Jazz & Improvisation / All styles

National and international jazz musicians were invited to the NDR for the Jazz Workshop series. A number of ten to twenty musicians could rehearse for some days and finally present their results to the North German listeners in a live studio concert. The organizer focused on offering some space for experimenting to different musicians who otherwise would never have played together, and to free them from their daily commercial pressures within that period of time. Even though all predominant jazz…

American vibraphonist Dave Pike was one of the most popular musicians on the German jazz scene in the late 60s and early 70s. The Dave Pike Set attracted attention with their very individual sound, ranging between jazz, rock, free and folk, and they were one of the pioneers of independent European fusion music. Together with his three German sidemen - among them guitarist Volker Kriegel -Pike recorded four studio albums and performed at numerous festivals, e.g. at the Berlin Jazz Festival in 196…

Hans Gertberg, since 1952 jazz editor and as such as responsible for ''Jazz at the NDR'', had invited an ensemble to Hamburg that was on a European tour and in at least one way promised to shine a little light on the preferences of the trombonist Mangelsdorff. At that time he was already shaping the West German scene considerably. ''The Jazz Sextet'' was the name of the illustrious tour ensemble which also showed up at the Hamburg studio. It followed the current developments up to sacrificing th…

*2024 stock* *180 Gram Vinyl Audiophile Remastering Recording with a sextet at the New York jazz club Sweet Basil in August 1977, McBee’s band included Chico Freeman on reeds, Dennis Moorman on piano, Joe Gardner on trumpet, Steve McCall on drums, and Famoudou Don Moye on percussion. Two complete albums of music were released by Enja Records from this engagement, the ground breaking recordings Music From the Source and Compassion. “Few groups today sound as fresh, generate as high an emotional …

*CD Version* Recorded at the 1962 Jazz Jamboree festival in Warsaw and originally released in 1963 on Danish Metronome label, here's a true gem from one of the most important figures in Polish music and a founding father of European Jazz. "Ballet Etudes" was one of the three full LPs released during Komeda' short lifetime. His fluent modern jazz conception was a perfect synthesis between the American influence and the European harmonic complexity, a unique kind of marriage colored by a clear Sla…

*2025 stock* 'Several years ago, Anthony and I discovered our mutual (giddy) enthusiasm for the music of Richard Wagner. I feel compelled to mention this because there is a positively orchestral, if not Wagnerian, element to our recording together—a sonic Gesamtkunstwerk, if you will, representing all registers of playing. In each take, new drama unfolds, as if each were a new act in an operatic continuum. Yet the most amazing thing about the process of recording with Anthony was the vast spectr…

10 Comp (Lorraine) 2022 documents six live performances with Anthony Braxton's Lorraine Trio featuring trumpeter Susana Santos Silva, accordionist/vocalist Adam Matlock, and Anthony Braxton and four studio recordings featuring Braxton, saxophonist James Fei, and bassists Zach Rowden and Carl Testa.

*2025 stock* 7-CD set of Braxton's interpretation of the music of Lennie Tristano and associated colleagues including Billy Bauer, Connie Crothers, Warne Marsh, Sal Mosca among others. Anthony Braxton: pianoEivind Opsvik: bassMike Szekely: drumsJackson Moore: alto and baritone saxophones (left channel)André Vida: tenor, sopranino, bass, contrabass, and c-melody saxophones (right channel)

*2025 stock* Recorded September 22, 2010 at Bezanson Recital Hall, Amherst MA Produced by Taylor Ho Bynum for the Tri-Centric FoundationConcert produced by Glenn Siegel for the Solo & Duos Seriesof the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts, AmherstVideo recorded, edited and directed by Dennis SteinerAssistant camera by Nick RussoAudio recorded by Jim MatusMastered by Nick Lloyd, Firehouse 12 Studios, New Haven CTGraphic design by Ben HellerThanks to WMUA 91.1, ACTV, Amherst Media, …

The essence of conviviality. You take a punch, soft as a sock at the end of a jog, but that isn’t the real point here. Even poorly brewed fuel can become a cherished experience when shared in good company, highlighting that at its core, the communal experience lies not in the quality of the beverage, but in the connections it fosters. And so, by evidence of this striking piece of truth, even the occasional misstep in the infusion process can't diminish the warmth and camaraderie that fills the m…

*2025 stock* Thomas Florin's 2nd solo piano album "In between" released by Konnekt in 04.2020. With the desire of having a free an open-minded approche of music, Geneva based piano player Thomas Florin is working with different kind of Jazz and improvised musics. Following a first solo release focused on a repetitive and resonating sound research, "In Between" captures the result of a process of hybridization, a minimalist and open-ended approach to a jazz oriented material, leaving a lot of roo…

*2025 stock* Setting the stage for The Zebra Paradox requires building anticipation and intrigue on the inside of the listener before they even hear the first notes. To accomplish this an imagined transference of information must bloom like a deep inhalation of sonic spores. If categories can be applied to explore how concepts are played out in this music and throughout the album, perhaps think of displacement, confusion, time distortion and derangement. Otherwise the listener might choose to tr…

*2025 stock* This acoustic piano-drums collaboration can be transformed through electronics into a hybrid spatial continuum creating a frictional, nervous symbiosis filled with jolts but also with abrasive and/or restrained fluidity. After an initial meeting within the N-Ensemble project initiated as a Carte Blanche from the AMR jazz club in Geneva by Nicolas Field in March 2018, Valerio Tricoli (IT, tape Recorder Revox) , Nicolas Field (drums, UK/CH) and Thomas Florin (piano, CH) wanted to deve…

The Equinox is PainKiller's much anticipated sequel to their critically praised 2024 album Samsara, and it has a more varied and adaptable style than their previous work.

This is for sure no fake news! F4 Fake is the exciting new album by Made To Break, the gripping quartet of Ken Vandermark, mixing jazz, funky patterns, and electronics in groovy improvisations -- interrupted by abstract insertions. Recorded by Daniel Schatz, November 29 2017 at Primitive Studios, Vienna. Mastering by Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. Mixing by Alex Inglizian and Ken Vandermark. Artwork by Federico Peñalva. Personnel: Ken Vandermark - reeds; Christof Kurzmann …

*2025 stock* CD version. Cafe OTO's tenth Otoroku release sees a return to the group that kick-started the label -- the veteran German reedsman and free-jazz pioneer Peter Brötzmann with the long-running London bass/drums partnership of John Edwards and Steve Noble. After the release of The Worse The Better, that group went on to play a series of devastating shows in Europe and to emerge as one of Brötzmann\'s finest working groups. Over the same period, Peter was developing a deep rapport with …

Launching into the new year with some serious heat, the seminal Italian free jazz imprint ICTUS Records returns with their Reissue Series dedicated to archival unreleased gems and back catalogue releases, with three of their most exciting and exhilarating reissues to date: Evan Parker & Andrea Centazzo's "Bullfighting On Ice", and Alvin Curran, Evan Parker, & Andrea Centazzo's “Real Time” and “Real Time Two”. Capturing three of avant-garde music's most visionary voices in rare collaborations at …

** Edition of 250 copies, remastered from the original master tapes ** This album is a historical document in several respects: echo of a creative season in its early, vigorous blossoming, it presents groundbreaking music as it was performed and listened to in a moment that now seems very distant, not just chronologically but also in terms of its cultural context. Furthermore, it serves as a testament to the initial opening of the emerging Italian free music scene to Northern European experience…

** Edition of 250 copies, remastered from the original master tapes ** Recorded live in concert. Rome, Italy December 12-13, 1977 by Nicola Bernardini and at Teatro Comunale, Pistoia, Italy December 14, 1977 by Carla Lugli. "It was a magic evening. Not only did the trio burst with a creative energy that was homogeneous and interactive, but the acoustics, usually inadequate, of the half-empty sports pavilion with a capacity of 10,000 people, gave the music an ethereal transparency and crystalline…

** Edition of 250 copies, remastered from the original master tapes ** Real Time is an extraordinary example of interaction between musicians coming from different worlds of new music. I had the chance to perform with those two great musicians on other occasions: in duo with Alvin Curran and in duo, trio and sextet with Evan Parker. Alvin came from the American school, full of minimalist references, melodic structures and open to all kinds of contamination. Evan had left jazz to accomplish his o…

Ben LaMar Gay’s de facto debut album, 'Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun', was our attempt to introduce the legendary Chicago composer / improviser / renaissance man to the rest of the world with a compilation of tracks from 7 albums he made over 7 years (though he hadn’t yet made the effort to actually release). The material showcases Gay’s penchant for genre-hopping – from Steve Reich-ian soundscape voyages to Don Cherry-esque polyrhythm treks to Jorge Ben-style vocal-and-string earworm…

Makaya McCraven’s International Anthem debut 'In The Moment' is the album that properly introduced the then-burgeoning drummer/producer to the world. In many ways, it also laid the groundwork for a working method that both McCraven and the label have returned to again and again over the years: nearly 48 hours of live improvised performance recorded by IARC house engineer Dave Vettraino at 1 venue over 12 months and 28 shows - culled, cut, rendered, and remixed into 19 potent pieces of organic be…

Rob Mazurek’s 'Alternate Moon Cycles' was International Anthem's first release. The incredibly spare single-note-centered cornet, bass and organ chant was recorded to tape at pint-sized Chicago bar Curio as part of a performance series that predates any notion of our label’s existence. Documenting this performance – highly unique even within the depths of Mazurek’s vast catalog – stirred those notions, and soon talks began of releasing the recording on a fresh imprint. Performed by Mazurek with …

Tip! Across A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole, DePlume’s reflections on healing, dignity, and struggle are communicated through a stirring assemblage of disparate musics: ghostly and ancient folk melodies, groove-anchored maelstroms of swirling folk-jazz, elegant string arrangements that strike a midpoint between Ravel and Gainsbourg (courtesy of Macie Stewart), disembodied voices reconfiguring into the shape of a post-modern Greek chorus, noir atmosphere, and allegoric, troubadouric song. Throug…

Join the Kyle Shepherd Trio on “A Dance More Sweetly Played” as they explore, collaborate and improvise on the ‘songs we like to play’. The album’s title is a dedication to the celebrated South African artist William Kentridge, with whom Shepherd collaborated on a joint-work “Waiting for Sybil” that has toured world-wide. In addition to ten Shepherd originals, perhaps most unexpected is the inclusion of an exquisite reading of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’ and a deconstructed take of Journey’s ‘Do…

of Marteau Rouge's debut. Marteau Rouge are Jean-Marc Foussat, Jean-François Pauvros, Makoto Sato.

Unionen is a new quartet of four star-level Norwegian and Swedish jazz musicians. The group takes its name from the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway under a common monarch 1814-1905 and brings together Ståle Storløkken (Supersilent), Per "Texas" Johansson, Petter Eldh (Koma Saxo) and Gard Nilssen (Supersonic Orchestra). It's not hip to say "supergroup" but this sure is one super of a group, with each member contributing to the band sound that is unique in all the best possible ways. From mis…

If it can be said of someone that he is more than a musician, more than an improviser, more than an artist then it can certainly be said of Slovenian drummer Zlatko Kaucic. Zlatko is a good spirit, he is a man who not only goes down in musical history as a partner of the greatest artists of improvised music, but also as a good spirit. As someone who, when he plays and when he enters a room, the world becomes brighter, wiser and arranged as it should be. This year Zlatko Kaucic turned 70 and his …

Legendary percussionist, leader and founder of Ictus Records, a publishing house legendary in the world of improvised music. He has recorded with Derek Bailey, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry and an infinite number of the world's most creative artists. Andrea Centazzo is a great figure, an outstanding drummer who needs no introduction to anyone and who continues to play with the greatest. We are proud to bring you a documentary of the concerts that took place at the Out Off theatre in Milan, where Andrea…

"Agusti Fernandez one of the greatest living piano masters, a brilliant improviser, an endlessly creative artist but also a friend. I can't quite find the words to describe well enough who he is not only for me, but also for FSRecords. So I will just say that it is perhaps thanks to him and his confidence that the label was able to embark on the path it is on now. 10 years ago, when no one knew about FSR yet, Agusti trusted me and agreed to release the album ‘Agusti Fernandez@60 - River, Tiger, …

CD version. We Release Jazz present its sixth release, a reissue of Boillat Thérace Quintet's self-titled album, available for the first time since its original limited private pressing in 1974. Full of prolific and inspired local clusters and boosted by the recently launched Montreux Jazz Festival, the Swiss jazz scene was vibrant and inventive in the 1970s, notably in the region surrounding Lake Geneva. This is precisely where jazz activist and brilliant pianist Jean-François Boillat and wind …

CD version. We Release Jazz present a reissue from Geneva's Boillat Thérace Quintet, the My Greatest Love album, featuring bebop and hard-bop legend Benny Bailey and available for the first time since 1975. Galvanized by the creation of the Montreux Jazz Festival in the late '60s and lively local scenes, jazz music was healthy and booming in Switzerland in the 1970s. One band that beautifully captured this energy was Jean-François Boillat and RaymondThérace's Boillat Thérace Quintet whose self-t…

We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's New York sessions with Lisle Atkinson and Leroy Williams, the aptly titled album Ryo Fukui in New York, sourced from the original masters. Recorded in February 1999 at Avatar Recording Studios in New York and inspired by Ryo Fukui's idol and mentor Barry Harris, the fourth album from the famed Sapporo pianist captures memorable sessions with seasoned American jazz musicians (and frequent Barry Harris collaborators) Lisle Arthur Atkinso…

We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) presents its first release, the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's highly sought-after masterpiece Scenery, originally released in 1976. Unquestionably one of the most important Japanese jazz albums ever recorded, Scenery reveals Ryo Fukui as a miraculously brilliant self-taught pianist fusing modal, bop, and cool jazz influences for a very personal, dexterous, and game-changing take on classic standards made famous by Bing Crosby and John Coltran…

We Release Jazz (WRWTFWW Records' new sister-label) present the official reissue of criminally overlooked Japanese jazz gem Mellow Dream by Hokkaido pianist wunderkind Ryo Fukui, originally released in 1977. Released in conjunction with the its legendary predecessor 1976's Scenery (WRJ 001CD/LP/LTD-LP). Firmly standing on the foundation he laid down with Scenery, Ryo Fukui continues his exploration of modal, bop, and cool jazz sounds with meticulous grace and absolute mastery. As its title sugge…

CD version. We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's final album, the very personal contemporary jazz offering, A Letter from Slowboat, sourced from the original masters. Known for his miraculous albums 1976's Scenery (WRJ 001CD/LP) and 1977's Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LP), legendary Hokkaido pianist Ryo Fukui, with the help of his wife Yasuko, opened his very own jazz club in Sapporo in 1995, Slowboat. This is where Ryo Fukui spent the latter half of his career, playing again …

We Release Jazz presents its fifth release, the first ever live performance and recording by Marc Moulin's sought-after jazz-funk band Placebo, captured at Casino Kursaal during the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1971 and never released before. June 17th, 1971, the Montreux Riviera, its delightful microclimate and postcard scenery, its fabled music history and the luscious wines of the region. A dream setting for Marc Moulin to lead his ensemble on a 26-minutes+ jazz adventure -- Nick Kletchkovsky on…

First-ever release of cult Freddie Hubbard live performance recorded in 1973 at Maison De La Radio (ORTF) in Paris. Released in collaboration with Duane Hubbard and French Institut National De L'audiovisuel (INA), the double-LP set has been remastered for vinyl from the original tapes and comes in a gatefold sleeve including liner notes by Kevin Le Gendre. A mesmerizing live performance by Freddie Hubbard and his quintet recorded in Paris at Maison de la Radio (ORTF) on March 25, 1973. Featurin…

*2025 stock* Situations is one of WE INSIST! Records’ most recent productions. It is an immersion in the solo clarinet by Giancarlo “nino” Locatelli, an expert well-versed in the music of Steve Lacy, who has captured the essence of the great American saxophonist’s music through a series of interpretations of his compositions. The Officine Saffi gallery in Milan opens its doors to a new initiative combining Art and Music. On the evening of the inauguration, Giancarlo “nino” Locatelli presented th…

The ultimate cosmic music has arrived! Prepare to be gently led into an invigorating electronic dreamscape by a skillfully creative partnership. Despite collaborating since 2016, Endless Season is the first duo album from 577 Records Co-Creator (and legendary maestro), Daniel Carter, and rising tenor saxist Ayumi Ishito. Originally recorded as an acoustic set, the plan changed when Carter encouraged Ishito to explore audio production. Before they knew it, she had shaped beats and sounds that per…