Search "figure" 149 Items

Cairo, late 2013. In a city in turmoil, where the curfew had just been lifted after a second coup d'état, where the walls were still covered in dreams and revolt, where even the clubs of the city-centre echoed with anti-Islamist and anti-army slogans, I was deeply touched by the voice of Abdullah Miniawy at the 100Copies music studio, a stone's throw from Tahrir Square. A singer, writer, poet, poetry-slammer and student from the El-Fayoum oasis, this spokesman for Egyptian youth was shaking up the music scene and social networks with his hypnotic voice and unique blend of electro, sufism and jazz music, both punk and psychedelic, secular and avant-garde. Three months later, Abdullah's first on-stage revelations took place at the La Voix est Libre festival in Cairo with the "Jimi Hend rix of oud", Mehdi Haddab, followed by his first meeting with composer and saxophonist Peter Corser at the D-caf festival (Downtown Contemporary Art Festival), created in the aftermath of the revolution by leading figure in theater Ahmed El-Attar. After three years of administrative battles, while censorship was making a comeback in Egyptian artistic circles, Abdullah finally arrived in Paris where he recorded an initial version of Purple Feathers with Peter Corser, which was broadcast on Soundcloud.

In 2017, gripped from the very first seconds by these soaring vocal and instrumental performances, Erik Truffaz accepted our invitation to become involved with Peter's hypnotic loops and Abdullah's electric vocals, and was soon joined by the visceral strings of cellist Karsten Hochapfel. Five years later, Le Cri du Caire is still turning heads, and often moving audiences to tears. Both free and spiritual, sensitive and elusive, their music elevates the soul to giddy heights and flies towards what may well be one of the shortest paths from zero to infinity.

Urpa i musell is pleased to present our sixth record. We have joined paths with pianist Agustí Fernández on a
double disc that includes both the reissue of the LP Suite Nofres (originally released in 1987) and
Interseccions. Música i arts escèniques (1985-1990) (meaning Intersections. Music and performing arts (1985-
1990)), a set of previously unreleased works that Agustí recorded during this period at various performances.
Agustí Fernández (Palma, 1954) is a seminal figure in the improvised music scene. Few musicians in Spain
enjoy such international fame and respect. Peter Kowald, Derek Bailey, Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris, Evan
Parker, Barry Guy, Mats Gustafsson, Joel Ryan, Joe Morris, Nate Wooley and Peter Evans are some of the
musicians Fernández has been able to converse with artistically. He has shaped his creativity by leading free
www.urpaimusell.com
music formations, composing for the world of cinema, television and theatre, directing musical events in our
country and abroad in addition to his work in the field of teaching (until very recently he was professor of
improvisation at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya). We could define his musical identity as the result
of the interaction between the tradition of classical piano and the improvisation of jazz roots, which has led to
new sonic places, the sum of language and intuition.
Fernández settled in Barcelona at a very young age. From the very beginning he received very diverse
commissions and one of them was to play in the dance classes of the Institut del Teatre. There he met many
young dancers. In 1986 he debuted in the recording world with Ardent, a set of piano pieces that includes a
piece composed for the dancer Margarita Guergué. Shortly after, he took charge of the music for a
contemporary ballet by Ramon Oller, another of the dance students he had met at the Institut del Teatre. Suite
Nofres, released in 1987, is the recording of the music that Agustí played live in the show.
Three years later, "El mar" was recorded, a video-dance work that he and the dancer Àngels Margarit
produced for Glasnost, the fringe TVE-2 program directed by Lulu Martorell. This short piece was reinterpreted
as Les nenes no en tenen mai prou, a theatrical show for piano and five voices, one of them Lulu herself.
The second album of this release, Interseccions. Música i arts escèniques (1985-1990), includes these
pieces, as well as unpublished extra material from Suite Nofres.
Agustí then combined work with training. In those years, he immersed himself fully in the musical avant-garde
of the moment: he discovered the music of Cecil Taylor and took courses with Xenakis and Stockhausen. He
also encountered some artists returning to Catalonia from the United States, such as the dancers Lydia
Azzopardi and Cesc Gelabert and the musician Carles Santos, all of them influenced by the American
minimalism of Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Agustí Fernández collaborated with Carles Santos closely for
many years after 1982.
Santos' approach to minimalism was particular, passionate (as Tom Johnson explains in "Passionate
minimalism") and heterodox. The limitations of minimalistic explorations —repetition of short musical
patterns and phrases, persistent drones and harmony tending to be static— were understood above all as a
starting point from which to express himself with complete freedom. Fernández received this influence and
adopted Santos' attitude both in Suite Nofres and in the works included in Interseccions. Minimalism here
acts as a structural support. It serves as a framework from which to explore a variety of interesting topics,
including research on the piano and brief bursts of free improvisation, meticulous work with timbre, phrasing,
and form, where we discover, among other things, structures used in various locations and instrumentations,
and interaction with the environment, including other musicians, singers, dancers and audiences.
The sonority of these pieces is rich and mature. Agustí, in fact, recorded Ardent with twenty years of musical
experience already behind him, but at the same time it is also a learning record. As he explained in an interview
with José Francisco Tapiz: "From ‘85 to ‘95 I was working on my own, trying to develop a language and have
the tools to improvise. Privately, above all." If we look at his discography, Suite Nofres marks a point in time,
after which he released very sparsely until 1996. After using the minimalist approach, he had to abandon it. The
yearning for completely free music meant intense personal work without too many sound testimonies
(Interseccions is one of them). The result of this intense search is the sensational Tempranillo (1996), an
album by duet with Evan Parker and which constitutes a declaration of intentions. Here we could say that the
mature and most intense stage of Agustí begins –an essential part, but not one that we will relate here.
The two albums that make up the sixth release from Urpa i musell bear witness to the decisive period of
impasse in the artistic growth of one of the most stimulating musicians that has emerged from our country. At
the same time, it perfectly captures where experimental music was then. It is lovely to be able to hear the
wonderful ideas that came from the head and hands of Agustí Fernández that represented the first flowering of
his unmistakable character.
Manel Peña & Urpa i musell
Translation: Mark Dix

(Japanese pressing, Official reissue) Brilliant synth prog weirdness from the late 1970s Tokyo. Recorded by the guitarist Akio Niitsu who was compared, not without reason, to Manuel Göttsching. Niitsu has a fairly small discography of only three full-length albums, but his second one - “Pet Step” - was on Tomita’s label and supposedly with the involvement of Haruomi Hosono (this is according to Chee Shimizu who lists it in his “Obscure Music”).

Akio Niitsu's first album, "i/o(i･o)" released in 1978, was produced in a homemade studio that had been converted from a storeroom in his home, and he spent three years doing everything from composition to engineering by himself, using overdubbed guitar recordings. 's first analog re-release has been decided.As a guitar multi-recording album, the idea was realized six years earlier than the album "e2-e4" released in 1984 by Manuel Göttsching, the central figure of "Ash La Tempel", but it was too early. A hidden experimental/ambient gem!The paradoxical sound that makes you feel as if you are lost deep in a labyrinthine forest, combined with Tadanori Yokoo's artwork, is a piece that allows you to enjoy Akio Niitsu's worldview with your ears and eyes.

Spectacular live recording from 1986 of two seminal figures of the Japanese avantgarde - Akira Sakata on saxophone and Takeo Moriyama on drums.Mitochondria captures the reunion of the two free jazz masters, who started playing together in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio in 1972 until 1975. For both, the experience with the trio was an important step in the development of their own career and musicianship. The recordings are a remarkable performance in which each successfully highlights the essential elements of his playing while giving of room for the other musician.Recorded at Kashiwa Church Chiba Pref. In Japan on 24 May 1986 by Yukio Tezuka on Sony stereo cassette recorder.Mixed by Jim O'Rourke, Mastered by Martin Siewert. Graphic design/cover photo by Lasse Marhaug.Liner notes by Kazue Yokoi

It's the pair you've all been waiting for! FINALLY!

Alan Tew's driving jazz-rock, sleuth-funk masterpiece, Drama Suite Part I is finally reissued to sate your appetites for arguably the very best library two-parter in existence. If you don’t know, get to know. Originally released in 1976 but wonderfully timeless, Drama Suite Part I is at the top of every library funk collectors' list. It's easy to see why...

Racing out the gate, the gritty crime funk of "The Detectives" makes for a thrilling, wild ride. A dramatic action theme, it's packed with strident playing and bags of attitude. There follows 10 (ten!) drama-tinged, horn-heavy, wah-wah-laced, conga-enhanced, synth-riddled links for neat segues and maximum funk fever. "Helicop" is another fast paced and energetic dramatic action background with great breaks and horns. "The Big One (Prelude)" has an ace bassline and creeps along superbly to create expectation and contains an amazing rolling piano loop that just stops you dead in your tracks. It's all building to "The Big One", a driving, dramatic, full-band action with fantastic funk breaks, heavy horns and *that* piano refrain. It was sampled by Jay-Z, and you can't really blame him, can you? The brief, tense "Headlights" and (even briefer) burner "The Burn" add some - you guessed it - deep drama over insistent rhythms to close out Side A.

Flip over for "The Detectives (Slow Version)", a relaxed, thoughtful version featuring synths. You might recognise it as being sampled by Domo Genesis and Evidence for "Tallulah" from their brilliant collaboration a few years ago. "The Detectives (Interlude)" is another slow, pensive version featuring electric piano and a trombone solo in the centre section. There follows 6 further links, Detectives versions essentially, with guitars, electric pianos, flugelhorns - all very cool and relaxed rhythms. The strutting majesty of big-time highlight "The Build Up" is next. It's a medium-slow drama background with occasional light statements of The Detectives theme peppered throughout. Nice. The fantastically-titled "Snout" is a slow, tense background theme which features a repetitive guitar figure with alto flutes over the top. The tense, stabby funk of "The Prowler" rounds out proceedings, with nervous figures over a slow, insistent cymbal beat.

As with all of our KPM re-issues, the audio for Drama Suite Part I comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. And as usual, the sleeve reproduction duties were handed over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity. We're not quite sure what else to say about this landmark record, other than, GET IT!

It's the pair you've all been waiting for! FINALLY!

Alan Tew's Drama Suite Part II. What can we really say? Honestly? We guess the first thing that strikes you is how clean the drums are. Almost impossibly slick but dripping so, so heavy with the neck-snapping funk you'd expect from perhaps the most sought-after library funk set of them all! The cheapest on Discogs is, currently, £1300+. Now's your chance to remedy that. If you know, you know. And we think you know...

"The Rub" is a cool, low-slung heavy-funk roller with relaxed brass and alto flute phrases. Up next, "Money Runner" is another edgy funk glider, its easy-tempo moving in harmony with slinky rhythmic riffs and featuring a seemingly ad-libbed electric piano solo. Strutting along after, "White Elephant Walk" is another laconic, deeply stoned walking theme with electric piano and alto flutes. There follows a couple of brief "walking" links before the brilliantly tense "Master Plan" slowly builds. Expectancy grows to the main theme around a minute in and then a melodic theme builds slightly to the 3 minute mark before floating down gradually and elegantly to its climax. It's utterly fantastic. The smoky, after-hours "Night Watch" is a slow, cool gem featuring alto flutes and synths.

Now we're talking, "The Fence (a)" is just sensational and worth buying this album all on its own. It's likely the reason you're here, anyway. Another impossibly funky, slow and easy tempo with a bass riff to die for, dramatic guitar with gorgeous electric piano and alto flute phrases. It was sampled for "Action Satisfaction" by J5, way way back. "The Fence (b)" is a slower, more deliberate version of the previous heater, but it's no less essential. Indeed, it's absolutely jaw-drooping. Closing out this remarkable side, "Surveillance" is another horizontal masterpiece of relaxed yet dramatic jazz-funk. Vibes ad-lib in centre section and give you an idea of how Roy Ayers making library funk in the mid-late 70s might've sounded. Sensational.

Flip over for "Total Silence", a near-beatless and understated scene-setter featuring neat interplay of guitar and synthesizer themes over bass and hi-hats. The slow "Eyes" follows, a brief gem with subdued electric piano solo and a light climax. The fantastic "Drama Backcloth (1a)" is up next, a repetitive piano and bass refrain with guitar figures over the top. Its creeping crime-funk vibe was pilfered for "Outta Town Shit" by Ghostface Killah in 2006. "Drama Backcloth (1b)" is a short, subdued version without the guitar figure. "Drama Backcloth (2)" features an expectant, background marimba figure over light rhythm whilst the cool "Drama Backcloth (3)" centres around a relaxed riff and the angular "Drama Backcloth (4)" presents eerie progressions with piano interjections. It's decidedly non-rhythmic!

We're then onto 14 (!) different half-minute "Scenechanges", all jazzy and funky, some cool and dramatic, some slow and rhythmic. All ace and groove-fuelled. The aptly-titled "Final Statement" closes proceedings, a slow, pensive theme on guitar joined by cool brass and a solo trumpet to its climax.

As with all of our KPM re-issues, the audio for Drama Suite Part II comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. And as usual, the sleeve reproduction duties were handed over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity. We're not quite sure what else to say about this landmark record, other than, GET IT!

The virtuoso trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff was one of the prominent figures of European Jazz of the 60s – 70s. Eastern influences with a perfect blend of Western culture characterized this album recorded in Frank- furt after the groups Asian tour. “Now Jazz Ramwong” sees the group in its best shape: alto saxophonist Gunther Kronberg, tenor saxophonist Heinz Sauer, bassist Gunter Lenz and drummer Ralf Hubner. A really mind-blowing mix of jazz, folk and Eastern sounds. The album contains “Three Jazz Moods”, a jazz adaptation of Ravi Shankar’s music.

A Sound's A Million Shapes (dmnd004) - the third album by singer and composer Alessia Obino - weaves a sonic world informed by poetry, jazz and progressive rock. Conceived as a tribute to the cultural sources that have influenced contemporary music and accompanied social transformation, this work can be seen as an ode to all those who have been pushing forward and dreaming of a better world. Obino's latest offering is fuelled by her love for Sun Ra and his visionary cosmic allegory, a look towards a future imagined through the literary lens of science fiction. While harnessing lush instrumentation and dreamy choirs, she reinterprets these sources thanks to her artistry and musical sensitivity earned over a career of collaborations with leading figures of the contemporary music scene.

Let us not forget those who sacrificed their lives in order to offer us freedom and a beautiful existence. With Bulaga, his 4th album, Alimé Bébégué continues his great adventure with his audience. In this new project, he surrounds himself with: Aurélie Carrilho on vibraphone and Ombe Monkama Yves William on percussion.Through this album, he gives himself the opportunity through the majority of the songs to express his gratitude to his ancestors and some figures who gave their lives for our current freedoms. Also, he celebrates friendship and encounters of other cultures through the piece Bugulé in which he honors Brittany.With five instrumental tracks, and four others with lyrics, this project is resolutely oriented towards less text but not less expression.They are three musicians to have recorded this album with a groove and an incredible energy. The beautiful melodies are sources of inexhaustible emotions. This composer takes us with him ever further in his writing and compositions.This album and its multicolored jazz is an invitation to travel, to the dance of the spirit and of the body.

LP includes 60 x 30cm poster (prints on both sides). From the slums of Recife in Brazil’s North-East to international jazz icon, Amaro Freitas has worked tirelessly to become the artist he is today. His new album Sankofa - a spiritual quest into the forgotten stories, ancient philosophies and inspirational figures of Black Brazil - is his most stunning and sincere work to date.

The Italian Ictus imprint was founded in 1976 by percussionist and composer, Andrea Centazzo, and his wife Carla Lugli. Running for just under a decade, until relaunching during the mid-2000s, the label produced a couple of dozen highly celebrated releases, the majority of which loosely fall under the banner of free jazz. Ictus’ second batch of releases from the label’s historic archives logically begins with Andrea Centazzo’s “U.S.A. Concerts”, originally issued in 1978 and out of print on vinyl for the majority of the time since.

“U.S.A. Concerts” draws on the same rough period when Centazzo was working in the United States at “Environment for Sextet”, which was reissued in the previous batch, and features many of the same players - Polly Bradfield on violin, Eugene Chadbourne on guitar, Tom Cora on cello, and Toshinori Kondo on trumpet, and John Zorn on saxophone - in different configurations. In fact, the first, second, and seventh tracks - “Sextet Improvisation”, “Duet Improvisation # 1”, “Duet Improvisation # 4” - were all recorded on the same day at the same location - Wkcr Radio in New York on November 7, 1978 - as the aforementioned album.

Beginning with the brilliant textural and tonal explorations of the full ensemble encountered in “Sextet Improvisation”, the album quickly moves toward quieter and more restrained investigations of roughly similar ground, moving through a series of duo improvisations between the percussionist and Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, and the under-celebrated saxophonist, Jack Wright, whose howling horn is transformed to otherworldly effect by the reverberance of the space within which he works.

From here Centazzo embraces the trio form with an improvisation with two more under-celebrated figures from the American scene - Davey Williams playing guitar and banjo, and LaDonna Smith on violin, viola, and voice - capturing a performance in Jackson, Mississippi on November 19, 1978, during which the three fire responsive statements that hang like barbs in the spacious air, before conceding the LP with a brilliant suite of duos with Toshinori Kondo, Williams, and Smith.

Offering incredible insight into Centazzo’s unique sensibility, as well as into the work of a new generation of stunning improvisers as they emerged at the tail end of the 70s, before going on to help define the 80s free jazz sound, “U.S.A. Concerts” is a crucial artefact of free music at the juncture; fire on the boundaries of outright noise. An endlessly surprising journey between shifting between airy open passages that feature striking combinations of players, it’s sure to knock the socks off more than a few well-seasoned fans.

Teratai Åkande' explores electronic techniques transforming sounds, melodies, and rhythms from balinese gamelan. It's an interaction and synthesis of acoustic and electronic expressions, exploring an imagined territory between two otherwise separate cultural worlds.

On 'Teratai Åkande' the Copenhagen-based producer and electronic musician Anton Friisgaard travels new paths, as he explores gamelan music from his own artistic perspective in close collaboration with Balinese musicians, afliated with Ubud’s acclaimed Gamelan scene. After experiencing a concert with the Gamelan ensemble 'Gamelan Salukat' at Roskilde Festival in 2018, Friisgaard became inspired to contact Dewa Alit from the ensemble. With the aim of bringing forth a unique expression through the meeting of two distinct musical traditions, Friisgaard traveled to Ubud, Bali to record, compose and improvise in close collaboration with artists from the esteemed Gamelan scene in Ubud. The result is 'Teratai Åkande', which features Pande Made Gangga Sentana, I Nyoman Suwida, Dewa Badukz, Suryana Putra and Pande Made Gangga of Gamelan Salukat.

Anton Friisgaard (fka Hviledag) is an electronic producer and musician based in Copenhagen. Known primarily for his experimental work with tape loops and ambient soundscapes, he’s become an established figure both in the Danish music scene as well as internationally.

Composed, edited and processed in Copenhagen, Denmark from 2018 - 2024. Here, the recordings and compositions changed shape multiple times over the years, until finally reaching their current state.`

Folks, this is a must have for any Spiritual Jazz fan! Despite its modest role on the world stage, Belgium has produced a number of internationally renowned musicians and composers. There is the iconic gypsy jazz guitar maestro Django Reindhart, whose position remains unassailable, and guitarist/harmonica player Toots Thielemans, who became an internationally renowned artist performing and recording with Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Shirley Horn and Quincy Jones. The other key Belgian figure is composer/arranger Francy Boland, co-leader with US bebop drumming legend Kenny Clarke of Europe's leading big band of the 60s, the Clarke-Boland Big Band.

Whereas the post-war modern jazz scene produced a few notable successes, trad and New Orleans style jazz remained popular and bebop and swing were still played during the peak post-bop and free jazz years of the late-60s and early-70s. Despite the overwhelming popularity of ‘historic’ forms, there were a few worthy exceptions who pointed the way to the future: composer and pianist Marc Moulin formed his first trio in 1961 as a backing band for expatriate American musicians such as Johnny Griffin and Don Byas. He later collaborated with Philip Catherine to form Placebo, a group that mixed jazz, funk, rock and electronic sounds. Their influences ranged from Jimi Hendrix to James Brown, via Herbie Hancock and Soft Machine, and they experimented with the Moog and early synthesizers. Between 1971 and 1975 Placebo released three albums that have become much sought after by DJs and producers for beats and grooves to sample.

Moulin also contributed sleeve notes to one of the most sought after European deep jazz recordings of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and it’s a Belgian recording no less: ‘Babs Robert and the Love Planet’ (Alpha 7003, 1970) is one of the few examples of Belgium avant-garde jazz and was originally released on the Alpha label, a tiny enterprise based in Jette, Belgium. Alpha released renaissance / baroque music and the Babs Robert album is a wonderful aberration that is such an outlier as to be seemingly from another planet – the very Love Planet name-checked in the title perhaps?

The initial original quartet line-up was Babs Robert (sax), Paul Dubois (bass), Johnny Brouwers (piano), and Johnny Peret / Robert Pernet (drums). On the album session, the quartet was augmented with the addition of John Van Rjimenant (saxes) and Michel Gobbe (bass). As well as their main instruments, the band members also played an array of unusual instruments, principally percussion.

This is the first official re-release of the ‘Babs Robert and the Love Planet’. Original copies of the album fetch many hundreds of Euros on the collecting circuit and it remains a curious and fascinating window into a moment in time that still resonates some forty years later.

Recorded in St. James Norlands church in London in November 1968 and first released in the following year, this work stands as the first solo bass album in the history of Jazz and improvised music. Born in 1934 in San Francisco, Barre Phillips is one the most influential bassists of his generation. In his long career Phillips has played and recorded with almost everyone in the world of Jazz and beyond, a long list of forward thinking music icons including Don Ellis, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Holland, Archie Shepp, Marion Brown, John Surman, Paul Bley, Evan Parker just to name a few! Originally recorded as part of a 3 hours session this solo tour-de force expresses the true essence of a genius. A multifaceted, kaleidoscopic journey through a myriad of melodic, rhythmic, fretted and bowed lines. In other words: a true master class and a seminal statement from one of the greatest figures in creative music! ‘...Not just an improviser of the highest order; but a true sound sculptor capable of drawing from his instrument such a vast array of shapes and colours that his creation is almost a form of visual art for the ears.’ Jazzwise

After the dissolution of the Norwegian Psych rock outfit DREAM by the end of the 1960s, Christian Reim embarked on a new musical venture with the group BASH. Following his time with Dream, where he had already begun to experiment with pop and rock, Christian found himself exploring further creative depths with BASH.

As The DREAM disbanded, pivotal figures like Hans-Marius Stormoen and Terje Rypdal embarked on separate musical journeys. Collaborations with luminaries like Jan Garbarek and Jon Christensen became defining moments. By 1971, however, The Dream's curtain had closed. Undeterred, Christian, armed with his modified Hammond B3 organ, continued to play bass using foot-pedals. Amidst these transformations, the unwavering partnership of his longtime collaborator, drummer Tom Karlsen, remained steadfast.

BASH's presence was initially marked by a single release in 1971, with tracks "Quiquenita" and "Kokosnøtter" on the Nor-Disc imprint. While featuring an impressive line-up of jazz musicians, this studio session was a one-time endeavour. BASH continued to make waves, performing as an Organ Trio led by Christian and Tom. Various Oslo-based guitarists, including notable names like Freddy Dahl and Freddy Lindquist, joined the lineup throughout 1972 and 1973.

However, this live recording encapsulates a pivotal phase in BASH's evolution. The winter of '73 marked a significant shift with the addition of Richard Rolf from the illustrious Swedish band November. Richard's entrance added another layer of prowess and experience to the trio's sonic landscape.

Diving into the performance is akin to reliving the Wednesday concert in April '73. Every essence of the atmosphere is captured, even down to the engineer adjusting the reel-to-reel machine's volume knob whenever the band's intensity peaked. The recording boasts surprising elements, such as moments when Christian halts the performance to reset the rhythm with the drummer. Amidst the live renditions, a standout is Christian's unique interpretation of Arild Wikstrøm’s "Indianersangen," serving as a compelling opener. Its gradually unfolding theme resonates deeply and stands as a highlight, adding a significant dimension to the album's value.

This live recording not only captures the essence of BASH's performance, but it also transports listeners to a specific moment in time at the legendary CLUB 7 in Oslo.

This LP is a limited edition of only 250 copies, each hand-stamped and numbered. With a nod to the seventies, it also includes a replica of the original promotion sheet from the group's heyday.

BATSUMI’s 1974 classic. Repressed at Pallas in Germany on 180g black vinyl. Cover printed on reverse board and includes printed inner sleeve with liner notes from Francis Gooding. Initial copies shipped with exclusive 30cm x 30cm print of Batsumi performing in 1974. Batsumi is a masterpiece of spiritualised afro-jazz, and a prodigious singularity in the South African jazz canon. There is nothing else on record from the period that has the deep, resonant urgency of the Batsumi sound, a reverb-drenched, formidably focused pulse, underpinned by the tight-locked interplay of traditional and trap drums, and pushed on by the throb of Zulu Bidi’s mesmeric bass figures. The warm notes of Johnny Mothopeng’s guitar complete a soundscape that is at once closely packed with sonic texture and simultaneously vibrating with open space, and in whose shimmer and haze Themba Koyana and Tom Masemola soar. A sonorous echo emanating from an ancient well, reverberant with jazz ghosts and warmed by the heat of soul and pop, Batsumi is nothing short of revelatory. Many groups from this period did not issue recordings at all, and Batsumi are unusual in even having left an official recorded legacy. Out of print since the 1970s, and never issued outside of South African in its entirety, Batsumi is a landmark South African jazz recording, and a key musical document of its time.'

“Biarrezgaur” (not tomorrow, today) is a blissful and misty set of guitar tones entangled with effects and reverberation. Dreamy and reflective proto-blues-folk sketches that suggest a sense of matured serenity that only comes with years of practice. Spontaneous, gentle and free-flowing in equal parts, Biarrezgaur is a perfect autumnal recipe for those looking in the direction of Six Organs of Admittance, Loren Connors with Alan Licht, or even Robbie Basho or Albert Gimenez if you listen to the closing track Itzulera.

Bidai (Trip) is the new collaborative project between two emblematic figures of the rich Basque musical heritage, Xabi Strubell & Mikel Vega. It took more than 30 years for their paths to cross, but we are very pleased they finally did in 2022. Entirely improvised with two guitars and effects, it was recorded at Bonberenea, the independent and self-funded cultural hub housed in an abandoned warehouse in Tolosa (in the valley of the river Oria).

Xabi is a writer, poet and musician from Hondarribia, a fishing village on the border with France. He started his career as a member of Dut, the seminal Post Hardcore band that any Basque kid growing in the 90’s and interested in feedback and distorted guitars will sorely remember, still a cult these days. He formed Zura in 2005, a solo mature project focusing on acoustic guitar.

Mikel is an accomplished musician and all-around cultural activist from Bilbao. Has collaborated in numerous projects (Conteiner, Killerkume, Loan, Orbain Unit) and more recently with Miguel A. Garcia (also a member of Dopelganger, Heg008) and Joseba Agirrezabalaga (Lepok, Urpa i Musell beginning of 2023). Limited edition of 300 black vinyl LP’s housed in a coloured matt laminated cover designed between Xabi Strubell, Mikel Vega & Mikel Acosta.

Combining disco pulse with Turkish/Kurdish music and the energy of Marseille"s multi-cultural hipness, Biensüre brings a cool edge to the musical landscape of the mediterranean city and the dancefloors of the world. The group"s music, inspired by the personal stories of its singer, Kurdish Hakan Toprak, speaks of impossible loves, friendship and exile and is wraped up in an unmistakable groove. The eponymous album is the group"s first release, written, composed and produced by the four musicians and it is composed of seven groove-infused tracks that will please all global music lovers.Marseille in one of the coolest cities in France: The cafés, the terraces, the clubs, the Mediterranean sea and the mountains not far, make for a perfect setting for the wildly creative rebellious youth to express their art in a world of perpetual change. This is the setting in which Biensüre was born. Biensüre"s influences are varied and transcend generations and borders. Ranging from the Anatolian pop scene of the 70s and 80s with key figures like Erkin Koray and Baris Manço to 70s Jazz, Disco and early electro, their music is at the intersection of several musical continents.

With one foot planted in jazz and the other in the township groove of Mbaqanga, saxophonist Sello Mmutung was a powerful crossover figure in the history of popular music in South Africa. Using the stage name Bra Sello, meaning “brother” and used as a term of affection and respect in the jazz community, he came up in the era of shellac 78s as an exponent of the 1960s sax jive sound that brought the swinging rhythm of kwela into the domain of South African jazz. Despite the injection of American rhythm and blues into South African pop in the late-1960s, Bra Sello’s first releases on vinyl on the
CBS label saw him backed by the group Abafana Bentuthuko and holding down an unapologetic township sound.
Joining the independent Soweto label under producer Cambridge Matiwane in the mid-1970s, Bra Sello recorded two records in the hit-making bump jive style popularised by serious jazz musician Dollar Brand on the one hand and prolific studio group The Movers, operating in funk and soul territory, on the other. Blending modern American and traditional African elements into joyful hip-swinging rhythms, Butterfly (1975) and The Battle of Disco (1977) reflect the vivacity of urban life in South Africa and document an era when dance music was performed by bands as extended jams laced with jawdropping solos. With music trends shifting dramatically in the late-1970s, the title of The Battle of Disco was an ironic call to arms in response to the territory that group musicians were beginning to cede to synthesisers and DJs.
For enthusiasts of African music from the 1970s, a full appreciation of the continent’s output is incomplete without South Africa’s pop-jazz sound providing a regional counterpoint to the funk experimentation of West Africa. Reissued for the very first time, Bra Sello returns in 2023 with limited replica editions from Afrodelic using master tape sources from the As Shams / The Sun collection. Afrodelic’s unique edition of Butterfly features a previously unreleased track on Side B.

Limited edition of 100 copies for the 2023 Summer of Jazz campaign, focused on South-African jazz. Only available at HHV.

With one foot planted in jazz and the other in the township groove of Mbaqanga, saxophonist Sello Mmutung was a powerful crossover figure in the history of popular music in South Africa. Using the stage name Bra Sello, meaning “brother” and used as a term of affection and respect in the jazz community, he came up in the era of shellac 78s as an exponent of the 1960s sax jive sound that brought the swinging rhythm of kwela into the domain of South African jazz. Despite the injection of American rhythm and blues into South African pop in the late-1960s, Bra Sello’s first releases on vinyl on the
CBS label saw him backed by the group Abafana Bentuthuko and holding down an unapologetic township sound.
Joining the independent Soweto label under producer Cambridge Matiwane in the mid-1970s, Bra Sello recorded two records in the hit-making bump jive style popularised by serious jazz musician Dollar Brand on the one hand and prolific studio group The Movers, operating in funk and soul territory, on the other. Blending modern American and traditional African elements into joyful hip-swinging rhythms, Butterfly (1975) and The Battle of Disco (1977) reflect the vivacity of urban life in South Africa and document an era when dance music was performed by bands as extended jams laced with jawdropping solos. With music trends shifting dramatically in the late-1970s, the title of The Battle of Disco was an ironic call to arms in response to the territory that group musicians were beginning to cede to synthesisers and DJs.
For enthusiasts of African music from the 1970s, a full appreciation of the continent’s output is incomplete without South Africa’s pop-jazz sound providing a regional counterpoint to the funk experimentation of West Africa. Reissued for the very first time, Bra Sello returns in 2023 with limited replica editions from Afrodelic using master tape sources from the As Shams / The Sun collection. Afrodelic’s unique edition of Butterfly features a previously unreleased track on Side B.

With one foot planted in jazz and the other in the township groove of Mbaqanga, saxophonist Sello Mmutung was a powerful crossover figure in the history of popular music in South Africa. Using the stage name Bra Sello, meaning “brother” and used as a term of affection and respect in the jazz community, he came up in the era of shellac 78s as an exponent of the 1960s sax jive sound that brought the swinging rhythm of kwela into the domain of South African jazz. Despite the injection of American rhythm and blues into South African pop in the late-1960s, Bra Sello’s first releases on vinyl on the
CBS label saw him backed by the group Abafana Bentuthuko and holding down an unapologetic township sound.
Joining the independent Soweto label under producer Cambridge Matiwane in the mid-1970s, Bra Sello recorded two records in the hit-making bump jive style popularised by serious jazz musician Dollar Brand on the one hand and prolific studio group The Movers, operating in funk and soul territory, on the other. Blending modern American and traditional African elements into joyful hip-swinging rhythms, Butterfly (1975) and The Battle of Disco (1977) reflect the vivacity of urban life in South Africa and document an era when dance music was performed by bands as extended jams laced with jawdropping solos. With music trends shifting dramatically in the late-1970s, the title of The Battle of Disco was an ironic call to arms in response to the territory that group musicians were beginning to cede to synthesisers and DJs.
For enthusiasts of African music from the 1970s, a full appreciation of the continent’s output is incomplete without South Africa’s pop-jazz sound providing a regional counterpoint to the funk experimentation of West Africa. Reissued for the very first time, Bra Sello returns in 2023 with limited replica editions from Afrodelic using master tape sources from the As Shams / The Sun collection. Afrodelic’s unique edition of Butterfly features a previously unreleased track on Side B.

Limited edition of 100 copies for the 2023 Summer of Jazz campaign, focused on South-African jazz. Only available at HHV.

With one foot planted in jazz and the other in the township groove of Mbaqanga, saxophonist Sello Mmutung was a powerful crossover figure in the history of popular music in South Africa. Using the stage name Bra Sello, meaning “brother” and used as a term of affection and respect in the jazz community, he came up in the era of shellac 78s as an exponent of the 1960s sax jive sound that brought the swinging rhythm of kwela into the domain of South African jazz. Despite the injection of American rhythm and blues into South African pop in the late-1960s, Bra Sello’s first releases on vinyl on the
CBS label saw him backed by the group Abafana Bentuthuko and holding down an unapologetic township sound.
Joining the independent Soweto label under producer Cambridge Matiwane in the mid-1970s, Bra Sello recorded two records in the hit-making bump jive style popularised by serious jazz musician Dollar Brand on the one hand and prolific studio group The Movers, operating in funk and soul territory, on the other. Blending modern American and traditional African elements into joyful hip-swinging rhythms, Butterfly (1975) and The Battle of Disco (1977) reflect the vivacity of urban life in South Africa and document an era when dance music was performed by bands as extended jams laced with jawdropping solos. With music trends shifting dramatically in the late-1970s, the title of The Battle of Disco was an ironic call to arms in response to the territory that group musicians were beginning to cede to synthesisers and DJs.
For enthusiasts of African music from the 1970s, a full appreciation of the continent’s output is incomplete without South Africa’s pop-jazz sound providing a regional counterpoint to the funk experimentation of West Africa. Reissued for the very first time, Bra Sello returns in 2023 with limited replica editions from Afrodelic using master tape sources from the As Shams / The Sun collection. Afrodelic’s unique edition of Butterfly features a previously unreleased track on Side B.

Blessed by producer Herbie Mann, who released their sole record in 1970 on his personal imprint Embryo, Brute Force were a singular jazz funk group, who filled the gap between heavy rhythm n blues and the jazz-rock revolution already professed by Miles Davis. The Herbie Mann connection was solidified by the presence of guitarist Sonny Sharrock - who plays on the first half of the record - at the time in the flutist supergroup. With the distinctive electric piano of Richard Daniel and brother Ted (a future key figure in New York downtown jazz scene) on trumpet the record still retains a fascinating mood.

"The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine", wrote the French Surrealists almost 100 years ago, and from this missive stems the parlor game in which we partake here. Through obscuring the tower itself, they cobble together meandering staircases in which to ascend with absent-minded haste; spontaneous line-weaving amasses figures and phrases into new planes of thought, therefore holding captive the illusion of creative reciprocity. Although housed in unrecognizable quarters, dull rain now tallies itself upon your window panes just as it once kept count on theirs. Apparitions unknown sound instruments of winding origin in celebration of the ink dry in the well. A graffito of tea leaves stains the porcelain cup. This cloven tall-tale traces an epistolary journey between id and consciousness upon a page that has been adorned and wiped clean again and again and again. The wet meadow expands and contracts within a breath, moving through the windpipe to expel upon the glistening dew. From this dew rises anthills of diminishing complexity, and busying themselves within insanity, the occupants labor to hold fast against the unseen wave of oblivion. An exercise in aleatoric sentence-finishing between two aligned performers, The Exquisite Corpse Shall Drink the New Wine mimics the economics of unconscious beauty-making to such a degree that light will neither pass through it nor divert its path. Draw upon it what you will, and ready yourself for the unrelenting ataraxy. The job’s oxo.

Swiss-born pianist Camille-Alban Spreng, who has resided in Brussels for over a decade, has been active since 2010 in a diverse range of bands and projects within jazz, improvised (electronic) music, art performance and theater. He can be seen on stages all over Europe and trained at various conservatories with renowned players such as Emil Spanyi (hemu, Lausanne), Eric Legnini and Kris Defoort (crb, KCB, Brussels). Together with his regular band Odil, he has already released two records: 'Something' (qftf Records - 2016) and 'reson' (qftq Records - 2019), with the collaboration of Leïla Martial, and Valentin Ceccaldi on the latter album. Odil operates from Brussels but, with in its ranks a pivotal figure with Swiss roots, a French drummer and an Irish saxophonist, is a band with international allure. Nina Kortekaas' unique voice is also an absolute asset.

His third album, titled "Unheimlich," will be released on W.E.R.F. records, one of Belgium's finest jazz not jazz labels. The new album sprung from Camille-Alban's fondness for Allen Ginsberg and the beatnik movement. Poems by Ginsberg are provided with music, notably "Pull My Daisy" (co-written by Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady at the time) and "White Shroud," with the approval of the rights holders/heirs.

The lyrics that Camille-Alban himself wrote for the album exude the same beatnik vibe. In that sense, the new work is also an homage to Allen Ginsberg. "I love his way of writing: it's funny, twisted, quirky ánd spiritual," Camille-Alban said. "I couldn't think of a better title for the new album. 'Unheimlich' doesn't translate. The black cat in the lobby of a creepy hotel in 'The Matrix,' I think of that image, that atmosphere." Odil's music has a narrative character and in terms of form, the compositions are not ordinary. Impro plays a role and the music is unmistakably characterized by a contemporary jazz aesthetic but at their core the compositions are also songs, a unique feature. 'Unheimlich' is a jazz album that can be listened to just as well as a pop rock album.

Matthewdavid and I agreed that the idea of releasing my three Carlos Niño & Friends full-lengths - Flutes, Echoes, It's All Happening! (2016), Going Home (2017), and Bliss On Dear Oneness (2019) all originally released on LP and Digital by Leaving Records - on cassette for the first time, was a good one. When I went to figure out where the side breaks would be in the track sequence, I realized that none of them would fit very well, due to timing and length. I have run into this issue before with cassette and vinyl sequences, as there is only so much music that can be pressed onto a side. In some cases I have had to edit or omit songs to fit a side of vinyl. They make different lengths, durations of tape, and I considered different track orders for each individual record, but somehow none of the configurations that I came up with were working for these to become cassette releases. I then conceived of a single tape (c80, 40 minutes a side) that would compile songs from these releases with a couple pieces from my previous self-released LP Aurorasmushroomtenderness (2014) and the one that came before that on (the long defunct) Porter Records Aquariusssssss (2012). Matthewdavid and I had always thought that it would be a good idea for a couple new pieces to come out Digitally in conjunction with the tape releases. In this new concept I was able to start each side with one of the new pieces I had ready. " The title Assortment for Susan's is a living, Loving tribute to our Dear Friend and Collaborator Justin Hansohn and his community company Anandamide. The Anandamide headquarters in Elysian Park, California is called Susan's, named after the dog that he shares with his partner Taylor. Love to Justin, Taylor, Susan, Monkey, Warren, and all of the Anandamide Family . . .

The first studio date of the Charles Lloyd Quartet, with Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee, and Jack DeJohnette, was recorded and released just a few days before the band took both the European and American festival circuits by storm. First came Europe, which was just getting the disc as the band was tearing up its stages. While the live dates are now the stuff of legend, it's easy to overlook the recordings, but to do so would be a mistake. "Dream Weaver" is a fully realized project by a band -- a real band -- in which each member has a unique part of the whole to contribute. Jarrett's unusual piano style fits musically with Lloyd's lyricism in a way that it shouldn't. Jarrett was even then an iconoclast, playing harmonic figures from the inside out and relying on counterpoint to create new spaces, not fill them in. (Just listen to "Autumn Sequence", where his solos and his backing harmonics are equally strident and inventive as Lloyd's Eastern explorations of mood and mode.) And then there's the rhythm section of McBee and DeJohnette, whose modal inventions on the intervals make the "Dream Weaver" suite an exercise in open time, allowing all players to wander around inside it and take what they want out. The set closes with a group party jam on "Sombrero Sam", with Lloyd and Jarrett trading eights on a Cuban variation on a fantasia. There were no records like this one by new groups in 1966.

Chicago-born composer, producer and arranger Charles Stepney is known to some for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire, Deniece Williams, and Ramsey Lewis, or for his work with Chess Records in the 1960s, where he was an essential creative force behind seminal recordings by Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Marlena Shaw, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Terry Callier, The Dells, The Emotions, and many many more. In the decades since his untimely death in 1976, the presence of his name in liner notes and on vinyl labels has become a seal of quality for record collectors, music historians, and aficionados, while his sound has been used by countless samplers in the hip-hop world including Kanye West, A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, MF Doom, and Madlib. But in comparison to the post-mortem renown of his sound, or the music he created and the artists he supported while he was alive, Stepney is a greatly under-appreciated figure... a genius relegated to the shadows.

Chicago-born composer, producer and arranger Charles Stepney is known to some for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire, Deniece Williams, and Ramsey Lewis, or for his work with Chess Records in the 1960s, where he was an essential creative force behind seminal recordings by Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Marlena Shaw, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Terry Callier, The Dells, The Emotions, and many many more. In the decades since his untimely death in 1976, the presence of his name in liner notes and on vinyl labels has become a seal of quality for record collectors, music historians, and aficionados, while his sound has been used by countless samplers in the hip-hop world including Kanye West, A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, MF Doom, and Madlib. But in comparison to the post-mortem renown of his sound, or the music he created and the artists he supported while he was alive, Stepney is a greatly under-appreciated figure... a genius relegated to the shadows.

* Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London / This was Charles Tolliver’s first album as a leader. The setting is unique only because his second Freedom-Black Lion album “The Ringer” and all of his subsequent albums on Strata-East featured his quartet Music Inc. with pianist Stanley Cowell. Here he is surrounded in quartet and quintet formats with a truly stellar cast of the leading players on the New York jazz scene.

Charles plays the role of leader, composer and trumpeter. But it is surely that last role that deserves the most attention. The trumpet is a brass instrument that leans toward a hard sound and staccato phrasing. Yet Tolliver is the quintessence of fluidity. While it may be undeniable that he has learned from his musical heritage and past trumpet masters, a trumpeter of such flow, tone, control, lyricism and creativity is, by definition, a major musician.

Charles Tolliver first came to the professional jazz scene in the mid-sixties, when he first met Jackie McLean. Under McLean’s leadership, he played on a number of Blue Note record sessions, some of which have yet to be released. He contributed original tunes to many of those sessions.

Within a couple of years, Tolliver was a well known figure in New York circles, playing and/or recording with Booker Ervin, Archie Shepp, Andrew Hill, Roy Ayers, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Willie Bobo, Gerald Wilson, McCoy Tyner, Hank Mobley, and many others. His compositions were getting recorded by many artists. He gained his greatest recognition during a two year stint with the Max Roach quintet that also included Gary Bartz and Stanley Cowell.

There is also a previously unreleased bonus track of the song, "Repetition", recorded by Charles for this LP which will be included on this new release of the album. This song was originally made famous by Charlie Parker's LP With Strings.

This album is certainly an important and lasting document in light of the musicians involved and in light of its unique context for Charles Tolliver. But basically, it is just a great album to listen to.

Commenting on this album in 1962, Billboard magazine wrote: »He seems to be everywhere, everywhere that is but on his usual instrument«. Charles Mingus, one of the most impressive musicians in the history of jazz, doesn’t play a single note on the bass for a change, but leads the band from his (blues-)piano – the instrument that he always used for composing. He hits the keys, he sings the blues, he shouts and he encourages – apparently Mingus really found the need to express himself loudly in this album. (Doug Watkins stood in for him on the contrabass.) "Oh Yeah" is definitely Mingus’s most powerful and passionate album. He calls on two hot, intensive saxophonists – Roland Kirk and Booker Ervin – as well as Jimmy Knepper on the trombone. Kirk is the main soloist, but all three wind-players deliver expressive improvisations, carrying out a non-stop dialogue with one another, and pushing one other to achieve maximum energy. The music is wild and ecstatic, but it’s not free jazz, remaining – as it does – grounded in blues and gospel. "Hog Callin’ Blues" is an enthralling shuffle with a wealth of riffs, "Devil Woman" a clever slow blues with inventive wind figures. "Ecclusiastics", with its constant change of rhythm and expression alternating between gospel and blues has the most complex form. Blues has always been a part of a black church service, said Mingus. "Eat That Chicken" (a homage to Fats Waller and his favourite food) even plays around with an old-time, Dixie feeling. Humour is never far away. Even in the atomic bomb song (this too, a sort of churchy blues) one hears the words: »Don’t let ’em drop it! Stop it! Be-bop it!«

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. More information under www.pure-analogue.com. All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: November 1961 at Atlantic Studios, New York City, by Tom Dowd and Phil Iehle Production: Nesuhi Ertegun

Charles Mingus brought together an amazing lineup spanning the totality of the nation's jazz scene with such luminaries as Eric Dolphy, Buddy Collette, Clark Terry, Zoot Sims, Pepper Adams, Jaki Byard, Grady Tate, and more. Brought together to perform new Mingus compositions for the first time in public, the recording was initially considered weak due to limited rehearsal time but the years have been kind to this recording and it's a fantastic set of Mingus compositions, including the powerful "Freedom" which rivals the works on Mingus Ah-Um (1959) for its strength of purpose and message, in a similar vein to Max Roach's legendary We Insist! album (1960). Mingus is one of the most important figures in 20th century music and this live recording documents his compositional and arranging process as well as sheer swinging joy.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first vinyl reissue of Trancedance, a wild slice of Swedish Afro-fusion from Christer Bothén, originally released in 1984. A major figure in Swedish jazz and improvised music since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet and tenor sax, Bothen studied doso n’koni (the large six-stringed ‘hunter’s harp’ of the Wasulu) in Mali in 1971-2 before turning to the guinbri (the three-stringed lute of the Gnawa/Gnauoua) in Marakesh later in the decade. In between, he performed extensively with Don Cherry during his Organic Music Society period and taught Cherry the doso n’koni. In the later 70s and 80s he worked with the most important figures in the distinctive Swedish jazz-rock-world fusion scene, joining Archimedes Badkar for their African-influenced Tre and participating in Bengt Berger’s legendary Bitter Funeral Beer Band. Many of the musicians who played on the Bitter Funeral Beer Band’s ECM LP (including Berger on drums, Anita Livstrand on voice and percussion and Tord Bengstsson on piano, violin and guitar) joined Bothén for one of the sessions that produced Trancedance, the first release under his own name, dedicated to his compositions. The other session introduced his seven-piece group Bolon Bata, heard on the second track of each side. The title track opens the album with the rubbery buzzing strings of the doso n’goni playing a hypnotic ten beat pattern, soon joined by bass and piano before the entire nine-piece group kicks in with a rollicking Afro-jazz workout, Berger’s drums driving an intricate, winding melodic line played by the horns with Mattias Helden’s cello throwing in pizzicato slides and smears. Bothén then takes centre stage on tenor sax, soloing with a wide, vibrating tone and moving seamlessly from soaring melodies to guttural stutters. After a return to the composed horn lines and a solo from Elsie Petrén on alto sax, the piece builds to an ecstatic conclusion of yelping voices and handclaps, gradually simmering down to return to the solo doso n’koni where it began.

The hypnotic sounds of the hunter’s harp carries over to ‘Mimouna’, where it is joined by Bothen’s overdubbed guinbri. The piece develops into a haunting whispered and sung invocation, gradually building momentum until the organic textures of strings, voices, and hand percussion are ruptured by Lennart Söderlund’s distorted guitar, which brings an unmistakable touch of 1984 to the otherwise timeless sound. Joined by chicken scratch guitar and increasingly dominated by the insistent clang of three of Bolon Bata’s members on karqab (a kind of cast-iron castanet), the grove develops frenetically.

The B side opens with the multi-part epic ‘9+10 Moving Pictures for the Ear’, at over 16 minutes the record’s longest piece. Though Bothen is heard only on horns on this piece, the hypnotic repeating bass line carries on the first side’s link to African musical traditions. Using an expanded 16-piece ensemble, the music balances untethered improvisation with carefully arranged passages of knotty ensemble playing that at points suggest Mingus, Moacir Santos or some of the ambitious post-free work being done in the same years by figures like David Murray or Henry Threadgill. The piece ends with a triumphant passage of looping unison melody reminiscent of the Scandinavian folk explorations of Arbete och Fritid (whose Kjell Westling is heard on bass clarinet and soprano sax here). The sound of Bjorn Lundqvist’s fretless bass introduces the odd left turn made by the record’s final track, a spaced-out expedition into bluesy horn lines and distant guitar atmospherics set to a semi-reggae beat, perfumed by the core Bolon Bata group and bearing the appropriate title of ‘The Horizon Stroller’. A must for fans of the Swedish scene around groups like Arbete och Fritid and Archimedes Badkar, as well as any listener who has been seduced by Louis Moholo’s Spirits Rejoice!, The Brotherhood of Breath, or, more recently, the guinbri grooves of Natural Information Society, Trancedance is a lost classic ripe for rediscovery.

Christian McBride's 'The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons' is culminating documentation of a richly inspired piece " lauding four key figures of the Civil Rights Movement: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali.

Marshalling his ever-sharpening skills as a composer, arranger, conductor, musician and lyricist, McBride has created a historically and culturally illuminating five-part suite for an 18-piece big band, chorus and narrators that places the motivating forces as well as the goals of the Civil Rights Movement within a powerfully relevant artistic context. It is a one-from-the-heart project McBride was, apparently, destined to undertake.

This recording of The Movement Revisited marks the addition of a fifth movement, Apotheosis, which acknowledges the election of Barack Obama as the first African American President of the United States.

As a composer Martijn Comes has a special interest in timbral music and various musical traditions, with an emphasis on the electro-acoustic history. His works for the carillon were performed live at festivals like Le Guess Who and Rewire. He also released several solo-albums and collaborated with a wide range of contemporary artists like Frans de Waard, Lukas Simonis, Nicoleta Chatzopoulou and Hessel Veldman, with whom he co-produced the album EPoX, published by Bedouin Records in 2020.

Veldman is a veteran of the Dutch musical avant-garde and published several legendary cassettes on his label Exart in the early 80’s. His experimental soundscapes are laced with industrial elements, creating a hypnotic, dark undercurrent of sounds. Besides operating under his moniker Y Create, he was a member of the improvisation group Gorgonzola Legs and kept working intensively with Fluxus artist and Dutch underground cult-figure Willem de Ridder. The home-taping era shaped his free approach to music. His diverse musical practices have been traversing several decades by now and he continues to play music according to his own insights and intuitions.

Because of the emotional and poetic weight of the pieces, reverend Tom de Haan was consulted for this collaborative album. It was the start of a musical exploration and a search for peace, balance and above all freedom. Reaching out to a distant world, a place to come to terms with ourselves. A journey full of obstacles and setbacks. Sometimes persistently moving forward, sometimes doubtful. 'Are there Gods among us or inside us?' The music as a manifest, the expression of an inner struggle.

Throughout the chapters of this album layers of sound and distant voices arise and seem to float on the surface before they disappear again. Swaying on the gentle waves, running ashore, we find ourselves in unknown places. Manifest Exodus is an album for deep listening in the vein of Lustmord, Lawrence English or Rafael Anton Irisarri. It contains 4 rich, immersive pieces with austere drones, ambience, intense sonic textures and an incredible sense of detail to create a multi-layered escape to a better world.

Limited to 1000 copies.

This album is widely regarded as a landmark recording in the history of British jazz. Pine, a talented saxophonist and composer, had already established himself as a leading figure in the London jazz scene through his work with bands like the Jazz Warriors. The album marked Pine’s first solo outing as a bandleader, and it showcased his unique style of jazz. Featuring a mix of original compositions and covers, including Pine’s take Horace Silver’s “Peace”, Wayne Shorter’s “Dolores” and The Real Thing’s “Children Of The Ghetto”. A rare instance where a cover version supersedes the original, making. The album was a critical and commercial success upon its release, earning Pine widespread acclaim and helping to establish him as one of the most innovative and exciting young musicians on the British jazz scene. The album remains a classic of the genre and a testament to Pine’s creative vision and virtuosity as a performer and composer. A refreshing reboot of British Jazz that gave rise to and inspiration to so many of today’s contemporary British Jazz artists. Presenting a new roadmap for the British Jazz scene, its DNA flows through the British Jazz scene to this day.

No musician embodies more the dramatic transformation in the British jazz scene over the past thirty years than Courtney Pine. His debut album, Journey To The Urge Within in 1987, was the first serious jazz album ever to make the British Top 40, notching up sales to qualify for a silver disc.
Aside from being the preeminent figure in the resurgence of British jazz, Courtney became a renowned presenter and broadcaster, best known for his long running radio show for BBC Radio 2, 'Jazz Crusade'. He was also awarded an O.B.E in the 2000 New Year's Honours, and was also made a C.B.E in 2009 for services to Music.
As an artist always looking to work outside of and across established musical genres, it is easier to list the musicians and artists he hasn't worked with, but now in 2017 Courtney releases brand new music featuring another British music legend of equal repute, his Freestyle Records label mate and an artist also honoured for his own creative endeavours; Omar Lyefook M.B.E.
Both tracks of this single are taken from Courtneys' forthcoming album Black Notes From The Deep - the 19th of his stellar career. The exciting and fresh interpretation of Herbie Hancocks' Butterfly demonstrates straight away that this is a dream team combination. With Alec Dankworth laying down the bass, Rod Youngs' drumming underpinning the groove, the song also gives the outstanding keyboards of Robert Mitchell space to stretch out - Omars fantastic vocal performance rides sweetly on top of the dreamy backing vocals of Charleen Hamilton - and of course Courtneys' flowing, imaginative and creative solo perfects this modern version of a much loved classic.
Rules is a brand new, collaborative composition by Courtney & Omar - the punchy drums and bass line patterns hints simultaneously at classic jazz and funkier club-centric sounds. Courtney cooks on tenor saxophone and also the organ - whilst Omar marinades the super catchy melody with that unmistakable voice.
As an introduction to the forthcoming album Black Notes From The Deep this single points the way to what 2 British legends, both exemplary in their own right - can come up with when joining forces.

Jazz re:freshed are proud to present the third studio album by bassist and composer Daniel Casimir.'Balance'encapsulates 'Big Band Energy', with his signature combination of Classical, Jazz and cinematic sounds.
The albumpays homage to the traditions of big band composition and historical significance whilst illustrating contemporary sensibilities.
This ambitious project explores the balance between two large and full sounds of a big band and a string section and is inspired by icon Wayne Shorter's album'Emanon'which made a deep impression on Casimir during the process of creating the album.
An organic development of Casimir's last critically acclaimed album'Boxed In'which featured a jazz quintet alongside a mini chamber Orchestra and was comprised of a woodwind, brass, with a string quartet,'Balance'is a self produced album that takes his musical vision to the next level in his most ambitious body of work to date, leading 26 musicians.
Recorded in November 2022 at Livingston Studios, in a very conscientious recording process which saw piano, bass, and drums recorded together first, followed by trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and the string section and an all star band that consists of figures from the UK Jazz scene, Cassie Kinoshi, Binker, Nubya Garcia, Rosie Turton, Sheila Maurice-Grey and Jay Phelps to name a few alongside a stunning string section performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra.
The final day of recording enlisted the powerful vocal prowess' of Zola Marcelle and Ria Moran to finesse the masterpiece. The track'Music Not Numbers'is an encouraging call to all musicians to not allow streaming culture to affect their creative process and to continue expanding the intrinsic nature of music. Whereas track,'Search for Goldilocks'explores the second meaning behind the album title 'Balance', which is to seek balance within and discover the qualities in life that are "just right".

After separating from his partner of 10 years, saxophonist Darius Jones set out on tour 'to capture a moment in time, to crystallize the beginning of something at the end of something else.' Born from a live performance -- his last night on tour -- Raw Demoon Alchemy (A Lone Operation) unearths a deep and profound vulnerability that isn't just personal but also delves into the macro-level divisiveness of our current political climate, evoking sadness, rage, and confusion while still holding for glimmers of hope for the future. With four of its five tracks, Jones selects compositions from artists who are not just unapologetically Black but also notably ones that he regards as 'world builders.' From Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, and Roscoe Mitchell right up through the present with Georgia Anne Muldrow, Alchemy draws immeasurable strength from each of these artists who dared to envision and create an entire universe unto themselves, on their terms. With 'Figure No. 2,' Jones offers us a modern-day version of the blues. Courtesy of Muldrow, her refrain encapsulates the vast breadth of the Black experience in America, transforming our deep-seated pain into our beauty and armor of resilience. Jones also proudly rests on the shoulders of Coleman and Mitchell, two of this music's known improvisers who often stood alone in this music's ever-changing landscape. He pays homage to Mitchell with 'Noonah,' which in the late 1970s was initially met with jeers from an audience, that is, until his 21+ minute long version overtook them. On Alchemy, Jones balances the emotional heft of closure with the simple act of standing alone as he taps into an unknown power of his lone voice, finding a newfound strength and enthusiasm that will carry him ' and its listeners ' beyond the uncertainty and doubt of not knowing.

For more than a decade, Giovanni Di Domenico, Jim O'Rourke, and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto have been coming together in various combinations - duos, trios, and larger ensembles - slowly becoming one of the most noteworthy, understated collaborations in the landscape of experimental sound. In 2015, the trio recorded a brilliant LP entitled “Delivery Health” for Silent Water, laying the groundwork for an enduring project that adopted that album’s title as its name, debuting properly in 2017 with the stunner “Hard Off”. Over the years since, we’ve encountered Di Domenico, O'Rourke, and Yamamoto playing together in Bonjintan, their project with Akira Sakata, and in further collaborations with Eiko Ishibashi and Joe Talia, not to mention O'Rourke and Di Domenico’s prolific work as a duo.

Of course, O’Rourke needs little introduction. Initially emerging in Chicago during the late 80’s and based in Japan since the mid-2000s, for more than three decades he has carved a relentless path through the field of experimental sound, creating a body of work - hundreds of albums deep - that refuses any form of stasis and obligation to genre or idiom. He is an artist driven by a singular quest, his endless curiosity driving him to constantly forge into uncharted, visionary realms. Slightly younger but nearly as prolific, Di Domenico - Italian born and Brussels based - has constructed a striking solo practice over the last two and a half decades, bridging numerous forms of improvised and electroacoustic music, all the while rigorously working within various ensembles - Abschattungen, AufHeben, Bonjintan, Cement Shoes, etc. - and an endless stream of collaborations. Among the most noteworthy drummers currently working in Japan, over the last decade and a half Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, in addition to his many efforts with Di Domenico and O'Rourke, has collaborated steadily with noteworthy figures like Otomo Yoshihide, Phew, Eiko Ishibashi, Sakaguchi Mitsuhisa, and Akira Sakata, as well creating a body of solo works.

Like its predecessors, “SuperDeluxe!” rides a beautiful line between striking singular creative ambition and accomplishment, and simply feeling like a free-wheeling conversation between friends who have relinquished their egos and presumptions out of a deep sense of mutual respect. The album is a kind of retrospective rewind, comprising five documents recorded live - between 2012 and 2014 - at the legendary SuperDeluxe, Tokyo, by Masahide Ando, then mixed by Giovanni Di Domenico, and finally mastered and cut by Frédéric Alstadt at Angstrom Mastering, Bruxelles. Taking us deep into the very beginnings and previously unheard activities of Di Domenico, O'Rourke, and Yamamoto, the trio weaves a knotted tapestry unfurling as sheets of sound, that sidesteps signifiers and the expectations that one might have of each of these artists on their own. Ranging from brisling ambient passages drawing on latent melodic flirtations, heavy jams on guitar, drums, electronics, and keyboards, and outright, full throttle noise, each moment represents a visionary excursion into the depths of experimental, improvised sound, revealing a shocking sense of real-time dexterity from each player, as much as the collective whole experiments in improvised sound.

"Lava music, maybe. Lava music, always evolving, always surprising, always exciting because we don’t know what the other will bring to the music that we start improvising and exploring together. We’ll see what bubbles will form in this lava music And sometimes an idea comes up, a bubble pops and it becomes a track. Lava, like the wax that was melted to press the record. Lava, like energy flowing, slow. Improvising most of the time, you really connect with the other musician. It takes all your energy, trying to follow, trying to figure out where to go next, what will happen if I do this and if Pacôme, next to me, decides to change instrument. All of a sudden. Pacôme may be holding his clarinet in one hand, but he also has a synth on his lap and a harmonica around his neck. Oh, and he recalls : « I remember Antoine searching new rhythm ideas with his machines directly connected to an old cassette player with speakers. All these subtle changes gave the direction and the evolution of each track. We were side by side, maybe only one meter from each other -very close. This afternoon autumn session when we made the record was first to rehearse for a gig, so I think we were particularly taking care of transitions – while playing for an hour non-stop.»

This record was mostly improvised in a quiet bedroom, on the third floor of a building in Pantin, close to Paris. The room was filled with quiet sunlight. Instruments were all over the place, with some effects pedals, speakers for the electronic machines, a recorder to catch the whole atmosphere and music. A few overdubs later, the record was done.

Leafing through the pages of Flaubert’s novel, we found these two sentences; they became our track titles and shed a poetic light over the music. Thank you for listening."

Antoine Cortes & Pacôme Genty - des édens

Damage Mécanique thrusts the listener into a malfunctioning industrial sci-fi soundscape. Trance inducing guitars beckon with haunting wails, high-tension wires spin and spit with a crackling hiss. Circular kosmische rhythms and anxiety-drenched beats destroy and rebuild around fractured melodies and noise. The band oxidizes and melts into experimental post-punk and acousmatic environments as hypnotic groove and vertigo copulate in cinematic assemblage. Limited Edition black vinyl LP. Damage Mécanique was recorded by Evan Schiller, mixed by Randall Dunn at Figure 8 in Brooklyn, NY and mastered by Alan Jones at Laminal Audio, Tracyton, WA. Pressed at Gotta Groove Records. Edition of 500.

A marvelous 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 a highly mixed line-up featuring multi reeds player Sahib Shihab, bassists Henry Texier and Eberhard Weber and Swiss dummer extraordinaire Daniel Humair, plus four North African musicians on traditional instruments like bendir, ney, bagpipes, tabla and darbouka. A trance inducing Jazz ritual.

Caz Plak İstanbul proudly presents... ONE OF Jazz's All-time Greats Playing Turkish Rhythms! Don Cherry delves into Turkish rhythms, accompanied by his long-time Don Cherry Trio members: Turkish drummer Okay Temiz and South African bassist Johnny Dyani. The vinyl LP is manufactured in Istanbul under the guidance of Mr. Okay Temiz, the only living member of this iteration of the Don Cherry Trio. The LP has been remastered from original material housed in BYG Records' vaults by Okay Temiz & Mert Ucer and licensed from BYG Records, France. This LP features the recording by the Don Cherry Trio in Paris 1971 for the Sound and Vision program at the legendary Ortf studios in Paris 1971. Serving as the second chapter of our 'Turkish Jazz Trilogy', it follows Okay Temiz's magnum opus, 'Okay Temiz's Oriental Wind at Montreux Jazz Festival 1982' LP. We present one of the paramount Jazz figures of all time interpreting Turkish rhythms in Don Cherry Trio - The Ortf Recordings Paris 1971 LP This release also stands as one of the most important recordings prior to Don Cherry's legendary "Organic Music Society" album in 1973, in which Okay Temiz also plays drums. "Don Cherry Trio as an 'Applied Universe of Thought.' In the spring of 1971, while we were playing as the Don Cherry Trio in Paris, Don (Cherry) seamlessly flowed from the trumpet to the piano, with improvisation as the lighthouse of the melody. This approach opened up a realm of boundless freedom for Johnny and me. It is to be observed as a melody within a melody. From the Organic Music Society album we recorded a year after this concert, up until the ECM album we recorded before Don's final departure from this planet, this principle has been the gravitational force of the Don Cherry universe. That, indeed, is the true legacy of the Don Cherry Trio." Excerpt from the liner notes by Okay Temiz and Haluk Damar

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, one of the most influential figures in the history of jazz, transcended the boundaries of time with his incomparable contributions to music. His career spanned more than five decades, during which he not only left a lasting mark on jazz, but also became a cultural icon. As a pianist, he was one of the most important inventors of the stride piano. As a composer, he wrote almost 2000 compositions (songs and suites), 100 of which soon became jazz standards. As a bandleader, he contributed to the development of swing as a big band style. Ellington's genius lay in his ability to elevate jazz from a danceable popular music form to a sophisticated art form that embraced complexity and nuance. His arrangements were intricate, emphasizing the individuality of each instrument while blending into a cohesive, harmonically rich tapestry. His compositions such as "Mood Indigo" or "Take the 'A' Train" are characterized by rich textures, harmonies and a sense of drama. Ellington's world tours as a cultural ambassador not only introduced audiences to jazz, but also challenged stereotypes about African-American musicians. His orchestra's performances were not just concerts, but cultural events that celebrated diversity and demonstrated the power of music as a universal language. In addition to countless awards, including Grammys and the Pulitzer Prize, he was also posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

2023 was a breakthrough year for Eabs in many ways. It was all thanks to the well received, fully self-produced album entitled In Search of a Better Tomorrow, recorded in collaboration with the Pakistani band Jaubi. The record provided the opportunity to tour in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and China. It was praised by media outlets such as Le Monde, L'Echo, Politis, Stern, Bandcamp and Gazeta Wyborcza, while The Guardian included the release in its 'The Best Global Albums of 2023'. Eabs' forthcoming sixth album is a return to their roots – literally and figuratively. It is an in-depth study on rhythm, which materialised in the form of the album titled Reflections of Purple Sun.

The back to the roots part not only manifests itself in the lack of guest instrumentalists, but also in a renewed focus on the history of Polish jazz. The band's debut album Repetitions... was dedicated to Krzysztof Komeda. This time, the band picked up the entire Purple Sun album, which Tomasz Stańko recorded half a century ago. From the POV of Purple Sun fans, a hard-to-find and somewhat forgotten album, it may seem like a doomed undertaking. However, in order to pay tribute to one of the most iconic figures of Polish jazz, it was worth embarking on this mission and attempting to engage in a non-verbal conversation with the Slavic spirit that Master Tomasz Stańko undoubtedly was.

What was the essence of Purple Sun? Tomasz Stańko's record relied heavily on rhythm, one could even say that it was its central element. The Eabs version is thus a study in rhythm. In other words, it is a reflection on rhythm. Therefore, the metaphor hidden in the word Reflections appears in the title, referring to the reflection of light – a reflex, representing a different energy enclosed in time and space, but half a century later.

The material recorded on 9 March 1973 at the Munich Conservatory under the watchful eye and ear of Ulrich Kraus made up the final album of the legendary Stańko's quintet, released on vinyl in a rather limited edition a few months later on the small German label, Calig. The album produced by the Eabs ensemble came nearly exactly 50 years later and is titled Reflections of Purple Sun. The concept of the recording had been brewing among the Eabs members since as early as 2017, yet the band had their final rehearsals between 23 and 25 March 2023 to play a preview concert at Wrocław’s National Forum of Music on 26 March. The energy that had been accumulating within the group over that short period of time reached its peak a few days later, when on the 5th and 6th of April the musicians got together in Rozbrat Street in Warsaw, where Tomasz Stańko’s flat used to be, and where the foundation named after him has its headquarters today – to build a home studio there and record tracks. In retrospect, it is hard to believe that the album was made on such a round anniversary of the recording of Purple Sun.

The low-ceilinged flat in which the trumpeter lived, donned with an assortment of carpets, now lingers in a hushed ambiance, as if he had momentarily stepped out for errands. Sadly, he never returned. His recent musical, literary, and cinematic influences linger palpably in the aftermath of his passing, revealing a distinct imprint on the space he once inhabited. The piano he played and composed on still stands in the living room, with a small practice room where he kept his trumpet collection adjacent. Marek Pędziwiatr decided to use the available piano, and Jakub Kurek picked one of the trumpets.

It’s worth taking a moment to spotlight the trumpet chosen by Jakub Kurek. Kuba says: The trumpet I went with is the last one Tomasz Stańko picked for his collection – the Monette Xlt+. I found this trumpet the most interesting and inspiring because of its lively and spacious sound, and its technologically developed construction. It was also conceptually suitable for playing pieces based on the music from the Purple Sun album, recorded 50 years ago, which in the Eabs interpretation took on an electronic character within the context of contemporary instrumental music. Tomasz Stańko intended to use this instrument in his work. He started working with it, but did not actually make any recordings using it. [...] I’ve also chosen this trumpet from among others because of its timbre, which has not yet been identified with the expression of Stańko’s strong artistic personality.

You can learn more about Reflections of Purple Sun through the comprehensive booklet accompanying the record. Astigmatic Records will unveil the album in digital, CD, and LP formats, available in both standard and limited editions. The cover art was created by the label's regular collaborator, Animisiewasz, whose design pays tribute to Pia Burri's original Purple Sun concept. Pre-sales begin on 5 April and the release date is 10 May 2024.

2023 was a breakthrough year for Eabs in many ways. It was all thanks to the well received, fully self-produced album entitled In Search of a Better Tomorrow, recorded in collaboration with the Pakistani band Jaubi. The record provided the opportunity to tour in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and China. It was praised by media outlets such as Le Monde, L'Echo, Politis, Stern, Bandcamp and Gazeta Wyborcza, while The Guardian included the release in its 'The Best Global Albums of 2023'. Eabs' forthcoming sixth album is a return to their roots – literally and figuratively. It is an in-depth study on rhythm, which materialised in the form of the album titled Reflections of Purple Sun.

The back to the roots part not only manifests itself in the lack of guest instrumentalists, but also in a renewed focus on the history of Polish jazz. The band's debut album Repetitions... was dedicated to Krzysztof Komeda. This time, the band picked up the entire Purple Sun album, which Tomasz Stańko recorded half a century ago. From the POV of Purple Sun fans, a hard-to-find and somewhat forgotten album, it may seem like a doomed undertaking. However, in order to pay tribute to one of the most iconic figures of Polish jazz, it was worth embarking on this mission and attempting to engage in a non-verbal conversation with the Slavic spirit that Master Tomasz Stańko undoubtedly was.

What was the essence of Purple Sun? Tomasz Stańko's record relied heavily on rhythm, one could even say that it was its central element. The Eabs version is thus a study in rhythm. In other words, it is a reflection on rhythm. Therefore, the metaphor hidden in the word Reflections appears in the title, referring to the reflection of light – a reflex, representing a different energy enclosed in time and space, but half a century later.

The material recorded on 9 March 1973 at the Munich Conservatory under the watchful eye and ear of Ulrich Kraus made up the final album of the legendary Stańko's quintet, released on vinyl in a rather limited edition a few months later on the small German label, Calig. The album produced by the Eabs ensemble came nearly exactly 50 years later and is titled Reflections of Purple Sun. The concept of the recording had been brewing among the Eabs members since as early as 2017, yet the band had their final rehearsals between 23 and 25 March 2023 to play a preview concert at Wrocław’s National Forum of Music on 26 March. The energy that had been accumulating within the group over that short period of time reached its peak a few days later, when on the 5th and 6th of April the musicians got together in Rozbrat Street in Warsaw, where Tomasz Stańko’s flat used to be, and where the foundation named after him has its headquarters today – to build a home studio there and record tracks. In retrospect, it is hard to believe that the album was made on such a round anniversary of the recording of Purple Sun.

The low-ceilinged flat in which the trumpeter lived, donned with an assortment of carpets, now lingers in a hushed ambiance, as if he had momentarily stepped out for errands. Sadly, he never returned. His recent musical, literary, and cinematic influences linger palpably in the aftermath of his passing, revealing a distinct imprint on the space he once inhabited. The piano he played and composed on still stands in the living room, with a small practice room where he kept his trumpet collection adjacent. Marek Pędziwiatr decided to use the available piano, and Jakub Kurek picked one of the trumpets.

It’s worth taking a moment to spotlight the trumpet chosen by Jakub Kurek. Kuba says: The trumpet I went with is the last one Tomasz Stańko picked for his collection – the Monette Xlt+. I found this trumpet the most interesting and inspiring because of its lively and spacious sound, and its technologically developed construction. It was also conceptually suitable for playing pieces based on the music from the Purple Sun album, recorded 50 years ago, which in the Eabs interpretation took on an electronic character within the context of contemporary instrumental music. Tomasz Stańko intended to use this instrument in his work. He started working with it, but did not actually make any recordings using it. [...] I’ve also chosen this trumpet from among others because of its timbre, which has not yet been identified with the expression of Stańko’s strong artistic personality.

You can learn more about Reflections of Purple Sun through the comprehensive booklet accompanying the record. Astigmatic Records will unveil the album in digital, CD, and LP formats, available in both standard and limited editions. The cover art was created by the label's regular collaborator, Animisiewasz, whose design pays tribute to Pia Burri's original Purple Sun concept. Pre-sales begin on 5 April and the release date is 10 May 2024.

Eddie Russ was an important figure to emerge from the vibrant underground jazz scene that thrived in Detroit in the early 1970s, existing in the cultural and economic desolation of the city after the departure of Motown in the late 1960s. This scene included the musical collective Tribe (including members Wendell Harrison, Marcus Belgrave, Phil Ranelin, Harold McKinney and Doug Hammond) and Kenny Cox’s Strata Records. Eddie Russ’s Fresh Out was first released in 1974 on the independent Jazz Masters record label.

As well as including the classic jazz dance cut The Lope Song, Eddie Russ’s Fresh Out featured the debut of the group The Mixed Bag who subsequently recorded for both Tribe and Strata Records. Eddie Russ released two further classic jazz funk albums in the late 1970s, See the Light and Take a Look at Yourself.

Galaxy Sound Co is back with some subtle but sublime new edits, and this time Mr Thelonious turns his hand to 'Soul Town' by The Motherhood from their psychedelic 1969 album I Feel So Free. If you can find this one n 45rpm anywhere it will likely have a high three-figure price tag and this edit is a great alternative with big horn energy and rousing soul-funk grooves. On the flip is 'Pinball 6' which was originally by The Pointer Sisters and made famous for its appearance on Sesame Street in the 1970s when it was used as backing music to the famous segment that taught children how to count. It's an electric bit of jazz-funk that still sounds most excellent.

Maurice Louca & his band Elephantine announce Moonshine, shining brightly with a live, raw, collective sound. Maurice Louca's band is incredible: double drummers Tommaso Cappellato & Özün Usta, Piero Bittolo Bon on alto, Daniel Gahrton on baritone and Isak Hedtjärn on clarinet, Rasmus Svale Kjærgård Lund on tuba, Rosa Brunello on bass, Els Vandeweyer on vibraphone, Louca on guitar/lap steel/synth.

As Asher Gamedze puts it in his essay: "Abstract territories of freedom, always grounded, expansive, multiple, internally differentiated, and elephantine."

One of the most gifted, prolific and adventurous figures on Egypt's thriving experimental arts scene, Louca has in recent years garnered a global reputation through three previous solo albums and an expanding, evolving lineup of genre-defying collaborations. The Wire called his 2014 sophomore solo effort, Salute the Parrot, "remarkable music-dense, driven and splashed with colour.

For Louca, Elephantine serves as both the pinnacle of his wide-ranging experience and a bold next step in his development as a composer, arranger and bandleader, from Cosmic Jazz, African and World music to transcendental modal traditions. The music-from its pensive lulls through its stretches of hard-grooving hypnosis and moments of avant-jazz.

Dolphy had left his native California and come east as part of Chico Hamilton's group, settling in New York in 1960 and becoming part of Charles Mingus's group. This first recording as a leader brought comparisons with Ornette Coleman but the two were really parallel figures in the then-emerging avant-garde. Dolphy did not eschew 'changes', as Coleman did, but he used them in new ways. This LP was significant not only for his alto saxophone but introduced his individual approach to the flute and, particularly, the bass clarinet.

We Jazz Records kicks off their new series of archival 7" releases with Esa Pethman "In Belgium 1967" released 23 September 2022. The two-tracker is licensed from the Belgian VRT radio archives and both of the pieces are previously unreleased. Finnish jazz legend Pethman, heard here on alto flute and tenor sax, joins forces with European jazz greats such as Heinz Bigler, Uffe Karskov and Jean Fanis. This is a small but valuable piece of unheard European jazz history from the early heyday of modern jazz. The physical release is a quality "inside-out"-styled EP with 3mm spine and small center hole on the 45rpm vinyl.
An excerpt from the liner notes by Mikko Mattlar:
"Esa Pethman (b. 1938) was one of the key figures of modern Finnish jazz in the 1960s. His album The Modern Sound Of Finland was the first Finnish modern jazz album and his composition "The Flame" a true modern Fenno-jazz evergreen.
Pethman was born in Kuusankoski, 135 kilometres from Helsinki in the Kymenlaakso area. The jazz scene was active even though it was an area of rural landscapes and paper mills. Pethman discovered jazz when he heard a Charlie Parker record being played at a local music shop in the late 1940s. Following Parker, bebop became his favourite style of jazz.
Young Pethman played flute and saxophone in local bands who accompanied schlager singers. They played tangos and waltzes for dancers, but usually started a typical dance event with an hour of jazz. In 1959 Pethman moved to Helsinki to study music at the Sibelius Academy. Back then it was a strictly classical music academy, but Pethman later described the studies as crucial for his development and career. He quickly made his way to studio sessions and into the best orchestras in Helsinki.
As a student of composition, Pethman also began writing his own music. "The Flame" was a melody he just got on his mind one night, and he decided to write it down. The catchy composition was released as a 7" single in 1964, a year before Pethman's debut album. Both records stand as benchmarks for modern Finnish jazz. The album consisted entirely of Pethman's compositions, not versions of jazz standards like a lot of the Finnish jazz released until then.
In the mid 1960s, Finnish jazz was also taking its first international steps. Pethman's quintet took part in the first Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in June 1967. At the Montreux jazz band competition, the quintet came in fourth of the twelve contestants. Despite not winning the competition, the band got an honourable mention, and Pethman was now recognized outside Finland.
In December 1967 Pethman travelled to Brussels. His visit was organised by the national Finnish broadcasting company Yleisradio and their jazz program producer Matti Konttinen. Konttinen was supposed to go to Brussels with Pethman, but the musician ended up traveling alone.
In the Decca recording studios Pethman played two songs. He recorded a version of his most famous composition "The Flame", where he played the alto flute and was accompanied by Belgian musicians. On Swiss saxophonist Heinz Bigler's composition "Like Steel", Pethman played the tenor saxophone. The band was now more international, consisting of Bigler, the Italian Francesco Santucci, the Dane Uffe Karskov, a Belgian rhythm section and Pethman. After 55 years, Pethman still remembers Bigler's remarkable skills as a saxophonist.
The two-day visit included the recording session, a dinner and a concert. Pethman and the other non-Belgian musicians came to Brussels mainly to play at a jazz concert organised by the European Broadcasting Union EBU. They played at the studio first, and the concert was held the following day. Pethman and all the other soloists played as members of an international big band. The studio and live session were produced by the Belgian Radio and Television jazz section leader Elias Gistelinck."

Moves is their sixth release, and somewhat of a milestone. In addition to it being the octet's most psychedelic and arrestingly soulful release thus far, it's also their longest—their first, in fact, to cross into bonafide full-length territory. They're marking the occasion by joining the roster of Toronto favourite Telephone Explosion Records.

Touted as “innately personal” by DownBeat Magazine, Brodie West's unique vision has been nourished by a bafflingly diverse array of sources. Meeting the legendary Dutch drummer Han Bennink in 2000 at age 24 not only sparked an ongoing creative partnership (including two records), but also led him in a number of other fruitful directions. Bennink was the connection to exploratory punks The Ex, who brought West aboard for their collaboration with Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya, which produced recordings and tours worldwide.

Where the Brodie West Quintet (Astral Spirits, Ansible Editions) trades in clever jazz asymmetry and his duo Ways is a stark and focussed exploration of rhythm, Eucalyptus is where this eclecticism is most audible. The band simmers with polyrhythmic percussion, laid-back jazz sweetness, various strains of psychedelic wonk, and subtle tropical aromas from dub on “Rose Manor,” named after the retirement home of his musical grandmother Lorna (ever a source of inspiration for West) to Bossa Nova, as heard on “It's In A Move.” Its streaks of free-form bedlam and pure sonic texture keep listeners poised for perplexity and cheerful volatility.

Moves manages to approximate the playful, intoxicating warmth the band conjures in their beloved local live appearances. Eucalyptus has made a tradition out of mounting month-long residencies at Hirut, a cozy east-end eatery that serves delicious Ethiopian cuisine. Hirut even gets a nod in the credits. Perhaps it's because this record's subtle whimsy and inviting disarray draws so much from the spirit of those evenings.

A large part of this odd concoction's success comes down to West's co-conspirators, a veritable who's who of Toronto's underground music community. Trumpet player Nicole Rampersaud, who has since relocated to Fredericton, New Brunswick, has sculpted her unique tone as composer-in-residence at Halifax's Everyseeker Festival and in collaborations with the likes of Rakalam Bob Moses, Anthony Braxton, Joe Morris and Telephone Explosion's own Joseph Shabason. Ryan Driver (clavinet) has cut a series of gorgeous song records for Tin Angel Records, and collaborated with Eric Chenaux (Constellation) in various projects, while leading a number of his own imaginative outfits. Michael Smith (bass) plays with Toronto psychonauts the Cosmic Range and has toured and recorded with Mv+ee, Sandro Perri plus countless others. Fellow Perri collaborator, percussionist Blake Howard brings the palpable joy of his playing to collaborations with Marker Starling, Little Annie, and the surrealist mischief of GUH. 2021 saw Nick Fraser (drums) leading a disc on Hat-Hut's Ezzthetics imprint. It follows a string of other celebrated recordings with international out-jazz heavyweights like Tony Malaby and Kris Davis for Clean Feed, Astral Spirits and more. In addition to pursuing his delicate solo song work, drummer Evan Cartwright plays in both of West's other projects, and has performed and recorded with Tasseomancy, The Weather Station, US Girls, Badge Époque and Andy Shauf.

Another exciting development unveiled on Moves is the presence of guitarist Kurt Newman, who replaces longtime member Alex Lukashevsky. Newman's whirling treatments and colorful array of tones figure prominently into the ensemble's new and disorienting sound. Newman was the co-founder of premiere Austin improv festival No Idea alongside Chris Cogburn. A ceaseless collaborator who's worked with the likes of Sarah Hennies, Tetuzi Akiyama, Mats Gustafsson, he also leads his own projects such as Country Phasers and the Nashville Minimalism Unit.

Colored Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs. Cover signed by the band on the back. Copy n° 061/300

Fire! have always been about finding the essence by getting to the core of the music. Their 8th album sees the trio - for the first time on record - stripped down to the bare-bones essentials; with no flutes, no electronics, no guests and no extras, recorded live in the studio to analogue tape - the Steve Albini way - with the master himself at the controls in Electrical Audio in Chicago. Thus, this album stands as a true testament to the group´s expressive power and glowing intimacy. Musically, Testament can be seen as an extension of their previous full length album Defeat, released two years ago, to the month. A solitary bass figure from Johan Berthling, quickly joined by a stout drum groove, gets it all going in a familiar fashion before Gustafsson adds desolate cries and whispers from his baritone sax. This approach is even more honed on the second track, with the most simplistic groove you´re likely to hear in jazz and Gustafsson shifting between extended, lonely, tortured lines, only once abrupted by a series of short bursts. The third track starts with loose and relatively lively drums that continue throughout, but the mournful saxophone maintains a subdued atmosphere. Track four is a real beauty with the trio slipping into a trance-like dream state before shifting gear halfway into its nine minutes. The final track is the most dynamic of the lot, shifting between bursts of energy and lyrical beauty.

Tryghed is the debut album from Franciska, the alias of the now Copenhagen-based artist Jonas Torstensson. As one of the key figures in the young, vivid scene around the Forlaget Kornmod imprint, Jonas has released a good deal of music under different names during the last few years, often in very limited cassette editions with barely no distribution. In many ways, Franciska pretty much captures the very essence of the sound world their label now is associated with: melancholic and rather loose tape compositions made with a hands-on approach, usually performed on organ, piano, synthesizers and acoustic instruments and often room recorded with environmental sounds leaking in. Truly DIY ambient music, closely connected in spirit with some of the more melodic Förlag För Fri Musik moments, Astrid Øster Mortensen etc. With crude stop/rec editing, sizzling magnetism and tape scuffs left intact, the A-side consists mainly of piano recordings made while on break from classical music rehearsals in school, while the B-side incorporates more electronics and field recordings though still having the piano as the focal point. Wintery minimalism at its very best. Mastered by Joakim Karlsson. Edition of 750 copies. Discreet Music 12.

Welcome to ‘Feel The Wind’…maybe one of the greatest team-ups in Jazz history featuring jazz superstars Art Blakey and Freddie Hubbard! Art Blakey (1919–1990) needs little introduction, the American Jazz drummer and bandleader made a name for himself in the 1940s & 1950s playing with contemporaries such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. He is often considered to have been Thelonious Monk's most empathetic drummer (he played on both Monk’s first recording session in 1947 and his final one in 1971). In the decades that followed Blakey recorded for all THE labels that mattered in the field of jazz (Columbia, Blue Note, Atlantic, RCA, Im pulse!, Riverside, Prestige, Verve, etc.). His collaborations were numerous and include working with equally legendary artists such as Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Chet Baker, John Coltrane….and countless others. Art Blakey was a major figure and a pioneer for modern jazz, he assumed an aggressive swing drumming style early on in his career and is known as one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. Blakey was sampled and remixed by major acts such as The Black Eyed Peas, Digable Planets, Buscemi, KRS-One and Madlib. The legacy of Art Blakey is not only the music he produced, but also the opportunities they provided for several future generations of jazz musicians. Freddie Hubbard (1938-2008) also needs little introduction, he was one of the most renowned American jazz trumpeters who played bebop, hard bop and post-bop from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives for modern jazz and bebop. At the age of 20, in New York, he began playing and recording with some of the best jazz players of the era, including Don Cherry, Quincy Jones, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Oliver Nelson and Herbie Hancock. Freddie Hubbard recorded for labels such as Blue Note and Atlantic and he became a prominent member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Hubbard achieved his greatest popular success in the 1970s with a series of landmark albums. Hubbard's trumpet playing was featured on the track 'Zanzibar' from the 1978 Billy Joel album 52nd street (the 1979 Grammy Award Winner for Best Album) and in 1988, Hubbard played with Elton John contributing trumpet and flugelhorn solos. In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts accorded Hubbard its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award. Freddie Hubbard was sampled and remixed by renowned artists such as Raekwon, A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, Jungle Brothers and Kamasi Washington. On the album that we are presenting you today (Feel The Wind from 1989) , you’ll find six sublime tracks recorded in 1988 by renowned engineer Max Bolleman at the Studio 44 Monster in Holland. These recordings were originally released on the legendary Dutch jazz label Timeless Records (and produced by its owner Wim Wigt). Supporting Hubbard and Blakey is an all-star line-up of musicians from the likes of Leon Dorsey (Lionel Hampton), Lonnie Plaxico (Dizzy Gillespie, Ravi Coltrane), Benny Green (Joe Henderson, Houston Person, Milt Jackson), Mulgrew Miller (Frank Morgan, Donald Byrd) and Javon Jackson (Cedar Walton, Curtis Fuller, John Hicks). The combination of this being one of Art Blakey's final recordings near the end of his life and a glorious rejuvenating return by Freddie Hubbard gives us all the ingredients for a unique album that sounds as innovating today as back in the day when it was released. Expect supercharged hard bop with striking notes, no-holds-barred musicianship, high swinging solos, screaming choruses and plenty of solid virtuosity to spare. This release is not only a classic but also a bonafide hit and a must have for any self-respecting jazz fan or collector. Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents this much-needed vinyl reissue that pairs up two iconic jazz legends at the top of their game. Originally released in 1989, this is the first time these unique sessions are being reissued as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition w/obi strip.

Welcome to ‘Feel The Wind’…maybe one of the greatest team-ups in Jazz history featuring jazz superstars Art Blakey and Freddie Hubbard! Art Blakey (1919–1990) needs little introduction, the American Jazz drummer and bandleader made a name for himself in the 1940s & 1950s playing with contemporaries such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. He is often considered to have been Thelonious Monk's most empathetic drummer (he played on both Monk’s first recording session in 1947 and his final one in 1971). In the decades that followed Blakey recorded for all THE labels that mattered in the field of jazz (Columbia, Blue Note, Atlantic, RCA, Imp ulse!, Riverside, Prestige, Verve, etc.). His collaborations were numerous and include working with equally legendary artists such as Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Chet Baker, John Coltrane….and countless others. Art Blakey was a major figure and a pioneer for modern jazz, he assumed an aggressive swing drumming style early on in his career and is known as one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. Blakey was sampled and remixed by major acts such as The Black Eyed Peas, Digable Planets, Buscemi, KRS-One and Madlib. The legacy of Art Blakey is not only the music he produced, but also the opportunities they provided for several future generations of jazz musicians. Freddie Hubbard (1938-2008) also needs little introduction, he was one of the most renowned American jazz trumpeters who played bebop, hard bop and post-bop from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives for modern jazz and bebop. At the age of 20, in New York, he began playing and recording with some of the best jazz players of the era, including Don Cherry, Quincy Jones, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Oliver Nelson and Herbie Hancock. Freddie Hubbard recorded for labels such as Blue Note and Atlantic and he became a prominent member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Hubbard achieved his greatest popular success in the 1970s with a series of landmark albums. Hubbard's trumpet playing was featured on the track 'Zanzibar' from the 1978 Billy Joel album 52nd street (the 1979 Grammy Award Winner for Best Album) and in 1988, Hubbard played with Elton John contributing trumpet and flugelhorn solos. In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts accorded Hubbard its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award. Freddie Hubbard was sampled and remixed by renowned artists such as Raekwon, A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, Jungle Brothers and Kamasi Washington. On the album that we are presenting you today (Feel The Wind from 1989) , you’ll find six sublime tracks recorded in 1988 by renowned engineer Max Bolleman at the Studio 44 Monster in Holland. These recordings were originally released on the legendary Dutch jazz label Timeless Records (and produced by its owner Wim Wigt). Supporting Hubbard and Blakey is an all-star line-up of musicians from the likes of Leon Dorsey (Lionel Hampton), Lonnie Plaxico (Dizzy Gillespie, Ravi Coltrane), Benny Green (Joe Henderson, Houston Person, Milt Jackson), Mulgrew Miller (Frank Morgan, Donald Byrd) and Javon Jackson (Cedar Walton, Curtis Fuller, John Hicks). The combination of this being one of Art Blakey's final recordings near the end of his life and a glorious rejuvenating return by Freddie Hubbard gives us all the ingredients for a unique album that sounds as innovating today as back in the day when it was released. Expect supercharged hard bop with striking notes, no-holds-barred musicianship, high swinging solos, screaming choruses and plenty of solid virtuosity to spare. This release is not only a classic but also a bonafide hit and a must have for any self-respecting jazz fan or collector. Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents this much-needed vinyl reissue that pairs up two iconic jazz legends at the top of their game. Originally released in 1989, this is the first time these unique sessions are being reissued as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition w/obi strip.

Gideon Nxumalo was a key figure during the formative years of South African jazz in the 1950s, helping shape the emerging South African jazz sound as a pianist and composer and contributing to the scene as a radio presenter, music teacher and arranger. His recorded output as bandleader/composer is comprised of three iconic albums from Jazz Fantasia (1962) to Gideon Plays (1968) to Early-Mart (1970).

Early-Mart was Gideon Nxumalo's tribute to his friend and musical compatriot, drummer Early Mabuza (Castle Lager Big Band, Mankunku Quartet), who died in 1969. Nxumalo assembled what journalist and observer Leslie Sehume reports was a 14-piece band for the album, which was recorded during a legendary overnight session in February 1970 and released just months before Nxumalo's own death on 24 December 1970.

The two emerging explorations of aquatic themes on 1989’s Les Nouvelles Musiques de Chambre Volume 2 were a unique insight into the respective compositional approaches of its two central figures. The split album featured the Italian composer Gigi Masin on side-a with delicate piano movements rippling above undulating electronics. Its second track ‘Clouds,’ has become an ambient standard with Bjork, Nujabes and cloud-rap duo Main Attrakionz all sampling its rich and euphoric tones.

Side-b belonged to Charles Hayward and the twenty three minute sound portrait ‘Thames Water Authority’. A founding member of post-punk and avant groups This Heat and Camberwell Now, Hayward’s natural inclination towards percussive instrumentation is highlighted by shape-shifting cymbal recordings that trace the expansive systems that meander beneath Greater London. The track later appeared on his tribute album to Mark Rothko, fusing its symmetry with artistic abstraction.

P-vine is thrilled to reissue Les Nouvelles Musiques de Chambre Volume 2 on limited edition vinyl with an iconic Japanese obi strip attached.

Lyrical pop / gayo composer and saxophonist Gil Ok-yun was a central figure in Korea's golden age of gayo (1960s to 1980s), and has given us countless gems through his collaborations with greats such as Hye Eun-yi and others. Gil never did let go of his jazz roots, and would occasionally release gayo records in the jazz-tinged kayokoku style with the help of musical colleagues during his time in Japan such as Keitaro Miho and Shungo Sawada. It was through his meeting with Korean classical musician Lee Saeng-gang in the 1980s - an era in Korea that was characterized by experimental crossovers of Eastern and Western styles - that Gil's musical aspirations were finally realized in the form of a 'proper' jazz record.

Lee Saeng-gang's ensemble included himself as daegeum flautist and his brother, the janggu percussionist Lee Sung-jin. They were joined by Gil and a member of his jazz ensemble, the percussionist Ryu Bok-sung. Several live performances eventually led to a recording session. This album, which comprises just two tracks recorded in the form of improv jams, has often been referred to the only work of its kind in Korea's jazz scene. The mélange of two woodwind instruments (saxophone, daegeum) and various percussion elements (bongos, janggu, jing, & kkwaenggwari) come together to conjure a ritual-like confluence that is spiritual in nature and transcends the boundary between East and West.

For some reason, the album was initially released only on CD - the present reissue is the first-ever vinyl release. Though Gil was a jazzman through and through all his life, it was only in his later years that he finally got a 'jazz recording' to his name. Rediscover his legacy and gift to Korea's jazz scene, restored here in its full glory.

This previously unreleased album by the Horace Tapscott Quintet was unearthed from master tapes in the Flying Dutchman archives. Recorded in 1969 and was intended to be a follow-up album to the classic 'The Giant Is Awakened' which was released that year.

The iconic pianist and composer Horace Tapscott was one of the most unique and important figures in LA’s jazz world. This lost recording was produced by one of the pivotal figures in jazz, Bob Thiele, a leading behind-the-scenes star who worked with many of the greats in jazz, such as Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Della Reese, Shirley Scott, Gil Scott-Heron, the list goes on. His name can be seen gracing, arguably the best, Impulse! releases and those released on his own Flying Dutchman imprint set up in 1969.

Joining Horace for this three-track, deep, heavy, avant-garde session is the same stellar cast featured on 'The Giant Is Awakened'; Arthur Blythe on Alto Sax, Everett Brown Jr on Drums, with David Bryant and Walter Savage Jr. on Bass. Kicking things off we have 'World Peace’, which starts with an almost baroque-esque melody, leading to an eruption in sound, it then ends in the same manner it began. The beautiful 'Your Child' is the jewel in the crown, skirting modal, deep jazz and introducing elements of free jazz. 'For Fats' with its bow bass and piano intro takes you on a journey, dropping into, at times dark, stormy melodies and developing a driving energy as the composition progresses.

After recording this album, Horace was said to be wary of the music industry, so he retreated and distanced himself from this world, recording only for the independent labels Ugmaa, Interplay Records, and Nimbus West Records. He set up The Pan-Afrikan People’s Arkestra and reintroduced the pan-African-roots sound back into the heart of jazz. He also developed and promoted the art form through performances and recordings.

Thankfully, this session from these wonderful musical pioneers was preserved and finally has its time to shine.

Featuring brand-new artwork by the illustrious artist/designer/musician Raimund Wong (Total Refreshment / Floating World Pictures)

This previously unreleased album by the Horace Tapscott Quintet was unearthed from master tapes in the Flying Dutchman archives. Recorded in 1969 and was intended to be a follow-up album to the classic 'The Giant Is Awakened' which was released that year.

The iconic pianist and composer Horace Tapscott was one of the most unique and important figures in LA’s jazz world. This lost recording was produced by one of the pivotal figures in jazz, Bob Thiele, a leading behind-the-scenes star who worked with many of the greats in jazz, such as Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Della Reese, Shirley Scott, Gil Scott-Heron, the list goes on. His name can be seen gracing, arguably the best, Impulse! releases and those released on his own Flying Dutchman imprint set up in 1969.

Joining Horace for this three-track, deep, heavy, avant-garde session is the same stellar cast featured on 'The Giant Is Awakened'; Arthur Blythe on Alto Sax, Everett Brown Jr on Drums, with David Bryant and Walter Savage Jr. on Bass. Kicking things off we have 'World Peace’, which starts with an almost baroque-esque melody, leading to an eruption in sound, it then ends in the same manner it began. The beautiful 'Your Child' is the jewel in the crown, skirting modal, deep jazz and introducing elements of free jazz. 'For Fats' with its bow bass and piano intro takes you on a journey, dropping into, at times dark, stormy melodies and developing a driving energy as the composition progresses.

After recording this album, Horace was said to be wary of the music industry, so he retreated and distanced himself from this world, recording only for the independent labels Ugmaa, Interplay Records, and Nimbus West Records. He set up The Pan-Afrikan People’s Arkestra and reintroduced the pan-African-roots sound back into the heart of jazz. He also developed and promoted the art form through performances and recordings.

Thankfully, this session from these wonderful musical pioneers was preserved and finally has its time to shine.

Featuring brand-new artwork by the illustrious artist/designer/musician Raimund Wong (Total Refreshment / Floating World Pictures)

Available on vinyl for the first time in 40 years, Outernational Sounds is proud to present a masterpiece from the Los Angeles jazz underground – Horace Tapscott’s burning, spiritualised 1978 set, The Call.

One of the unsung giants of jazz music, the composer, bandleader, arranger, pianist and community activist Horace Tapscott was the undisputed keystone in the grassroots Los Angeles jazz scene. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, his radical community arts and music formations the UGMA (Underground Musicians Association, later changed to UGMAA – Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension), and his protean big band, the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, were at the epicentre of music, culture and politics in the Los Angeles area.

From their 1960s base at the Watt’s Happening Coffee House on 103rd St, to their decade-plus- long 1970s residency at the Immanuel United Church of Christ on 85thE St and Holmes Ave, Tapscott’s groups were the beating heart of underground music in LA. Hundreds of musicians passed through and played their part. Major figures in LA jazz such as Arthur Blythe, Azar Lawrence, Jimmy Woods, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Sonny Criss, Ndugu Chancler and dozens of others all paid dues or just got down with Tapscott, not to mention the core Arkestra regulars who have since become celebrated names – Nate Morgan, Jesse Sharps, Adele Sebastian, Dadisi Komolafe, Gary Bias, to mention only a few.

Tapscott and the Arkestra were down on the ground – playing fundraisers in park and street, organising teach-ins and workshops for young and old, mixing it with radical theatre groups, firebrand poets, political radicals, Black separatists, community groups and churches. They lived communally, and built an ark for the Black arts in the heart of the city. But as a result of this grassroots community focus and Tapscott’s antipathy to the music industry, the Arkestra didn’t record for nearly two decades. That only changed when long-time jazz fan Tom Albach started Nimbus Records. The label was initiated specifically in order to document Tapscott and his circle, and the first three records showcased Horace and the Arkestra.

The Call was put together from two studio sessions in April 1978, one at Hollywood Sage and Sound, one at United Western – the latter session had the addition of a string section, who can be heard on the moody Cal Massey composition ‘Nakatini Suite’ and Jesse Sharps' swinging modal trip, ‘Peyote Song No. III’, with its swirling soprano solo. In keeping with the communal nature of the Arkestra, the other two compositions, ‘The Call’ and ‘Quagmire Manor at Five A.M.’ are also by Arkestra members. But at the centre of the music is the builder of the Ark, the visionary whose original call to action started a movement whose legacy continues to this day – Horace Tapscott.
Heed The Call!