Jazz & Improvisation / Contemporary

*2023 stock* Takehiro Honda joins forces with Reggie Workman on bass and Motohiko Hino on drums in this outstanding trio session. The album showcases a freer side of Honda, exploring open and lyrical modes that were gaining prominence in Japan during that period. Despite the freedom, a strong rhythmic sense prevails. While one track features Honda on electric piano, the acoustic numbers stand out with a proud and righteous energy.

Follow up to 2020's Plays For Trane, this is Plays For Trane Vol. 2. The band dives further into John Coltrane's catalog, turning it inside out, bending it, holding it with care. Forkelid, together with Mattias Ståhl, David Stackenäs, Vilhelm Bromander and Jon Fält, revisit the jazz giant in a celebrated transformation, reimagining the sounds of John Coltrane.

The world knows Muriel Grossmann as a bandleader, saxophonist, and composer of highly individual and original music. Her work has become closely associated with a modern revival of spiritual jazz, reflected in albums such as Golden Rule, Universal Code, and Quiet Earth, and in performances across Europe with herlong-standing quartet. That is one side of the story. In Ibiza, where Grossmann has lived and worked for over two decades, another side of the artist reveals itself. Locals know her not o…

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.

*100 copies limited edition* Astrocyrk (Astrocircus) is the next chapter in a story that began in 2123, when Captain Harrison Focus, after an emergency landing, finds himself on the mysterious planet Carmin. Following the events described in the previous album, the main character – Triceradiplodocus – leaves the planet's surface, following Ropuch’s instructions. However, the light on the horizon turns out to be the beginning of a new nightmare, and the dinosaur is trapped in the Astrocyrk. Under…

A double LP drawn from the Columbia recordings of Miles Davis with John Coltrane between 1955 and 1961, from So What to Someday My Prince Will Come, with Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly and Jimmy Cobb. First time on vinyl.

The 2000 Grammy-winning box of the complete Columbia recordings by Miles Davis with John Coltrane, 58 tracks from 1955 to 1961, reissued as six CDs in individually designed minijackets with a 116-page book.

The 2000 Grammy-winning box of the complete Columbia recordings by Miles Davis with John Coltrane, 58 tracks from 1955 to 1961, on vinyl for the first time outside Mosaic: nine LPs cut from the analog tapes, in a slipcase with a 60-page book.

Jan Garbarek's 1998 double album with Rainer Bruninghaus, Eberhard Weber, Marilyn Mazur and Bugge Wesseltoft, on vinyl for the first time in ECM's Luminessence series: tip-on gatefold jacket with booklet.

Stanley Cowell's only ECM album, recorded in 1972 with Stanley Clarke on bass and Jimmy Hopps on drums. Reissued in the Luminessence series, tip-on gatefold jacket with new liner notes by Ethan Iverson.

*2024 stock* Clamor rethinks the notion of 'women's work' as a space for both collaboration and singular voice. Just as our ensemble is limited and enabled by the written score, so might be individual enunciations of how gender norms limit agency. Clamor utilizes a collective, improvisational vision that prioritizes an intentionally fluid style by employing indeterminacy, navigated by the performers via time-based scores. These principles are balanced with metered notation to shape the overall f…

Le Très Jazz Club keeps on exploring Japanese jazz and the Three Blind Mice catalog with the reissue of this amazing 1976 record by drummer George Otsuka. Unavailable for more than forty years, the album is released for the first time outside of Japan. Physical Structure is an amazing jazz-fusion record featuring Fumio Karashima on piano and Fender Rhodes and Shozo Sasaki on tenor sax. Check the surprising and sublime cover of Naima which alone justifies to get this record! Personell list: Georg…

**250 copies, 2020 stock** Sonata Islands is a cultural association, born from an idea of Emilio Galante, that promotes and performs new music and jazz. They organized many concerts and festivals in Italy. After Sonata Islands goes RIO (dedicated to the music of Univers Zero, Fred Frith and Thinking Plague) and Nippon Eldorado Kabarett (with the same musicians, dedicated to Japanese RIO music of the '80s with pieces by After Dinner, Wha Ha Ha, Kiyohiko Semba and Haniwa All Stars), here they pay …

"The legend of the world of improvisation and the field of double bass virtuosity, Joelle Leandre, needs no introduction. She is one of the most expressive and original artists in the world! The singer and composer Elisabeth Harnik is probably already remembered by music lovers enough to follow her musical journey with bated breath, and Zlatko Kaucic, well, if you are in love with percussion painting, sensitivity, and expression combined with communication skills, this is one of the best address…

Brooklyn-born trumpeter and composer Adam O’Farrill, hailed as a leading light of the new American jazz scene, announces his bold new quartet project Elephant. With this ensemble, O’Farrill expands his sonic language into a fresh, genre-blurring space that fuses the intimacy of the jazz quartet with the emotional depth of 20th‑century minimalism and the rhythmic urgency of contemporary electronic and dance music. Elephant features a powerful lineup: O’Farrill on trumpet and electronics, Yvonne R…

Janel Leppin - The Realist (OOYH 048), featuring the incredible new trio of Janel with Devra Hoff (Sharon Van Etten, Nels Cline, Xiu Xiu) on bass, and Chad Taylor (Chicago Underground Duo, Marc Ribot, jaimie Branch) on drums, which Phil Overeem called "the freshest sounds from one of the most fascinating artists in creative improvisation."

*2023 stock. 300 copies limited edition* For the kids (6+) & family play MaiTé, the girl and the bird, Bruno Vansina was inspired by the famous exotica of Martin Denny and Les Baxter. His compositions, rearranged by colleague Pierre Vervloesem, remained true to the originals, but have a very contemporary feel to them as well, and soon started to lead a life on their own. This resulted in a new band - the 7-piece Orchestra Exotica - that performs the playful and multicolored music of Denny and Ba…

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…

What if the blue that I see is different from the blue that you see? This question is an infrastructure for my Afro-Surrealist Anti-Opera, Colla Voce. Often, when we think of Surrealism, we think of subconscious mental states, dreams, nightmares-those unexplored corners of our psyche. But Afro-Surrealism protests: what if that which one calls a ‘dream' is a nightmare to another? What if that which one calls ‘rational' is completely baseless to another? And surely, we must have varying ideas of w…

The Tomeka Reid Quartet - dance! skip! hop! (OOYH 041) releases February 13 2026 (LP/CD/limited streaming) on Out Of Your Head Records, featuring the steady quartet of Tomeka Reid (cello) with Mary Halvorson (guitar), Jason Roebke (bass), and Tomas Fujiwara (drums). Soon after finishing these compositions in June 2025, Reid realized that much of the music made her want to dance. Inspired by the title of Josh Berman’s stellar A Dance and a Hop, as well as her tendency to skip in public, the title…

Anna Webber & Angela Morris - tenor saxophone, flute, conductorJay Rattman - alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, clarinet, fluteCharlotte Greve - alto saxophone, flute, clarinetAdam Schneit - tenor saxophone, clarinetLisa Parrott - baritone saxophone, bass clarinet Nolan Tsang, Ryan Easter, Jake Henry, Kenny Warren - trumpets Tim Vaughn, Zekkereya El-magharbel, Jen Baker, Reginald Chapman - trombones Yuhan Su - vibraphoneDustin Carlson - guitarMarta Sánchez - pianoAdam Hopkins - bassJeff Davis - …

Out Of Your Head Records is proud to announce the release of “Dream Up,” the latest groundbreaking work from acclaimed drummer and composer Tomas Fujiwara. Known for his dynamic presence on the New York creative music scene, Fujiwara now turns his visionary artistry to the percussive universe, presenting a suite that explores the boundless possibilities of rhythm, texture, and collective expression. “Dream Up” is a suite composed specifically for a unique percussion quartet, featuring top-tier c…

The Hemphill Stringtet: Curtis Stewart - violinSam Bardfeld - violinStephanie Griffin - violaTomeka Reid - cello All music by Julius Hemphill (Subito Music Corporation).Recorded, edited, and mixed by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio.Mastered by Paul Zinman, Soundbyte Productions.Cover photography by Nina Contini Melis.Artwork + design by TJ Huff (huffart.com). The Hemphill Stringtet would like to thank the Aaron Copland Fund and Continuum Culture for their generous financial support. We would also …

Adam O’Farrill - trumpet & flugelhornMary Halvorson - guitarPatricia Brennan - vibraphoneDavid Leon - alto saxophone & fluteKevin Sun - tenor saxophone & clarinetKalun Leung - trombone & euphoniumTyrone Allen II - double bassTomas Fujiwara - drums Produced by Spencer Murphy.Conducted by Eli Greenhoe.Mixed by Chris Krasnow.Recorded at The Bunker Studio by Chris Krasnow, Alex Conroy, Nicky Young.Mastered by Alex DeTurk.Artwork + design by TJ Huff (huffart.com). All works composed and arranged by A…

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…

*2024 stock. 300 copies limited release* The Wind (music by Scott Clark, lyrics by Laura Ann Singh/Scott Clark)Dawn & Dusk (music by Scott Clark, lyrics by Laura Ann Singh)Silent Singing (music and lyrics by Scott Clark)Above The Gray (music by Scott Clark) Tracks 1-4 recorded August 16, 2021 and mixed at Minimum Wage Recording by Lance Koehler.Tracks 5-8 recorded live March 28, 2022 and mixed at Spacebomb Studio by Curtis Fye.Tracks 1-8 mastered at Minimum Wage Recording by Lance Koehler.Album …

"Death is a lack with weight. At the moment that you realize that someone you love is irrecoverably gone, a small tear in your life opens up. As days go by, the sliver of grief grows, becoming a rift, a gap, a gulley, a canyon. At the point that you feel lost in the immensity of space where that person used to be, the expansion stops; the hole—the vast and airy part of your life that used to be occupied by that person—becomes solid. Maybe it decreases in size, but more likely, your memories grow…

The first release of a 1995 studio session, produced by Evan Parker. The Kenny Wheeler Sextet includes Ray Warleigh, Stan Sulzmann, John Parricelli, Chris Laurence and Tony Levin.

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 …

"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…

On October 23, Animative, Johnson’s third album under his own name and his first for International Anthem/Nonesuch, arrives to turn up the wattage on his artistry. More than any release to date, Animative shows why musicians and a growing community of listeners know this Chicago native and longtime L.A. resident to be one of the most imaginative electroacoustic musicians today, not to mention one of the most stunningly versatile. On Animative, the harmonically rich, loops-inflected sound Johnson…

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…

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…

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)

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…

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…

Norwegian saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Harald Lassen returns with Rik, a vibrant and exploratory new album that picks up the threads of his acclaimed Balans - the album that earned him a Spellemannprisen (Norwegian Grammy) - and weaves them into something stranger, softer, and more surprising. “It’s the little brother,” Lassen says. “Same blood, same environment, but making different choices.” Across seven tracks, RIK builds a world that is both cinematic and deeply intimate.…

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…