Jazz /
Orientations
A raid on the values of oriental jazz master and pioneering ethnomusicologist Lloyd Miller.
East Meets West
Huge Tip! Ahmed Abdul-Malik was best known to jazz listeners as a bassist with Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Coleman Hawkins, and many others. He made a few records as a leader, with this one being his most exotic. The Brooklyn native was of Sudanese descent; in addition to playing bass, he also plays oud, the forerunner to the lute. Originally released in 1960 the album is rich and heady, a multi-layered set of tonal grooves that are wrapped tight beneath the melody lines. The musicians on Ma…
A Sublime Madness
Psychic Ills keyboardist, Brent Cordero and Sunwatchers bassist, Peter Kerlin’s, first full length collab A Sublime Madness is the culmination of decades of circling each other's creative orbits. After years of casual jamming, numerous fledgling one offs, and touring sideman gigs (ibrighden addition to Sunwatchers, Kerlin was also Chris Forsyth’s long time bass player and in the John Dwyer helmed improv project, Bent Arcana. Cordero worked for years with Psychic Ills and Mike Wexler among others…
Lockdown
Leaney's lyrical and multi-textured tenor and alto saxophone playing is featured throughout, as is his playing on the Zimbabwean mbira and west African flulani flute. The record comprises equally of planned and deeply rehearsed compositions by both Leaney and Thouin, each with their own flavour brewed together to form a uniquely organic music. This is the first documented studio recording of 83 year old Thouin's lifelong exploration in sound and rhythm featuring his folkloric, DIY hybrid setup b…
Maghreb Cantata, Live 1969
** Much-needed repress ** A marvellous double album as document of the historical collaboration between Don Cherry and Swiss pianist, composer George Gruntz, a central figure in European Jazz who always showed a special interest in extending his solid post bop skills through other languages such as ethnic or even baroque music. This is North-African deep flavoured Jazz recorded live in Tunisia and Germany in May and September 1969, with Cherry (cornet, flute) and Gruntz (piano, celeste) leading …
Musikforum Schloss, Viktring, Austria – July 20, 1972
* Much-needed repress * Recorded live in Austria in 1972 this outstanding document marks an important event such as the meeting between Don Cherry and Dollar Brand. Here the modern jazz trumpet master and the great South-African pianist along with percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and bassist Johnny Dyani are caught in the middle of a sound ritual where Jazz elements and world music echoes appear as fully integrated in some sort of visionary, organic music form. A deep sensorial experience based on…
Nyanser
Originally released in 1979 on Mistlur Records in Sweden, Nyanser is widely considered Thomas Almvqvist’s masterpiece.
Black Children
A little masterpiece of soul afrofunk with carpets of dreamy keyboards on their swirlingly seductive sound and their really cool voices. The second album of Black Children Sledge Funk released in 1978 is a delight. Repressed for the first time.
Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History Of The World's Music
100 recordings on 4 CDs; 184-page hardcover book printed on artbook-quality paper; Packaged in a deluxe gloss-laminated box. It begins with a South African choir from 1930 and a song about police brutality; it ends in Cuba with dreamy innuendo. This collection is about music that is often invisible in today's world, the incredible world of global recordings that aren't jazz, blues, country, rock n' roll, R&B, or "classical." This physical edition of the box set, eight years in the making, conta…
Moonrakers Band
An aura of mystery is hidden on this magnificent album released on EMI Nigeria in 1974 and today a collector’s cult object was the only one named Moonrakers Band.Steve Black tells: “We were the original members of The Moonrakers and were based in Zaria, then in 1972 we left band management and started The Elcados. The original management of The Moonrakers sold the name to his elder brother who had a club in Kano and they brought Prince Bola Agbana to get other musicians to continue The Moonraker…
Parables
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* This newest CD of Zorn compositions performed by the remarkable all-star guitar trio of Bill Frisell, Julian Lage and Gyan Riley is inspired by the ancient tradition of story telling as spiritual lesson. Drawing upon Sufic, Hebrew and secular traditions, “Parables” is a unique collection of compositional miniatures blending folk, classical, jazz, bluegrass, world music and more. Featuring seductive moods, driving rhythms and thought provoking twists and turn…
Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus
*2020 stock.* Long before Marc Ribot made a name for himself as a pioneering force in NYC's downtown music scene, and as guitarist for luminaries like Tom Waits, Wilson Pickett and The Lounge Lizards, he began his guitar studies as a teenager with close family friend, the Father of Haitian classical guitar, Frantz Casséus. In 1946, Frantz came to NYC from his native Port-au-Prince, Haiti with the ambition to compose a distinctly Haitian classical guitar music, to fuse the European classical trad…
Ambar
A supreme soundscape! The world's first recording of a work released in 1997 by a composer/guitarist who has left his mark on the contemporary Mexican music scene. The latest release from SRRD label! Eblen Macari has been actively developing his unique musical style for 40 years, from the 1980s to the present. Eblen Macari has been developing his unique musical style for the past years. Eblen Macari was inspired by the sound of the guitar as well as the ecology of the trees used for the guitar. …
Middle Eastern Rock
"Crazed time signatures abound as musicians from the West look East for inspiration, infusing their rock and jazz sounds with vibes looted from India and the Far East. A true marriage of Western and (Middle) Eastern music with a fuzzed-out psychedelic edge.Released originally in 1969, Middle Eastern Rock is a unique, compelling fusion record from Armenian-American oud player John Berberian. The Rock East Ensemble, Beberian’s backing band, consists of the artist’s standard group, which specialize…
Getatchew Mekuria And His Saxophone
Getatchew Mekurya is probably the most revered veteran of Ethiopian saxophone. A real giant, both physically and musically. Not only is he at the very top level of Ethiopian saxophonists, but he is the 'inventor' of an extremely distinctive musical 'style.'
Communion: Jazz For A New Age
Communion, privately released in an impossibly small edition of twenty five cassettes in 1986, is a beguiling, politically underpinned meditation of cosmic improvisation and wayward folk music from Cleveland’s Universal Liberation Orchestra. The group’s name is, in one sense, a tongue-in-cheek reference to their changing membership, while also a proclamation of intention. Started in 1979 as a five-piece, first known as the Cleveland Collective, the group eventually whittled down to the duo of br…
Egypt Strut
In 1968, while he was also the leader of the Military Music Departments in Heliopolis, Salah Ragab formed the first jazz big band in Egypt, The Cairo Jazz Band. Some of the best musicians in Egypt of that time were members – Zaki Osman (trumpet), Saied Salama (tenor sax), Khamis El-Kholy (piano) and Ala Mostafa (piano). On these recordings The Band consists of five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass, drums and percussion and various other oriental instruments. The opening con…
In Afrika / Mayibue Afrika! Uhuuru!
Tony Scott (born Anthony Joseph Sciacca June 17, 1921 – March 28, 2007) was an American jazz clarinetist and arranger with an interest in folk music around the world. For most of his career he was held in high esteem in new-age music circles because of his involvement in music linked to Asian cultures and to meditation. Tony performed with many star as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Harry Belafonte and before moving to Italy in the early ‘70’s he just cut two sought after masterpiece moving f…
Jazz Sahara
Decades before the advent of 'world music', bassist-composer Ahmed Abdul-Malik introduced Arabic music into jazz, creating a distinct, unique sound that was far beyond its time. Best known in jazz circles for his solid work with Randy Weston and Thelonious Monk, Abdul-Malik, who is of Sudanese descent, was also the first to use the oud, a pear-shaped, traditional Middle Eastern stringed instrument similar to a lute, as a jazz instrument. Recorded in 1958, with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin (h…
Biologic Music
"1973, in the south of the Netherlands, the city of Heerlen and its surroundings nurtured a strong musical heritage and culture. A number of young musicians were developing their skills in one of the many music schools established in a 30 km radius. This new blood would join fanfares, symphonic orchestras, choirs, and later have a strong influence on dutch pop and jazz music. Founded by Jelmo “Pio” Piovesana, teacher and key musical figure in the region of south Limburg, Heerlens Percussie Ensem…