★Not Two Records
Long Tall Sunshine
A really great trio set from drummer Barry Altschul – a record that easily swings between freer moments and straighter swing – thanks to the help of bassist Joe Fonda, and saxophonist Jon Irabagon – who blows tenor, soprillo sax, and alto clarinet! Fonda's bass may well be the rock of the set – a he's always a bit understated, but finds a way to bridge the space between Altschul's loose work on the kit, and the more soulfully cohesive lines of Irabagon's reeds. The tunes all have a loose structu…
Beauty / Resistance
Not Two Records presents Beauty / Resistance by Joelle Leandre. Recorded live at the Krakow Jazz Autumn Festival 2019, in Club Alchemia, in Krakow, Poland, Fall, 2019, by Rafal Drewniany. Joelle Leandre, bass. Zlatko Kaucic, drums, percussion. Mateusz Rybicki, clarinets. Zbigniew Kozera, bass. Rafa Mazur, acoustic, bass guitar.
Dream Disobedience
** 2021 Stock ** Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik seems to thrive in duo settings. Michael Zerang, a Chicago-based drummer, is with her on Dream Disobedience, a live recording made at Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2019. The conversation, unabated for 35 minutes, is rather subdued, Harnik usually initiating each new topic, alternating traditional approaches with more unusual in-the-box techniques while Zerang eschews straight timekeeping for a more reactive role, adding the musical equivalents of ‘Hmm!…
Streams
** 2021 Stock ** To say that pianist Marilyn Crispell, who turns 74 this month, has charted new territory would be an understatement. It would be just as accurate to say she has redrawn maps of old territory. At her hands, the keyboard leaps like a compass gleeful over its sentience, directing notes with the same force of intention that a seafarer would a ship carrying precious cargo. Whether solo or, as in the two discs presented here, in combination with others, she brings a reverent sense of …
Stone Jump
** 2021 Stock ** Not Two presents Stone Jump by Michael Marcus. Denton Darien – piano, John Austria – Fender Rhodes piano, Tyler Mitchell – acoustic bass, Warren Smith – drums & percussion, Lawrence Feldman – alto flute, Michael Marcus – soprano sax.
Voila la Tendresse
** 2021 Stock ** Pianist Carlo Morena leads this lyrical and energetic piano trio with bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Félix Lecaros Herrera, performing 6 Morena compositions and one piece by Emil Boyd, recording at the Firehouse 12 studio in Connecticut for the 3rd album under the Step In name, and the first with drummer Herrera; upbeat but never cloying, a very compelling album.
Spiracle
** 2021 Stock ** A truly unique duo album of sax and drums from Chicago reedist Mars Williams and Spanish percussionist Vasco Trilla, using their immense technical skills to pivot reflective and meditative playing around exuberant free jazz spirit, maintaining a sense of journey and sonic introspection through unusual and extended technique; a beautifully balanced album. "Both American reedman Mars Williams and Spanish percussionist Vasco Trilla show themselves well grounded in the duet configur…
The Purity of Desire
** 2021 Stock ** Tenor sax savant Ivo Perelman has made an endless number of recordings just on the idea of instantaneously creating music with only one to three partners. It’s an idea he could probably mine forever because of his inspired choice for partners and the equally inspired tactic of making no type of instrument off limits to spar with his sax. Perelman’s ability to adjust to any situation and still be very much himself is unsurpassed. The Purity of Desire inserts Perelman into a decid…
The Center Will Hold
** 2021 Stock ** "Not to burden trombonist Steve Swell with titanic comparisons, but it is safe to say that he is a logical heir to the worldly, cutting-edge personship of Roswell Rudd. Swell studied under Rudd and also with masters Jimmy Knepper and Grachan Moncur III (like Rudd, an associate of Archie Shepp in the '60s). Swell possesses a hearty, rippling, vibrant, somewhat vocalized tone, one of the most distinctive around, and like Rudd, is strongly rooted in the past with an eye on the oute…
A Uis?
Not Two Records presents a live concert by Jubileum Quartet recorded at the 23rd Cekno Jazz Festival, in Cerkno, Slovenia, on May 18th, 2108, by Borut Celik.
The album includes four tracks performed by Joëlle Léandre - acoustic bass, Evan Parker - tenor sax, Agustí Fernández - piano and Zlatko Kaučič - drums and objects.
Prism
The tenth Conference Call album and the first with drummer Dieter Ulrich taking over for former drummers Matt Wilson, Han Bennink, George Schuller and Gerry Hemingway, the 20 years journey for this transatlantic band leading to this album captured in the studio in Central NY while on tour, performing 3 original compositions from Ullman, 2 from Fonda, and 2 from Stevens.
"The gift of playing music together with the same people over 20 years is priceless. A long-standing musical ensemble becomes a…
Not Two... But Twenty
Limited edition 5-CD wooden box set, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Not Two Records. All new recordings, never previously published. Recorded live at the Not Two But Twenty Festival in Wlen, Poland in the Fall of 2018. With Peter Brötzmann, Barry Guy, Zlatko Kaučič, Joëlle Léandre, Steve Swell, Agustí Fernández, Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen-Love, Rafal Mazur and many more
That Time
Unrelease befor recordings dated 1972 and 1980. The London Jazz Composers Orchestra began back in 1970. The idea of a composers' orchestra, a large formation equally defined by the concepts of composition or intervention and by the improvised creative genius of the participating musicians, developed an amazing self-impetus. It was this energy, which proved to be greater than the arithmetic sum of the participants, that encouraged Barry Guy and the orchestra to drive idea and practice even furthe…
Pentas
Subtitled' Tribute to Eric and Chris Stern' by the creative pairings of Natsuki Tamura (trumpet) and Satoko Fujii (piano) creating music distinctive in character and surprising in form, at times emerging from raw sounds and cycling assymetrical events. Their two voices contrast and converge over a wide terrain occupied by unusual elements including unorthodox scales and microtones, extreme timbral contrasts and off-balance dialogue.
KIO At Cricoteka
Recorded on September 25th 2018. The Krakow Improvisers Orchestra is a creative space for the collaboration of improvising musicians with backgrounds in free jazz, classical, and experimental music. Founded by Paulina Owczarek, the Orchestra was inspired by ensembles like the London Improvisers Orchestra, John Zorn’s Cobra, Phil Minton’s Feral Choir, and the Discordian Community Orchestra. Paulina Owczarek (saxophones) Ernest Ogórek (double bass) Adam Nyk (voice, electronics) Sebastian Mac (el…
Triple Tube
Recorded live in concert by Iztok Zupan at tube’s, Graz/Austria on 24th March 2019
Intention
Marilyn Lerner (piano), Ken Filiano (bass & effects) and Lou Grassi (drums & percussion) extend their trio work after their previous two NoBusiness releases — "Live At Edgefest" and "Arms Spread Wide" — with this album of profound collective improvisation, recorded live in the studio before an audience. The band blends lyrical and abstract work in energetic but never frenetic conversation, eliciting a range of moods as only such familiarity and history can. Asisted with incredible technical and …
Ears Are Filled With Wonder
Ears Are Filled With Wonder, the debut release from the duo of pedal steel player Heather Leigh and reedist Peter Brötzmann, blows the old adage about improvised music somehow not being best appreciated via the recordings to beautiful pieces. This is a music that demands re-visiting, that seems to alter, slightly, every time it is played, with new details emerging, new relationships of tone and style, new romance, even. Recorded during a mammoth stint in Kraków, Poland, where Brötzmann and…
Unexpected Alchemy
Polish label Not Two presents a massive 7CD set of unreleased recordings by Ken Vandermark in various combinations, featuring duo, trios and quartets with John Butcher, Joe McPhee and Mette Rasmussen on reeds and brass, Nate Wooley on trumpet, John Tilbury on piano, Ikue Mori on laptop, Kent Kessler on contrabass and Hamid Drake, Eddie Prevost and Steve Noble on drums and percussion.Disk One:Ken Vandermark / Nate Wooley duo1. Deeply Discounted 16:072. Sequences of Snow 19:17Steve Noble solo3. Pa…
Relight
Polish label Not Two presents a new release by a classic trio comprised of Uwe Oberg, Joe Fonda and Lucía Martínez, recorded live at the Just Music Festival, Wiesboden, Germany on February 23, 2019.Featured tracks include:1. Their Cheeks Glowed 10:312. Lighter Than Before 09:403. Almost Two 05:214. The Sharp Side of It 15:345. Relight Years 05:266. Triple Relish 03:57Lineup:Uwe Oberg – pianoJoe Fonda – bassLucía Martínez – drums