Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

Org Music’s reissue captures Cecil Taylor’s pivotal 1962 trio concert in Copenhagen. Remastered, complete, with rare notes, it’s a vital document of avant-garde jazz, praised for fearless innovation.

Strut proudly presents a new edition of one of Sun Ra's most celebrated albums, Sleeping Beauty, reissued in its original artwork for the first time. Originally released in 1979 on his independent Saturn label, Sleeping Beauty captures Sun Ra and his Arkestra at their most soulful and serene. A masterclass in cosmic jazz, the album blends lush grooves, celestial soul, and meditative funk with Ra’s singular spiritual vision — a sound both grounded and otherworldly. The album emerged during an ext…

On Jupiter by Sun Ra blends deep funk, avant-garde jazz, and cosmic soundscapes, capturing the Arkestra’s 1979 creative peak. Remastered by Technology Works, this reissue features original sleeve art and new liner notes.

Lost celestial solo piano transmissions retrieved!

Saxophonist Steve Lehman and trio, with Mark Turner, celebrate Braxton’s 80th in a live set: intense emotion meets cool articulation and rhythmic mastery.

Fred Moten & Brandon López’s duo debut explores cultural innovation, virtuosity, and confronting institutional madness while preserving humanity.

Balloons On Grass is a collaborative album by Tony Orzano, Bryan Rohmer, and Jeremy Wexler that thrives on the unpredictable energy of improvisation. Recorded in a single, free-form session, the album is a vivid journey through the intersecting worlds of post-rock, noise, and free jazz. Each track unfolds organically, with the musicians responding to each other in real-time, creating a dynamic tapestry of sound that is both spontaneous and deeply intentional. The album opens with shimmering guit…

Draguns & Cozzolino Reunite as Flying Sutra to Win Over a New Generation of Fans with Fresh Hit Album Featuring Blossoming Saxist Ayumi Ishito

Bukas: How Karl Evangelista is Exploring the Future of Free Music with his Quintet and Special Guest, Andrew Cyrille

"Live from the Archives" by Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band is a live double LP recorded at Blues Alley, Washington, D.C., in 2000. Featuring a stellar lineup, the album presents a rich tapestry of original compositions and improvisations that blend jazz with gospel and folk sensibilities. Through its dynamic performances and heartfelt interplay, the record offers an immersive snapshot of the band’s artistry, capturing both their technical brilliance and spiritual depth in a singular live sett…

"Toe Rag Orchestra" by Shawn Lee is a remarkable album that encapsulates the essence of live, analog recording and the magic of spontaneous musical creation. Recorded in January 2024 at the legendary Toe Rag Studio in East London, the project brought together Shawn Lee, Paul Elliott, and Rupert Brown—three musicians known for their deep groove sensibilities and adventurous spirit. The trio entered the studio with a clear intention: to capture the immediacy and authenticity of live performance, f…

Unknown Rivers is bassist Luke Stewart’s debut for Pi Recordings. An omnipresent and galvanizing force on the music scene, Stewart is a leader or co-leader of such bands as Irreversible Entanglements, Exposure Quintet, Blacks’ Myths, Heart of the Ghost, and Remembrance Quintet. He is also among the most in-demand collaborators, having performed with the likes of David Murray, Nicole Mitchell, Moor Mother, Jaimie Branch, Nate Wooley, Ken Vandermark and countless others. Stewart is also a curator …

"Baro 101" unites Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen-Love, and Masele Asmamaw for an electrifying fusion of Scandinavian free jazz and Ethiopian traditions. The album’s two expansive tracks showcase intense improvisation, with Asmamaw’s krar injecting unique rhythms and melodies, creating a bold, genre-defying musical journey.

"Brand New For China!" by Cactus Truck is a fiercely intense debut, blending free jazz with punk energy and noise. The Amsterdam-based trio delivers raw, high-velocity improvisations across tracks that range from explosive outbursts to muscular, dynamic interplay, marking the album as a standout in avant-garde jazz.

Akio Niitsu's first album, "I/O(i･o)" released in 1978, was produced in a homemade studio that had been converted from a storeroom in his home, and he spent three years doing everything from composition to engineering by himself, using overdubbed guitar recordings. Akio Niitsu's first analog re-release has been decided. As a guitar multi-recording album, the idea was realized six years earlier than the album "E2-E4" released in 1984 by Manuel Göttsching, the central figure of "Ash La Tempel", bu…

When eminent jazz practitioners with shared histories convene in the studio without rehearsal or preparatory gigs, a perfunctory, by-the-numbers session is often the outcome. That is decidedly not the case on Solid Jackson, whose personnel, four of whom participated on the well-wrought day-after-Christmas of 1994 Criss Cross album titled Consenting Adults, reside in any hardcore jazz connoisseur’s “top-five”. This second gathering of M.T.B. (titled for the surnames of Brad Mehldau, Mark Turner a…

Telluric, intense, terribly alive, the gwoka drums of Guadeloupe carry the identity of a painful and fervent island. Marked forever by the crime of slavery, Guadeloupe's créolité cherishes the ka drums and their natural environment: the low-pitched boula drum with male goatskin, the high-pitched soloist makè drum with female goatskin, the chacha, ti bwa, triangle, calabash and other percussion instruments that surround them, and the voices - the fiery, proud, timbred, urgent voices of the gwoka.…

Viive debut album ‘Sen Jälkeen Kun’! The debut album, “Sen jälkeen kun”, explores themes of growth and the intrinsic need for connection. It ultimately took shape as a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist (yet). The album was recorded at Mutka studios, the duo’s own creative space in a mid-century wooden house located in Jyväskylä, Finland. The piano and drums were set up facing each other, fostering a deeper connection between the players. The naturally imperfect and lively acoustics of the…

Jimmy Giuffre, a versatile musician known for his innovative jazz compositions and arrangements, took a break from recording after a prolific career spanning from the 1950s. Following a decade focused on live performances, he returned to the studio with "Music for People, Birds, Butterflies and Mosquitoes." Giuffre's unique approach to jazz, fostering free interplay among musicians, emerged during his tenure as an arranger for Woody Herman in the late 1940s. Transitioning to the West Coast cool …

Mostly improvised by clarinettist Tony Scott, backed by Hozan Yamamoto and Shinichi Yuize — on the Japanese instruments shakuhachi and koto — this 1964 album is a precursor to later movements in ambient and new age music, from in and out of the jazz world.

In his last release for the Impulse label, Hubbard’s ambitious 1963 recording The Body & The Soul includes both an all-star septet and an orchestra with strings. Including a number of Hubbard originals and such notables as Curtis Fuller (trombone), Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone), Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone), Cedar Walton (piano), Reggie Workman (bass), and Louis Hayes (drums), the album stands alone as one of the most unique productions in Freddie’s substantive discography and as a showcase fo…

2025 stock Probably due to the fact that Eric Dolphy died untimely in 1964, making every one of his recorded contributions more widely sought after, pianist Mal Waldron’s album, The Quest, was reissued soon after its release under the reedman’s name. Tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin is also featured on The Quest. Ervin and Dolphy had both been members of the Charles Mingus group and the two reedmen recorded various LPs together with Mingus between 1960 and 1963.

2025 stock Silver is Ilhan Ersahin's latest project and a bit of a departure from his other musical undertakings A group consisting of himself on Rhodes keyboards and Tenor Saxophone, trumpet icon Eddie Henderson, bass legend Juuini Booth and drums, percussion sorcerer Kenny Wollesen. Silver emphasizes on mood and tone. The "bite-sized" approach of this ensemble translates as a string of 5-minute individual pieces. Silver couldn't sound the way it does if it weren't for the presence of two certi…

With drummer Kenny Wollesen (Tom Waits, John Zorn, Norah Jones) and Dave Harrington (of electronic duo Darkside) guitar/bass/electronics, New York-based Swedish/Turkish saxophonist, composer, club-label owner Ilhan Ersahin captures the vibe of impromptu, cross-pollinating, and heavily grooving late-night jam sessions at Nublu, his “East Village Club where everything goes” (New York Times). The telepathy and intuition that flows between these three musicians is one that has developed over many ye…

2010 release ** "This is certainly not William Parker's first solo album, he already released "Lifting The Sanctions", "Testimony" and "Painter's Autumn", but this is the first one on which he doesn't play pizzicato, using his bow for the first and lengthy track, called "Cathedral Wisdom Light", on which he demonstrates the unbelievable riches that are hidden in his instrument : from the cry of whales to those of birds, over the pulsing or a heart, or just bone-chilling shrieks. He goes deep her…

1998 release (light storage wear) ** "It has always been baffling why the work of certain contemporary composers like Anthony Braxton, whose work spans the jazz and classical genres, has not been more widely performed by musicians outside of their own immediate sphere as "standards" of modern repertoire. After all, pieces by modern composers of the generation prior to his, like Ornette Coleman or Charles Mingus, are routinely covered by performers in and outside of jazz. One would think that Bra…

2005 release ** "Recorded at the Institut fur Elektronische Musik und Akustik in Graz, Austria during the first week of August 2003, Anthony Braxton's (+ Duke Ellington) Concept of Freedom is a dazzling exercise in collective creativity. Braxton does not perform on this recording. Neither does Ellington, for that matter. Both men and their substantial accomplishments are honored and invoked by a quartet of skilled improvisers. These are trombonist Roland Dahinden, pianist Hildegard Kleeb, violin…

2004 release ** "Recorded in 2003 at the Clear Lake recording studio in Venice, California. This set places Sam Rivers in the company of drummer Harris Eisenstadt and percussionist Adam Rudolph for a series of seven medium-length freewheeling improvisations. Rivers plays tenor, soprano and flute on these exercises and the effect is electrifying. While completely in the moment, utterly outside, and spontaneously realized, there is a certain warmth and accessibility on this outing that is unexpect…

1993 release ** "This trio, comprised of bassist/vocalist Jöelle Léandre, violinist Carlos Zingaro, and accordion and clarinet player Rüdiger Carl have, under the auspices of Léandre's inspiration, come together to create a musical mosaic under the guise of "chamber improvisation." These players take their cues from long developed practices like nuance, empathy and even a kind of sonic telepathy. Léandre, though most understated, is clearly the catalyst in making all things possible in this trio…

1995 release ** "With Basement Research, Gebhard Ullmann released his first CD for the Italian label Soul Note in 1995. Four of the most interesting individualists out of the new generation of contemporary jazz players realized their very personal and intense musical ideas. The CD was widely critically acclaimed and has been listed in the US-College Radio Jazz Charts for several months. "

1993 release **

1999 release ** "While documenting some of the most important free-style jazz from around the globe, Leo Feigin of Leo Records has focused on discovering new talent, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Here, startlingly unique trumpeter Guyvoronsky is teamed with young accordionist Evelin Petrova for a series of eleven duets that incorporate folk music and jazz in an experimental avant-garde approach that defies convention and focuses on color, humor, and shading. At times, the trumpeter se…

1991 release ** The third in a three volume compilation (each available separately) of 114 improvisers from around the world, covering a wide variety of approaches to improvisation. "A turbid dive into new music, this release packs everything from free-form jazz-like scraw to variations in composition, structure and situation to solo exploration." Featuring Pluto, Amy Denio, Davey Williams, LaDonna Smith, Marty Walker, Crawling With Tarts, IDLH, Ed Herrmann, Andrew Voigt, Tom Nunn, Tamio Shirais…

New Vienna is the fourth concert recording to be released from Keith Jarrett’s final European solo tour. It follows Munich 2016, Budapest Concert and Bordeaux Concert. Why New Vienna? As Jarrett aficionados will know, his discography already includes a legendary Vienna Concert (recorded at the Vienna State Opera) whose music, he once claimed, spoke “the language of the flame itself”, after long years of “courting the fire”.  Keith Jarrett’s 2016 return to the Austrian capital brought the flames …

Masterful trio interplay reliant on deeply honed three-way communication and a refined sense of understatement make Fred Hersch’s third recording for ECM an essential entry into the piano trio canon. Hersch tackles a handful of 20th century compositions – spanning from standards to less frequented jazz tunes – as well as three originals, with Drew Gress on bass and Joey Baron on drums – two longstanding companions of Fred’s who have played with him on and off since the late 80s and early 90s res…

After Mette Henriette’s critically acclaimed, self-titled first recording comes Drifting – and album pervaded by trio conversations of idiosyncratic and original expression. With Johan Lindvall returning on piano, new addition Judith Hamann on cello and herself on saxophone, Mette’s chamber musical elaborations prove of a concentrated and exploratory quality, marked by subtle yet intense interaction. Motifs and recurring patterns crystallize and reveal a concise, intricate narrative. The saxopho…

Musical messages from Oslo, New York, Basel and Lugano – recorded between 2018 and 2022 – are juxtaposed and recombined on an absorbing recording that features Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen solo and in a series of duets . With such partners as Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Sinikka Langeland and Jorge Rossy,  the musical frame of reference is very broad.  Elements from Langeland’s’s archaic-sounding folk to Potter’s post-Coltrane saxophone and Taborn’s whirlwind modernist piano each find their p…

The Scandinavian project Arcanum brings together four artists all well-known to followers of directions in music at ECM: Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari.  They’ve played together in many permutations over the years, but this is their first album as a quartet.  Compositions by Anders Jormin and Trygve Seim, the Finnish traditional “Armon Lapset” (Children of Mercy), and Jormin’s arrangement of Ornette Coleman’s “What Reason Could I Give” are slotted into a programm…

Recorded in 1957 this is one of Charles Mingus's lesser known sessions. Here the master was at the head of an awesome band including some of his regular sidemen. Jimmy Knepper - trombone, Shafi Hadi - alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and Dannie Richmond - drums, along with nothing but Bill Evans on piano! This is dense, lyrical and very stimulating music deeply rooted in the bop tradition yet with an open ear to other sound territories.

This was definitely a perfect title for Ornette Coleman's second and last album for Contemporary before switching on Ertegun's Atlantic label. Originally released in 1959 "Tomorrow is the Question" was an early evident step towards the revolution to come. An adventurous yet accessible, bluesy album with Coleman and Don Cherry tasting for the first time the freedom of a pianoless rhythm section featuring Percy Heath or Red Mitchell on bass and the great Shelly Manne on drums.