Jazz & Improvisation / Contemporary

2026 stock  ‘Music is not material, Music is Spiritual’. With this one line from what may be his earliest poem, Sun Ra sets before our minds what our ears and heart know to be true: music is a power, a force, and a mystery that can change our way of being, our way of knowing. Music is spiritual. And while the roots of jazz grew from spiritual traditions, it was the music of Sun Ra from the 1950s and especially John Coltrane’s recordings from the mid-1960s that defined spiritual jazz as we know i…

2026 stock Austrian alto, soprano, tenor saxophonist and composer Muriel Grossmann was born in Paris. She grew up in Vienna where she studied the flute and later switched to the saxophone (alto and soprano) to further her studies in music. Grossmann played and toured with various Rhythm & Blues, World Music and Jazz groups. In 2002 she moved to Barcelona where she started to lead her own bands for recordings and concerts. She played and recorded with many well-respected musicians including Chris…

2026 stock Looking at the world in which we live, I was often haunted by feelings of powerlessness and disillusionment. How could it be, that the force of destruction seems to cast a shadow over the beauty and universal creativity of our interconnected race. How can a single human turn things around so that we live the dignified life we so much long for and also deserve? Feeling small and insignificant really cannot change anything for the better, I understand that we need to find the change wit…

Second edition. 300 copies, all parts identical to the first edition For the past decade, Mats Gustafsson has fastidiously produced and compiled the most thorough and comprehensive collection of archival solo recordings of the late legendary Swedish saxophonist and eccentric archivist of free music activity in Sweden, Bengt “Frippe” Nordström (1936–2000). Bringing together rare and unreleased recordings taken from an extensive collection of home-recorded solo sax improvisations, it documents his…

American Vibraphonist Dave Pike may not be as well-known as contemporaries Gary Burton and Bobby Hutcherson, but recordings with Bill Evans, Herbie Mann, and Paul Bley evince Pike’s pedigree. His MPS albums from 1969 through the early 70s have become minor classics. Underpinned by funk and fusion, Infra-Red ventures into country rock on Suspicious Child and trips through fractured iridescent landscapes on Attack of the Green Misers. Raga Jeeva Swara is a rock meditation and Send Me the Yellow Gu…

Ars Ludicra is the third studio album from Peter Evans’ group Being & Becoming, recorded in 2024 at the legendary Van Gelder Studios in New Jersey. Featuring Evans on a range of trumpets, piano, and electronics, Joel Ross on vibraphone and synth, Nick Jozwiak on bass and synth, and Michael Shekwoaga Ode on drums, the album captures the band in peak form during a period of extensive touring and intense musical development. The sound of the group has changed radically from what was heard on their …

*2026 stock. Includes score samples, photos, and more Kandinsky artwork* The highly anticipated second album from Being & Becoming. The LP features a continuous journey through 4 distinct musical compositions, symphonic in scope and delivery. The download (included with the purchase of the CD & LP) also includes the title track, recorded live in concert at the Jazz Gallery in the Spring of 2023. The music on this record has been workshopped, performed, and refined over two years, and introduces …

"Silva has created what could perhaps best be described as “ambient jazz”. That in itself seems like a contradiction, ambient being at odds with the spontaneity of jazz, and jazz being so vivid. But here we are. It’s partly the texture of the musical sounds that merits comparisons with jazz - far from the purely electronic soundscapes of Eno, early Tangerine Dream etcetera. Rather than tone and atmosphere over musical structure and rhythm, this is tone, atmosphere, musical structure and rhythm. …

2025 stock. The question is simple, but the answer remains an enigma: "What is Nublu?" The legendary Avenue C club and label exists as a force seemingly without definition, where Forro in the Dark delivers hard-charging Brazilian folk one night, and I Led Three Lives entrances crowds with near-psychedelic tech-jazz two nights later. If there is any promise of unlocking this mystery, the Nublu Orchestra conducted by Butch Morris holds the key. The Nublu Orchestra assembles the multifaceted range …

Bomb! The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker and William Parker formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves' “A Mind-Body Deal” exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and now a working group. Across 2LPs of side-length long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 Arts & Archives in LA and The Chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by t…

Jean-Jacques Duerinckx: baritone and sopranino saxophonesJean-Marc Foussat: AKS synth, piano, toys and voiceRecorded live at Haekem Theatre. Brussels, the 16th of May 2023 by Jean-Marc Foussat

Cosmic Ear is a new group bringing together Christer Bothén, Mats Gustafsson, Goran Kajfeš, Kansan Zetterberg and Juan Romero. Their debut album Traces is released by We Jazz Records on 23rd of May, 2025. Including 6 deep cuts, Traces is an album that sees Cosmic Ear tracking down the "traces" of the legendary Don Cherry's legacy while paving their own way in contemporary creative music expression. Christer Bothén, a collaborator with Don Cherry during his Swedish period in the 1970s, brings dep…

Collective interplay is essentially about listening and giving space. If ever there was a credo for this ensemble recording, this would be it. Sometimes the soloist or a small group steps forward, other times they play as a large unit. This collective of musicians are connected through old and new friendships, a set of relations that has been formed through two decades of co-creation on stage and in the studio, and their new recording is a reaffirmation of that with an A-side of free improvisati…

Longtime collaborators Mark Turner and Jakob Bro play central roles in the feature-length documentary film “Music for Black Pigeons”, which premiered at the 79th Venice Biennale, played across film festivals worldwide and portrays the unique artistic processes of Paul Motian, Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Craig Taborn, Andrew Cyrille, Manfred Eicher and many others. Mark Turner is heard on three albums with Jakob Bro, all from Avatar Studios in New York, and enters the film in a session from Copenha…

*100 copies limited edition* Confront Recordings, the vanguard of adventurous music since 1996, proudly unveils Be S-Mart, a riveting new album capturing the spontaneous brilliance of improvising masters Steve Beresford, Pierpaolo Martino, and Mark Sanders. Be S-Mart emerges from the heart of live improvisation, where Beresford's eclectic electronics and prepared piano wizardry collide with Martino's bass textures and Sanders' propulsive, ever-shifting drums. This trio forges a sonic landscape t…

We Release Jazz is very happy to announce the limited vinyl edition of Ill Considered's transcendent new live album Live in Jura, an expansive document of the trio's 2023 performance at Spiegelberg Festival - now available as a double LP with a bonus D-side, housed in a heavyweight sleeve with obi and an original artwork by Vincent de Boer. Captured in the heights of Saignelégier, Switzerland, in the middle of a pasture overlooking the Jura mountains, Live in Jura bottles the singular Ill Consid…

A compelling collaboration between guitarist Fred Frith and innovative harpist Shelley Burgon — known for her work with Anthony Braxton, Trevor Dunn, and Okkyung Lee — in a series of concise and precise improvisations recorded in Oakland, CA, in 2002 and 2005, as Burgon blends seamlessly with Frith's acoustic guitar to create seemingly telepathic synchronicity and an expansive sonic palette.

Thereupon is the long-anticipated return of the all-star collaborative trio Fieldwork, which has been described by NPR as a “power trio for the new century.” This long-standing collective comprises three internationally revered innovators of contemporary music: alto saxophonist-composer Steve Lehman, pianist-composer Vijay Iyer, and drummer-composer Tyshawn Sorey. In the seventeen years since their last recording, Door (Pi), all three musicians have climbed to the pinnacle of the creative music …

Listen Ship is the latest masterpiece in the ever-expanding sound world of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Threadgill, whom The New York Review of Books recently described as “one of American music’s great Romantics and a lifelong seeker of the sublime.” The new work is a suite for six acoustic guitars – including individual stylists such as Bill Frisell, Miles Okazaki and Brandon Ross – and two pianos that utilize Threadgill’s unique intervallic syntax to illuminate his idiosyncratic visi…

At first glance, the idea that McCoy Tyner and the Grateful Dead might share musical DNA seems like a stretch. One built frameworks to support Coltrane’s spiritual flights—rewriting the jazz harmony playbook while turning chords into flexible architecture. The others were a San Francisco circus of psychedelic chaos and Americana grooves, an improvising rock band whose mythology often overshadowed their musicianship. On the surface, Tyner and the Dead appear to come from different galaxies. But l…

Edition of 100 Nomade Orquestra releases its long-awaited fifth studio album, Terceiro Mundo, a work that transcends music to represent a journey of resistance, resilience, and inventiveness. The creation process began in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and social isolation, resulting in eight tracks that form a patchwork quilt of sounds where dormant ideas have awakened alongside compositions created exclusively for this project. "We're closing a very important conceptual cycle in our work," …

"Ville Vannemaa Cassiopeia is an exciting quintet project led by reed player Ville Vannemaa, a key player in UMO Jazz Orchestra and known for his engagement in several other Finnish jazz constellations. With him on this date is vibraphonist Panu Savolainen, Kasperi Sarikoski on trombone, Heikko Remmel on bass and Jaska Lukkarinen on drums. Six sublime songs penned by Ville himself, plenty of detail and swinging from joy to melancholy in a melodic sense aimed for repeated listening. Future classi…

“Exceptional UK jazz” Gilles Peterson (BBC Worldwide) “A wonderfully expressive group who have a superbly fresh sense of tone and timing” – Dusty Groove Chicago   The second album by this critically acclaimed jazz quintet from Leeds continues to mature in their newest offering “ENOS” File under UK Modal/Melodic jazz.

Founded in the vibrant musical haven of Brussels in 2015, Azmari have been crafting a truly unique tapestry of musical exploration. Melding intricate jazz textures with intoxicating oriental influences, mesmerizing ethio grooves, enigmatic dark funk, and the pulsating beats of dub music, Azmari defies conventional labels to weave a narrative of sonic innovation and artistic liberation. Influences range from an eclectic array of artists, including Okay Temiz, Heliocentrics, Whitefield Brothers, S…

Ingrid Schmoliner and Alex Kranabetter are pillars of the improvised and experimental music scenes inAustria stretching back more than a decade. Although the former is known primarily as a pianist and vocalist and the latter as a trumpeter, they both possess seriously expansive sonic palettes. Schmolinger works rigorously with sound direction to generate vibrant psychoacoustic and spatialized effects, while Kranabetter routinely deploys electronics to radically transform and expand his sound wor…

Peter Evans makes his We Jazz Records debut with Extra, a new album out 25th October. The band formation includes Evans on trumpet, Petter Eldh (Koma Saxo / Post Koma) on bass and Jim Black on drums. Peter Evans, an acclaimed trumpet player, improvisor, and composer based in New York City presents a gutsy new band that gets right to work with his eight new compositions. Extra was recorded at the iconic Namouche Studio in Lisbon and it has a feeling of a session where all musicians are pushing fo…

*50 copies limited edition* After six years of sonic exploration, David Croshaw and David Cooper unveil their debut album as David / David — Blame Haro, a bold collection that blurs the line between structure and spontaneity. The release also marks the British duo’s debut on 577 Records, introducing their distinctive blend of live improvisation and electronic experimentation to the label’s forward-thinking roster. The duo’s collaboration has been forged through a shared fascination with the mutu…

*100 copies limited edition* 577 Records proudly presents Turn of Events, the debut album from the Matthieu Mazué Trio—a bold new project led by up-and-coming pianist Matthieu Mazué, based between Zurich and New York. Featuring trumpeter Diego Hedez and drummer Francisco Mela, the trio brings together three distinct and powerful improvisers in a deep exploration of sonic freedom and form. In a striking artistic decision, the trio performs without a bassist—liberating the piano from its tradition…

A joint release from US label Astral Spirits (Austin, Texas) and Thanatosis Produktion (Stockholm), It could / If I is the first album from Stockholm-based, longstanding duo Johan Jutterström (saxophone) and Alex Zethson (piano). In addition to the duo’s own reimaginations of a few so-called jazz standards, it contains songs by artists such as Leonard Cohen, Pet Shop Boys, John Lurie, and German 19th century composer Alexander Fesca. "On this record what tunes are played somehow matters less tha…

*Original masters licensed by Nippon Columbia for the first ever reissue. Includes OBI and insert.* 'Tapestry: Koto' is a 3-album series produced by Nippon Columbia in the mid-1970s dedicated to one of the main instruments of Japanese traditional music: Koto. The beauty of the trilogy curated by composer Kiyoshi Yamaya, whose chapters are respectively dedicated to Sea, Hillside and Country, lies in the fact that they are a modern translation of tradition using newer and more avant-garde sound id…

Experience a captivating dialogue between clarinet and piano in Music for Clarinet and Piano, a compelling new release by renowned clarinetist François Houle and visionary pianist Georg Graewe. This album showcases a sophisticated interplay of contemporary composition and improvisational mastery, carving a unique space in modern chamber music. François Houle brings a lyrical sensitivity and technical precision to the clarinet, weaving intricate melodic lines with emotional depth. Georg Graewe’s …

Behind the name Pouf Pouf Pantoufle lie six musicians from Nancy, graduates of the Lillebonne music school: Vincent Petit on double bass, Gabriel Lambert on bass, Guillaume Schwab on keyboards, Tom Colombain on trombone, Gaspard Petitnicolas on flute, and Solal Piquand on drums. In 2022, they founded the APC (Appellation Pantouflarde Contrôlée) association and started organizing concerts at the legendary MJC Lillebonne, often alongside BMM and RPT. Thanks to their eclectic and avant-garde line-u…

"We are very proud of adding to our artists log such a great musician, immense composer, poet: Michael Mantler. I always admired his work since I was a kid and I think all of his records are in my collection. In a way it was quite natural for two other great artists to be involved in this brilliant project: long time Mantler collaborator John Greaves and the amazing Annie Barbazza. I hope you enjoy this live recording as much as I do and appreciate the care we all put in making this stunning alb…

*50 copies limited edition* On a quiet Tuesday night in April, three musicians—Max Ridley, Eleanor Elektra, and Nat Mugavero—gathered at The Lilypad in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for an evening of deep improvisation. What unfolded was Playing, Praying—an intimate, continuous recording that captures the trio’s shared devotion to sound, silence, and spirit. The album was recorded live as the trio improvised from the heart, pausing only for moments of silence—now preserved as their own tracks. These…

The long-awaited debut album from bassist-composer Thomas Morgan is a lush, layered journey through ambient textures and open improvisation. Featuring an all-star cast—Bill Frisell, Craig Taborn, Ambrose Akinmusire, Immanuel Wilkins, Henry Threadgill, Dan Weiss, and Gerald Cleaver—the record is both spacious and intricate, with Morgan’s own virtual instrument woods shaping its organic feel. The inclusion of poet Gary Snyder’s voice adds another dimension to this environmental soundscape. Around …

A powerful intergenerational trio emerges on Murasaki, featuring Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet, Marcus Gilmore on drums, and Jakob Bro on guitar. Recorded at Power Station (formerly Avatar Studios) in New York, this exploratory session unfolded spontaneously—no retakes, no discussions, just a shared musical language rooted in intuition and trust. “It felt as though this music already existed before we started playing,” Bro reflects. Murasaki captures the creative summit of three visionary artists,…

In a new duo collaboration that defies conventions and background, Midori Takada and Jakob Bro took up residence in Tokyo’s Avaco Studios to record their first album, あなたに出会うまで / Until I Met You. The title, taken from a Midori Takada composition, refers to the spiritual bond that arises in every new friendship, whether in music or in life. Until I Met You is pure acoustic music, a tapestry of dreamlike compositions with beautiful melodies that sees ambient music icon Midori Takada on grand piano…

Tip! Edition of 66 numbered copies. Straight outta Jutland comes the new album by Denmark’s Lenny Kalimba. Set your ears adrift in warm scenic sounds, and watch them dance blissfully spasmodic. Homemade flutes, carved from a sacred bamboo bush burning with playful awe, float across the sonic spheres to mind-melt with protofunkoid kalimbas. Electronic beats and acoustic drums swing each other to a higher level of groove. Recorded on tape for a warm listening pleasure, and hereby presented as a ta…

2010 release ** A long-standing member of Montréal’s extremely fertile experimental music scene, Jean René has lent his skills to many of his contemporaries. (...) Fammi comes across as a daring, idiosyncratic album. It's the 8th publication - out of 24, one for each hour of a day - produced by &records (Michel F. Côté & Fabrizio Gilardino).

Gustav Horneij’s Organic Pulse Ensemble blends jazz tradition with modern groove, inspiring unity & protest, uplifting listeners in the fight for freedom and justice for all.