Jazz & Improvisation / Contemporary

The grand old man of Finnish Jazz, Eero Koivistoinen, has not kept still in his old age. Far from it, he's played with rappers from the younger generation, Argentinian tango singers, you name it. The Eero Koivistoinen Quartet, onto its 10th year in e…

*300 copies limited edition. 2023 stock* Actor/singer/flautist Vesa-Matti Loiri's debut album 4+20 was a largely instrumental piece of psychedelic jazz. The follow-up, Vesku Suomesta, from 1972, is more vocal-oriented but no less psychedelic. With gu…

Koma Saxo, the explosive quintet led by Berlin-based Swedish bassist/producer Petter Eldh, returns on We Jazz Records with their new album, cut live at We Jazz Festival in Helsinki, December 2019. Whereas their lauded debut was a triumph of remapping…

Highly anticipated sophomore release from saxophonist and composer Sisonke Xonti, winner of South Africa's 2020 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz. At the centre of the album, Xonti's four-part "Migration Suite" is his boldest work to date, ex…

*In process of stocking* Repress of Wildflower's 2nd album. The band continued to explore areas of groove-based improvised jazz. Taking a slightly freer approach to the writing process, simple but effective melodies and bass motifs are explored to cr…

Paul Dunnall’s dynamic Birmingham quintet’s release Yes Tomorrow was a Discus highlight of 2022. We enjoyed the release so much that we took the unusual step of suggesting he add Julie Tippetts and Charlotte Keeffe to the group to make a second relea…

*2023 stock* From Wales, the home of the harp, Amanda has taken her classical roots and forged them in the path of jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby. She has toured extensively with Matthew Halsall and the Gondwana Orchestra performing at Jazz festivals aro…

*2023 stock* "A masterful statement from the Peter Brotzmann Tentet – a large group, but one that's capable of a rich array of sounds and sentiments – maybe given best exposure here in this key recording from the prime years of the ensemble! Ten play…

*2023 stock* The Dried Rat-Dog is a free jazz energy wallop from the duo of multireedist Peter Brotzmann and percussionist Hamid Drake. It kicks off with the title track, a cavorting of saxophone and drums that tears off, speeding over the hills and …

*2023 stock* "Peter Brotzmann's Chicago Tentet combines some of the finest avant improvisers out of Chicago and Europe. For a such a logistically and musically complex multi-member outfit they've had a rather long and significant life. And they still…

*2023 stock* This live recording from a 1996 Austrian music festival is a powerful interaction of three musicians from different countries, each of whom have extraordinary improvisational abilities and deep, grounded technique. A somewhat unusual ins…

Featuring Ken Vandermark & Mats Gustafsson. Recorded live at Victoriaville in May of 1999. Fantastic live material from a very unique group – the instantly-legendary meeting of reedman Peter Brotzmann with the leading lights of the Chicago avant jazz…

Drummer Tilo Weber joins forces with bassist Petter Eldh (Koma Saxo) and Elias Stemeseder, who plays harpsichord and keys here on Weber's We Jazz debut, "Tesserae". The three musicians plus guests present a unique jazz trio sound for all times, witho…

Marfa TX-based multidisciplinary abstractivist Rob Mazurek has made an indelible impact on creative music over the past 30 years. Emerging from the musical nexus of the 1990s Chicago scene, he’s written more than 400 compositions and is featured on m…

*2023 stock* "Improvised music is invariably meant for live consumption, where the give-and-take between musicians is laid bare for all to hear and the ephemeral nature of the playing is intrinsically linked to that one moment that’s never to be repe…

"As the bassist for the Matthew Shipp Trio for some dozen years, Michael Bisio has still made time to initiate a cornucopia of side projects, all distinct, all persuasive and all showcasing the deep and wide artistry of Bisio. But now, his side roads…

Great saxophonist, improviser Ivo Perelman celebrates its 60th birthday this year. Brass & Ivory tales - 9 CDs box-set is a gift for this phenomenal musician, great human being, and marvelous artist. Nine studio sessions with nine top and most creati…

*B-stock* This record was brought to us at Dizonord by Julien, part of the shop Music Records in Saint Brieuc (Brittany, France), who is specialized in Brittany music. In the band are fantastic people. The group leader came back from an initiatory tr…

*Rare original* "ARFI is an improvised music group from the south of France that continues to evolve, involving not only musicians but also cooks and street performers in its search for more freedom of expression. One of the core bands of the ARFI, w…

*Rare original* "As you can tell from the additional description to the album title, this album and the compositions on it are a collection of sound illustrations for performances, performances, dances, films and plays (mostly in the spirit of early …

*Rare original* French project combining flamenco and jazz. The music is reminiscent of recent bands around Ultra High Flamenco, recorded in 1985 at the Centre Autonome D'experimentation Sociale in Ris-Oragis, a suburb south of Paris on the Seine Riv…

One of the iconic and enduring music leaders to emerge in the world over the last half century, William Parker continues to raise the bar higher.

One of the iconic and enduring music leaders to emerge in the world over the last half century, William Parker continues to raise the bar higher.

Following her successful debut album After Dark, new ideas have led Whiting to create Lost in Abstraction. More than the expected ethereal washes of sound, the album playfully embraces her many influences into a soundscape of modernity. With rhythmic…

**180 gram vinyl** Though Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane were two of the prime forces in what came to be known as free jazz, their approaches couldn't have been more different. While Coleman's music dispensed with chords and rejected instrumental …

Swiss artist Lukas Traxel releases his powerful debut album One-Eyed Daruma on We Jazz Records, March 10. The trio features Traxel on double bass, Otis Sandsjö on sax and Moritz Baumgärtner on drums. Compact, deep, and organic to the bone, Traxel & c…

Recorded 41 years ago this month, Detail-90 (available as LP or download) presents two side-long improvisations from the seminal free jazz unit: Norwegian alto saxophonist Frode Gjerstad, expat American bassist Kent Carter and British drummer John St…

In Flower, In Song is the debut album from Trio Xolo, an improvising group composed of Mexican-American bassist Zachary Swanson, Baltimore-based saxophonist Derrick Michaels, and Lithuanian percussionist Dalius Naujo. With a telepathic ear toward mus…

'The Uproar in Bursts of Sound and Silence is a sort of emergent collage that came together over four years of composition, improvisation, and production. The foundations for this album were initially recorded in 2018 by producer/engineer Jack Endino…

*In process of stocking* 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 …

*2022 stock* "This is a pure gem, a beautiful and much enjoyable album, highlighting the immense talent and musicality of pianist Kirk Lightsey and his accomplices. Listen to the solos of Arthur Blythe and Chico Freeman, the music and humour of Leste…

"If music really is a form of rapid transportation, then I have found my mode of transport. Suspense brings apprehension before something happens. It’s a fact. The next time you’re in a snappy nightclub, tap your foot to the memories of your day fadi…

*In process of stocking. 2023 stock* Devin Daniels’ Trio Exposition is a bold yet vulnerable body of work that highlights his unique sense of rhythm and harmony through relatively obscure songs by jazz greats. Joined by bassist Logan Kane and drummer…

*In process of stocking* "Ostensibly ‘jazz’, but you’d be hard-pressed to adopt that term here, as the duo stretch the definition of such pat categorizations to the point where genre effectively becomes meaningless. Just gorgeous, pure music. Softly,…

Composer Valtteri Laurell Pöyhönen presents his Nonet formation on We Jazz Records. Their debut album Tigers Are Better Looking is released 3 Feb and the ensemble features internationally renowned Finnish clarinetist Antti Sarpila, plus a strong cast…

Finnish bassist Antti Lötjönen returns in February 2023 with his second Quintet East album on We Jazz Records. With Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen and Jussi Kannaste on saxes, and Joonas Riippa on drums, Quintet East is a hard-hitting ense…

*2023 stock* "Even though they’re often neighbors in the rhythm section, piano and guitar are not typically a good fit for jazz duets. Some of that has to do with the difference between an electrically amplified instrument and a percussive acoustic o…

*2023 stock* "This record documents long-term musical partnerships; duets with artists who have helped me refine my creative vocabulary. Yet my deepest musical relationship is with the bassoon itself, the kernel of my inspiration. It is the nurturer,…

"This album is dedicated to those who recognize living as a heroic act: the occupiers of sunup barstools; the cubicle-planted; the ghosts of Greyhounds; the reasonably sketchy. A burlap hero is one who marches—consciously or not—back to the sea in ho…

"I imagined the four ensemble pieces that begin this album as belonging to the repertoire of a speculative musical culture — one potentially not so far removed from my own — whose sonic and lyrical affinities reflect chronic, hazardous inundation, an…