Jazz /
Gender and Identity in Jazz
The 14th Darmstadt Jazzforum held in October 2015 focused on different aspects of identity in jazz. The participants talked about the perception of female instrumentalists, about „male“ or „female“ sound, about homosexuality, about references to the body as well as about the denial of the erotic element in music, about Jutta Hipp, Ivy Benson, Clare Fischer, Sun Ra and others. The conference participants looked at jazz history, but they self-confidently also looked at the jazz scene of today. The…
Under the Sun
Second album by Greece's premiere Afro-jazz band. An Odyssey of sound through West African percussion, jazz, Greek melodies and a tinge of funk. Greece is maybe not the first country that comes to mind when you think of Afrojazz. Afrodyssey Orchestra unexpectedly hit the scene some time ago after we released In the Land of Aou Tila, their debut album — while that first album was going to the hands of the few lucky ones who managed to discover the band back then, Afrodyssey Orchestra were already…
Rufaro
The Beaters – Harari was released in 1975. After changing their name, Harari went into the studio late in 1976 to record their follow-up, Rufaro / Happiness. In 1976 they were voted South Africa’s top instrumental group and were in high demand at concert venues across the country. Comprising former schoolmates guitarist and singer Selby Ntuli, bassist Alec Khaoli, lead guitarist Monty Ndimande and drummer Sipho Mabuse, the group had come a long way from playing American-styled instrumental soul …
Sielun Veljet
** Edition of 300 ** A celebratory, expanded reissue of the 1983 debut album Sielun Veljet. Originally printed on three LP sides, the fourth side of the album features only the song Valssi, previously heard on the B-side of the single, and a previously unreleased early live version of Taas hauk kasvaa (Again the hair grows), found in the band's archives and only later released on the studio album. The package comes with a 12-page accompanying booklet containing a history and photographic materia…
Horoscope
** Edition of 500 ** Horoscope is an Occult Jazz masterpiece from 1973, never before reissued on vinyl. In 1967, Matti “Rag” Paananen decided to compose his own vision of the Western astrological signs. Each one has its own composition on the 12-song theme album that was originally released in 1973. For the compositions he studied every astrological sign and made his own interpretation of how it would sound as music. Although the compositions were already made in 1967, they weren’t recorded unti…
Jappa: The Complete Jazz at the Polytechnicum Recordings 1967-1968
** Edition of 500 ** Svart Mondo presents Jappa: The Complete Jazz at the Polytechnicum Recordings 1967-1968 by Eero Koivistoinen with friends. By early 1960’s, jazz in its mainstream form had become the standard dance music for the student parties in high schools and several student union clubrooms in Helsinki. The Polytech union even organized matinée dances for high school students on Sundays. The change in the musical preference of young people’s dance music occurred with the arrival of Brit…
Black Art Notes
Published on the 50th anniversary of the original printing, Black Art Notes features writings by Tom Lloyd, Amiri Baraka, Bing Davis, Melvin Dixon, Jeff Donaldson, Ray Elkins, Babatunde Folayemi, and Francis and Val Gray Ward. “If there is one lesson the post–civil rights period has taught us, it is that those most likely to shape the destiny of Black Americans in the next decade are activists and artists, who may possess additional skills as organizers,” writes Ward in “The Black Artist—His Rol…
Extensions Out, Plus: Four Poetry Books 1957-1972 (4x Books)
Corbett vs. Dempsey announce the release of four books of poetry by Sun Ra. Two of these were pamphlets that accompanied early Sun Ra albums issued in the late 1950s; the other two were published more than a decade later by Infinity Inc./Saturn Research. CvsD's reprints are fastidiously designed facsimiles of the original publications, marking the first time they have been available in their Ra-ordained form since they were published. An architect of Afrofuturism and one of the great musical thi…
I Struck a Match on the Moon / Dreamsville
In 1961 Sun Ra took off from Chicago – where he had established the Arkestra, his dedicated ensemble and the vehicle for his mission to better the planet – and with a scaled-down version of the band he landed in NewYork. Their first recording session was in Newark in October of that year. The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra, recorded for the Savoy label, is a beautiful document of the material they'd honed during a long residency at the Wonder Inn at the end of the Chicago period. Among tracks left …
Maquishti
Mexican born, New York-based vibraphonist, marimbist, improviser and composer Patricia Brennan has confirmed the release of her debut full length album Maquishti, January 15, 2021 on the Valley of Search label. The twelve original instrumentals that make up the album were composed and performed solo by Brennan on vibraphone and marimba. Employing unusual performance techniques and occasional electronics, many of the compositions were borne from improvisations created live in the studio at the ti…
The Fire Still Burns
45 years after his debut album Valley of Search (1975/India Navigation), jazz saxophonist Alan Braufman returns. The Fire Still Burns has that gritty, forthright sensibility we hope to hear in sonic collaborations borne out of beauty and struggle, but there’s a populist ease that comes with age and reflection. Put simply it’s natural music – complementary, individual, and full of the sweet, hot taste of celebration.
Valley of Search
The first ever reissue of the 1975 free jazz album originally released on India Navigation. What we know of Downtown New York comes from the countercultural and creative flowering that emerged in lower Manhattan in the 1960s, attributable to cheap live-work spaces called lofts. These were often abandoned and disused small manufacturing spaces and they became a nexus for artistic practice and life. From a jazz perspective, lofts were alternatives to the club scene, and they gained notoriety in th…
Live At Kongsberg Jazz 1971
Edition of 250 * Following up on the legendary Club7 album from 1971 by this same group, here is a Webster Lewis Quintet's live recording made in August that same year at Kongsberg jazz festival in Norway. This Quintet from Boston plays a strong sense of seventies American groove-laden jazz but with a raw soulful rhythm and blues approach that is completely unique! Captured on tape in Norway at the time the band was there with George Russel, a few months after the legendary Club7 recordings. Her…
Torben Hertz Soul Sextet
** 2021 Stock ** ** 2021 Stock ** This is an official reissue of a rare and unknown Danish EP issued on CSA records in 1967. CSA's focus was mainly on traditional jazz, and this gem is a one-of-a-kind from the Danish jazz scene at that time.This is a vinyl only reissue. No downloads.
Distill
** 2021 Stock ** Centrifuga Records presents Distill by Rasmus Oppenhagen Krogh. The vinyl is pressed at the danish pressing plant Nordsø Records in an edition of 300, of which 250 will go for sale. High end quality product, for high quality music!
Melt
** 2021 Stock ** Centifuga Records presents Melt, the first LP from Nicolai Kaas Claesson's Melt Quartet. 70's Free Jazz style, inspired by Ahmad Jahmal, Keith Jarrett, Sun Ra etc. Nicolai Kaas Claesson‘s quartet generates some serious intensity with the most casual delivery. It’s free jazz that’s laid back and cool, and yet hits like a right cross thrown by a pro. It’s got an old-school feel that brings out the nostalgia for the avant-garde 70s, when that particular phase of jazz’s evolution …
Songs Dances and Prayers
** 2021 Stock. High quality vinyl, with original insert and new liner notes on printed innersleeve ** More than 40 years after its original release, the recording of the Marc Levin Ensemble’s Songs Dances and Prayers will be reissued, both on vinyl and digitally. Until now it has only existed in the original vinyl form, making it difficult to obtain, which is why we decided to make this magnificent recording easily available again. Though Marc Levin is often characterized as a Free Jazz musician…
Live
**CD Edition** Live was mostly recorded on November 1st, 2019, at Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin, Germany, during the 2019 edition of JazzFest Berlin. For Angel Bat Dawid and her band Tha Brothahood – which includes Deacon Otis Cooke, Viktor Le Givens, Xristian Espinoza, Norman W. Long, Dr. Adam Zanolini, and Asher Simiso Gamedze – it was the first stop of their first European tour. Forty-eight hours before the show, Angel and members of the band were on their way to the airport in Chic…
Profile
**300 copies** “Profile” is the first and only Ken Rhodes LP as a leader. This intimate and rare recording captures an explosive concoction between a blues attitude, a jazz approach and a funky swing. Though an acoustic performance, this LP offers overwhelming grooves, breaks as well as introspective moments . The upbeat and funky title track “The Profile” foreshadows the raw grooves of the session.The composition is driven by a percussive and obsessive bassline which embraces the funky rhythms …
Searching
** 2021 Stock ** Searching was self-recorded in Ronald’s living room on a 4-Track Tape Recorder in 1984. The recordings symbolise his engagement to cross-over everything that was known to him musically at that time. Most importantly, all recordings reflect his personal way of searching; searching for his own characteristic sound. Rhythmical patterns meet well balanced distortion, shaping the music into a mirror of his character. He was part of several Dutch Latin and Jazz bands, including Cascad…