Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Longtime collaborators Mark Turner and Jakob Bro play central roles in the feature-length documentary film “Music for Black Pigeons”, which premiered at the 79th Venice Biennale, played across film festivals worldwide and portrays the unique artistic processes of Paul Motian, Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Craig Taborn, Andrew Cyrille, Manfred Eicher and many others. Mark Turner is heard on three albums with Jakob Bro, all from Avatar Studios in New York, and enters the film in a session from Copenha…

Duo improvisation can be such a rare space to enter. Creating a common language in an open sea of infinite options, everything stands out. Especially with such fundamental natural instruments as the voice and bass. So what happens if you bring together Maria Laurette Friis, the Copenhagen-based composer, multi-instrumentalist and one of Scandinavia’s unique voices, and the exceptional double bass player Thomas Morgan in an improvised session? Well, it continues for more than three hours and deve…

Loveland Music is proud to announce the release of The Montclair Session, a rare meeting of four titans of contemporary jazz: trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, guitarist Jakob Bro, pianist Marilyn Crispell, and drummer Andrew Cyrille. Recorded in Montclair, New Jersey, this album captures the essence of improvisation at its most searching, delicate, and alive.   Each of the four musicians brings a lifetime of artistry to the music. Wadada Leo Smith, a pioneer of creative music and recipient of numerou…

In a new duo collaboration that defies conventions and background, Midori Takada and Jakob Bro took up residence in Tokyo’s Avaco Studios to record their first album, あなたに出会うまで / Until I Met You. The title, taken from a Midori Takada composition, refers to the spiritual bond that arises in every new friendship, whether in music or in life. Until I Met You is pure acoustic music, a tapestry of dreamlike compositions with beautiful melodies that sees ambient music icon Midori Takada on grand piano…

A powerful intergenerational trio emerges on Murasaki, featuring Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet, Marcus Gilmore on drums, and Jakob Bro on guitar. Recorded at Power Station (formerly Avatar Studios) in New York, this exploratory session unfolded spontaneously—no retakes, no discussions, just a shared musical language rooted in intuition and trust. “It felt as though this music already existed before we started playing,” Bro reflects. Murasaki captures the creative summit of three visionary artists,…

The long-awaited debut album from bassist-composer Thomas Morgan is a lush, layered journey through ambient textures and open improvisation. Featuring an all-star cast—Bill Frisell, Craig Taborn, Ambrose Akinmusire, Immanuel Wilkins, Henry Threadgill, Dan Weiss, and Gerald Cleaver—the record is both spacious and intricate, with Morgan’s own virtual instrument woods shaping its organic feel. The inclusion of poet Gary Snyder’s voice adds another dimension to this environmental soundscape. Around …

Loveland Music proudly announces the release of Live at The Village Vanguard, a remarkable new recording that brings together seven of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz. Recorded in the legendary New York room that has defined generations of improvised music, this album captures the raw immediacy and atmospheric depth of a once‑in‑a‑lifetime gathering. Subtle, deeply melodic, and unhurried, Live at The Village Vanguard reveals Bro’s unique gift for creating spacious musical landscapes w…

Collective interplay is essentially about listening and giving space. If ever there was a credo for this ensemble recording, this would be it. Sometimes the soloist or a small group steps forward, other times they play as a large unit. This collective of musicians are connected through old and new friendships, a set of relations that has been formed through two decades of co-creation on stage and in the studio, and their new recording is a reaffirmation of that with an A-side of free improvisati…

Heikki Sarmanto Quintet’s Counterbalance reissued on vinyl for the first time ever! The pioneer of Finnish Modern Jazz, Heikki Sarmanto together with his brother Pekka Sarmanto, Juhani Aaltonen, Lance Gunderson, and Craig Herndon released the album Counterbalance in 1971 under the name Heikki Sarmanto Quintet. Originally released on vinyl and later reissued on CD, Svart Records finally brings Counterbalance back on the market as it was originally intended, on wax. Heikki Sarmanto studied music a…

Eero Koivistoinen Quartet's rare live album from 1978 reissued for the first time in nearly half a century via Svart Records.

Tip! "I stood on top of the mountain and looked out over the landscape. It was so beautiful that my chest hurt. The light vibrated, time stood still, and the contours dissolved for a moment. Everything had changed; I felt it then. I took their little hands so as not to lose contact with the ground. Then we ran down the mountain, scraping our knees. Still, we didn't make it. You had already put away all the nautical charts, loosened the moorings and steered out among the skerries. Mum stood wavin…

2010? release (VERY RARE!) ** Faruq Z. Bey - poetry, voice, alto sax, tenor sax; Mike Carey - reeds; Skeeter Shelton - reeds; Len Bukowski - contra-alto clarinet; Mike Khoury - violin; Mike Gilmore - vibes, percussion; Mike Johnston - bass, gongs, percussion; Nick Ashton - drums, percussion. What to do with the poetry audio album? There are many of these out there over many decades by poets both famous and not so much. In fact, many of these are recorded by poets onto their laptops and then sold…

2012 release ** Cardboard sleeve. "On Sonic Liberation Liberation Front's fourth album for High Two, Jetway Confidential, the band mightily wields their highly honed brand of Lukumi (Afro-Cuban) meets "post-avant-garde-and-everything-else" mojo. Featuring 23 musicians working under the leadership of drummer/percussionist Kevin Diehl, SLF has expanded its sound and concept even further here. Coming on the heels of 2011's well-received document, Sonic Liberation Front Meets Sunny Murray, this new …

2011 release ** Oversize folded cardstock sleeve "This disc is the most sublime treatment of minimalist form. Dominique Lash performs brackets of beauty on his wary, droning double bass while Patrick Farmer teases possibility out from hidden silent edges with different percussion styles. Both of these musicians are accomplished in their own right, skilled at their various instruments, well-instructed in the traditional modes of music composition. This feeds and informs the work on Bestiaries.  Y…

Out Of Your Head Records announces the latest chapter in creative music: 'Half of What You See' by Wrens, a bold new contribution to the label’s tradition of boundary-pushing artistry and limited-run releases. Continuing their dedication to inventive sound and visual originality, Out Of Your Head Records—spanning Richmond and Brooklyn—invites listeners into a world where sonic textures and emotional immediacy collide. 'Half of What You See' showcases Wrens at the height of their powers, blending…

CD Edition - Fifteen years in, Joshua Abrams and his Natural Information Society have stopped trying to impress anyone and started building something genuinely necessary. Perseverance Flow strips away the expanded lineups of recent efforts, returning to the core quartet—Lisa Alvarado on harmonium, Mikel Patrick Avery on drums, Jason Stein on bass clarinet, and Abrams on guimbri—for one continuous 37-minute meditation that feels less like composed music than a natural phenomenon you've stumbled u…

2017 release ** "Three top-class international sound adventurers set out the connection of electronics and acoustic sound generators. Experience is the shaping of ephemeral, extreme, genreference and cliché-free sound adventures – a meeting of improvised music. The connection of two identical instruments in the concert frame is rare when you don't want to become a battle, and then with two fancy woodwind instruments is almost exotic. Deep-sounding instruments are mostly and inflexible, but in ma…

This is the debut album from that modern free jazz impro trio. Hypomaniac recorded on March 15th 2025 at Thessaloniki-Greece during ''Take 2'' festival organized by defkaz records and Mikri Skini venue. The end result is absolutely fascinating, bringing a fantastic journey that is hypnotic and build up like a sonic storm setting the house on fire. The interplay between the trio sounds organic, flowing and inventive, despite their different approaches. Collective chaos but always grooving very ha…

Hyperentasis is a double LP celebrating the unique connection between legendary saxophonist Akira Sakata and the city of Thessaloniki. Home to Defkaz Records and the birthplace of the Damianidis brothers, Thessaloniki has welcomed Sakata countless times. This release captures two of his landmark performances as a bandleader in the city. The first LP features the group Entasis with Giovanni Di Domenico (upright piano), Giotis Damianidis (electric guitar), Petros Damianidis (double bass), and Alek…

1989 release **

*2025 stock* Elemental Music proudly announces the release of "Woody Shaw – Tokyo '81," a remarkable newly discovered live recording from one of jazz’s most visionary trumpet players. Captured on December 7, 1981, in Tokyo, this previously unreleased performance reveals Shaw at the height of his creative powers, supported by his all-star quintet: Steve Turre (trombone, percussion), Mulgrew Miller (piano), Stafford James (bass), and Tony Reedus (drums). Boasting Shaw's signature melodic inventive…

Bomb! The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker and William Parker formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves' “A Mind-Body Deal” exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and now a working group. Across 2LPs of side-length long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 Arts & Archives in LA and The Chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by t…

*2025 stock* Garden of Unknowing is a work of staggering ingenuity from one of Toronto’s most talented and in demand multi-instrumentalists. Utterly on his own, Colin Fisher masterfully employs guitar, saxophone, synthesizer, drums and bass to create a shifting suite of nocturnal jazz. These are ghosts of song, which, going by the simple clear titles, emphatically question the very nature of existence. Fisher’s breath-taking technical ability to conjure whole sound worlds entirely on his own is …

*2025 stock* A landmark in Scandinavian jazz returns to the spotlight: The Modern Sound of Finland by Esa Pethman, the pioneering Finnish saxophonist and composer, is once again available to audiences seeking a timeless fusion of Nordic sensibility and modern jazz expression.   Originally released in the 1960s, this album represents the breakthrough moment of Finland’s entry into the international jazz scene, capturing the sophistication and creativity of a musician whose work resonated far beyo…

Believe That Was Me: An Existential Experience Starring Avant-Garde Minds, Pianist Matthew Putman, Bassist Hill Greene, and Drummer Francisco Mela

Edition of 100 Nomade Orquestra releases its long-awaited fifth studio album, Terceiro Mundo, a work that transcends music to represent a journey of resistance, resilience, and inventiveness. The creation process began in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and social isolation, resulting in eight tracks that form a patchwork quilt of sounds where dormant ideas have awakened alongside compositions created exclusively for this project. "We're closing a very important conceptual cycle in our work," …

2025 stock. The question is simple, but the answer remains an enigma: "What is Nublu?" The legendary Avenue C club and label exists as a force seemingly without definition, where Forro in the Dark delivers hard-charging Brazilian folk one night, and I Led Three Lives entrances crowds with near-psychedelic tech-jazz two nights later. If there is any promise of unlocking this mystery, the Nublu Orchestra conducted by Butch Morris holds the key. The Nublu Orchestra assembles the multifaceted range …

Legendary 1966 collaboration with Claus Ogerman and 48-piece orchestra represents peak of jazz sophistication

Verve By Request continues its essential reissue series with Chico Hamilton's "The Dealer", a previously overlooked 1966 gem that captures one of jazz's most innovative drummers at a pivotal creative moment – and marks the recording debut of future fusion pioneer Larry Coryell. While Hamilton built his reputation discovering and nurturing young talent throughout his decades as a bandleader, "The Dealer" represents one of his most prescient finds. Coryell's solid and mellow performance lends a di…

Jazz drumming legend Chico Hamilton fundamentally reimagined his sound in 1961, assembling a groundbreaking quintet that would define a new chapter in modern jazz. WaxTime now presents "Drumfusion", the inaugural album from this revolutionary lineup, in a limited edition 180g audiophile pressing with rare bonus material. Hamilton's revamped group featured future stars Charles Lloyd on tenor saxophone, Gábor Szabó on guitar, Garnett Brown (later replaced by George Bohanon) on trombone, and Albert…

Vocalist and songwriter Laura Ann Singh presents her new album Mean Reds, a deeply personal and sonically expansive project that traverses jazz, folk, and global influences with fearless honesty. Known for her evocative voice and ability to blur genre boundaries, Singh brings listeners into an intimate conversation about vulnerability, resilience, and the beauty that can emerge from darker emotional landscapes.   Mean Reds captures a spectrum of moods—from haunting ballads drenched in longing to…

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 …

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…

Unclassified Affections is the entrancing new release from drummer and composer Dan Weiss that features the convergence of some of the most intriguing musicians on the scene: Peter Evans on trumpet, Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, and Miles Okazaki on guitar. The new compositions, which were written by Weiss specifically for these musicians, range from deep, meditative moments to intense, high-energy peaks, while every track unveils a new layer of exploration.   Brennan’s sonorous mallet work co…

Creative Sources Recordings proudly presents The Dew That Flies, an evocative new work from German multi-instrumentalist Udo Schindler and Catalan pianist Jordina Milla. This album captures the essence of improvisation, offering listeners a journey through sound that is intimate, fearless, and subtly poetic. The title conjures images of fleeting beauty and transformation—like dew glimmering in the air, the music shifts between density and silence, inviting exploration of resonance and texture. S…

As students in the late 1980s, Julia Werntz and Pandelis Karayorgis both enrolled in Joe Maneri’s Microtonal Composition and Performance class at the New England Conservatory, beginning a formative period of mentorship and collaborations with musicians in the scene surrounding that course. During those years a special mindset was cultivated regarding rhythm and musical form, as well as the rich world of microtonal melody and harmony. We also were married during that period, but our musical paths…

"The music of this trio, with its emphasis on phrasing, space and dialog, evokes for me the sensation of watching vapor rise and dissolve. That’s why I named the group and the album Atmos, after the Greek word for vapor. The trio has been active since 2023, especially before Brittany Karlson moved from Boston to NY, but there have been other contexts in which the three of us collaborated in different formations. There are six improvised pieces here, five originals of mine (three written specific…

"I started Blink in the summer of 2024, aiming to create a band sound where collective improvisations and responses take precedence over individual solos. The compositions are inspired by group behavioral patterns such as insect swarms and bird flocks, with their organic swells in dynamics and density. Gabe and Nate’s instruments are tuned a quarter tone sharp, giving the band a distinctive, off-balance feel – one inspired by classic African High Life bands, Indonesian Gamelan ensembles, and Del…

Celebrated vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, one of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz, presents Montara, a radiant album that blends Latin rhythms, soulful grooves, and his signature melodic brilliance. Released on Blue Note Records, this project captures Hutcherson at a creative high point, bringing together an ensemble of master musicians to craft a sound both deeply rooted in jazz tradition and vibrantly global in spirit.   On Montara, Hutcherson steps into a more expansive vision than …

"Ultimately, the best free improvisation performances—and the best films—are those that refuse to be bound by rigid formulas yet still adhere to a fundamental sense of logic and cohesion. They remind us that while structure is important, the real magic happens in the space between the rules." - Mark Corroto