Jazz & Improvisation / Post Bop

Futura Records presents Jaki Byard Trio's Live at the Jazz'inn. Jaki Byard (piano & saxophone alto), Gus Nemeth (contrebasse) & Jean-My Truong (batterie), invited on a title: Gerald Byard (batterie / drums). More two unpublished titles with Siegfried Kessler on piano, and Jaki Byard on alto saxophone. Recorded live on July 26th 1971 in Paris. Digipak.

The Rendell/Carr Quintet has long been regarded as among the most iconic ensembles in 1960s British jazz, famed for its unique blend of musical personalities and the equally singular ‘style’ which resulted from its blend of experience, youth and creative ambition. This, the second R&B release of previously unissued material by the band, captures a moment of genuine jazz history with its inclusion of Michael Garrick’s debut broadcast with the quintet. Two further radio appearances find the band h…

** Reissued for the first time with its original gatefold sleeve and cover ** Four Units is a kind of Japanese jazz "all star". Recorded in Tokyo on April 1969, it was released the same year on Union records. On the first two long songs that open this album, “Four Units” and “Dull Slumber”, we can feel the influence of the “avant-garde” scene of US jazz (and in particular ESP Disk), without however the music sounding too "free". A whole new vibe on the astonishing cover of "Scarborough Fair", in…

Another jazz gem unearthed from the Strata archives by Amir Abdullah for his magnificent 180 Proof imprint. From garage rock roots as a founding member of the Woolies, to tours backing the Four Tops, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and Mary Wilson, Ron English has enjoyed a storied life in music, effortlessly moving between genres with chameleon-like malleability. English found his calling with 1970s work on Detroit’s Tribe and Strata labels that blended styles such as funk, be-bop, post be-bop …

*180 gram audiophile vinyl. Including 16-page booklet with liner notes by jazz-historian Ashley Kahn and superior packaging.* Music On Vinyl proudly presents the first installment of the acclaimed Miles Davis Bootleg Series on 180 gram vinyl! The explosive transformation of Miles Davis' 'second great Quintet' with Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums) is laid bare on Live In Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1. Culled from original sta…

BBE Music is proud to present another instalment in the J Jazz Masterclass Series: East Plants by Takeo Moriyama, one of Japan’s finest jazz drummers. A genuine ‘under the radar’ album known only to a handful of Japanese jazz collectors, East Plants is now available again, reissued for the first time as a double 180g LP, with exact reproductions of the original artwork, obi strip and insert. It also comes with the original notes fully translated. This reissue is fully endorsed by Takeo Moriyama …

Following on from the welcome revival of Lyman Woodard’s classic ‘Saturday Night Special‘ and drummer, Bert Myrick’s ‘Live ’n Well’ – which features the epic ‘Scorpio’s Child’ – BBE Records continue to dig deeper into the vaults of Detroit’s Strata label with The Contemporary Jazz Quintet album ‘Location’. Working in conjunction with 180 Proof’s Amir Abdullah BBE are poised to unearth a steady flow of hard to find or previously unheard gems from the short-lived but consistently innovative commun…

"Alternative Fox present a reissue of Archie Shepp's The Tradition, originally released in 1978. Avant-garde giant Archie Shepp made an indelible contribution to experimental jazz. Double-LP The Tradition was recorded in Rome in 1977 for Horo Records with drummer Clifford Jarvis and bassist Cameron Brown; the raucous Hooray For Mal has shades of be-bop, while Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Lady is largely tackled by Shepp on upright piano (with gorgeous soloing by Brown); Things Have Got To Chan…

Craftman Records presents Debut by Takao Uematsu Quartet/Quintet. Art Direction – Ben Nishizawa, Bass – Yoshio Suzuki, Drums – George Ohtsuka, Electric Piano [Fender Piano] – Sadayasu Fujii, Engineer [Recording Engineer] – Yoshihiko Kannari, Producer – Takeshi Fujii, Tenor Saxophone – Takao Uematsu, Trombone – Takashi Imai.

Eargong Records present a reissue of John Taylor's Pause, And Think Again, originally released in 1971. Pianist John Taylor's debut album featuring an all-star octet with John Surman (soprano sax), Stan Sulzmann (alto sax), Kenny Wheeler (trumpet), Chris Pyne (trombone), Chris Laurence (bass), Tony Levin (drums), and Norma Winstone (vocals). A great example of the fine art of British jazz in its marvelous original gatefold cover. A precious object from an unrepeatable era. Licensed from Turtle R…

*Limited edition 180 gram solid purple coloured vinyl.* Lush Life (1958) is among John Coltrane's best endeavors on the Prestige label. One reason can easily be attributed to the interesting personnel and the subsequent lack of a keyboard player for the August 16, 1957 session that yielded the majority of the material. Coltrane (tenor sax) had to essentially lead the compact trio of himself, Earl May (bass), and Art Taylor (drums). The intimate setting is perfect for ballads such as the opener "…

After playing with Mingus, Coltrane, Lady Day and Abbey Lincoln, inventive jazz pianist Mal Waldron moved to Europe and first reached Japan in 1970, where he met Idaho-born double-bassist Gary Peacock, who had played with Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Bill Evans and free-jazz giant, Albert Ayler before moving to Japan to study zen Buddhism.First Encounter, recorded in Tokyo in 1971 for French producer Herve Bergerat, shows that the intense pairing was quite natural, the harmonic dissonance of Waldron’s…

* Edition of 500 * An amazing loft tape find of a Norwegian Jazz concert suite taped at Molde Jazz Festival 1973, Christian Reim’s sextet Mona Lisa features Norway's top jazzmen at the time and it’s a rollercoaster post-bop showcase with influences from modal and spiritual jazz with folk undertones and pop psychedelia, one of a kind, never previously released and in great sound quality!

Legitimately available again on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1983, Outernational Sounds proudly presents a major statement from a crucial figure on the Los Angeles jazz underground – pianist Nate Morgan’s spiritualised deep jazz classic, Journey Into Nigritia. How many 16 year olds would have the confidence to walk up to a revered bandleader at a gig, and inform him that one day they’d be playing together? As improbable as it sounds, this is how pianist Nate Morgan intr…

Big Tip! Edition of 300. Swedish free jazz trio consisting of piano, double bass and drums. The trio has during the years since their first recording moved from composition-like melodies, riffs and rhythms to 100% improvised music. However, the trio has strong roots in “conventional” jazz which shines through from time to time with tough swing and clear rhythms and melodies. Correction has received fine reviews from all over the world for their releases, the strong point being their interplay an…

Tip-on sleeve. For every celebrated name in jazz, soul and related music, there are probably another 1000 musicians who had all the talent and potential but for whom widespread recognition remained elusive. Roscoe Weathers is one such figure, a jazzman who earned his chops the hard way, a sideman in smoky clubs from Memphis to Seattle, before finally settling in LA. He recorded a significant amount of music through the 1960s, but never found the slightest modicum of commercial acclaim nor the su…

As the title implies, this McCoy Tyner release is a low-key, after-hours affair. Far removed from the intensity of work with then-boss John Coltrane, Tyner stretches out on a fine mix of standards and bebop classics. The pianist, of course, always had his own fleet and rich way with ballads, in spite of the galvanizing marathon solos he became known for on live dates and his later experimental recordings with Coltrane. His ballad style is even touched with a bit of sentimentality, which thankful…

On his second Blue Note album Smoke Stack, pianist and composer Andrew Hill used an unusual line-up of two bassists (Richard Davis and Eddie Khan) along with the masterful Roy Haynes on drums. Blue Note founder Alfred Lion considered Hill to have as distinct and important a compositional voice as Thelonious Monk, and the seven Hill compositions that the quartet explore here contain all the rare beauty to be found in his music. Designer Reid Miles photographed Hill himself for the striking album …

Recorded in April 1964, In ‘N Out falls square in the middle of the formidable run of five classic Blue Note albums that launched tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson’s legendary career. The line-up featured the transcendent frontline of Henderson and trumpeter Kenny Dorham along with a powerful rhythm section with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones. The music charted expansive post-bop territory on three Henderson’s originals (“In ‘N Out” “Punjab” “Serenity”) and two…

After his six years with the seminal John Coltrane Quartet, the mighty drummer Elvin Jones signed with Blue Note Records in 1968 and made a series of 10 fantastic albums including 1972’s Mr. Jones, produced by Francis Wolff and George Butler, and featuring saxophonists Dave Liebman, Steve Grossman, and Pepper Adams, Thad Jones on flugelhorn, pianist Jan Hammer, bassist Gene Perla, and percussionists Carlos “Patato” Valdes, Frank Ippolito, and Albert Duffy. The music delves into expansive post-bo…

**250 copies** Here comes a special duo recording, featuring the crème de la crème of the younger generation of Finnish players – Max Zenger and Teemu Åkerblom. A unique live set that stands the test of time, hear Max and Teemu improvise their way over five original compositions, using alto saxophone, flute and double bass with bow. Rich in detail and a surprisingly fresh set of songs. Very seldom do you get superlatives about something from the players themselves, but swear I heard a bird say “…

For the first time on vinyl, Charles Mingus's great score for the legendary 1959 directorial debut of John Cassavetes, Shadows. Much has been said about the controversial relationship between these two masters."The score encapsulates Cassavetes's and Mingus's unique approaches to both improvisation and composition in their respective media, illuminating the oppositional nature of jazz to mainstream cultural production and the underbelly of race relations in 1950's America." - Ross Lipman

**500 copies** In the beginning there was John Coltrane. Teodross Avery experienced an epiphany at 13 when he first heard Trane’s Giant Steps. He emerged in the mid-1990s with two critically hailed releases for GRP / Impulse! Avery’s long and productive journey has taken him down many musical paths, from gigs with jazz legends and hip hop stars to sessions with NEA Jazz Masters and platinum pop albums. With his Tompkins Square label debut After the Rain: A Night For Coltrane, Avery has found his…

Black Saint present a reissue of the Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet's Voodoo, originally released in 1986. Voodoo shows the Sonny Clark soulful hard bop conception as seen through the oblique perspective of a NY Downtown all-star quartet featuring John Zorn (alto sax), Wayne Horvitz (piano), Bobby Previte (drums), and legendary bassman Bill Drummond.This unique and iconic album stands as one of Zorn's first declared tributes to the art of an influential musician and composer. All compositions are …

Following hard on the heels of BBE delving into the archives of Detroit’s Strata Records and delivering their widely acclaimed and hugely in-demand exploration of J Jazz, comes another crate digger’s delight - Ralph Thomas' Eastern Standard Time, which dropped in the USA back in 1980, on the obscure Zebra Jazz imprint. LA based DJ, producer and music supervisor Mathieu Schreyer discovered this gem for BBE. This is the is the kind of “spiritual’ jazz gem that appears on YouTube and upon checking …

Jazz drummer Greg Adams was active on the Los Angeles experimental jazz scene of the early 1980s. Based in the working class coastal town of Long Beach, California, and with longstanding ties to the industrial east coast city of Wilmington, Delaware, Adams sought to hearken back to the naturalistic form of be-bop, which is why he recorded the material on Koolin Out in a live session with no overdubs in April 1983. Privately pressed in minute quantities as the sole entity on his own hip city impr…

**1.000 copies on coloured vinyl** Drummer and composer extraordinaire Steve Reid’s Rhythmatism is one of his deepest and most radical of albums of all time and features some of the heaviest jazz players - Arthur Blythe AKA 'Black Arthur', Charles Tyler, David Wertman and others – joining Reid. The album was originally released on Reid’s own Mustevic Sound label in 1976.As a radical jazz artist, Steve Reid played with an extraordinary group of artists – including Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, …

Prepare yourself for the first ever vinyl pressing of legendary free jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock's seminal final album Ask the Ages, in a strictly limited edition 45rpm double 12” edition. Sonny's classic final album swings between deep, lyrical melodicism and passages of pure fire music and features jazz legends Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophone and Elvin Jones, member of the John Coltrane Quartet, on drums. The album was produced by Bill Laswell and originally released in 1991 on his Axiom …

You can be sure that jazz fans in the year 1960 were unfamiliar with Charles Mingus’s LPs Blues and Roots or Mingus Ah-Um when they poured into the Pinède Gould Arena at the Antibes Jazz Festival held in Juan-les-Pins, France on 13 July. At any rate, as can be seen in a short video clip, all the seats were occupied. In addition, a really good trumpeter was there, whose name would later resound throughout Europe: Ted Curson. What is more, the legendary Bud Powell, who lived in France, was invited…

2026 Repress. Guitarist Masayuki "Jojo" Takayanagi (1932-1991) was a towering leader in the Japanese jazz world. His first influence was Lennie Tristano, but through the 1960s and 1970s he explored and pushed the boundaries in free form jazz, leading a group called New Direction, among others. Ever a fighting spirit, in 1982, shortly after recovering from a life-threatening medical condition and surgery, Takayanagi decided to take on a challenging task for any guitarist: To record an entire solo…

Michael Marcus Trio: Marcus (tenor sax, saxello, clarinet) with Tarus Mateen (acoustic and electric bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums), recorded June 14, 2004 at MuRec, Milan, one track live at the Blue Note, New York, January 2005.

Guido Manusardi Quartet: Manusardi (piano) with Roberto Rossi (trombone, shells), Lucio Terzano (bass) and Gianni Cazzola (drums), twelve Manusardi originals released by Soul Note in 2007.

Trio of Stéphane Furic Leibovici (double bass, compositions), Chris Cheek (tenor and soprano sax) and Patrick Goraguer (drums), recorded in New York on December 5, 1997 and released by Soul Note in 2003.

Mal Waldron (piano) and David Friesen (bass) in duo, recorded live in July 1985 at the Hyatt on Sunset, Los Angeles, and first released by Soul Note in 2006: standards plus Waldron's Fire Waltz.

Quintet album by saxophonist John Tchicai and guitarist Garrison Fewell with Tino Tracanna (soprano and tenor sax), Paolino Dalla Porta (bass) and Massimo Manzi (drums), released by Soul Note in 2005: composed pieces alternating with improvised duos and trios.

Quartet of saxophonists Maurizio Giammarco and David Liebman (tenor and soprano), bassist Furio Di Castri and drummer Daniel Humair, recorded live at the Big Mama club in Rome on 26 and 27 January 2000.

Debut album of bassist Drew Gress's quartet Jagged Sky, with David Binney (alto sax), Ben Monder (guitar) and Kenny Wollesen (drums), recorded at Sound On Sound, New York, on 4 and 5 August 1997. Nine Gress originals and two Bartok Mikrokosmos pieces.

The European Music Orchestra, a big band conducted by Claudio Fasoli (tenor and soprano sax), with guests Kenny Wheeler (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Aldo Romano (drums), recorded at FARM studio, Cessalto, January and February 1994.

David Liebman (soprano sax, wooden flute) with Phil Markowitz (piano), Vic Juris (guitar), Tony Marino (bass), Jamey Haddad (drums), recorded at Red Rock Studios, Saylorsburg, PA, in May 1994. Pieces for his daughter Lydia, who sings the last track.

Solo percussion album by Chico Hamilton (drums, tympani, slapaphone, tambourine, gong, vocals), recorded at Master Sound Astoria, New York, on March 27-28 and April 2, 1993. Ten short pieces.