Jazz /
PolyTropos / Of Many Turns
PolyTropos / Of Many Turns is the highly-anticipated new release from influential saxophonist / composer Steve Coleman. Comprised of two live sets recorded during a tour in France, it features his band Five Elements, with long-running partners Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet and Sean Rickman on drums, with new addition Rich Brown on bass. Recorded in concert in Paris and Voiron, the performances are raw, relying on spontaneous conversions of rhythmic and tonal shapes that weave musical figures int…
Zealous Angles
Zealous Angles is the first documentation of pianist/composer Matt Mitchell’s long-running trio featuring bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Dan Weiss.Pi Recordings’ not-so-secret weapon, Mitchell now has six releases as a leader or co-leader and fourteen appearances on the label. His 2024 release Illimitable (on his and Kate Gentile's Obliquity Records) was called “one of greatest albums of spontaneously composed solo piano music, ever…. a masterpiece of twenty-first century solo piano music” by…
Levs
Bassist Kim Cass is among a vanguard group of Brooklyn-based improvisors who are creating works at the leading-edge of rhythmic acuity. Levs, his debut with Pi Recordings, features pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, who called Cass “a singular composer and player: the man can do things that don’t seem possible on the bass, displaying a technical command of the instrument on the level of the most celebrated virtuosic performers in any genre of music.”The compositions on Levs were in…
Unknown Rivers
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 …
Medietas
Brian Marsella is one of the most accomplished keyboard virtuosos in the Downtown scene. A vital member of projects by Cyro Baptista and John Zorn for decades, his fluid keyboard stylings and intense energy is legendary—and Medietas is his masterwork: a sprawling three-hour long work that embraces jazz, rock, funk, classical, world music, exotica, folk, soundtrack moods, and so much more. Segueing from song to song seamlessly, this is a work that puts you into an ecstatic dream world—a psychedel…
Samsara
Thirty-three years after their first meeting, Samsara is a spectacular reunion of three of the world's most extreme musical explorers—John Zorn, Bill Laswell, and Mick Harris.
New Masada Quartet, Volume Three
This long-awaited third volume featuring John Zorn's newest and most exciting ensemble, New Masada Quartet was recorded live at Roulette, one of Zorn's home bases in NYC. White hot and razor sharp, an intense electricity is in the air from the very first note. Resplendent with burning solos, telepathic group interaction, heartfelt lyricism, hypnotic grooves, and of course Zorn’s ever-surprising conducting techniques, this is truly one of the most transcendent sets they have yet performed. With a…
Breakdown Lane: Free Solos & Duos 1976-1998
"Duck Baker should be a national treasure. He should be an international treasure. Should be? In my book he already is. I first came across his work in the 1970s on early Kicking Mule LPs in my local library in the UK, which was his temporary base then, and is his permanent home now. Many years later I was astounded by Spinning Song, his CD of Herbie Nichols compositions. Around the same time, I made contact with him by way of thanks following a review he wrote of my work on Stuff Smith and, lat…
Infinite-Sum Game
“Thollem is a modern griot who has absorbed sounds from every place he has visited.” – William Parker, from Conversations II (Rogue Art)
Volume 1
*Limited Edition of 100. Pink Vinyl! 2024 stock* Super groups are not a riskless endeavor—but when they’re made up of longtime friends and master improvisers, they tend to work. On their collaboration, simply titled Volume 1, up-and-coming American saxophonist John Dikeman (When The Time Is Right, 577 Records, 2021) is accompanied by a group of UK-based music masters: pianist Pat Thomas, a 577 Records mainstay (Shifa Live at Cafe Oto 2019, BleySchool 2019, Shifa Live in Oslo 2020, Educated Guess…
Music Frees Our Souls Vol. 2
*2024 stock* Can music liberate us? Francisco Mela, who worked and partnered with the legendary jazz musician McCoy Tyner, believes so. On this album, the second volume of Music Frees Our Souls, Mela collaborates with pianist Cooper-Moore and bassist William Parker to build a 2-part extended track project of advanced dialogue between 3 of the genre's most important instruments. Tyner was well-known for his boundless musical talent, and perhaps best-known for playing in John Coltrane’s quartet, w…
Music Frees Our Souls Vol. 1
*2024 stock* Before any instrumentation, Francisco Mela addresses his fellow musicians, pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker, with a sense of anticipation and affirmation, “Okay guys, ready? Rolling!” The sense of camaraderie and his artist-focused approach is heard throughout the album’s majestic improvisation—as well as in its inspiration, dedicated to Mela’s longtime musical partner, the legendary jazz musician McCoy Tyner. Tyner was well-known for his boundless musical talent, an…
Electric Telepathy Vol. 2
*200 copies limited edition. 2024 stock* Electric Telepathy Vol. 2 is the latest installment from legendary multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter (Tenor Sax, Soprano Sax, Trumpet, Flute) together with Patrick Holmes (Clarinet), Matthew Putman (Keyboard), Hilliard Greene (Bass) & Federico Ughi (Drums), also known as the Telepathic Band. This new LP follows their previous albums Telepathic Alliances, Telepatia Liquida, and Electric Telepathy, Vol. 1, and Telepathic Mysteries, Vol. 1, further explori…
Telepathic Alliances
*2024 stock* This project is the exciting, unusual and at times unexpected result of five musicians from different backgrounds getting together in a room and making music together for the first time. The chemistry they create is driven by a telepathic understanding, hence the title of the album. This is not the first project for musicians Daniel Carter, Matthew Putman and Federico Ughi. The three have been collaborating closely for the last ten years. Their first album, The Gowanus Recordings, (…
Fathom
*200 copies limited edition. 2024 stock* On Fathom, we hear the sound of the world mirrored back to us. An improvisational collaboration from legendary British multi-instrumentalist John Butcher, Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on Double Bass, and Steve Noble on Drums, the four artists play generously together. Fathom is an impressive work of avant-garde jazz that’s reminiscent of the non-musical world: squeaky wheels, growing tension, a babbling brook, all winding into lush harmonies. This ma…
The Buzz
*2024 stock* Exploring the iconic trio format, Sean Conly (Bass), Francisco Mela (Drums) and Leo Genovese (Piano) mix composition and improvised music into a shared language. Inspired by both contemporary and traditional musical arrangements, the musicians’ distinct inclinations blend together in playful form, delivered in an easy dialogue between the members of the trio. The Buzz’s 10 tracks are gentle and warm, displaying the comfort that the artists have with each other, and lending the album…
Love In Us All
Biggest Tip! Limited Edition LP. Deluxe 180-Gram Reissue. Special Gatefold Edition Including Original Artwork. Again, we have the reissue of a true holy grail in our hands (yeah, we know holy grail gets thrown around a lot these days, but, if ever there was one, this is it) - Pharoah Sanders's absolutely astounding “Love In Us All”. Raw and emotive, soulful and thoughtful to points of profound depth, and entirely liberated and free, as well as one of the hardest, rarest Pharoah Sanders albums to…
Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned
Perhaps there is no need to introduce this legendary recording, but few people realized that this year it will be 50 years (!) since the band secretly set foot in Hrad Houska and started recording there in the winter of 1974. And Sváťa Karásek shined a light on them.
Live At The Panafrican Festival
Tip! Archie Shepp has many made many Afrocentric statements in his long distinguished career but this meeting with Algerian and Touareg musicians in 1969 ranks among his greatest artistic achievements. The backdrop was the inaugural Pan African Festival Of Culture that took place in Algiers in July 1969 in order to promote solidarity among African nations at a time when many were emerging from the yoke of colonialism and some were still fighting for freedom. Their struggle chimed with the Black …