Jazz /
The Exu
Named after a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting and inspired by the artists multi-faceted stylistic approach - known for its raw, expressive, and dynamic qualities, blending street art with neo-expressionism to create bold, thought-provoking work. The Exu make layered, intense, creative & beautiful, thought provoking, genre fluid improvised music. The trio brazenly draw their musical influences from the worlds of free jazz, grunge, death metal, hip hop, bebop, & experimental music. Kane says ‘we are…
Here today gone tomorrow
"In the quartet on this album, Paul Dunmall has returned to his first love: totally free improvisation based on interaction between the four players. Many aspects of Paul Dunmall’s playing are apparent on this album. His approach is to listen very carefully to what is happening around him and to react to it. If you see him play live, you will see how he concentrates on the flow of the music, often stepping back and allowing the music to develop before choosing the right moment to enter or re-ent…
Color Systems
Rob Mazurek’s creations, dedicated to these six artists offered to Tomeka Reid, Angelica Sanchez, and Chad Taylor, to interpret freely. A foundation laid for these improvisations in the foursome’s forays into Mazurek’s music with the larger ensemble. Here something becomes distilled. Interaction is direct. The unit is unitary, the dynamics are gently modulated, the sounds are tendered with deliberation love and inter-ensemble generosity.
Stumps
Sven-Ake Johansson has referred to the book of compositions used for his Stumps project as the magnum opus of his small group writing. The top-notch quintet he assembled for the project includes some of his most trusted collaborators in trumpeter Axel Dörner and double bassist Joel Grip, complemented by the involvement of two younger but equally compelling French improvisers, pianist Simon Sieger and alto saxophonist Pierre Borel. A set of recordings made at the Berlin club Au Topsi Pohl were re…
Sidewalks in Motion
Rashied Ali stood as a magnetic force for the musical environment around him. In his last decades he sponsored rehearsal opportunities for young musicians, tightened up neighborhood street-corner drum circles he happened to pass, and for years would pull promising young talents into his orbit. One unique group that Ali led at the 2002 Vision Festival in NYC, along with with Frank Lowe, he also took into the studio—and the moment you hear on Sidewalks in Motion features Ali and Lowe along with yo…
Illuminate
2024 Stock. Minor signs of wear from long-time storage. ** "This quartet date pairing alto saxophonist Rob Brown with guitar madman Joe Morris dates from 1993 with William Parker, the ubiquitous New York bassist in the avant-garde, and the lesser-known, but very able drummer Jackson Krall. Recorded by Tommy Tedesco (not the guitarist), this set has all the elements that many of Morris' other dates are missing: cohesiveness. Here he is merely part of the band. Sure, he solos, but no more or less …
From The Bureau Of Both
2024 Stock. Minor signs of wear from long-time storage. ** "One of the better albums in Rova's confusingly expansive discography, From the Bureau of Both features some of the quartet's most immediately rewarding moments, as well as a few on the opposite end of the spectrum. Rova can be surprisingly accessible when the group's free explorations are tethered to strong frameworks, and that's the case with much of this album. "Swang" became something of a signature piece for the group, featuring a j…
The Works (Volume 2)
2024 Stock. Minor signs of wear from long-time storage. ** "Many listeners may think of ROVA (comprised of Bruce Ackley on soprano and tenor, Jon Raskin on baritone and alto, Steve Adams on alto and sopranino and Larry Ochs on tenor and sopranino), the most advanced of the saxophone quartets, as playing free jazz, but much of their music on this CD is actually written out, tonal and occasionally rhythmic. The term "avant-garde" does fit as long as one keeps in mind that these very lengthy explor…
The Works (Volume 1)
2024 Stock. Minor signs of wear from long-time storage. ** "ROVA saxophone quartet provide a tiered, three-dimensional look at the interaction of soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone. The arrangement of these instruments in the stereo mix -- left to right on all tracks in the sequence soprano, baritone, alto, and then tenor -- offers great contrast in the three-dimensional sound. Even the bright little spark of piccolo or sopranino saxophone involves in these works of sonic texture. Whil…
Cantos I-IV
2024 Stock. Minor signs of wear from long-time storage. ** "Webster's defines the word canto as "one of the major divisions in a long poem." These four cantos of the Austrian composer and flügelhorn maestro Franz Koglmann are indeed major divisions in a long poem, but that poem happens to be musical. Rather than look at Cantos I-IV as a symphony with four movements, it is better to view them as breaks in the various traditions that Koglmann has been inspired by and participates in: jazz in all i…
M.A.P.
2024 Stock. Minor signs of wear from long-time storage.
The Street One Year After
2024 Stock. Minor signs of wear from long-time storage.
The Kitchen Concert
2024 Stock. Minor signs of wear from long-time storage. ** The primary inspirations on the album include the blues, African drumming and the music of Lennie Tristano. The pieces were commissioned by the New York arts organisation Roulette as part of their tenth birthday celebrations. Marilyn Crispell, bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Gerry Hemingway played together many times in the Anthony Braxton quartet, but this was their debut performance as a trio. The title of the composition "What of it …
Roboquarians, Vol. 2
Connect to your favorite listening device, crank up the volume, and prepare for the ultimate avant-punk experience! Brooklyn-based 577 Records is honored to present the Roboquarians’ first recorded album, Roboquarians, Vol. 2. The new release comes from the hearts of up-and-coming sax talent Ayumi Ishito, lively drummer Kevin Shea, and gifted guitarist George Draguns. When Ayumi received a request from Shea and Draguns to collaborate, she became part of the intriguing backstory of this work of…
Quartet Music Vol. I: LuMiSong
The first time the band that became LuMiSong ever played together was during the Great Lockdown of July 2020. The others wore masks while I stood twenty feet away with the door behind me open to a Gowanus side-street. I hadn’t shared a sound or negotiated an eighth-note with anybody for months and the experience overwhelmed me with emotion. (The most basic facts of collective music-making are the most profound.) We all brought in music to that session and to the many that followed. Matt and Sant…
Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy
2024 repress. "Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy, x2 LPs of long-form, lyrical, groove-based free improv by acclaimed guitarist & composer Jeff Parker's ETA IVtet, is at last here. Recorded live at ETA (referencing David Foster Wallace), a bar in LA's Highland Park neighborhood with just enough space in the back for Parker, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, & alto saxophonist Josh Johnson to convene in extraordinarily depthful & exploratory music making. Gleaned for the stoniest …
Yikes
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…
Christopher Dammann Sextet
"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-…
Waterfall
Sun & Rain is a fully collaborative quartet that thus far has practiced a painstaking process of co-composing music together. Because of this extreme sense of collaboration and only working on the music when all four members were physically together, the album Waterfall took six years to compose. Beginning in 2014 the band gathered at Laplante’s residence in Vermont for semi-annual rehearsal retreats. These were not particularly relaxing retreats, as the band held themselves to a rigorous work e…
Blood Burden
Blood Burden is the debut album from Brooklyn-based saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Alfredo Colón. Deeply rooted in the blues tradition, Alfredo brings harrowingly raw emotion in the form of barely-contained chaos to Blood Burden — a meditation on the interplay of Dominican folklore and Catholic imagery and ethos, and an ode to his immediate family members in the face of intergenerational trauma. Recorded at Figure 8 studios in New York with Lex Korton on piano, Steve Williams on bass, and…