Jazz & Improvisation / Avant-Garde Jazz

Passerine began in the fall of 2024 when my older son left home for college and friends began to ask if I were experiencing empty nest syndrome, or half-empty nest syndrome, as was the case. Each time, my reply was a simple, “nah, I’m good…everybody’s good.” And that was true. My wife, the boys, and I were all doing relatively well after many difficult, often harrowing years of helping our first-born navigate deep and dangerous mental health struggles — struggles so severe that we’d already had …

** High Quality reissue. Remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head ** On The Blue Yusef Lateef (1968), listeners get an amazing chapter from the late '60s, an amazing period when everything in the world of Jazz was changing. Yuseef Lateef was big on concept recordings. This album examines all the different ranges of emotion contained within the blues genre. With a band that included Detroit Jazz gods Roy Brooks on drums and Kenny Burrell on…

"Hideto Kanai's first album is fairly hit-or-miss free jazz, but here he's in full-blown Black Saint and the Sinner Lady mode. There are twenty three musicians on this album (twenty three!), and while the undercurrent of free jazz is still running through, it's much closer to experimental big band or avant-garde jazz. And it's extremely compelling. Two side-long pieces, both of which go in and out of being quite elaborate and being complete chaos. There's some unusual and dissonant guitar and sy…

Feelings marks Jake Henry’s long-awaited return as a leader, more than a decade after his debut with Sweet Talk Glitterbomb. This album is a deeply personal exploration of the intricate harmonic language and angular counterpoint Henry developed during his formative years as a guitarist. Drawing on the frenetic energy of math rock, raw intensity of metal, and chaotic textures of noise, Henry recontextualizes common song form into a bold, genre-defying soundscape. The quartet—featuring Brian Krock…

**300 copies, 2019 stock** "Dirk Serries and his wife, double bass player Martina Verhoeven, meet British tenor sax player Colin Webster, who also participated in the Dead Neanderthals’ Endless Voids, for a live improvisation, recorded at the DIY club Cinépalace in Kortrijk, Belgium in May 2015. A month earlier Serries performed with Webster in a quartet that was recorded as Live at Cafe Oto, and released on Webster’s Raw Tonk label. This recording, titled after the club name, highlights the hig…

On a perfectly smooth surface of silence, three hurled stones create their patterns of waves. The lines intersect, unite, cancel out, or reinforce each other. Sometimes, they form together a harmonious pattern. At other times, they express the beauty of chaos and entropy. But they always remain in relation to each other - no movement goes unanswered. No energy escapes into nothingness. These three stones are Scratching Fork. Three musicians with different characters, histories, and registers. Ma…

"There are many illusive or ephemeral descriptions that are often part of how words seek to elucidate the listening experience. In the music we have on this recording from Florestan and the trio he has formed to venture his musical initiatives, words such as space, transparency, suspension, stasis, momentum, tension, multiplicity, flow, cohesion, dimension, release are some of the ingredients that come to mind to articulate the musical experience this recording offers. To me, Florestan’s musical…

Is an open dialogue of polarity possible? A dialogue of human existence in the cosmos and in nature, set against the backdrop of contemporary technology? That the feeling of being torn or detached is permanently inscribed in human nature is a truism. Yet we don’t always recognize the nature of this detachment—sometimes it seems like a separation from something immense, completely different from what humanity itself is. From a certain perspective, one could say that the many myths, symbols, ritua…

Vocalist and songwriter Laura Ann Singh presents her new album Mean Reds, a deeply personal and sonically expansive project that traverses jazz, folk, and global influences with fearless honesty. Known for her evocative voice and ability to blur genre boundaries, Singh brings listeners into an intimate conversation about vulnerability, resilience, and the beauty that can emerge from darker emotional landscapes.   Mean Reds captures a spectrum of moods—from haunting ballads drenched in longing to…

Tip! In 1975, under the oppressive air of military dictatorship in Brazil, brothers Lelo and Zé Eduardo Nazario invited bassist Zeca Assumpção to join their musical experiments in a basement under Sao Paulo’s Teodoro Sampaio Street. As teenagers, the trio had already been playing together in Hermeto Pascoal’s Grupo, alongside guitarist Toninho Horta and saxophonist Nivaldo Ornelas, and it was while working together under Hermeto’s direction that the Paulista rhythm section (as they were then kno…

“Thollem is a modern griot who has absorbed sounds from every place he has visited.” – William Parker, from Conversations II (Rogue Art)

** The first cassette edition of this album to exist in the universe, ltd to 100 copies in white **Malik King was an important part of the St Louis jazz scene of the 70's & 80's. He studied under Albert Ayler in NY in the early 70s before returning to the Midwest. He was a member of the Shirley Le Flore's ensemble "Free N' Concert". He also served as musical director of The Creative Arts & Expression Lab, The African Peoples Continuum, & The Black Arts Alliance, The worrier poets, The Human Arts…

Super rare 1970s British jazz from Joy: Chris Francis, James Dvorak, Frank Roberts, Ernest Mothle, Keith Bailey reflecting the young, multicultural, vibrant flavours of mid-70s London. Funky, hip, committed, Joy is one of the forgotten gems of London jazz. Originally released in 1976, Cadillac and Joy are delighted to offer the first CD/Digital reissue of this great album - remastered by Keith Bailey and including extra, previously unissued, material and a vinyl reissue of the original release i…

The term “private” is used quite liberally in the promotion of rare groove compilations these days. The team at Tramp Records tends to be rather defensive when it comes to such terms. Although, and this should not be misunderstood as arrogance, label boss Tobias Kirmayer & his crew have been doing nothing else for 22 years, strictly speaking. Every compilation series from the Upper Bavarian label, be it the “Movements,” “Feeling Nice,” “Praise Poems,” or “Can You Feel It” series, specializes in …

Sweet World was recorded in the summer of 2023 in Brooklyn. It features a book of songs that my trio with drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell, and cellist Christopher Hoffman performed for a year or so leading up to the recording. I wrote most of these songs with Nathan and Chris in mind. I tried to bring my whole musical self to this project. I love so many kinds of music. Improvisation is central to everything I do. The written material for these pieces all fit on one or two pages and each of them crea…

With Writing, Ahmed - the quartet of Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal and Seymour Wright - turn a decade of notes, essays and sleeve texts into a woven chorus, mapping how their deep dive into Ahmed Abdul‑Malik becomes a living method for making future music.

Tim Berne - alto saxophoneTom Rainey - drumsGregg Belisle-Chi - guitar All music composed by Tim Berne Party Music BMI except Julius Hemphill by Julius Hemphill.Subito Music Publishing (ASCAP).Mixed and mastered by David Torn.Vinyl artwork + design Steve Byram.CD artwork + design TJ Huff (huffart.com).Digital artwork is a collaboration between Steve Byram and TJ Huff. Tracks 1-10 recorded April 20th 2024 by Greg DiCrosta at The Studio at Firehouse 12. Tracks 11-18 are a live concert recorded Mar…

On Live at the KiMo Theater Albuquerque 1979, Cecil Taylor leads a newly reconfigured Unit through a rare Western American performance of volatile grace and immense detail. Piano, alto saxophone, violin, bass, cello and multi-instrumental percussion form a shifting, luminous organism - less gladiatorial than Taylor’s 1978 bands, but no less radical in its freedom.

Tomin’s debut full-length work, A Willed and Conscious Balance, answers a set of questions left unasked in recent years, as a new generation of artists re-energizes the tradition often referred to as “jazz” into its own directions: Where are the composers working with large ensembles? Who are the arrangers creating unexpected charts and dreaming up new orchestral sounds, layered tones and harmonically vibrant colors, the kind that have amended jazz’s “music for soloists” reputation since the swi…

"Christopher Dammann Sextet is a debut record, but it’s by no means a first effort. Bassist, composer, and improviser Christopher Dammann has been making records for about fifteen years, first as a member of 3.5.7 Ensemble and more recently as the leader of Restroy. Throughout that time, he’s also gigged persistently in Chicago, notably as a regular substitute for Brian Sandstrom in the long-lived free improv collective Extraordinary Popular Delusions, and from Charlottesville, VA (between 2010-…

*2026 stock* The third album of the quartet "Akira Sakata x Triple Edge," in which Masayasu Tsuboguchi, Takeharu Hayakawa, and Masataka Fujikake gather to create a rare improvised world with dynamism as if diverse organisms were wriggling under Akira Sakata, a giant tree several thousand years old.

Recorded in Paris in 1965, Don Cherry’s Togetherness is a five‑part live suite where pocket‑trumpet chants, Gato Barbieri’s searing tenor, vibes and a dancing rhythm section turn early free jazz into something fiercely open yet strangely joyful.

Untethered Mind Warps Sound Time-Space. The bear, code-named KM-53, passed away in June 2023. Unlike other Asiatic black bears, which Koreans refer to by ‘bandal gasum gom’ or ‘half-moon chest bears,’ KM-53 embarked on a journey of nearly 80 km from its original habitat in its second year of life, tirelessly moving through the backbone of South Korea's major mountain range. He could not confine himself to the assigned territory. Wild or not, we are all children of nature. Whether successful or n…

This is the first to be released of a series of albums ESP started recording in 2023 combining artists who hadn't worked together before. In this case, we team saxophonist Larry Ochs with the Flow Trio rhythm section of drummer Charles Downs and bassist Joe Morris. They meshed magnificently on their first encounter! Larry Ochs, co-founder in 1977 of ROVA Saxophone Quartet, was born in New York City but has long been based on the West Coast, specifically the Bay Area. He has also been a member of…

"The title Looking for Consonance popped into my head one day as I began thinking about a name for this collection of music. This title immediately felt important, so I kept sitting with it. I thought I knew what consonance meant in music, but I also knew it carried other meanings—ones that extend well beyond sound. Webster’s Dictionary defines consonance as “the harmony or agreement of sounds produced simultaneously, resulting in a pleasing and stable auditory experience.” The word that stands …

Matt Gold and Dustin Laurenzi present Devotional Fade, a collaborative record of electroacoustic rhythmic improvisations – equal parts meditation and dance, released on We Jazz Records, 24th April. Laurenzi and Gold, key collaborators in the Chicago creative scene and with genre spanning artists such as Bill Callahan and Makaya McCraven, step forward here with a major artistic statement, a product of extended improv sessions capturing the duo's hypnotic interplay. This is the sound of two of Chi…

Cush is a raw, genre-blurring journey of drums, trumpet & baritone sax — where musique concrète meets groove-jazz. A sonic rebellion echoing Corto Maltese’s mythos. For fans of Pierre Henry & wild improvisation.

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…

*Limited edition of 500 copies* Drummer and composer Edward Vesala, the most internationally renowned jazz musician from Finland, was very keen on percussion instruments. Oddly enough, this broad and enduring interest is hardly evident on his albums.Whether playing on his own albums or contributing to other musicians’ work, Vesala played a standard drum kit most of the time. He hardly used external percussionists on his own albums either. And most of all: his music was almost never percussive, a…

"Tonight At Noon" compiles tracks from two earlier recordings sessions: one session from 1957 with Jimmy Knepper on the trombone, the drummer Dannie Richmond, Saxophone player Shafi Hadi and the pianist Wade Legge, which were released on the album "The Clown" (Atlantic 1260). The second session took place in 1961 with Booker Ervin and Roland Kirk on the saxophone, Knepper, the bassist Doug Watkins, Mingus at the piano and Richmond on the drums, and was released on "Oh Yeah" (Atlantic SD 1377). T…

Something About Livingis an album of live recordings by experimental jazz composer/multi-instrumentalist Robert Stillman. The music was captured over the course of Stillman's time as the solo support act for The Smile (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Tom Skinner). The album weaves excerpts from various theater and arena shows along the tour's North American routing into a seamless whole, creating a 40-minute program that represents an expanded version of Stillman's ever-transforming live set. Somet…

Adroit jazz guitar, prog rock fantasia, and Japanese environmental music all rest comfortably behind Leo Takami's Next Door. The follow up to the acclaimed Felis Catus & Silence, Next Door finds Takami ruminating on passages — of time, seasons, consciousness. Through music, Leo contemplates daily events and finds beauty in ordinary moments. He also seems to be questioning the value of being stuck in the world, allowing his mind to wander towards something beyond it. His music is earnest, deeply …

Belonging to an incredible, audiophile reissue initiative dedicated to the seminal Jazz Actuel series - one of the greatest depositories of 1960s free jazz - at long last we're gifted one of the greatest of them all: the first ever fully authorized reissue of Jacques Coursil's towering 1971 LP, Black Suite, fully remastered from the original 1969 analog master tapes. Featuring an all-star line-up of Anthony Braxton, Arthur Jones, Burton Greene, Beb Guérin, and Claude Delcloo, it has long remaine…

"How magical that in an improvisation recorded in a former hospital funeral chapel, we hear the sounds of life. We hear the sounds of breath. Not only the gentle sibilance of the air spilling from the edges of the mouthpiece, as it escapes life as a note; not only the airiness of those low drums: but also the sound of the music being allowed to breathe within the space’s very special acoustic. We hear the sounds of the heartbeat in Cornelia Nilsson’s low drums, now urgent, now reassuring. And we…

The love it took to leave you, is the title track to Colin Stetson’s first solo recording since 2017. It features new ways of capturing his music and instrumentation, intensifying his practice and to continue challenging the historical canon of the bass saxophone while crafting emotive, haunting and harmonically innovative music. Recorded over a week in early 2023 at The Darling Foundry, a 144-year old former metalworks facility in Montreal now transformed into a 3500m3 contemporary art complex,…

*100 copies purple vinyl limited edition* Out Of Your Head Records announces the latest chapter in creative music: 'Half of What You See' by Wrens, a bold new contribution to the label’s tradition of boundary-pushing artistry and limited-run releases. Continuing their dedication to inventive sound and visual originality, Out Of Your Head Records—spanning Richmond and Brooklyn—invites listeners into a world where sonic textures and emotional immediacy collide. 'Half of What You See' showcases Wre…

"Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo (1936-82) issued only three live recordings during his lifetime. Significantly, the first of these, The Sorcerer (1967), remains the most popular album in the guitarist’s all-too abbreviated discography. But there were also More Sorcery (1968) and Gabor Szabo Live with Charles Lloyd (1974), offering Szabo totally in his element and at his bewitching best. Several more of Szabo’s concert recordings have surfaced in the intervening years, including this one, superb…

How do you make a documentary film about a man who was also a myth? About a musician who was more than a musician? About someone who asked us to trust our intuition more than our rational minds? This double CD contains the original soundtrack to the accompanying PBS documentary! Includes liner notes from executive producer Bradford Smith about the making of Sun Ra: Do The Impossible, interviews from members of the Arkestra and a BluRay disc of the doc! Firelight assembled an incredibly talented …

Many have been taken by the works of New Orleans’s Byron Asher and NYC’s Tomas Majcherski, but few have heard them as the Sonic Chambers Quartet. Joined by rising bassist (and frequent collaborator) Matt Booth from North Carolina and NOLA’s beloved avant-garde drummer Doug Garrison, the new group has teamed up with 577 Records to release its debut album, Kiss Of The Earth. It’s a beautiful, thought-provoking arrangement of emotion, creativity, and freedom that soothes your soul.  Though not offi…

LP ltd to 315 copies. An’archives is proud to present the latest album by Japanese free saxophonist and vocalist Harutaka Mochizuki, Doppelgänger ga boku wo. Since the early 2000s, Harutaka has quietly, yet steadily, released a string of solo and collaborative releases that have allowed multiple perspectives on one of the most singular voices in modern music. In collaboration, he seems to prefer the duo format, and digging through his discography, you’ll find releases where he pairs with Tomoyuk…