Jazz /
Ascension: Edition I & II
Ascension, released in 1966 on Impulse!, stands as one of John Coltrane’s most radical and influential works. Subtitled “Edition I & II” to reflect the two complete takes recorded at the session - and presented together on LP for the first time - the piece is a nearly 40-minute large-ensemble performance marking Coltrane’s decisive embrace of the avant-garde.
Recorded on June 28, 1965, at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs studio and produced by Bob Thiele, the session assembled an expanded ense…
Members... Don't!
Members… Don’t! is the tour-de-force new release by acclaimed drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey that offers a bold reinterpretation of Max Roach’s potent album Members, Don’t Git Weary, connecting its message of resilience in the face of struggle to the present day. It follows on a string of albums from Sorey that feature pianist Aaron Diehl, the latest of which – The Susceptible Now (Pi 2024) – received 5-Stars from Downbeat, which describe it as “a garden of sonic ecstasy… Sorey’s trio conjur…
Boomtown
Over two decades guitarist and composer Miles Okazaki has built a body of work marked by rigor and restless curiosity. With Boomtown, his ninth album of original compositions and his fourth as a leader for Pi Recordings, he presents a large-scale, finely wrought, sometimes unruly work that hurtles forward with narrative force. The album continues the themes of Miniature America from 2024, described by pianist Ethan Iverson as “meticulously assembled, absolutely a blast to listen to, and informed…
Seven Sonnets
Originally brought together in September 2015 to perform the Zorn Bagatelles, Julian Lage and Gyan Riley have become two of Zorn’s most trusted and soulful musical collaborators, having recorded over a dozen CDs of his compositions for acoustic guitars both in duo and in trio with Bill Frisell. Seven Sonnets is their sixth CD together as a duo and the music is a lovely series of compositions referencing early music, minimalism, contemporary classical, soundtracks, folk, jazz, and more. Two of th…
Straight To The Core
*2026 stock* This album is the second release by saxophonist Sachi Hayasaka, following her debut album Free Fight. Most of the music was recorded in Tokyo with members of Stir Up!, capturing the raw energy and spirit of the group. Two additional tracks were recorded in New York at Baby Monster Studio, featuring special guest trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. These sessions added another dimension to the album, making it an especially rich and memorable work.
The album was produced entirely by Sachi an…
Live!
*2026 stock* A live document from one of the towering figures in Japanese jazz history. By the early seventies Terumasa Hino had established himself as Japan's most internationally fluent trumpeter, a player whose vocabulary moved easily between Lee Morgan-era hard bop, Miles-influenced modal abstraction, and the harder edges of Coltrane-era extended playing. Live! catches his quintet in concert, working through original material at the high temperature his groups were known for: long forms, fie…
Everybody Else's Life Too
Were you to tap the lifeblood of Chicago music, you would find Josh Berman flowing liberally through its veins. Active on the scene for more than a quarter century, the cornetist, bandleader, and composer has helped retain the unique flavor of the city's soundscape, with particular attention to the music of its jazz past – groups like the Austin High Gang and the Oliver-Armstrong lineage and Freddie Keppard, as well as more recent figures from Lester Bowie to Wadada Leo Smith.
But Berman is more…
Ça commence par la marche
With Ça commence par la marche (It Begins with the Walk), Jérémie Ternoy presents an immersive work in which repetition becomes movement and movement becomes sonic architecture. Building on a career shaped by major collaborations — notably with Magma — as well as his own projects (Organik Orkeztra, his trio, and TOC), he delivers here a fully realized synthesis of his artistic explorations.
The album makes walking its founding principle: moving forward slowly, perceiving the world in its finest …
With A Heartbeat
Originally released in 2003, With A Heartbeat brings together Pharoah Sanders, Bill Laswell and Graham Haynes in a collaboration that remains as elusive as it is forward-thinking. Now reissued by Glossy Mistakes, the album receives its first official vinyl edition, remastered and available both in standard black and a limited burgundy pressing.
At the core of the record lies an unusual but striking element: the steady pulse of a human heartbeat. Rather than a conceptual gesture, it becomes the f…
Tether
In any band there is a constant push and pull. A state of tension and release between written music and improvisation, between leading and following. In the instinctive, unpredictable world of jazz, that push and pull can explode groups and compositions into entirely new forms, yet no matter how far each player might be stretched, there is always something connecting them back to each other and back to the tune. A tether.
For New York-based saxophonist and composer Alden Hellmuth, that innate se…
Raw Dog
One of the leading lights of contemporary creative saxophone music, Jon Irabagon (b. 1978) hails from Chicago, made his name in New York, and has returned to the Windy City with decisive ferocity, joining the city's bustling scene as an active participant and bandleader. Known for many of his groups, including Mostly Other People Do The Killing and PlainsPeak, as well as membership in ensembles led by Mary Halvorson, Dave Douglas, and Barry Altschul, Irabagon is a ceaselessly inventive horn play…
John Zorn's Bagatelles Vol. 8
On The Bagatelles Vol. 8, John Zorn hands nine knotty miniatures from his 300‑tune book to the John Medeski Trio, who turn organ, guitar and drums into a shape‑shifting engine of groove, skronk and sly lyricism that makes each Bagatelle feel like a tiny, exploding suite.
John Zorn's Bagatelles Vol. 7
On The Bagatelles Vol. 7, John Zorn hands a batch of his razor‑cut miniatures to pianist Brian Marsella, who turns thirteen terse themes into a 46‑minute solo suite where classical poise, jazz volatility and downtown mischief share the same set of keys.
Alea Iacta Est
On Alea Iacta Est, John Zorn hurls the piano concerto into a maelstrom: Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, Ches Smith and Sae Hashimoto navigate four years of volatile writing where ferocious counterpoint, free‑jazz impact and sudden lyric calm collide with game‑like inevitability.
Mana
Mana is the International Anthem debut by composer, trombonist and vocalist Kalia Vandever. This new full length carries on the expansive and dazed spirit of their first solo album, We Fell In Turn, while entering a new landscape of spacious songwriting. Vandever’s music has quickly and widely gained traction in the last few years despite the fact that their style has been consistently difficult to pin down, boasting a compositional scope ranging from the cinematic modern jazz of their quartet w…
The Ear Behind The Airport
Pianist Jonas Cambien, bassist Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard and drummer Dag Erik Knedal Andersen have been indispensable to followers of the eclectic creative music scene in Oslo for years; among others with bands such as The Handover, Reôlo, Maca Conu, Delish, Cortex and Sulida. Until now, only lucky concertgoers have been able to experience their excellent improvising trio, but fortunately Motvind Records are doing something about that! "The Ear Behind the Airport" is a multifaceted being. Between…
Moder
Henriette Eilertsen's solo debut from 2021, "Poems for flute", is regarded by many as one of the classics in the Motvind Records catalogue. Since then, many concertgoers have also been thrilled by the flautists fresh trio, with Joel Ring (cello & electronics) and Øystein Aarnes Vik (drums). Finally, we are all approaching the opportunity to dive deep into this warm, mysterious and alluring sonic bath. Henriette Eilertsen Trio's debut album "Moder" is characterized by captivating compositions, an…
Andreas Røysum Ensemble With Marvin Tate
Norwegian clarinetist Andreas Røysum and the legendary Chicago-based poet / artist Marvin Tate met in 2023, when both were performing at Berlin Jazzfest. “Andreas Røysum Ensemble with Marvin Tate” is the fourth album by the ensemble, and contains the first recorded fruits of this meeting of visionaries. The new-found collaborators bring out the best in each other, reaching new levels of expression and purpose.
Dig into richly evocative and multi-layered poetry, expansive long form compositions a…
Miman IV-X
*2026 stock* Motvind Records stalwarts Miman mark their 10th year as a working band with “X-IV”, their first release since 2021. Including four very different albums, it gives both old and new listeners the opportunity to get to know some of the different musical landscapes in which Miman are right at home. «It doesn’t make much sense to apply a lot of the usual metrics to both the music created by the Scandinavian trio Miman or the way the group operates. Its members possess deep curiosity and …
Universal Butterfly
*300 copies limited edition* 577 Records proudly announces Universal Butterfly, a new project shaped over years of shared musical paths, bringing together a striking trio: pianist Milton Michaeli, double bassist Asaf Shchori, and legendary drummer Hamid Drake. At its core, the album presents three distinctive and deeply creative musicians, each with a strong individual voice, coming together in a spirit of openness and mutual respect.
Michaeli’s playing is rooted in jazz and Latin traditions whi…