Jazz & Improvisation / Avant-Garde Jazz

Comes with obi strip with 12 pages booklet. Limited edition of 700 copies. Souffle Continu Records present the first ever reissue of Dharma Trio's Snoopy's Time, originally released in 1970. Dharma as they were simply known, at the time when they were still playing, englobed all the incarnations of the group, trio, quartet (essentially as a live band), and quintet built around the stable core of pianist and bassist Patricio Villarroel and Michel Gladieux. Snoopy's Time is their second album, con…

The Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra was created in 1971 by an “old hand” of French free jazz, François Tusques. Free Jazz, was also the name of the recording made by the pianist and other like-minded Frenchmen (Michel Portal, François Jeanneau, Bernard Vitet, Beb Guérin and Charles Saudrais) in 1965. But, six years later Tusques had had his fill of free jazz. After having wondered, together with Barney Wilen (Le Nouveau Jazz) or even solo (Piano Dazibao and Dazibao N°2), if free jazz wa…

*Heavy brown board outer sleeve, obi strip, 180g vinyl. reissue of the rare Futura LP* Originally from Philadelphia, invited to New York by Miles Davis, playing at Antibes in 1960 with Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy, here is trumpeter Ted Curson in 1971... in Paris. With him, a legendary trio: Georges Arvanitas (piano), Jacky Samson (double bass) and Charles Saudrais (drums). A new transatlantic alliance in the service of jazz of all kinds: classic, modal, fusion and even free... Pop Wine is – b…

** Deluxe 180 gram vinyl + extensive booklet ** The axolotl is a species of salamander native to Mexico, living in a state of larva and having the capacity to regenerate damaged organs. This brief introduction doesn't tell us if the axolotl sings. But, for the one that concerns us here: yes, indeed. In Paris, at the end of the 1970s, Etienne Brunet and Marc Dufourd would improvise regularly, inspired by some other saxophone-guitar duos: Claude Bernard-Raymond Boni firstly, then Evan Parker-Derek…

CD digipack "Why would I sing in French? I have Breton culture, I speak Breton, I live in Brittany, and the Breton language is the language of this country..." So explained Kristen Noguès, of whom this is the first of the (rare) albums that she recorded Marc'h Gouez, is a fabulous voyage in space on each listening. Noguès learned the Breton language as a child, at the same time as the Celtic harp, -- taking lessons with Denise Mégevand, who would go on to teach others, notably Alan Stivell. At t…

* 300 copies only * NoBusiness presents Live at Jazz inn Lovely 1990, a new set of recordings by Masayuki JoJo Takayanagi, Nobuyoshi Ino and Masabumi PUU Kikuchi Recorded live by Sony TC-DM at jazz inn Lovely, Nagoya, Japan, October 9th, 1990. Track 1,4 & 5 improvised and composed by Masayuki JoJo Takayanagi, Nobuyoshi Ino and Masabumi PUU Kikuchi. Track 2 & 3 improvised and composed by Masayuki JoJo Takayanagi and Nobuyoshi Ino. Gigs produced by Katsuhiko Kawai 河合勝彦. Tapes provided by Koujiro T…

* Edition of 300 copies * This latest instalment from NoBusiness Records collaboration with the Japanese Chap Chap label under the name of Yuji Takahashi with Sabu Toyozumi constitutes a real find. A wonderfully mystic vernal episode of free improv music recorded in Tokyo, 1998. Piano and percussion album of the highest beauty, interactive on a telepathic level and execution. Yuji Takahashi is a Japanese avant-garde composer and pianist. In Japan he was by then already well established as leadin…

Across the group's 20 year history, Martin Archer and Hervé Perez have never allowed Inclusion Principle to stand still.

Ikue Mori and Craig Taborn, the duo Highsmith, return after ten years and open up into three trios with Bill Frisell, Tomeka Reid and John Zorn, plus a few quintet pieces.

Paul Bley's 1971 ECM album of three Annette Peacock compositions, recorded by two piano trios in New York in March and July 1967, with Barry Altschul on drums and Gary Peacock or Mark Levinson on bass.

Six-CD box of Paul Motian's first six ECM albums as leader, recorded 1972-1984 in New York and Ludwigsburg, with Keith Jarrett, Charlie Haden, Charles Brackeen, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano and others. Old & New Masters series, 2013, notes by Ethan Iverson.

Eight-part suite composed and conducted by Evan Parker for the 14-piece Transatlantic Art Ensemble, co-founded with Roscoe Mitchell, with Craig Taborn, Barry Guy, Paul Lytton and others. Recorded live September 2004 at the Muffathalle, Munich.

Double album by Roscoe Mitchell with his four trios (Craig Taborn, Tyshawn Sorey, Hugh Ragin, William Winant and others), recorded live in September 2015 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago during the AACM's 50th anniversary.

3-CD box collecting Codona's three ECM albums (Codona, Codona 2, Codona 3) by Collin Walcott, Don Cherry and Naná Vasconcelos, recorded at Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg, in 1978, 1980 and 1982, produced by Manfred Eicher.

*100 copies limited edition* I went looking for a dictionary definition of brutalism, trying to understand it a bit better. It had been our starting point since the first rehearsal. But did we actually understand it? Does any of it have something to do with our music? Does it even make sense — instrumental pieces inspired by buildings?We didn't set out to make a genre out of it. We set out to strip things down. Take a melody, take a rhythm, cut away everything that isn't essential — no polish, n…

Happy Today, the third album from guitarist/bandleader Jeff Parker’s long-running ETA IVtet, was recorded live at Lodge Room in Los Angeles on August 20, 2025. This fresh entry into the IVtet’s catalog captures Parker and the band – including drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, and saxophonist Josh Johnson – on record outside of the now-shuttered Highland Park micro-club ETA for the first time. The performance also captures a distinctly joyful night of togetherness set against the back…

A saxophonist of striking originality, Sam Rivers’ music had a strong avant-garde undercurrent though he kept a foot planted firmly in post-bop and the blues, a sound heard to great effect on his masterful 1964 debut Fuchsia Swing Song. The last of Rivers’ four highly-distinctive Blue Note albums, 1967’s Dimensions & Extensions, is fascinating for the presence of trumpeter Donald Byrd who makes a rare foray into the avant-garde alongside Rivers on tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, and flute, J…

Masahiko Togashi's 1976 Denon Jazz album: six 'Expressions' for a percussion-led ensemble with Sabu Toyozumi, Tatsuji Yokoyama, Masahiko Satoh and three woodwind players, recorded in Tokyo with early PCM digital technology. LP reissue.

Celebrated Italian saxophonist Roberto Ottaviano collaborated with Martin Phillips on his recent biography of Keith Tippett which was published by Jazz In Britain. During that process he also sent us the recordings that make up this new release. Recorded live in Geneva, Switzerland in February 1991, this 2 CD set is taken from two performances of extraordinary dexterity and beauty that feature Tippett on piano plus his usual array of objects and toys alongside Ottaviano’s virtuoso soprano saxoph…

"Originally planned for issue on Strata-East, Hammond took his collaboration with Durrah to Detroit and issued his masterpiece. Lacquered by Bernie Grundman. Now-Again presents the definitive Tribe Records reissues. Deep, spiritual jazz of the highest order. The Tribe label, one of the brightest lights of America's 1970s jazz underground, receives the Now-Again reissue treatment. This is your chance to indulge in the music and story of one of the most meaningful, local movements of the 20th Cent…

Licensed from Futura Records. 180 gram vinyl. "I get something out of listening to Coltrane, Shepp, and Coleman; I'm really pleased that young players are trying to change things. If they go back the roots and come up with something new, that's fantastic." This comment was made by saxophonist Hal Singer to Gérard Terronès for the magazine Jazz Hot in 1968. Two years later, Terronès would issue Singer's album Blues and News, on his label Futura Records. Though born in 1919, Hal Singer claims, jus…

Big Tip! Born in Donauwörth, a small town in Bavaria in 1951, Götz Tangerding studied piano to concert level at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg. In the 1970s, he started to make a name for himself on the local Munich jazz scene and traveled through East Europe with drummer Rudi Roth. In 1976, he came to New England Conservatory of Music in Boston to study compositions with George Russell and Jaki Byard with whom he played in the New York Big Band in 1978. In 1980, he returned to Muni…

Huge Tip! Double LP, Gatefold edition. Born on November 23rd, 1944 in Paris, France, Frédéric Rabold already played with his father in American Army Clubs at age 16. In 1965, Rabold joined the Axel Lauser Quartet, three years later he finally founded his own band, the Frédéric Rabold Crew. In the following years he collaborated with guitarist Martin Ederer, singer Lauren Newton, as well as avant-garde jazz musicians such as Gunter Hampel, Leszek Zadlo, Lester Bowie, Manfred Schoof, Albert Mangel…

*300 copies limited edition* Mats Gustafsson meets Jan St. Werner in 2019 when they both perform with Peter Brötzmann and a group of prolific improvisers for three days at Flutgraben in Berlin. Mats and Jan notice their mutual passion for performing not just inside spaces, but also with them, activating environments and shaping sound through diversion. Mats introduces Johan Berthling, whose complex bass explorations complement the frantic jitter of Mats’ saxophone and pedals, and Werner’s digita…

The fifth chapter of John Zorn's series of piano trio compositions based on classical forms: eight Fantasias, lyrical, harmonically complex and unpredictable, played by Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder and Ches Smith. Tzadik.

A new John Zorn rock power trio in the line of Simulacrum, Naked City and Insurrection: Matt Hollenberg on guitar, Simon Hanes on bass and Ches Smith on drums tear through twelve short, stop-on-a-dime pieces. Tzadik.

The 1968 debut album from Norwegian guitar legend Terje Rypdal stands as a significant entry in the late 1960s jazz landscape, exemplifying the transition from psychedelic rock to a more intricate, freeform blend of jazz elements. Collaborating with legendary musicians like Jan Garbarek, Rypdal's work on this album showcases his innovative talent. Recorded during three sessions in Oslo in 1968, Bleak House marks Rypdal’s departure from the psychedelic group The Dream as he ventured into new musi…

Cellist and composer Janel Leppin's second album with her Washington D.C. sextet Ensemble Volcanic Ash: progressive chamber jazz recorded live in the studio in one day, dedicated to Abdul Wadud and Pablo Casals. On Cuneiform, CD edition.

Soundpath, the big band work Muhal Richard Abrams wrote for Bobby Zankel's Warriors Of The Wonderful Sound, recorded in 2018 after his death with Marty Ehrlich conducting seventeen musicians. Clean Feed CD.

The debut album from the duo of Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen and Swedish reedist Mats Gustafsson - both musicians have routinely blown past the rules of the traditions from which first emerged—folk and free jazz, respectively—to explore constantly expanding worlds. It was only a matter of time before these iconoclasts collided to create something wonderfully raw and unexpected.

Absolute killer session recorded at Vanguard Studios, New York, September 24 and 28 in 1984, with an intense line-up of some of our all-time-fav players of free music, including of tenor-saxophonist Frank Lowe, trumpeter Don Cherry, trombonnist Grachan Moncur III, pianist Geri Allen, bassist Charnette Moffett, and drummer Charles Moffett, ensures that this music is worth going for. Phrasing is super articulated and the whole vibe is just contagious. Outstanding interaction. The tandem communicat…

Soul Note Vinyl present a reissue of Bill Dixon's In Italy - Volume One, originally released in 1980. Bill Dixon one of the great visionary composers and improvisers in modern creative jazz, In Italy - Volume One was recorded in Milan in 1980 and released on Soul Note. A wide-open tapestry and a rare example of open interaction between pulse, melody, and pure sound as result of the work of a maverick quintet featuring Dixon, Arthur Brooks (trumpet), Stephen Haynes (trumpet), Stephen Horenstein (…

Matthew Shipp on piano and William Parker on bass in only their fourth duo album, the fruit of a four-decade friendship that began in the David S. Ware Quartet. Recorded in Brooklyn in June 2025, limited LP on Tao Forms.

Marc Ribot's first all-instrumental album since Live at the Village Vanguard: a quartet with Chad Taylor and the saxophones of James Brandon Lewis, Brian Settles and Briggan Krauss, between free jazz and No Wave. On Pi Recordings.

** ** Deluxe 180gr. Marbled vinyl edition. Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve. Original 1970 BYG album facsimile-edition. Mastered to vinyl from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins. Exclusive liner notes by author John Masouri ** **  Second chapter of Don Cherry’s "Mu" recordings for BYG - a landmark of free jazz improvisation. Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell had both played with Ornette Coleman and contributed to the revolutionary free jazz movement of the late fifties and early sixties…

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 …

** 2-CD set gathering the seminal albums “Mu” First Part and “Mu” Second Part. Restored & remastered from the original tapes by Nick Robbins. New & insightful essay by author & music journalist John Masouri. 6-panel deluxe digi-sleeve echoes the vibe of the original LPs & includes a 16-page booklet. Two printed inner wallets replicate the original LP covers back and front **  Two historic 1969 recording sessions by Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell now assembled on this deluxe 2-CD set that co…

*2023 stock* "Japanese pianist Yosuke Yamashita built his name as one of the country's avant-garde jazz leader with his bass-less trio founded still in 1969 (with drummer Takeo Moriyama and tenorist Seiichi Nakamura, in 1973 Nakamura has been changed by alto sax player Akira Sakata). Early-mid 70s were all years of trio's fame documented by representative collection of studio and live albums, all containing high energy fast and tight strongly improvisation music.Year 1977 was a transitional for …

Limited edition hardback, quarter-bound in cloth, 372pp. Labyrinth is a massive hardback book, 375pp in length, printed on high-quality art paper, with an embossed cover and cloth quarter-binding, written by Richard Morton Jack. This beautiful, limited edition hardback is the most comprehensive overview of the subject ever published. It celebrates over three hundred albums, offering detailed background info about each, alongside excerpts from original reviews and masses of high-quality images th…

SML is a Los Angeles based quintet featuring Anna Butterss, Jeremiah Chiu, Josh Johnson, Booker Stardrum, and Gregory Uhlmann.