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When "The Jazztet" broke up, a sextet that he co-founded together with the tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, the flugelhornist Art Farmer became the leader of a pianoless quartet with the guitarist Jim Hall from 1963-1964.
Farmer said in an interview that the quartet didn’t need a pianist because Hall could provide all the necessary chords and counterpoints. Actually a multi-instrumentalist, Farmer gave up playing the trumpet and performed in this quartet exclusively on the flugelhorn.

Together with the bassist Steve Swallow and the drummer Walter Perkins he appeared in New York’s "Half Note" jazz club, which became their base and location of their best recordings.
The repertoire in this session from December 1963 is something of a surprise – five standard swing numbers plus the little-known "Swing Spring" by Miles Davis. Hall, who made a special appearance with "I’m Getting’ Sentimental Over You", was the ideal musical partner for Farmer, since both musicians were in command of a similar gentle and pensive style of improvisation, which was more complex than one expected.

From the 22 tracks recorded, only these five have survived. The others were destroyed in a fire. Furthermore, the group only remained together long enough to make three LP releases. All this goes to make this album even more important, and at long last available in an appropriate format.

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

Recording: December 1963 live at the Half Note, New York City
by Joe Atkinson, Phil Iehle and Tom Dowd. Production: Arif Mardin.

"The Blue Yusef Lateef" - Yusef Lateef (ts, fl, perc, voc); Sonny Red (as); Blue Mitchell (tp); Kenny Burrell (g); Hugh Lawson (p); Buddy Lucas (hca); Cecil McBee, Bob Cranshaw (b); Roy Brooks (dr); strings and vocal group.

Yusuf Lateef was a leading representative of world music, long before world music was known as such in the jazz, pop and rock community. He integrated all kinds of oriental instruments in his jazz music, such as the koto, bamboo flute and tambura and also – as in this case – in his blues compositions. His saxophone playing is also flawless too and full of wonderful textures, hard and impulsive at one moment, cool and exotic at the next.

On this album Lateef explores, in a painterly way, the border areas of the blues, in all their various guises and addresses both eastern and western cultures. "Juba Juba" begins with a drumbeat on a slave ship, the tempo builds up slowly and agonizingly, and is only penetrated by Lateef’s plaintive flute and background voices singing »freedom, freedom, freedom«. After such a gloomy beginning the classical blues number "Like It Is" comes over like a breath of fresh air, with its superb string quartet as the foundation.

The R&B contributions on the other tracks testify to Lateef’s skilled excursions into the realm of the blues, while the truly adventurous tracks such as "Back Home" and the mystic, Chinese odyssey "Moon Cup" weave a magical net of sheer pleasure. "The Blue Yusef Lateef" is in every possible way absolutely breathtaking. It is a milestone as a jazz album. As a blues album it is quite unique. But as a musical work of art it is a glorious and genial masterpiece.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head.

Recording: April 1968 in RCA Studios, New York City by Ray Hall
Production: Joel Dorn.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Far Out Recordings proudly presents two albums of previously unheard Azymuth demo recordings from 1973-75

Since their debut album release in 1975, Azymuth have risen to rank alongside the world’s greatest jazz, funk and fusion artists. As young men in Rio de Janeiro, they stood out for both their exceptional talent as musicians, and their wild rock ‘n’ roll antics in the predominantly middle-class worlds of bossa nova and jazz. Their signature ‘Samba Doido’ (crazy samba) sound ruptured the tried and tested musical structures of the day, resulting in what can only be described as an electric, psychedelic, samba jazz-funk hybrid.

Before they became Azymuth, José Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti (drums), Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ariovaldo Contesini (percussion) played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil. Bertrami was also contracted as an arranger and songwriter at some the biggest labels of the era: Polydor, Philips, Som Livre, and EMI being just a few. Azymuth’s name can be found on record sleeves by the likes of Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Ana Mazzotti and countless others. But at the dawn of the seventies, fascinated by developments in improvisational music - from jazz in the US, to progressive rock in the UK and of course samba, bossa and tropicália on home turf - the energetic young group were inspired and ready to move forward. Any spare moment in which they weren’t in sessions and writing music for other artists, they would be carving out their own sound.

These previously unheard recordings took place between 1973-75 at Bertrami’s home studio in the Laranjeiras district of Rio de Janeiro. At the time of recording, there was nothing in Brazil, less the world that sounded anything like them, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that when Bertrami presented his demos to the record companies he had been working for, he was turned away, and told in effect that the music was ‘wrong’.

One of the demos ‘Manhã’ would be picked up by Som Livre and Azymuth released their seminal debut album in 1975. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, the group released a series of now classic albums for Milestone Records, before taking an indefinite hiatus to pursue their individual careers.

When English producers Joe Davis and Roc Hunter arrived in Brazil in 1994 to record the first Azymuth album in over a decade, Bertrami dug out the demos which had sat virtually untouched for over twenty years. Joe recalls how he was “blown away by the freedom and intensity of the music, as well as the genius of the ideas musically.” Beginning a long and fruitful relationship, ‘Prefacio’ would be the first track Azymuth recorded for Far Out Recordings and was released on the Carnival album (1996).
Along with ‘Manhã’ and ‘Prefacio’, only a handful of these demos were ever professionally recorded and released, making this the first opportunity to hear many of these early Azymuth compositions in their raw, original form.

On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros and Conti were realising at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth’s earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.

Credits:

Keyboards: José Roberto Bertrami (Mini Moog Series One, Arp Omni, Arp 2600, Arp Solina Strings, Fender Rhodes 88, Hammond B3 with box speaker, Clavinet with Wah Wah)
Drums: Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti
Bass: Alex Malheiros
Percussion: Ariovaldo Contesini
Produced by Azymuth and Jose Roberto Bertrami
Recorded at José Roberto Bertrami’s home studio in Laranjeiras, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil between 1973–1975.
Issue and project co-ordinator: Joe Davis
Tape transfers by Roc Hunter (thanks to Simon Hitner)
Mastered by Daniel Maunick at the Sugar Shack, Lanark, Scotland
Mastered by Frank at Carvery Cuts
All tracks published by Far Out Music Publishing/Westbury Music LTD

'Prepare yourself for the first ever vinyl pressing of legendary free jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock's seminal final album Ask The Ages, in a strictly limited edition 45rpm double 12' edition.

Sonny's classic final album swings between deep, lyrical melodicism and passages of pure fire music and features jazz legends Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophone and Elvin Jones, member of the John Coltrane Quartet, on drums. The album was produced by Bill Laswell and originally released in 1991 on his Axiom label. The crystal clear production sounds amazing on 45.

This release is a must for fans of John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra.'

It's been a year since the magnificent 'Dark is the Sun' first enchanted listeners back in 2011, and we're thrilled to announce the next installment of mesmerizing non-contemporary jazz by the Greg Foat Group with their new album 'Girl and Robot with Flowers'.

First released on digital formats back in 2016, and here now given a richly deserved full vinyl release, 'Holy Science', the debut outing from Amirtha Kidambi and her New York based quartet The Elder Ones, is a work of dazzling singularity. Delicately yet unashamedly divulging its complex network of influences at every turn, 'Holy Science' simultaneously disperses of boundary and limitation, emerging as an album steeped in tradition yet located firmly in the futuristic present.

Amirtha Kidambi, the Elder Ones' leader, composer and vocalist, was a child of South Indian heritage, and she grew up immersed in the tradition of devotional singing, joining in with free-form, improvised Bhajans on regular Sundays. She began simultaneously accompanying her voice with the harmonium from the age of three.

These formative experiences continued to instruct and merge with her ongoing musical explorations as she went on to study Classical music, all the while ingesting the Punk, R&B and Rap that surrounded her. A particularly significant discovery was that of free and avant jazz, and in particular the music of Alice and John Coltrane, in whom Kidambi found clear echoes and parallels with those Bhajans and Ragas of her earliest musical awakenings.

All these influences collide on 'Holy Science', at times as explosive blasts of sky-opening thunder, at others as moments of soothing, meditative bliss. These holy bursts are enacted by Kidambi's assembled musicians and are given permission to explore the science of spiritual alchemy, plundering their individual and collective soul for the sake of musical expression, and all of the unpredictable and profound revelations such an approach might yield.

'Holy Science' is a work underpinned by traditions, be they the Bhajan spirituals, or the Jazz and Classical avant gardes, that are in their own manner, archetypal. But perhaps most importantly, all of these forms contain an inbuilt capacity for discovery and progression.

Amirtha Kidambi's musical pathway has been defined by a studied determination to occupy this specific space, the unbounded realm of improvisation and exploration, summoning the acquired instruments of experience, knowledge, culture and tradition to unlock secrets of the past, present and future. The most cherished music is often remarked upon as having a timeless quality – ancient, modern and futuristic, all at once. And so it is with 'Holy Science'.

German cult band "Bohren & der Club of Gore" release their eigth studio album via 'PIAS Recordings'. The band have built a loyal international fanbase on the back of their trademark ‘Doom Jazz’ sound and count musical icons such as Mike Patton and Stephen O’Malley among their fans. Strictly instrumental, this band and their sound have the healing power to survive these hectic modern times. For fans of Melanie de Biasio, Sunn O)))' and the soundtracks of David Lynch. The band played two sold out shows in London’s Round Chapel recently and will tour the UK again in 2020.

'PIASD5045LP' pressed & designed on 2x12" Gatefold Coloured Vinyl.

Featuring an all-star group including Jimmy Knepper, John Handy, Booker Ervin and Curtis Porter (aka Shafi Hadi), was Charles Mingus’ first LP for Columbia. By the mid-50's, Mingus had formed his own publishing and recording companies to protect and document his growing repertoire of original music. He also founded the “Jazz Workshop,” a group which enabled young composers to have their new works performed in concert and on recordings. One of those albums was “Mingus Ah Um”, an extremely personal work that once again showcased Mingus’ unique talent for breaking new ground.

The composition “Fables of Faubus” is one of Mingus’s most explicitly political works, a song written as a direct protest against Arkansas governor Orval E. Fau- bus, who in 1957 sent out the National Guard to prevent the integration of Little Rock Central High School by nine African-American teenagers. All compositions by Charles Mingus.

Charles Mingus, Bass & Leader; Jimmy Knepper, Trombone; Willie Dennis, Trombone; Booker Ervin, Tenor Sax; Curtis Porter (Aka Shafi Hadi), Alto & Tenor Sax; John Handy, Alto & Tenor Sax, Clarinet; Horace Parlan, Piano; Dannie Richmond, Drums.
New York, May 5 & May 12 (A2-A5), 1959.

It's album release time for this Madrid-based soul/jazz organ trio who have been burning up stages and festivals throughout 2019 and who have already had a successful single out on Rocafort Records. Beat Bronco Organ Trio have not rewritten the Hammond musical handbook, but they do what it says on the tin rather splendidly – a Road Trip that grooves, swings and sashays around the familiar but much loved funky jazz theme.

Although it's impossible to listen to the album without summoning up the ghosts of Jimmies McGriff & Smith and the like, nearly all tracks here are originals and shout out personality, verve and respectful homage to the tradition. Featuring the usual leitmotifs: Shaftish film sountrack, lo-fi lounger, gospel-tinged toe-tapper, the hip shaker and much wah-wah frenesi, there's nothing not to like if the genre is your bag.

The steaming horn section on "Hard Play" thickens the sauce à la JBs and the Meters, aided along by a unique orchestra of handclaps. Vocalist and guitarist Alberto Palacios Anaut storms in with "Hey Hey", an old Dave Bartholomew classic from New Orleans, just to remind us where Fats Domino and Ray Charles got it all from. Chip Wickham makes two welcome appearances on flute, adding an extra jazzy touch to "Squirtly" and "Electro Pi" – the latter a fabulous trippy, spacious head-nodder that demands in our opinion some kind of a wigged out drum'n'bass remix. Every track is clearly dominated by variations on the vintage keyboard, be it Hammond, Clavinet or Minimoog; all roads lead to that sexy, sacred sound.

Spain is already prominent on the modern-day Funk map thanks to groups like The Sweet Vandals, Speak Low and Mighty Vamp – and it comes as no surprise that our hero trio featured at various times in all these bands. Gabri Casanova (keys), Lucas de Mulder (guitar, percussion) and Antonio "Pax" Alvarez (drums, percussion) have been busy reviving the funk gospel for some time now. Road Trip is an elegant culmination of their efforts in keeping alive a revered and timeless tradition that still today serves as a reference to where all the good stuff came from: The Church!

Where Future Unfolds is a new work spirited by Chicago-based sound & visual artist Damon Locks. Starting as a solo sound collage piece (where Locks pulled samples from Civil Rights era speeches and recordings to create an improvisational pallet for performance on his drum machine), over 4 years the project has blossomed into his 15-piece Black Monument Ensemble – featuring musicians (including Angel Bat Dawid on clarinets and Dana Hall on drums), singers (alumni of the Chicago Children's Choir), and dancers (members of Chicago youth dance company Move Me Soul).

Where Future Unfolds is a live capture of the ensemble's epic debut at the Garfield Park Botanical Conservatory on the West Side of Chicago. Recalling the spirits of Phil Cohran's Artistic Heritage Ensemble, Eddie Gale's Black Rhythm Happening, Archie Shepp's Attica Blues, and Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, the album presents an inspired, innovative & immediate intersection of gospel, jazz, activism & 808 breaks.

About 'Damon Locks' ... He's a Chicago-based visual artist, educator, vocalist, musician, and deejay. Known for decades of different projects in Chicago’s underground music scenes, Locks’s CV starts in the late 1980's with the band Trenchmouth (which featured Fred Armisen on drums) and is highlighted by work with The Eternals (coled by Trenchmouth bandmate Wayne Montana), Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, collaborations with Nicole Mitchell, Ben LaMar Gay, and many others. In recent years Locks has traversed almost every media discipline … including sound/animation work using unheard Sun Ra recordings from Experimental.

A record that definitely lives up to it's title – an obscure Italian sound library session that blends instrumental touches that evoke an America at the start of the 70's with some of the hipper, deeper currents you’d expect from the team of Stefano Torossi and Giovanni Tomasso. There’s plenty of expected sound library funk in the mix here in a way that makes for one of the most unique sound library sessions we’ve ever heard.

Rare private press Jazz-Funk with breaks and some spiritual influences reminiscent of Brother Ahh at times. They cover Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” plus play originals that include “Sweet Heritage,” “Free Will,” “One of a Kind (Love Affair),” “Serene Beauty,” and “In the Fall of the Year.” This is a beautiful sounding record with elements of straight Jazz, Soul/Jazz, and some funky stuff including some Free and Afro-centric influences.

The main man is Jaman himself (J.E. Manuel) on keyboards, who in the past had worked with R&B bands and many people in the Jazz world (Turrentines, Bostic, Stitt, Joe Farrell, Lenny Welch, Ethel Ennis).

New Zealand juggernaut Fat Freddy’s Drop return with a new studio album, ‘Special Edition Part 1’, due for digital release on 15th November, with 2LP Vinyl and CD following up on 10th January. The 45rpm vinyl edition is produced with
a different track order across four sides and promises to deliver super fat loud audio.

Part 1 of a double album, ‘Special Edition Part 1’, comprises of six tracks of which ‘Raleigh Twenty’, ‘Trickle Down’ and
‘Six-Eight Instrumental’ were written and recorded undercover at the band’s Wellington studio, BAYS, while the other
tracks; ‘Special Edition, ‘Kamo Kamo’, and ‘OneFourteen’, have all been developed and evolved from the band’s celebrated live jam sessions, whilst on the road in front of audiences worldwide.
Supremely crafted at Freddy’s own BAYS studio in hometown Wellington, the deep musical and rich vocal layers reflect
Freddy’s inspiration from the black music lexicon and is a response to the crowd energy at their world dominating live
shows.

‘Special Edition Part 1’ is the first release of a long envisaged double album project with separate chapters. The next
journey, Part 2 will be released in 2020 after stringent road-testing with audiences over 35 shows across New Zealand, UK and Europe celebrating the release of the Part 1. These upcoming live performances will allow the band to fully explore new song-writing technology and give rise to a slamming Part 2. The new album follows on from 2015’s ‘BAYS’ LP, which saw support from Financial Times, Resident Advisor, Dummy, the DJ Mag and Clash-acclaimed ‘Blackbird,’ second album ‘Dr Boondigga and the Big BW’ - which gained rave reviews by The Guardian and BBC Music - and the band’s record breaking debut album ‘Based on a True Story’, which went nine times platinum and remained in New Zealand’s top 40 charts for over two years after its release in
2005.
The album cover artwork is by Wellington artist Otis Chamberlain, a continuing evolution from his creation for the its first single ‘Trickle Down’, a work that's morphed from digital cover art to the band’s massive summer tour backdrop and the recently released late-night buttery steppers ‘Kamo Kamo’. Fat Freddy’s Drop have been performing and recording together for more than 15 years, establishing themselves as one of New Zealand's most internationally successful acts. Considered one of the best live experiences in the world, they will embark on their biggest European and UK tour since they sold out a double hitter at London’s 02 Academy Brixton in 2018. Including an already sold out show in Dublin, the band will headline Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena on 29th April 2020, Liverpool’s Invisible Wind Factory on 30th April, returning back to London’s Alexandra Palace on 1st May – the palace was the scene of two triumphant sold out headline concerts in 2014 and 2017 - before heading north to Glasgow’s Barrowland on 3rd May.

To mark the tenth anniversary of the release of "I’m New Here" - the thirteenth, and last studio album from the legendary US musician, poet, - and author 'Gil Scott-Heron'. XL-Recordings will release a unique reinterpretation of the album by acclaimed US jazz musician Makaya McCraven.

Titled "We’re New Again", the album will be released on 7th of February 2020; exactly a decade after the release of Scott-Heron’s original Richard Russell-produced recording.

It’s set to follow in the footsteps of Jamie xx’s highly acclaimed 2011 remix album We’re New Here and will be McCraven’s first release of 2020, following the huge global acclaim heaped upon his 2018 album Universal Beings.

One of the most vital new voices in modern jazz, McCraven is described by the New York Times as a "Chicago-based drummer, producer and beat maker, who has quietly become one of the best arguments for jazz’s vitality".

“I’m always looking for ways to be surprised,” says composer and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Parker as he explains the process, and the thinking, behind his new album Suite for Max Brown, released via a new partnership between International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. “If I sit down at the piano or with my guitar, with staff paper and a pencil, I’m eventually going to fall into writing patterns, into things I already know. So, when I make music, that’s what I’m trying to get away from—the things that I know.” Despite its musical departures, in presentation Suite for Max Brown is an informal companion piece to The New Breed, Parker’s debut release on International Anthem, which was honored as one of the “Best Albums of 2016” by New York Times, Observer, and Los Angeles Times.

“I made The New Breed based off these old sample-based compositions and mixed them with improvising,” Parker says. “That’s in a nutshell how I make a lot of my music; it’s a combination of sampling, editing, retriggering audio, and recording it, moving it around nd trying to make it into something cohesive… With Max Brown, it’s evolved.” Though Parker collaborates with a coterie of musicians under the group name The New Breed, theirs is by no means a conventional “band” relationship. Parker is very much a solo artist on Suite for Max Brown. His accompanists are often working alone with Parker, reacting to what Parker has provided them, and then Parker uses those individual parts to layer and assemble into his final tracks. The process may be relatively solitary and cerebral, but the results feel like in-the-moment jams—warm-hearted, human, alive. Suite for Max Brown brims with personality, boasting the rhythmic flow of hip hop and the soulful swing of jazz.

His collaborators on Max Brown include pianist-saxophonist Josh Johnson; bassist Paul Bryan, who co-produced and mixed the album with Parker; fellow International Anthem artists Makaya McCraven and Rob Mazurek; trumpeter Nate Walcott; drummers Jamire Williams and Jay Bellerose; cellist Katinka Klejin; and his seventeenyear-old daughter Ruby Parker on the opening track “Build a Nest.” Ruby’s presence at the start is fitting as the album is, in true Parker fashion, a familiar affair. “That’s my mother’s maiden name. Maxine Brown. Everybody calls her Max. I decided to call it Suite for Max Brown. The New Breed became a kind of tribute to my father because he passed away while I was making the album. I thought it would be nice this time to dedicate something to my mom while she’s still here to see it.” There is a multi-generational vibe to the music too, as Parker balances his contemporary digital explorations with excursions into older jazz. Along with original compositions, Parker includes “Gnarciss,” an interpretation of Joe Henderson’s “Black Narcissus,” and John Coltrane’s “After the Rain.”

Coltrane is a touchstone in Parker’s musical evolution. “I used to deejay a lot when I lived in Chicago. I was spinning records one night and for about ten minutes I was able to perfectly synch up a Nobukazu Takemura record with the first movement of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and it had this free jazz, abstract jazz thing going on with a sequenced beat underneath. It sounded so good. That’s what I’m trying to do with Max Brown.”

These two new tracks continue to push the band’s sound into new territory; ‘Overture 1’ is a brand-new composition from Ruby Rushton keyboard player Aidan Shepherd. Taking inspiration from bands like Weather Report and Soft Machine, it's explosive introduction leads you to a dub-like breakdown, creating an open space for Shepherd to let loose his synthesizer for some deep space, Headhunters’esque exploration.

Yardley Suite - is a song first conceived by band leader Ed ‘Tenderlonious’ Cawthorne back in 2012. Having lied dormant for several years it felt like an appropriate time to pull it back out the bag. It’s a composition inspired by Cawthorne’s solo work as an electronic producer, under his alias Tenderlonious. Always wanting to merge his various approaches, ‘Yardley Suite’ is the perfect mix of Jazz and House. With a steady four to the floor beat and snappy horn lines it's sure to work its magic on dancefloors around the globe.

Having focused on improvisation and more “open” compositions in the past, the bands new direction is geared towards tighter, more groove-orientated arrangements. This exciting new material is yet further evidence that this is a highly prolific band at the top of their game, continually evolving, stretching out their own unique sound across the full jazz spectrum.

DJ Support: Tom Ravenscroft, Bradley Zero, Huey Morgan, James Endacott, Kev Beadle, Chris Phillips, Tony Minvielle, Tim Garcia, Delia Tesileanu, Kamaal Williams, Al Dobson Jr, Contours, Poly-Ritmo.

Re-mastering by Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London.

Clifford Jordan hailed from Chicago, hometown of hard-driving,
so-called ‘tough tenorists’ like Gene Ammons and Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis. While Jordan shared their unnerving bravado, his tone is different, an alluring tone, simultaneously rough around the edges and ephemeral. A sought-after sideman, Jordan recorded with stalwarts as Lee Morgan and Max Roach in the late fifties and early sixties, as well as a series of high standard solo albums. Like age matures wine, Jordan’s style ripened in the early seventies, his lines becoming fluent like ripples of lake water. Jordan kept recording and performing steadily until his death in 1993.

Maybe this album, filled with interpretations of such classic tunes as Take This Hammer and Goodnight Irene, is not such a surprise act after all. The preceding year, Jordan had been part of Charles Mingus’ outfit (appearing on the hi-voltage live album Right Now: Live At The Jazz Workshop) Musical gobbler Mingus’ unfazed search for new vistas while retaining an all-embracing sense of the past’s relevance and blend of harmonic finesse with unbridled juke joint tumult surely rubbed off on Jordan.

Da Gray Goose is one of the cases in point. Tasteful harmony over the stop-time theme kicks it into action, strongly plucked bass and fiery drums inspire the soloists, creating an atmosphere of abandon. Lusty shout choruses stoke up the fire as the tune progresses. There are also some, yes, virtuoso banjo parts.

The gloomy folk blues music of Huddie ‘Leadbelly’ Ledbetter, whose life story reads like a combined effort of Shakespeare and James Baldwin, including oppression, hardship, addiction, treachery, murder and prison life, is excellently cast in a jazz frame. But not too jazzy, often the sound of Jordan’s top-notch group is as tough-as-nails as the sound of any one group that enlivened the back alley bars way back when. Jordan’s unpredictable phrasing overcomes the restrictions of the rigid folk blues form.

Craftily uncrafted, These Are My Roots is a spirited album of earnest, raw and ebullient swing.

Personnel: Clifford Jordan (tenor saxophone), Roy Burrowes (trumpet), Julian Priester (trombone), Cedar Walton (piano), Chuck Wayne (banjo), Richard Davis (bass), Albert Heath (drums), Sandra Douglas (vocals A3, B3). Recorded on February 1 & 17, 1965 in NYC.

Le Tres Jazz Club present a first time vinyl reissue of Hiromasa Suzuki's Primrose, originally released in 1978. Hiromasa Suzuki is a Japanese pianist who began his recording career in the early 70's.

Nicknamed "Colgen" in Japan, he is well-known for two amazing records combining jazz-fusion and traditional Japanese instruments (Rock-Joint Biwa and Rock-Joint Cipher on the RCA label), jazz-funk oriented albums (High-Flying and Skip Step Cogen), and the famous record from the Electro Keyboard Orchestra, his band along with other famous Japanese pianists Yuji Ohno and Hideo Ichikawa. But Hiromasa Suzuki was also interested in more classical jazz.

In 1978 he released Primrose on the Union label. It's a beautiful record of modal jazz, with Nobuyoshi Ino on bass and Steve Jackson on drums. An absolutely hard-to-find record, even in Japan, the album features incredible compositions like "Hornet", "Discharge", and "Early Summer".

Turkish free jazzers KONSTRUKT continue their series of exciting collaborations with KEN VANDERMARK, one of the key figures of Chicago's vivid jazz scene.

After 2 critically acclaimed albums with the Japanese avantgarde/noise icon KEIJI HAINO, KONSTRUKT return with a new inspiring collaborative mind: KEN VANDERMARK, who for three decades now has been a highly prolific musician in contemporary jazz and free improvisation. With various groups like NRG ENSEMBLE, SPACEWAYS INC., THE VANDERMARK 5, MADE TO BREAK and his latest project MARKER or the PETER BRÖTZMANN CHICAGO TENTET (to name just a few) and various spontaneous collaborations the saxophone/clarinet player has created an impressive catalogue and performed/recorded with the who-is-who of today's jazz/improv scene: PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE, HAMID DRAKE, FRED ANDERSON, PAUL LYTTON, JOE MORRIS THE EX, AXEL DÖRNER, MATS GUSTAFSSON, JOE MCPHEE, ZU, PETER BRÖTZMANN, PAUL LOVENS, LASSE
MARHAUG, YAKUZA, KEVIN DRUMM, and many more.

VANDERMARK's enduring exploration and development of new paths in (free) jazz and improvisation not only made him a key figure of the vivid Chicago scene (since the days of AACM a hotspot for musical creativity), but also gained the him the reputated MAC ARTHUR FELLOWSHIP in 1999. In november 2018, KONSTRUKT (who themselves can look back on a long list of class A collaborators like JOE McPHEE, WILLIAM PARKER, AKIRA SAKATA, MARSHALL ALLEN, EVAN PARKER, THURSTON MOORE or ALEXANDER HAWKINS) met VANDERMARK in their homebase ISTANBUL for a recording session – a match made in heaven that all musicians involved are extremely happy with.

The resulting album "Kozmik Bazaar" starts with a reference to Ornette COLEMAN before turning more and more into a psychedelic trip that gpes way beyond the "jazz idiom". But what else to expect from such a stellar constellation?

Recorded in 1975 at 'Electric Lady Studios'.
Re-mastering by Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

Pianist Lonnie Liston Smith began his true professional career with Pharoah Sanders and then moved on to the very electric Miles Davis band before embarking on his own journey - one that took him deep into the waters of pop music and disco by the late 70's.
On Visions of a New World, Smith, accompanied by his working unit the Cosmic Echoes, digs deeper into the soul-jazz vein that he had begun exploring on Expansions and Funk Extraction in 1973 and 1974, respectively.

In 1975, Smith was looking for a smoother, more soulful groove than he had displayed previously. Elements of the earlier band are in evidence: Vocalist Donald Smith is still on board, as are Dave Hubbard and Cecil Bridgewater on horns. Reggie Lucas even helps out on guitar in one or two places, and Ray Armando helps the percussion section. Despite these fiery players, the music here is strictly a late-night seduction/meditation groove.

Tracks like the opener, "A Chance for Peace," keep the funk in mid-tempo while rounding off the edges, but "Love Beams" sounds exactly like it's name. "Colours of the Rainbow" is a duet between Donald and Lonnie on keyboard and vocals, and "Devika" is the first place where the groove exceeds the mood.

Latin rhythms, loosely woven horn lines, funky backbeats, and a slinky melody bring the whole thing up a couple of notches. The only other place the album heats up is on the final two tracks: the second part of the title suite, when Donald Smith stops singing, and "Summer Nights," when the concentration is on pure movement and sweaty, shimmering late night funk.

By Thom Jurek. Produced by – Bob Thiele, Lonnie Liston Smith. Mixed by – Dave Wittman, Lonnie Liston Smith, Michael Carvin.

... Comprises 'Good Things' (a cover of the Maxayn classic), 'Gotta Get Better In A Little While' (cover of the Derek & The Dominoes gem) and new songs 'Coming Unstuck Again', 'My Child' and leading track 'Soona Than Much Layta'. NEW LINE UP – a veritable who’s who of the 1990's UK Acid Jazz Scene: Matt Deighton is still there playing central talismanic figure. Sulene Fleming (ex Brand New Heavies, vocals), Mick Talbot (the inimitable keyboard hero of The Style Council, Dexys), Ernie McKone (Galliano, Push, Paul Weller, Carleen Anderson), Bass Crispin ‘The Pump’ Taylor (Galliano, Push, Dexys, Candi Staton, Carleen Anderson) on drums.

On December 2nd, composer and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Parker releases a 7” single featuring parts one and two of his latest, “Max Brown.” The track is a sneak peek of Parker’s new album, a full-length follow-up to his critically lauded 2016 International Anthem LP The New Breed, which will be released in late January of 2020. Further details on the new album to be announced at the top of the year. “Max Brown” was produced by Parker alongside Paul Bryan, who also plays bass; additional featured are Josh Johnson (known for work with Kiefer, Leon Bridges) on alto sax, Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes, M. Ward) on trumpet, and Jamire Williams (Moses Sumney, Solange) on drums. A video for the track, directed by interdisciplinary artist Mikel Patrick Avery, also debuts December 2nd.

Jac Berrocal, David Fenech and Vincent Epplay return with Ice Exposure, their second album for Blackest Ever Black. A sequel and companion piece of sorts to 2015's Antigravity, its title couldn't be more apt: sonically it is both colder, and more exposed - in the sense of rawer, more volatile, more vulnerable - than its predecessor, capturing the combustible energy and barely suppressed violence of the trio's celebrated live performances with aspects of noir jazz, musique concrète, no wave art-rock, sound poetry and spectral electronics all interpenetrating in unpredictable and exhilarating ways. While there are moments of great sensitivity and even a cautious romanticism, the prevailing mood is one of anxiety, paranoia, and mounting psychodrama: close your eyes and Ice Exposure feels like a dissociative Hörspiel broadcasting from the seedy backstreets of your own troubled mind. Before he picks up an instrument or opens his mouth, Berrocal's unique and compelling presence can be felt: a combination of studied, glacial cool and anarchic, in-the-moment intensity that has served him well over a long and storied career. It was honed during his time as a theatre and film actor, and in the 70s Paris improv scene, it powered his influential Catalogue group in the 1970s, numerous seminal, sui generis solo sides, and far-sighted collaborations with the likes of Nurse With Wound, Lol Coxhill, Pascal Comelade and James Chance which have seen him come to be valorised by two generations of avant-garde agitators and eccentrics. Now in his eighth decade, it comes with an added gravitas, perhaps, but no less energy or vitality. On Ice Exposure, his lyrical, instantly recognisable trumpet playing is a key feature - see especially the ghostly, dubwise take on Ornette's 'Lonely Woman', the dissolute exotica of 'Salta Girls', and the sublime echo-chamber soliloquy 'Opportunity'. But more often it's his voice that commands centre-stage, whether casually discharging surreal poetic monologues or moaning in animal despair - a vocal tour de force that transcends language and culminates in the Dionysian frenzy of 'Why', Berrocal's half-spoken, half-howled exclamations jostling with David Fenech's slashes of dissonant guitar, over Badalamenti-ish, panther-stalk drums. Fenech's origins are in the mail-art scene of the early '90s, when he led the Peu Importe collective in Grenoble, and since then, in addition to his own recordings he has worked as a software developer at IRCAM and played with Jad Fair, Rhys Chatham and many others. Together with Vincent Epplay he is responsible for Ice Exposure's inspired arrangements and vivid, vertiginous sound design. Epplay is a visual artist and composer with particular interest in aleatory composition, concrete, and the reappropriation of vintage sound and film material. He and Fenech fashion a remarkable mise-en-scene for Berrocal to inhabit, one that embraces cutting-edge electronics while also paying homage to the best traditions of outlaw jazz and libidinous rock'n'roll ('Soundcheck' invokes the brutish spirit of Berrocal's hero Vince 'Rock N Roll Station' Taylor). On 'Blanche de Blanc', Berrocal's voice is framed by a groaning, ghoulish orchestra of industrial drones, while 'Equivoque' evokes the most humid and hostile Fourth World landscapes and 'Panic In Surabaya' lives up to its name, a hectic, pulse-quickening concrète collage that leaves you gasping for air. This is a searching and singular trio operating at the absolute peak of their powers, with an interplay that transcends studio and stage and occurs at an almost telepathic level. Ice Exposure is a triumph of that group mind, an underworld dérive as life-affirming as it is unnerving and psychologically precarious.













Panic In Surabaya

The fourth album from ephemerals, 'the third eye' sees them build and develop the work they started on their Alice Coltrane inspired record – 'egg tooth' as they continue their ever-evolving musical journey.

Fusing styles including spiritual jazz, psychedelia, and spoken word, to convey an identity that is unmistakably their own. The core of the work is built from the honest and incisive compositions of Hillman Mondegreen combined with the unmistakably emotive vocal delivery of singer Wolfgang Valbrun. Experimenting with recording and mixing techniques to illustrate the artistic concepts behind the songs has been key in the overall character of the record. Hard panning is used to group together specific sounds and instruments to the left and right to convey masculine and feminine sides within the track as within the individual.

For songwriter Hillman Mondegreen, the LP is a deeply personal and conceptual body of work using ambiguous harmony to discuss gender identity, polychords to demonstrate the power of being between the gender binaries, and modal changes to remove the homeliness that you find in traditional major/minor songs, speaking to the alienation of being transgender.

Although drawn from Hillman's personal experiences the writing is always universal, and singer Wolfgang Valbrun relates the pieces to his own experiences of a young black man leaving the USA to live in a new country where even language had to be re-learned to discover where he fit in in this new world. The band has evolved exponentially over the course of four albums, and they continuously push beyond the boundaries of traditional genre ideas and traverse unexplored musical territories.

BBE Music presents the sixth release in its acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: ‘Stop Over’ by Hideto Sasaki – Toshiyuki Sekine Quartet +1. Released at the height of the electric fusion era, ‘Stop Over’ is an all-acoustic hard bop killer, sounding like the Jazz Messengers on speed. Originally issued on the private Smile label in 1976, making ‘Stop Over’ one of the most sought after and rare LP's in the J Jazz canon.

Trumpeter Hideto Sasaki tears it up as if he’s Kenny Dorham on a classic late 50s Blue Note session. He also provides the breakneck title track to the album, the one stunning original that sits next to solid covers including Bobby Hutcherson’s modal classic ‘Little B’s Poem’ and Denny Zeitlin’s ‘Carole’s Garden’. Pianist Toshiyuki Sekine is also on top form with his deft touch and fluid keyboard runs, playing Horace Silver to Sasaki’s Dorham. If you dig that late 50's, early 60's breathless hard bop sound, you’ll love this.

Licensed and released with the approval of Toshiyuki Sekine himself, ‘Stop Over’ will be available for download and streaming, as a CD and double vinyl LP, the first vinyl reissue of this amazing album since originally slipping out to family and friends in 1976. With a deluxe packaging and translated sleeve notes, there will also be new notes and an interview with Toshiyuki Sekine.

The BBE J Jazz Masterclass Series is personally curated by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden and is dedicated to presenting the very finest in Japanese modern jazz. The series features rare material presented in the highest quality reproductions of the original releases, fully licensed and authorised

Brooklyn based baritone saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson presents his new work "Imagine Giving Up" on Helsinki's We Jazz Records. The album, to be released on 17th January of 2020 sees Parzen-Johnson move into new domains of sound as he uncovers newfound energy and pulse in his music.

In addition to the sonically rich analog synth elements that accompany his earlier solo saxophone work, Jonah has layered heavily sound designed samples of his own saxophone to create truly one of a kind percussive snaps, reverberant basses, and warbling leads. At it's core, the music remains deeply devoted to almost vocal sounding melodic lines and patiently developed compositional ideas.

A compact set of 6 originals, "Imagine Giving Up" is Jonah Parzen-Johnson's most ambitious album yet. While taking a step away from the previous world of "ambient jazz", his new music stems from the use of drone-like sounds for baritone saxophone, a style which is uniquely his own. Electronics are blended in for good measure, creating a coherent vision of abstract jazz with depth. As with all of Parzen-Johnson's releases, the music comes with a deeper narrative which he will continually explore in live performance.

The manifesto for the album reads as follows: "Only a few people can really start over. Everyone else is left to struggle down the path they were assigned. The option to give up, to choose your own path, is power, and, hopefully, a call to action: take a risk to help someone." "Imagine Giving Up" by Jonah Parzen-Johnson, will be available via 'We Jazz Records' on violet and black vinyl versions, CD and digitally.

Brooklyn based baritone saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson presents his new work "Imagine Giving Up" on Helsinki's We Jazz Records. The album, to be released on 17 January 2020 sees Parzen-Johnson move into new domains of sound as he uncovers newfound energy and pulse in his music.

In addition to the sonically rich analog synth elements that accompany his earlier solo saxophone work, Jonah has layered heavily sound designed samples of his own saxophone to create truly one of a kind percussive snaps, reverberant basses, and warbling leads. At its core, the music remains deeply devoted to almost vocal sounding melodic lines and patiently developed compositional ideas.

A compact set of 6 originals, "Imagine Giving Up" is Jonah Parzen-Johnson's most ambitious album yet. While taking a step away from the previous world of "ambient jazz", his new music stems from the use of drone-like sounds for baritone saxophone, a style which is uniquely his own. Electronics are blended in for good measure, creating a coherent vision of abstract jazz with depth.

As with all of Parzen-Johnson's releases, the music comes with a deeper narrative which he will continually explore in live performance. The manifesto for the album reads as follows: "Only a few people can really start over. Everyone else is left to struggle down the path they were assigned. The option to give up, to choose your own path, is power, and, hopefully, a call to action: take a risk to help someone." "Imagine Giving Up" by Jonah Parzen-Johnson will be available via We Jazz Records on violet and black vinyl versions, CD and digitally.

The compilation "Celestial Birds" reveals and focuses on the widely unkown electronic compositions of the AACM founder and jazz pianist MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS. #5 in the Perihel Series, curated by zeitkratzer director REINHOLD FRIEDL.

Anybody interested in jazz knows that Chicago has always been an impressive hot spot for new talents – and still is. One essential landmark in the history and development of jazz was the founding of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) in May 1965. This non-profit organization was a melting pot (and starting point) for artists like ANTHONY BRAXTON, ROSCOE MITCHELL, GEORGE LEWIS or LESTER BOWIE and his ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO but one of its actual founding members is known only to the deep connaisseurs: MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS (1930 – 2017).
The autodidact pianist and composer left music school and university, deciding to learn music by himself.

From 1961 on, the EXPERIMENTAL BAND was his first ensemble, but it soon turned out that ABRAMS' interests went beyond jazz and that he was open to the avant-garde and new music and most of all: electronic music. Which led to a double problem: On the one hand, black musicians had almost no access to the rare electronic music studios located in and funded by universities or broadcasting corporations. On the other hand, there were strong reservations regarding electronic music in the black music community.

In his important book "A Power Stranger Than Itself – The AACM and American Experimental Music" GEORGE LEWIS writes that "the use of electronics … proved controversial and widely misunderstood in a world of jazz in which acoustic instruments became conflated with musical, and eventually, cultural and even racial authenticity." ABRAMS' response was to actually "hide" his electronic pieces on the B-sides of his albums, and this compilation focuses on some of his best electronic experiments: the 22-minute long epic "The Bird Song" from 1968 in its original version incl. the reverb that was removed on the later CD reissue on DELMARK, the synthesizer compositions "Conversations With The Three Of Me" (1989) and "Think All, Focus One"1995) plus " Spihumonesty" (1980) with a 2nd synthesizer played by GEORGE LEWIS and YOUSEF YANCEY on theremin.

"Celestial Birds" casts a new light on the underrated experimenter MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS, his innovative approach to composition and pieces that lay dormant for way too long!

Bristol’s Sydney returns to Black Acre with two Jazz infused cuts featuring saxophonist Guy Hobley and emerging guitarist Charlie J-W. One of Gilles Peterson’s Future Bubblers, Sydney is a live artist and traditional instrument enthusiast who debuted on Black Acre with a Swaziland inspired debut mini-album entitled ‘Ode to eSwatini’ earlier this year, showcasing an eclectic mix of broken beat and Jazz.

Now the Bristolian returns with two collaborations featuring two vibrant Jazz and Blues musicians - Guy Hobley on the saxophone and guitarist Charlie J-W. “With the record being South American influenced the titles and artwork are based on a garden in Mexico named Las Pozas. Paraíso meaning paradise and Dahlia being the native flower toMexico found in the Las Pozas garden" – Sydney Conceptualized during Sydney’s first session as a Future Bubbler using one distorted PA speaker in a room full of the new generation year 3 bubblers with Gilles Peterson present, ‘Paraíso ft. Guy Hobley’ flutters into place with shuffling percussion, reverberating piano fills and smooth sax melodies from Guy Hobley whilst underlying world instrumentation operates throughout, including bongos, claves and shakers.
Created in one afternoon alongside fellow band member and friend Charlie J-W, ‘Dahlia’ gives a warming aural experience with a Nina Leão vocal sample, cantering south American drums, a mix of traditional guitar strums, pedal hits and accordion strikes, all glued together with stylish synth stabs.

Support from:
Gilles Peterson,Jamz Supernova, Bradley Zero, Moxie, Horse Meat Disco

'FREDERICK' The Renaissance Man of Soul and Jazz Music and 'IZIPHO SOUL RECORDS' are proud to be working together again to bring you the highly anticipated new single REAL LOVE, a sumptuous blend of real soul and jazz vibes.

To compliment 'REAL LOVE', we are thrilled that Frederick agreed to include the 2017 hit single 'I CAN’T HELP BUT LOVE YOU' on the flip. This is 'IZIPHO SOUL’s' 40th 45!

"On Sunday, February 21st, 1971, a benefit was held in New York’s Carnegie Hall for Swami Satchidananda's Integral Yoga Institute, featuring Laura Nyro, the New Rascals and Alice Coltrane’s All-Stars.
The latter band was a remarkable coming-together of talent, with Lady Trane joined by legends such as Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp Ceil McBee and Jimmy Garrison on stupendous form (with a little assistance from members of the Yoga Institute). The astounding performance of John Coltrane’s Africa on this set, broadcast on WQXR-FM, finds them improvising thrillingly."

We are privileged to explore on this essential LP a plethora of Dr.
John's earliest and most satisfying recordings. The unique mixture of styles on display is drawn from the music he grew up listening to in the clubs of the Deep South, where he first practised his (witch) craft. The combination would impress many other musicians, including the Rolling Stones and Jools Holland, himself no mean boogie pianist.

Ella Fitzgerald’s singing talents were simply supreme. Every one of her contemporaries looked up to her as the standard to be judged by. There are dozens of quotes from everyone including Crosby, Sinatra and virtually all the major band leaders extolling her virtues.
'Ella Fitzgerald' was undoubtedly one of the greatest jazz and pop singers and interpreters of the twentieth century.

Listeners can dance to her work, relax to it, laugh with it, cry with
it, and everything in between as she can satisfy every mood ...
This album gathers some of her very best recordings, and could serve
as a starting point for some deeper delving into her fine catalogue
of songs.

Vinyl albums are attractive and desirable ways of delivering music
to appreciative fans. The size, look, feel and information of the
packaging and the warmth of the sound gives ample reason for
the survival and re-invigoration of vinyl releases for older original
collectors and new younger ones.

This particular eponymous album by Howlin' Wolf is a fine case in point, as Wolf is a particularly collectable album artist whose original releases command good prices, but this one is one of two that are worth considerably more.

Original clean copies of this one on the Chess Records label (Chess LP 1469) would set you back many hundreds of dollars, alongside Wolf's first record on Chess, Moaning In The Moonlight, which has also recently been released on our "Not Now" label with UPC 'CATLP154' - making a fine pair of collectable albums freshly available.

... LP FORTHCOMING Inc. Soundfiles for the Tracks.

'West Side Story' became the smash hit stage musical of 1957
through a combination of Leonard Bernstein's dramatic score with
Jerome Robbins' exuberant dance routines.

The long awaited film version arrived in 1961 and starred Richard Beymer as Tony, Rita Moreno as Anita and Natalie Wood as Maria.
It's original soundtrack album clocked up 53 weeks on top of the Billboard Stereo Albums chart and 12 on the Mono, making it the album with the most weeks at Number 1 of the rock (post 1955) era.

Enjoy this famous soundtrack here on vinyl!

Fifteen folk tales from 7 albums made over 7 years by an imbued composer, conjurer & channeler of cosmopolitan Blues. Downtown Castles received “Best of 2018” honors from WIRE Magazine, Liberation France, The Quietus, Gilles Peterson, The Vinyl Factory, Aquarium Drunkard, and AV Club.

Detroit royalty Javonntte has been unstoppable recently with release after release of grade-A house excursions on labels as NDATL, Sistrum and Eglo.

On his ‘No Rush’ LP for Ten Lovers Music, he masterfully delivers an array of complex jazzy, soulful beatdown tracks with big support from the likes of Mr. Scruff: “These kind of fusions are so easy to get wrong (and produce beige, uninspiring coffee table fluff), but every tune here is a winner." ... KILLER!

The Flying Luttenbachers’ “Imminent Death” is the second release by the seminal cult band since its reincarnation in 2017.

“Imminent Death” is very different in many ways from the previous Luttenbachers releases, but then again, you could consistenly say that about most of them. The group has always followed the direction set by its leader 'Weasel Walter' and reflects his desire to create music of a determinately less common quantity in any given era.

'The Flying Luttenbachers' have always been staunchly committed to making artistic statments which defy current trends and seek the expression of personal truth, mania and iconoclasm.
This offering is a record, Mr. Walter has pondered and thought about making for 30 years - finally, here it is, and it is quite a cathartic exorcism. ... Hope, you enjoy.