Jazz & Improvisation / Avant-Garde Jazz

** 2021 Stock ** The Alabama born saxophonist/clarinetist Marzette Watts had a short lived career as a member of the sixties avant-garde, but achieved legendary status for the company he kept in his Cooper Square loft where the likes of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, and Pharoah Sanders often congregated. This debut date is best known for the presence of players, who like Watts, were to become renowned for the rareness of their recorded output, including Sonny Sharrock,…

"In 1966, the late Steve Lacy visited the new ESP-DISK office at 156 Fifth Avenue with a master tape of his concert in Buenos Aires with his quartet... He offered to sell the master for what I thought was an exorbitant price. I bought it. ... In 1992, the master tape was brought to engineer Ken Robertson at the Sony Studio, who observed that it had been recorded out of phase, and he corrected the phasing." - Bernard Stollman "Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's impressive career was filled with man…

"The history and culture of improvised music have been shaped by manifold concepts of freedom, but one in particular explains Amado’s aesthetic. It is his reference to Sam Rivers’ declaration: “Freedom does not mean unconditional renunciation of melody and rhythm, but the freedom to choose what I want to play.” It was this freedom to that led Rivers to punctuate his epic trio sets with grooves and essays on perennials like “Wheatleigh Hall.” Rivers also eschewed the labeling of his music as impr…

Esmeralda Sella is a young pianist from Ravenna, Italy. “Magma” is her debut album, and also a turning point. It’s the culmination of a journey that was «essential for understanding myself and the world around me» as she describes it. Sella recorded “Magma” with two key collaborators: Federico Giolito (double bass) and Giovanni Nardiello (drums), following years of mutual trust, shared musical experiences and extensive practice. «Our sound is the result of opinions, ideas, and doubts exchanged o…

RogueArt proudly presents A Near Permanent State of Wonder, the first duo recording by pianist Alexander Hawkins and cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum. Two of the most distinctive and restlessly inventive voices in contemporary creative music meet in an intimate, exploratory session that balances lyricism and abstraction, rigor and generosity, fragility and fire.   The album documents a rare level of rapport between the musicians. Hawkins, celebrated for his agile navigation between tradition, avant‑gar…

The Otomo Yoshihide New Jazz Quintet (ONJQ), one of the most daring and influential ensembles in contemporary avant-garde jazz, proudly announces the release of El Derecho de Vivir en Paz. This new album embodies the group’s uncompromising vision: a deeply expressive sound that weaves together free improvisation, radical jazz traditions, and a politically charged sense of urgency.   The title, El Derecho de Vivir en Paz (“The Right to Live in Peace”), resonates with a historical and universal me…

Otoliths is the second album by the transatlantic quartet Earscratcher, which brings together Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik with three of her US-based cohorts – Dave Rempis on saxophones, Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello, and Tim Daisy on drums. Recorded live on tour in the US in December of 2024 - no small feat in an era when the longstanding xenophobic and insular tendencies of the country dominate more than ever - this sophomore outing finds a band whose roots have spread deep and wide. While t…

*2025 stock* Silkheart Records proudly announces the release of Spirits Before, a powerful and deeply moving new recording from the legendary Charles Gayle Trio. Known for his fearless approach to improvisation and uncompromising spiritual intensity, Charles Gayle stands as one of the most vital voices in avant-garde jazz.   On Spirits Before, Gayle continues his lifelong exploration of music as a vehicle for truth, faith, and liberation. Joined by a dynamic rhythm section that both supports and…

*2025 stock* Silkheart Records proudly presents the reissue of One Fell Swoop, a landmark recording by the legendary Steve Lacy Quartet. Originally released in the mid-1980s, this album captures the essence of Lacy’s uncompromising vision: rigorous, adventurous, and relentlessly lyrical.   On One Fell Swoop, Lacy is joined by an extraordinary ensemble of creative partners. Each brings a distinct voice to the music, forging a collective sound that is daring yet deeply connected. The quartet’s int…

*2025 stock* Silkheart Records proudly announces the reissue of The Gleam, a landmark recording by the visionary soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy and his celebrated Sextet. Originally recorded during one of the ensemble’s most inspired periods, this album stands as a radiant example of Lacy’s uncompromising artistry and his lifelong pursuit of a sound both intimate and expansive.   The Steve Lacy Sextet—featuring longtime collaborators Steve Potts (alto & soprano saxophone), Irene Aebi (voice, vio…

"In the quarter century since the members of AALY Trio were last in the studio together there have been countless performances and albums made by the core members of the band. The remarkable parallels that existed between the improvised music scenes in Stockholm and Chicago from 1995 to 2000 extended well beyond the collaboration with AALY and me. Those circumstances are no longer the same due to the shifting sands of the international scene: artists, venues, record labels, writers, radio DJs, a…

For whom you play, for yourselves, for the departed who live within you, for all the dilettantes who listen to you, for the young and the old, for the joyful and the sad, the melancholic of all stripes, for the innumerable, unnamed crowd that flits about on the earthly ball, these are the words of Baudelaire before he evoked the itinerant musicians, “one of the two played one of his compositions, and the other improvised beside him a variation, an accompaniment, an underscore”. I really like thi…

Almost four generations of musicians; four very strong musical personalities, four very rich musical careers and, above all, four musicians who know how much the confrontation of different ideas pushes music forward; and it is exactly what we had hoped from this band, that they find a common language richer than the sum of the individual languages of each of them, a coherent musical material that respect each personality without reducing the great diversity of their individual approaches. If the…

Imagine the world that opens up to you when you turn on the power button on your childhood keyboard. A forgotten, dreamlike, carefree, rainbow, unique world. Longing for such a world, three representatives of Polish pianism - Piotr Zabrodzki, Marcel Baliński, and Grzegorz Tarwid - come together to create a completely new sound quality from their obsolete keyboard instruments.

Rob Mazurek’s creations, dedicated to these six artists offered to Tomeka Reid, Angelica Sanchez, and Chad Taylor, to interpret freely. A foundation laid for these improvisations in the foursome’s forays into Mazurek’s music with the larger ensemble. Here something becomes distilled. Interaction is direct. The unit is unitary, the dynamics are gently modulated, the sounds are tendered with deliberation love and inter-ensemble generosity.

*2025 stock* PainKiller's Collected Works presents the complete documentation of one of experimental music's most brutal and boundary-pushing collaborations. This four-CD compilation gathers all studio recordings and essential live performances from the trio of John Zorn (saxophone, vocals), Bill Laswell (bass), and Mick Harris (drums, vocals), documenting their three-year assault on the boundaries between avant-garde jazz and extreme metal. PainKiller was formed in 1991 when NYC downtown giants…

Zorn’s compositions for classical soloists with rhythm section are among the most successful and powerful meetings of classical and jazz ever conceived—completely notated virtuosic scores for classical players augmented by improvisers who illuminate the music with surprise, support, and an imaginative unpredictability. Mining this magical world since 2010, the project reached its apotheosis in the acclaimed 2021 release “Heaven and Earth Magick.” Here that same quartet divides into different gro…

Together since 1980, Massacre is one of the world’s classic cutting edge rock guitar trios. Opening for Metallica on the stage of the Roskilde Rock festival in front of an audience of 10,000 metal heads, they break out like never before. Here Frith puts down his brushes and chains and whips out some of the greatest flatout guitar fireworks he has ever performed. Three masters of rock improvisation kick out the jams in one of the greatest performances of their nearly thirty year existence. Astoni…

Bomb! ** High Quality reissue. Official reissue by Elemental music in collaboration with Impulse Records! Special Gatefold Edition. ** One of his best albums from the mid-Sixties, Yusef Lateef's 1984 is a truly experimental work. With bassist Reggie Workman, pianist Mike Nock, and drummer James Black, it goes from the eight-minute title track that opens the album to the two-minute, angular modal ballad "Try Love." Reviewer Thom Jurek gave it four out of five stars in AllMusic, stating that "1984…

*2025 stock* A cross-generation and cross-genre collaboration bringing together two musicians who share a common city of origin and who find a common music thread in their distinct backgrounds. This beautifully recorded set of piano and bass duets and solos from the summer of 2023 in Athens, Greece, features a mix of original compositions and improvisations.

*2025 stock* The spark for this project was the release of the newly discovered 1965 Hasaan recording Metaphysics (Omnivore, 2021). Upon hearing these beautiful compositions by Hasaan, I immediately felt the need to transcribe and understand them. For the recording I felt compelled to present them alongside pieces by Monk and Hope, who, like Hasaan, stood out for their brilliant—yet unorthodox—writing and their highly personal approach to playing the piano. The two elder pianists also had a clos…

Frode Gjerstad, Alexander von Schlippenbach, and Dag Magnus Narvesen's first trio recording is powerful convergence of avant-garde improvisation and deep jazz sensibilities. Gjerstad’s fearless saxophone work, Schlippenbach’s adventurous piano explorations and Narvesen’s dynamic drumming create spontaneous compositions that betray a deep mutual respect.

The music of Exhaust unfolds through real-time exploration, where quick reflexes and deep listening shape each performance. Nebbia’s powerful saxophone voice drives the ensemble with intensity, while Downes reveals a side of his playing that leans into raw immediacy and unrestrained expression. Lisle acts as both a catalyst and anchor, crafting fluid rhythmic structures that support and propel the trio’s intricate interplay. Their album moves through a vast spectrum of sound, shifting between me…

Hyperboreal Trio’s debut album unites the distinct voices of Signe Emmeluth, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and Axel Filip—three seasoned improvisers bridging the musical extremes of the north and south through raw, yet meticulously crafted pieces.

Listening closely to the duo of Elliott Sharp and Scott Fields one can hear a compact history of modern composition and improvisation. Although the duo has a sound all its own, under the surface you can sense traces of “New Music,” minimalism, free jazz, and blues.

In a spontaneous studio session, alto saxophonist Tim Berne met fellow saxophonist Masayo Koketsu and percussionist Nava Dunkelman for the first time, setting the stage for an improvisational encounter full of contrasts and surprising cohesion. Berne’s rich, dynamic tone, provided a grounded foundation, while Koketsu's innovative use of extended techniques and breathy, ethereal sounds—challenged the space with a more experimental edge. Dunkelman, with her textural percussion, wove between the tw…

Saxophonist Paul Flaherty is New England's purveyor of the ecstatic jazz pulse. Through the years, Flaherty remained unshakable in the pursuit of soul healing and demon dashing through freedom music. Six pieces of alto and tenor saxophone steeped in the theme of loss and channeled through blasting improvisations that showcase his fabulous wailing and inferno of sound to stark bluesy melodies. "January 20, 2005 was a cold night in Washington D.C. A dozen bands would perform at the Black Cat venue…

This album was recorded in Brno, Czech Republic when these five masterful musicians were invited to perform together at a festival. Quentin Rollet started playing the alto saxophone at the age of 11 and the sopranino saxophone at 37. After a few years spent unlearning the teaching of the conservatory, he devoted himself to free improvisation. This led him to find himself on record or on stage with groups as varied as Nurse With Wound, Prohibition or The Red Krayola. Sylvia Bruckner is an interna…

A sensational quartet that was created by Free Music Forum in Austria. Joe McPhee is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, conceptualist and theoretician. He is currently the member of Trio X, Survival Unit III and has collaborated with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Raymond Boni, The Thing, Trespass Trio, and Universal Indians among many others. With a career spanning nearly 50 years and over 100 recordings, he continues to tour internationally, forge new connections a…

4CD + 40 pages booklet with photos and an essay in english and Italian by Mario Gamba

This time we are presenting another great collaborator that has been a part of our community for many years. Marina Džukljev, pianist from Novi Sad, Serbia. She joined the trio TiTiTi a few years ago as a guest, on their debut record Štafelaj out on Zavod Sploh, and then later she performed with them on many occasions including the Jazz Festival in Cerkno, Ring Ring Festival etc. TiTiTi started as a trio of the Slovenian most prominent brotherly connection, a fiery free rhythm section – Vid and …

A new voice in contemporary improvisation emerges with the Trio of Bloom, uniting three visionary artists at the forefront of modern music: Craig Taborn (piano, electronics), Nels Cline (guitar, effects), and Marcus Gilmore (drums, percussion).   This ensemble is less a meeting of individual virtuosos than the flowering of a shared soundworld—an immersive space where texture, rhythm, and resonance intertwine in real time. Each musician brings a singular language: Taborn’s kaleidoscopic harmonic …

Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson Present Bone Bells on Pyroclastic Records. Two visionary voices of contemporary music explore new dimensions of resonance, texture, and interplay.

"I grew up in a literary household with parents who paid close attention to the written word. My father was a Goethe scholar, and my mother often read to us, pointing out the beauty of the sound of words. I have always felt an affinity for poetry. I appreciate its emotional power to move us and to make us think less literally. Miles Davis stressed the importance of knowing the lyrics to standards, and I’ve always believed that understanding the meaning of the words provides an added dimension wh…

"I’ve always been captivated by the night sky, endlessly wondering about what lies beyond. Amidst the vast expanse of stars, there is a sense of balance and symmetry that fascinates me—an order within the chaos. The innate patterns of the constellations sparked my curiosity, prompting me to explore how these celestial forms might be translated musically. In the summer of 2024, I developed a process that allowed me to collect pitch and numerical data from constellations. I overlaid the shapes of …

For the first time, a compact version of Rob Mazurek's magisterial Exploding Star Orchestra – Exploding Star Orchestra/Small Unit – commits its music to CD.  Recorded live at Corbett vs. Dempsey's Chicago gallery space in March, 2023, the six-piece band featured Mazurek on trumpet, Tomeka Reid on cello, Damon Locks on voice and electronics, Angélica Sánchez on Wurlitzer, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on bass, and Chad Taylor on drums. Spectral Fiction consists of two tracks, the deeply exploratory "Equ…

From a night of music in Holland that's become legendary among NRG Ensemble enthusiasts, Hold That Thought presents a blazing concert of the quintet's unique sound. With Mars Williams and Ken Vandermark on reeds, Kent Kessler and Brian Sandstrom on basses (the latter doubling on trumpet and electric guitar), and Steve Hunt on drums, this incarnation of the band was arguably its tightest and mightiest, taking the inspiration of founder Hal Russell (1926-1992) and running with it. All the way. The…

*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…

Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet is returning with a new, refreshed lineup with a new full-length album, Beautiful People, scheduled for release in October 2024. The album will be distributed worldwide in cooperation with K7! The album was recorded in December '23 at Polish Radio's S4 studio after a series of a dozen WMQ concerts last fall. Buoyed by the wonderful reception in many cities and hungry for new sensations and sounds, the Quintet recorded this album while absolutely in full throttle. Beauti…

“Kalaczakra” marks the powerful return of Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet, one of Europe’s leading jazz ensembles. The new single offers the first glimpse of their upcoming album Live Spirit I. Built around a catchy horn motif, a distinctive bass line, and a free-flowing, pulsing drum rhythm, the track brilliantly blends Polish and spiritual jazz traditions with a raw, modern edge—bold, uplifting, and unmistakably fresh. The forthcoming album Live Spirit I, recorded live at Warsaw’s iconic Witold Luto…