pateras-Baxter-Brown is, absolutely, one of the best radical improvisation ensembles currently in circulation and I would not hesitate in citing them to the flank of historical formations of the Braxton, Jenkins, Smith & McCall quartet, the Bailey, Guy & Rutherford trio or the New Group Consonanza. Awesome!!!!!!
Live At The I.C.A. / Retrospective
The English free jazz improvisation scene of the late 60s and early 70s was an incestuous breeding ground. Robert Fripp was producing albums by Keith Tippet, Brian Eno was using Derek Bailey and Evan Parker on albums of odd Russian electronic music on Island, and labels like EMI and RCA were actually taking a stab at selling this music to a large market. Amidst all this was Ray Russell, a popular session guitarist, also playing in John Barry's group, also reputed to be the first guitarist in Eng…
Memphis
The recordings were done at 2 seperate gigs at Photospace Gallery in Wellington, NZ. I exhibited at the gallery twice and we began performing there quite often (the owner even played drums for my group The Rick Jensen Trio). Nova Scotia played a number of times there as the environment was particularly suited to us, outside was the main street in Wellington, where everyone would go drinking at night. It was all nightclubs and bars, buskers and drunk people. When we performed we'd open the window…
new horizons
Chicago pianist Sun Ra emerged as a leader on the jazz scene early in 1956, when he assembled a group of neo-boppers that contributed to the original and exciting jazz sound offered by his new Sun Ra Arkestra, a medium-sized group that swung like a giant locomotive, an effect primarily due to an interesting use of two basses playing simultaneously.They featured the power of big band ensemble along with the excitement of combo blowing by fine soloists, among them the driving tenor John Gilmore, …
In concert
This outstanding DVD includes a memorable live performance by the most influential avant-garde jazz band of the 70s and 80s, the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The primary innovators in the fusion of traditional African and African American music with European performance art, the AEC are legendary for their inimitable stage shows.Dressed up in African costumes, odd masks and colorful face paint, the group transports its audience through time and space on eight brilliantly improvised tunes. With a wea…