Jazz & Improvisation / Contemporary

A senior figure on the scene whose output shows no sign of letting up as he enters his eighth decade. As well as groups alongside his established peers, he increasingly provides great experience and opportunity for his younger colleagues. Paul Dunmall and Discus Music are clearly on a roll together as the veteran composer and improviser delivers his sixth album in two years to the label. And what is especially interesting is how each of them sits well outside Paul's free blowing music, concentra…

Kaleidoscopic Visions showcases Tom Skinner drawing together the many threads of his career as one of the UK’s most versatile and free-thinking contemporary musicians. Performing and recording with Sons of Kemet, The Smile, David Byrne, Meshell Ndegeocello, Alabaster DePlume, Floating Points and Peter Zummo as well as a wide range of collaborations across London’s vibrant improvised and electronic scene, Skinner’s diverse touchpoints are brought together in an album of quiet power and profound t…

2007 release ** ""Echoes," a 2006 live quintet featuring Olivieri alongside Innarella on saxophone, Battiston on piano, and the prodigious rhythm section of Parker and Drake. A pulsating energy that free avant-garde revisits with a distinctive, modern harmonic structure, with clear structures that allow for intense improvisational vigor. Five dense tracks of near-perfect dialogue, with Innarella and Olivieri chasing each other in a play of references underscored by Battiston's percussive touch a…

2014 release ** ""Coincidence" features a blend of world music, ambient, and jazz elements, with the duo using instruments like church organ and bagpipe. The album explores the space between composition and improvisation, creating meditative and intense musical landscapes with Oriental textures. The album's uniqueness stems from the unconventional pairing of the church organ and bagpipe, two instruments with distinct cultural backgrounds but sharing the commonality of sound generation through vi…

2006 release ** ""Remember Now" is the second release of trombonist's Steve Swell Slammin' The Infinite band, and they now sound more like a unit. Rather than two front line soloists with a rhythm section, on this release they seem like a group of four equals. The rhythm section of Matthew Heyner (who is amazing on this disc) and Klaus Kugel (ditto) has really developed into a team that is just as able to step out in front and lead the band as to drive it along from behind. And the material Swel…

De la Catessen Records presents "Here Comes Everything," an 18CD debut by Pascoe & Martin. Inspired by Joyce’s Ulysses, each disc is a long improvisation, blending piano and saxophone in a virtuosic, playful exploration of experience and dialogue.

*2025 stock* Founded in the Winter of 2017 Adam Shead’s Adiaphora Orchestra is a large mixed chamber orchestra performing the compositions and conductions of percussionist composer, and educator Adam Shead. The Adiaphora Orchestra, located in Chicago, IL, is comprised of the cities finest rising star improvisers from a variety of performance idioms and practices. Including a full string, brass, woodwind, auxillary, and rhythm section the ensemble performs what Shead calls “indifference music”. A…

*300 copies limited edition. In process of stocking. 2022 stock* A great, unprecedented show! Two of the most influential artists in Lithuania, Vladimir Chekasin and Vladimir Tarasov performed as a duet at the 8th OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival. Titled “La Grande Sonata”, it was absolutely a one-of-a-kind performance specially presented to the Chinese audience. As the former members of the legendary Ganelin Trio (GTCh), they shared the glorious years with Vyacheslav (Slava) Ganelin. Together they have n…

Unionen is a new quartet of four star-level Norwegian and Swedish jazz musicians. The group takes its name from the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway under a common monarch 1814-1905 and brings together Ståle Storløkken (Supersilent), Per "Texas" Johansson, Petter Eldh (Koma Saxo) and Gard Nilssen (Supersonic Orchestra). It's not hip to say "supergroup" but this sure is one super of a group, with each member contributing to the band sound that is unique in all the best possible ways. From mis…

Timo Lassy, one of the leading lights in the current generation of Finnish Jazz, releases a new live album with his hard-cooking trio on We Jazz Records. That's Lassy on tenor sax, Ville Herrala on double bass and Jaska Lukkarinen on drums – each member a We Jazz recording solo artist on their own right. Recorded at G Livelab, Helsinki's premiere live music spot, in 2023 and including new versions of tracks all accross the sax man's celebrated catalog, Live in Helsinki proves why Lassy usually p…

Finnish saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen makes his We Jazz solo debut with Lehto / Korpi, a widescreen environmental jazz ambient album effortlessly bringing together Lyytinen's saxophone, field recordings and extended instrumentation. Lyytinen's solo music is built on textural compositions, extended saxophone techniques and electro-acoustic soundscapes and layers. Think albums like Evan Parker's "With Birds" and "Schwarzwaldfahrt" by Brötzmann/Bennink but with a whole other world of sounds to work wi…

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…

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…

Yowzers is a new album by Chicago composer, improvisor, instrumentalist and musical folklorist Ben LaMar Gay. The twelve track collection is a leap forward in the lexicon of Gay’s recorded output, and a veritable masterwork of ancient inner-body rhythms and intuitive melodic storytelling. It’s worth mentioning that a leap forward for Gay is no small feat. The musical ground he has covered in the last decade, both as a bandleader and collaborator, is immense. His de facto debut album—the 2018 com…

NoBusiness Records presents Live at Little John, Yokohama 1999 by Mototeru Takagi Quartet. Improvised & composed by Mototeru Takagi, Susumu Kongo, Nao Takeuchi and Shota Koyama. Recorded live on the 25th September, 1999 at Little John, Yokohama, Japan by Susumu Kongo and Nao Takeuchi. Mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Design by Oskaras Anosovas. Cover photo by Mitsuo Jofu 上不三雄. Booklet photos - Shota Koyama by Yutaka Narasaki 楢崎 豊 / Nao Takeuchi courtesy of Papillon / Mototeru Takagi by M…

1985 super rare tape, original copies ** The legendary ICP Orchestra (Instant Composers Pool) pushes sonic boundaries with their super rare tape-only release, Extension Red, White & Blue. A vibrant fusion of free jazz, avant-garde experimentation, and razor-sharp improvisation, this album captures the ensemble’s signature irreverence and mastery in a format as raw and immediate as their live performances. Extension Red, White & Blue is a riot of color and sound—a testament to ICP’s half-century …

Composer, clarinetist, singer and spiritual jazz soothsayer Angel Bat Dawid descended on Chicago's jazz and improvised music scene just a few years ago. In very short time, the potency, prowess, spirit and charisma of her cosmic musical proselytizing has taken her from relatively unknown improviser to borderline ubiquitous performer in Chicago's avant-garde. On any given night you can find Angel adding aura to ensembles led by Ben LaMar Gay, or Damon Locks, or Jaimie Branch, or Matthew Lux, or e…

This music was written in a period of intense emotions, as the grief and pain of losing my father tangled and fused with horror and despair at the genocide in Palestine – but life is complicated, and the music also comes from joy and love “Listening intently to raptors” is dedicated to the great bassist John Lindberg, and the title comes from an email correspondence we had during covid lockdown. “After a break” appeared fully formed after quite a long period of composer’s block, while listening …

1992 release ** Misha Mengelberg's large ensemble, the ICP Orchestra, wends its way here through a program in three parts. Following the brief, whimsical title piece (helpfully translated as "Forest Path Rabbithole I"), the band launches into a series of loose, decidedly off-liter takes on Ellington, generally tackling the real war-horses. Mengelberg's approach is always oblique at best, however, so even as the band sounds semi-traditional in one respect, the harmonies and written elaborations o…

1992 release **

*2024 stock* Following the success of ‘Brink Of Extinction’ Soft Power returns with an eight track album ‘Raw Bites’. Music here is rushing forth like a fiery law - robust and flashing, sinking into psychedelic soundscapes and then ferociously breaking the waves. The band just lets the music take control leading them to express energy freely from pure creative potential, combining kinetic and crispy grooves with mysterious cinematic sonic storytelling. Soft Power delivers a mind bending musical …

2025 stock To mark the 65th anniversary of the album’s recording, Blue Train will be released in two special editions on September 16 as part of Blue Note’s acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series. A 1-LP mono pressing of the original album will be presented in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket, while the 2-LP stereo collection Blue Train: The Complete Masters will include a second disc featuring seven alternate and incomplete takes, none of which have been released previously on vinyl…

Recorded live at Chicago’s renowned listening rooms, Constellation in February 2023, and Hungry Brain in July 2023, Stinger captures an exhilarating blend of precision and spontaneity. This album showcases a band that has fine-tuned its sound while embracing the thrill of unpredictability. At the forefront of this musical conversation is Keefe Jackson, a saxophonist whose deep and resonant tones on the tenor saxophone reflect his artistry as both composer and performer. Celebrated for his abilit…

*2025 stock* Performing the compositions of band leader Adam Shead, Microplastique creates music that is both absurd in its aesthetic and serious in its execution. "blare blow bloom!" consists of 10 tracks recorded live in stereo during the ensemble’s July 2024 tour throughout the United States. Throughout the tour, the ensemble performed 10 compositions at each concert, each with vastly different approaches and outcomes. Utilizing their keen improvisational abilities and shared language to morp…

*2025 stock* Irritable Mystic Records and Balance Point Acoustics are thrilled to announce the release of Spi-raling Horn, an audacious, boundary-blurring album from a staggering quartet: bass clarinetist Jason Stein, pianist Marilyn Crispell, double bassist Damon Smith, and drummer Adam Shead.   Born from a chance collaboration rooted in a shared appreciation between Smith and Crispell for the radical visual art of Cy Twombly, Spi-raling Horn invites listeners into a sonic universe where improv…

*2025 stock* Since its Fall 2022 Inception, Undisclosed Sims has quickly become one of the most creative and prolific bands working in the Chicago scene of jazz and improvised music. Simulate, the group’s first recorded material, exposes the band’s deep and diverse collective language producing an album that draws influence from ambient music, kraut rock, free jazz, and art-rock. Throughout-Wills McKenna, Luke Polipnick, Andrew Scott Young, and Adam Shead-prove again and again that they are here…

*2025 stock* Since the Stein/Smith/Shead trio's inception in the fall of 2021 they have quickly become one of the most creative and prolific bands working in the fields of jazz and improvised music. Hum see's the group moving deeper into their collective language, producing an album that is unlike any bass clarinet trio album recorded to date. Throughout this recording Jason Stein proves again and again that he is indeed the greatest living bass clarinetist working in improvised music today. Dam…

*In process of stocking* How do you welcome adventure? Longtime comrades, legendary Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Gerald Cleaver investigated this in their first album, Welcome Adventure, Vol. 1, resulting in 577 Records’ best-selling release in the 20 years we’ve been operating. Now, the group is trying the question again with their second astonishing volume, taken from the same historical recording session. Daniel Carter (Saxophone, Clarinet) has been collaborating with Will…

*2024 stock* Are you ready for magic? The master musicians Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Gerald Cleaver will provide access with this album, the first they have released after playing together for decades. Daniel Carter has been collaborating with William Parker since the early 70s and with Matthew Shipp starting in the mid 80s. This trio has played together on many recordings but by adding legendary drummer Gerald Cleaver to the mix they have created a masterpiece combination…

Tip! Across A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole, DePlume’s reflections on healing, dignity, and struggle are communicated through a stirring assemblage of disparate musics: ghostly and ancient folk melodies, groove-anchored maelstroms of swirling folk-jazz, elegant string arrangements that strike a midpoint between Ravel and Gainsbourg (courtesy of Macie Stewart), disembodied voices reconfiguring into the shape of a post-modern Greek chorus, noir atmosphere, and allegoric, troubadouric song. Throug…

"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-…

2024 stock. New York United is an experimental group at the musical intersection of a classic New York avant-garde scene and forward-looking electronic production. Comprised of multi-instrumentalist and 577-cofounder Daniel Carter (Saxophone, Flute, Trumpet, Clarinet), electronic producer Tobias Wilner from Blue Foundation (Synthesizers, Percussion, Vocals, Piano, Guitar), Wu-Tang Clan bass player Djibril Toure and 577’s Federico Ughi (Drums), their sound reflects their decades of collaboration.…

*2024 stock* Before any instrumentation, Francisco Mela addresses his fellow musicians, pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist William Parker, with a sense of anticipation and affirmation, “Okay guys, ready? Rolling!” The sense of camaraderie and his artist-focused approach is heard throughout the album’s majestic improvisation—as well as in its inspiration, dedicated to Mela’s longtime musical partner, the legendary jazz musician McCoy Tyner. Tyner was well-known for his boundless musical talent, an…

*2024 stock* Muriel Grossmann's album from 2016 "Natural Time" released for the first time on a black 2LP with a thick old style tip-on gatefold outer sleeve on her own imprint Dreamlandrecords and distributed by RR Gems. This record marked a beginning for her in terms of direction and it includes a bonus composition "Inner Fire '' recorded especially for the vinyl release. Available only in a physical format. "As we began this task, we realised that we would need another song to fit in with the…

2025 stock The overlooked pianist/composer Cedar Walton (1934-2013) recorded this marvelous debut album with his band Eastern Rebellion in New York City on December 10, 1975. The currently hard-to-find ‘Eastern Rebellion’ contains some inventive playing from every member of the quartet and this inspired modern jazz session is a fitting memorial to Cedar Walton. With Walton (piano) were George Coleman (tenor sax), Sam Jones (bass) & Billy Higgins (drums) playing four band originals and one John C…

2025 stock Jan Erik Vold and Jan Garbarek, two of Norway's most prominent jazz figures, teamed up with bassist Arild Andersen, drummer Jon Christensen, guitarist Terje Rypdal and Bobo Stenson on keyboards on those two September days in 1970 to create a formidable jazz album that sells for thousands on the second-hand vinyl market. Two poems from Vold (‘Det alle vet’ from the poetry collection Mor Godhjertas glade version. Ja (1968) and ‘Dikt’ from Kykelipi (1969)) and long, slow instrumental sec…

2025 stock In the ever-evolving landscape of European improvised music, Groet stands as a testament to the restless creativity and sly wit of pianist Guus Janssen and drummer Han Bennink. Released on the Dutch label Data in 2005, this album captures two of the Netherlands’ most idiosyncratic voices in a dialogue that is as unpredictable as it is deeply musical. Janssen and Bennink, both veterans of the Dutch avant-garde, approach the piano-drum duo format with a sense of play that borders on the…

2025 stock In the ever-evolving landscape of European improvisation, Apa Ini stands as a testament to the restless creativity of saxophonist Tobias Delius and his ensemble. Released on the Dutch label Data Records in 2003, the album brings together a formidable quartet: Delius on tenor saxophone, Hilary Jeffery on trombone, Wilbert de Joode on double bass, and Serigne C.M. Gueye on percussion Apa Ini is not an album that seeks easy answers or comfortable resolutions. Instead, it thrives on the t…

2025 stock In the early 1980s, the Dutch improvisation scene was a crucible of restless invention, and Cellotape & Scotchtape stands as a quietly radical document from its margins. Released on the small but influential Data label, this collaboration between cellist Ernst Reijseger and Scottish percussionist Alan "Gunga" Purves is a study in playful, tactile exploration—music that feels as if it’s being assembled in real time from the detritus of the everyday. Reijseger, already known for his uno…

2025 stock In the late 1970s, Amsterdam was a crucible for radical improvisation, and Mistakes—the collaboration between South African saxophonist Sean Bergin and Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger—stands as a vivid document of that era’s restless energy. Released on the Data label, the album captures two musicians at the threshold of their creative powers, forging a dialogue that is as unpredictable as it is intimate. Bergin, who had recently relocated from Durban, brings a raw, searching lyricism t…