Jazz /
Sun Piano
Spiritual keyboard improvisations performed by Laraaji and recorded in a Brooklyn Church by Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, The War On Drugs, Mary Lattimore). Sun Piano finds Laraaji fulfilling a lifelong ambition to return to his first instrument, learnt whilst growing up in 1950s New Jersey. A departure from his FX-soaked cosmic zither jams, these elegant miniatures nevertheless reveal enough personality and inner light to be clearly identifiable as ‘Laraaji Music’.
This release is the latest step in…
The Piano Equation
"Further honing a singular cosmic musical language, Matthew Shipp begins celebrating his landmark 60th year with this new work for solo piano. The Piano Equation is also the inaugural release from Tao Forms, a new label devoted to enlightened and elevated free jazz. Over more than half of his lifespan, Shipp has built up an unparalleled body of work and a wholly original musical language that only becomes more hyper-focused and distinctive with the passage of time. Shipp's abstract eloquence is …
African Piano
South African pianist-composer Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes "Dollar" Brand), still performing at the time of this 1969 live album under the moniker “Dollar” Brand, unleashed a mastery so enticing on African Piano, it’s a wonder that any of the folks at the club where it was recorded had the resolve to treat it as background to their dining. By the same token, reinforcement of that fact by constant ambient noises renders Ibrahim’s performance all the more sacred by contrast.Amid a sea o…
Piano Works
**2019 stock** Piano Works is Lisa Ullén’s most ambitious work so far – a triple CD of solo recordings capturing the breadth and depth of her singular musical vision. Ranging from 49 seconds to almost fifteen minutes, the 27 pieces collected share the distinction of sounding thoroughly composed and yet instantaneously sculpted (as they are) at the same time. There is a precision to her playing which brings out every note, fixes it and makes it sit there on the musical canvas, even as the figures…
Nirvana
Nirvana is an album by jazz flutist Herbie Mann with The Bill Evans Trio featuring Chuck Israels and Paul Motian. The great jazz pianist Bill Evans rarely recorded with flutists, but this exception marked a great collaboration. The musical synergy between Mann and Evans is amazing, as they always become one on each track. It's a relaxing album, with both some softer as upbeat songs by the four. Fans of either Herbie Mann or Bill Evans will want to acquire this enjoyable record.
New American Songbooks Volume 2
After the stunning success of last year's New American Songbooks, Volume 1,
Sound American is proud to present another chapter in their attempt to
find new points of view on the concept of the American Songbook. Last year's release found three distinctive voices--Mary Halvorson, Ron
Miles, and Greg Saunier--working together to arrange works from mass
media. Their collaboration, only a few days in total, culminated in a
recording that felt equal parts wild and warm; intimate and
revolutiona…
Constant Change 1976-2016
This solo piano music has never been released before on disc. It covers a 40-year period stretching from 1976 to 2016 and contains both live concerts and studio sessions. "Paris / Debrecen are both Festival performances recorded at a period when I was concentrating on developing my own material / compositions, and before I had evolved my ‘with or without repertoire’ approach to solo playing, which explained in the ‘sleeve-note’ to Live With Repertoire on NoBusiness Records CD 58 (briefly: some p…
10.11.12
300 copies. All compositions by Howard Riley (PRS / MCPS), except “Lush Life” by Billy Strayhorn. Recorded live at VDU Jazz Festival Kaunas on the 10th November, 2012 by Areas Zujus. "Brilliant work from pianist Howard Riley – the British modernist who's been making amazing music for decades, but often through very obscure records like this! Riley's got this sense of balance, tone, and timing that sits justly in a legacy that starts with Herbie Nichols and runs up through Alexander Von Schlippen…