Jazz /
II
Finnish quartet Superposition returns with their second album, "II", on We Jazz Records, 19th July. The band will premiere their new album live on the same day at Helsinki's Odysseus Festival, organised by We Jazz. Led by drummer Olavi Louhivuori, Superposition features Linda Fredriksson and Adele Sauros on saxes and Mikael Saastamoinen on bass. Having won the "EMMA" prize for the Finnish jazz album of the year with their debut (We Jazz Records, 2020), Superposition takes leaps forward with thei…
Volume 1
Brooklyn-based pianist Eva Novoa delivers a masterfully executed trio album of melodic themes replete with touches of swing, grooves and exquisite electronic landscapes. Novoa’s articulated playing flows with plenty of room gifting the band full freedom of improvisation.
On the track ‘Rocket Man’ you can hear the possibilities of the traditional jazz trio format as it projects into the future, combining the acoustic beauty of the piano with the electronic tapestry of modular synthesizer. The gro…
The Gowanus Recordings
*2025 stock* This eclectic group features the legendary multi instrumentalist Daniel Carter as well as the scientist/pianist Matthew Putman, drum wizard and 577 Records co-founder Federico Ughi, together with the brilliant up-and-coming member of the New York downtown scene, Texas-born clarinet player Patrick Holmes plus veteran bassist Hilliard Greene, a mainstay of the avant-garde for the last 20 years.
Elastic Wave
*2025 stock* Drummer Gard Nilssen’s ECM leader debut follows acclaimed recordings for the label with the Maciej Obara Quartet and with Mathias Eick. Elastic Wave presents Nilssen’s powerful trio with fellow Norwegian André Roligheten on reeds and Swedish bassist Petter Eldh. The group’s dynamic interaction, dancing sense of pulse and boldly etched themes – all three players contribute compositions – make Acoustic Unity one of the most engaging bands on the circuit today, able to address fiery an…
The Blue Land
*2025 stock* For the follow-up of his ECM-leader-debut La traversée, French saxophonist Matthieu Bordenave expands his trio of German pianist Florian Weber and Swiss bassist Patrice Moret with the unique sensibilities of drummer James Maddren, whose unrelenting pulse adds deft counterpoint to the group’s already idiosyncratic sound. Besides the soulfully angular rendering of John Coltrane’s “Compassion”, the quartet tackles eight Bordenave-originals that bridge the gap between chamber-jazz dynam…
A New Day
*2025 stock* Rekindling the familiarly flowing interplay with fellow travellers Thomas Morgan and João Lobo – the trio’s musical partnership goes back over a decade at this point –, on A New Day Italian pianist Giovanni Guidi moreover expands the group’s instrumental grasp with the introduction of American saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, who makes his ECM debut here. Not only is the ensemble scope widened; with Brandon Lewis in tow, new dialects and fresh perspectives are broached, and differe…
Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe
Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe is a powerful and often ignored 1970 recording from the American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer Albert Ayler. Apart from the posthumous album The Last Album, this was to be Ayler's last studio album, recorded and released before his death in November 1970. The album was initially judged as too difficult by Down Beat, then recognized by the most as “an important portrait of a man facing a life and death inner struggle beyond the bounda…
Skrifum
From the very first note, Norway’s Jon Balke proposes a new sonic dimension with Skrifum, continuing a line of inquiry begun with Warp (2016) and Discourses (2020), solo piano albums which also processed the acoustic environment in which the music was heard. Skrifum (the Icelandic word for “write”) takes things a step further. With the aid of electronic audio tool the Spektrafon, which he helped develop, Balke is now able to directly manipulate ambient audio sound from the piano while playing –…
A Black Op'era - Dedicated To Chairman Fred Hampton
2007 release (RARE) ** "A Black Op'era (dedicated to Chairman Fred Hampton), written, directed and performed by Ernest Khabeer Dawkins (one of Chicago's most famous improvisers and president of the well-deserving and celebrated AACM), leader of the Chicago 12, which includes some of the best and most famous soloists on the Chicago scene. Ernest Dawkins, one of Chicago's leading artists (he has collaborated with musicians and groups such as Ramsey Lewis, Muhal Richard Abrams, Richie Cole, Jack M…
The Eternal Now Is The Heart Of A New Tomorrow
Memphibians Rising from the Mud, Making Musical Moods Deepstaria Enigmatica is a quintet of improvisers from Memphis, Tennessee dedicated to creating otherworldly soundscapes. Named for a rarely seen, bell-shaped jellyfish discovered by Jacques Cousteau, the group's every note is inspired by that famous ocean explorer's sense of discovery. But don't assume the five veteran musicians create only chaos: they are as attuned to melodies and harmonies as they are to fine gradations of noise. What eme…
Gravity
Joona Toivanen Trio returns to We Jazz Records with their new album "Gravity", out 31 January 2025. A landmark work for the long standing group, the album showcases the forward-looking sound of the band, moving way beyond the basic scope of the "piano trio". There’s a startling sense of telepathy and intimacy at work in the music of the Joona Toivanen Trio, something you can glean from the opening moments of their latest album, Gravity. It’s that rare synergy that can only come with years of tim…
Beyond a Dream
"Beyond a Dream" is a live jazz album by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and drummer Norman Connors, recorded on July 22, 1978, at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and released in 1981 by Arista Novus. The album showcases a blend of spiritual and free jazz elements characteristic of Sanders' style, complemented by Connors' dynamic drumming. A reviewer from Dusty Groove described it as "a dream of a record from this legendary spiritual jazz duo."
Marion Brown In Sommerhausen
Alto saxophonist Marion Brown was an initially underrated hero of the jazz avant-garde. It was only after he moved from Atlanta to New York and joined John Coltrane that audiences and critics took notice. Dedicated to discovering the far-reaching possibilities of improvisational expression, Brown possessed a truly lyrical voice. In the early seventies, he played with Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyrille, Bennie Maupin, Jeanne Lee, and Chick Corea, among others. On this recording he was accompanied by…
SoundScapes Festival # 4 Berlin 2023
"Finnish saxophonist Harri Sjöström has been calling Berlin home for nearly 40 years, and for over 10 of them, he has been organizing concerts at venues around the city, featuring a who-is-who of the city's rich improvisation scene and beyond, under the title "SoundScapes." Starting in 2016, he extended the concept and held the first two SoundScapes Festivals in Helsinki, followed by one in Munich, and then, finally, in his adopted hometown. SoundScapes #4 was held over two mid-autumn nights in …
Assemblage
Simon Nabatov - piano, live electronicsMark Helias - bassTom Rainey - drums
All music by Simon Nabatov (GEMA) except collectively improvised tracks 4,8,10,12
Babs Robert & The Love Planet
"Despite its modest role on the world stage, Belgium has produced a number of internationally renowned musicians and composers. There is the iconic gypsy jazz guitar maestro Django Reinhardt, whose position remains unassailable, and guitarist/harmonica player Toots Thielemans, who became an internationally renowned artist performing and recording with Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Shirley Horn and Quincy Jones. The other key Belgian figure is composer/arranger Francy Bo…
Large
2010 release ** "Bolognesi has expanded her group this time out - featuring a core group of bass, drums, trombone, saxophones and percussion surrounded by other performers on various saxes, flutes, clarinets and trumpet, to form an 11-piece ensemble. This "open-ness" opens up a wide range of sounds and colors that is centered by Bolognesi's vibrant yet substantial bass tones. […] The result is a cohesive whole that displays Bolognesi's surprisingly mature writing that combines traditional with …
The Great God Pan
The third chapter of this extraordinary trilogy by the world's most extreme musical explorers—John Zorn, Bill Laswell, and Mick Harris.
Days Are Not Days
2009 release ** "When an improvised recording presents itself as a meteor, some foreign object from another civilization, like Days Are Not Days does, we should rejoice that it has entered our atmosphere and like a bolide, exploded upon contact. Okay, this recording by Portuguese saxophonist and flutist Paulo Chagas, and guitarists Samuel Hällkvist, from Sweden, and Stephan Sieben, from Denmark, isn't a bomb. It is, though, an improvised explosive device, pieced together from chamber music debri…
飓风 = Hurricane
Huge Tip! Deluxe LP edition, comes with a 8-page insert .This is a live recording of the Peter Brötzmann Trio (Peter Brötzmann, Sabu Toyozumi, and Jason Adasiewicz) from their performance at the 5th OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival at B10 Live, Shenzhen, in 2015. After the performance, the B10 Live team conducted a warm and friendly interview with the three musicians. The transcribed conversation has been edited and included in the liner notes of this vinyl album.Liu Ying Studio delivered exceptional mixi…