River People (Bucher / Countryman / Alegre / Hori):
Sol Expression (ChapChap Records)

Evoking images of Indigenous Filipinos through free improvisation, with titles referencing the rivers, rains and environment that define them, the multi-national River People quartet of Christian Bucher on drums, Johnny Alegre on guitar, Tetsuro Hori on bass and Rick Countryman on alto saxophone are captured in the studio in Manila for seven superb collective conversations. ... Click to View

Sana Nagano:
Anime Mundi (577 Records)

A superb chamber jazz trio from NY improvisers Sana Nagano on violin, Karl Berger on piano & vibraphone and Billy Martin on drums & percussion, Nagano having a long history with each through Berger's Improvisers Orchestra and with Martin through Creative Music Studio, their connections evident in the articulately energetic and confident collective conversations. ... Click to View

Sana Nagano:
Anime Mundi [VINYL] (577 Records)

A superb chamber jazz trio from NY improvisers Sana Nagano on violin, Karl Berger on piano & vibraphone and Billy Martin on drums & percussion, Nagano having a long history with each through Berger's Improvisers Orchestra and with Martin through Creative Music Studio, their connections evident in the articulately energetic and confident collective conversations. ... Click to View

Hal Russell / Joel Futterman:
The Chicago River [3 CDs] (Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Late Chicago saxophonist, trumpeter & vibraphonist Hal Russell (NRG Ensemble) and legendary pianist Joel Futterman, also on curved soprano saxophone & Indian flue, are heard in the complete recordings from their two day concert for the victims of the 1992 Great Flood of the Chicago River, presenting a five part work of flowing free jazz force and currents of creative power. ... Click to View

Blue Lines Trio (Scheen / van der Weide / Hadow):
Chance and Change (Casco Records)

The free swinging Dutch piano trio of Michiel Scheen on piano, Raoul van der Weide on contrabass, synthesizer & objects and George Hadow on drums, in a set of buoyant and ebullient improvisations, a mix of composed and collective works that bring together tradition and freedom, melody and abstraction, while clearly enjoying their playful approach to creative jazz. ... Click to View

Magnus Granberg :
Night Will Fade and Fall Apart [2 CDs] (thanatosis produktion)

The 6 piece Tya Ensemble of string, piano, percussion and vibraphone performs Swedish composer Magnus Granberg's beautifully delicate and dusky work, conceived from historic and recent song structures and written so that individual parts also may be performed as solo pieces, as heard in an extended ensemble version and four solo and one duo configuration. ... Click to View

Alex Zethson:
Residy (thanatosis produktion)

The Residy, or remains of a unique variation on JS Bach's Goldberg Variation no. 21, performed live by pianist Alex Zethson who maintains the structure, rhythmic movement and note order of Bach's composition, while dispersing the notes and intervals into two synths and an E-bowed grand piano to evoke these meditative and expansive interpretations. ... Click to View

Gareth Davis / Machinefabriek:
Standards (of Sorts) (Sublime Retreat)

Frequent collaborators Rutger Zyderveldt (Machinefabriek) and bass & contrabass clarinetist Gareth Davis join together for five "Standards" through electronics, synthetics and unorthodox reed work, transmuting their instruments as they create variations from a few notes, some of them "misremembered", from jazz and contemporary classical standards. ... Click to View

Amelia Cuni / Alex Mendizabal:
Stimmen Aus Himmel Und Holle (ANTS Records)

Translating to "Voices from Heaven and Hell", the meeting of two Berlin artists--Amelia Cuni, whose vocal work is described as in/voluntary singing; and Alex Mendizabal, a sound artist who here electronically manipulates the voice of Cuni--use texts from poet Erin Honeycutt as the two apply diverse, fascinating and sometimes unnerving approaches to voice, utterance and expression. ... Click to View

Various Artists:
Free Percussion/Water [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD] (Tsss Tapes)

Demonstrating the striking diversity modern solo percussionists present, the Italian tape label TSSS Tapes compiles an international set of solo works from explorers Tim Daisy, Jeph Jerman, Ted Byrnes, Wojtek Kurek, Clinton Green, Rie Nakajima, Emilio Berne, Shakeeb Abu Hamdan, Lucie Nezri, Karen Willems, Paolo Sanna, Li Qing, Carlos Godinho, and Rodrigo Vieira. ... Click to View

Dreamstruck (Crispell / Fonda / Sorgen):
With Grace In Mind (Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Officially taking their group name from the title of their first album, The Dreamstruck trio of Marilyn Crispell on piano, Joe Fonda on bass and Harvey Sorgen on drums are heard in this innately lyrical and masterfully controlled, concise set of studio recordings, with compositions from each performer and two collective improvisations, a remarkable example of the modern piano trio. ... Click to View

Rempis / Reid / Abrams:
Allium (Aerophonic)

The second release from the Chicago chamber-oriented, collective free jazz trio of Dave Rempis on alto & tenor saxophone, Tomeka Reid on cello, and Joshua Abrams on bass, expanding on their highly concentrative and contemplative approach to group dialog, a powerfully assured and seemingly composed set of nine impeccable improvisations. ... Click to View

Seabrook / Cleaver / Cooper-Moore:
In The Swarm [VINYL] (Astral Spirits)

The second album from guitarist Brandon Seabrook's Trio with Gerald Cleaver on drums & pulsating & punctuating electronics, Cooper-Moore providing massive and unconvential bass sounds on his Diddley Bow, and Seabrook himself playing banjo in inexplicably rapid and staccato runs or electric guitar with eccentric effects; rip-roaring, sometimes surreal, absolutely superb! ... Click to View

Horace Silver Quintet:
Live New York, Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Recorded around the time of his most famous records, Song For My Father and The Cape Verdean Blues, lyrical hard bop/Blue Note pianist and composer Horace Silver's band is heard live at The Half Note in NYC and at "The Cork & Bib" on Long Island with his spectacular band including trumpeters Carmell Jones & Woody Shaw and saxophonist Joe Henderson. ... Click to View

Lionel Hampton Orchestra 1958:
The Mess Is Here, Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

An influence on the next generation of small band and bop players, vibraphonist and Band Leader Lionel Hampton's programs included both crowd-pleasers and sophisticatedly complex sections, heard here in this 1958 studio recording from Stuttgart, Germany while touring Europe, Ghana and Israel with his exceptional band expanded by three German jazz musicians. ... Click to View

The Work:
The Worst of Everywhere [2 CDs] (Ultragash)

Originally released by Woof Records in 1982 on cassette, this double CD reissues an essential lo-fi document from The Work (Bill Gilonis, Mick Hobbs, Tim Hodgkinson and Rick Wilson) in live performances from gigs and rehearsals assembled in cut-up form, adding new pieces and expanding on others, joined at times by Catherine Jauniaux, Bob Ostertag, Chris Cutler, &c. ... Click to View

Christian Wolfarth :
39 / Part I - III (Hiddenbell Records)

39 tracks make up this compelling 3-part solo percussion work from Swiss improviser and composer Christian Wolfarth, using a game approach where some sequences are determined by the roll of a dice for note values, rest and tempo, Wolfarth performing on dead wood, a drum or 39 pine cones, augmented with recordings of stones, water, footsteps, church bells, &c. ... Click to View

David Ryan (Crosby / Innocenti / Lash):
Fields And Refrains (Aural Terrains)

A collection of three modified solo pieces and one collective performance with a minimalist aesthetic through compositions by David Ryan, performed by William Crosby on guitar, Luca Innocenti on church organ & Hammond organ and Dominic Lash on contrabass, each score allowing for interpretation and improvisation, particularly the final collaborative piece. ... Click to View

Sage Harlow J :
Variations Without A Theme (Drones Ongs) (Edition Wandelweiser Records)

Australian sound poet and vocalist Sage J Harlow aka Sage Pbbbt, whose innovative vocal work takes inspiration from Tuvan and Mongolian overtone singing and Inuit throat singing, created this mysterious set of electroacoustic compositions on the unceeded lands of the Whadjuk People of the Noongar Nation, developing four works of spellbinding spectral ambience. ... Click to View

Samuel Blaser:
7th Heaven (Between The Lines)

Based in New York at the time of this recording, Swiss trombonist and composer Samuel Blaser's quartet with Thomas Morgan on double bass, Gerald Cleaver on drums and Scott Dubois on guitar explore rhythmic and tonal approaches to improvisation, bridging modern compositional forms with traditional jazz in energetic playing of an engagingly relaxed mood. ... Click to View

Jeff Parker / Eric Revis / Nasheet Waits:
Eastside Romp (RogueArt)

Though having worked together in various collaborations, the trio of Jeff Parker on guitar, Eric Revis on double bass and Nasheet Waits on drums had never recorded as a trio before this 2016 studio date in Pasadena, CA, each player contributing compositions for the album, along with one collective improvisation and a cover of Marion Brown's "Similar Limits". ... Click to View

Jeff Parker / Eric Revis / Nasheet Waits:
Eastside Romp [VINYL] (RogueArt)

Though having worked together in various collaborations, the trio of Jeff Parker on guitar, Eric Revis on double bass and Nasheet Waits on drums had never recorded as a trio before this 2016 studio date in Pasadena, CA, each player contributing compositions for the album, along with one collective improvisation and a cover of Marion Brown's "Similar Limits". ... Click to View

Sylvain Kassap Sextet :
Octobres (RogueArt)

An extension to a cycle of recordings that started in 1985 with his Saxifrages Octet, clarinetist Sylvain Kassap leads his sextet through original compositions that integrate jazz, compositional and avant rock structures into a unique chamber jazz form, a sophisticated approach to writing as Kassap commemorates the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. ... Click to View

Graewe / Lonberg Holm / Gratkowski:
Trilinear Polarity (Fundacja Sluchaj!)

In 2004 legendary European Free Jazz pianist Georg Graewe and German multi-reedist Frank Gratkowski met with Chicago cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm on the stage at LOFT in Cologne, Germany to perform these six collective improvisations with an innate chamber jazz feeling, particularly the four part "Trilinear Polarity"; a spectacular set available for the first time. ... Click to View

Joel Futterman:
Intervals 2 (Fundacja Sluchaj!)

Technically brilliant and creatively inventive, pianist Joel Futterman expands on his 2020 Listen! Foundation CD with a second three-part journey into his powerfully investigative approach to solo jazz improvisation, referencing a history of styles and techniques that display both a dynamo of intricate ability and a sensitivity to timing, space and melodic expression. ... Click to View

Playfield (Carter / Muhr / Ishito / Plaks / Namenwirth / Takahashi / Swanson / Panikkar):
Stepping Out, Vol. 1 (577 Records)

Having previously released outdoor live performances integrating the sounds of NY into their expansive improvisations, the Playfield octet led by Daniel Carter with Ayumi Ishito (Sax), Eric Plaks (Piano & Rhodes), Aron Namenwirth (Guitar), Yutaka Takahashi (Guitar), Luisa Muhr (voice), Zachary Swanson (Bass) and Jon Panikkar (Drums) step inside to record three far-reaching and inclusive studio improvisations. ... Click to View

Yamazaki / Ino / Hayashi:
TRYANGLE (Doubtmusic)

Two 60's collaborators of Japanese guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi--drummer Hiroshi Yamazaki and bassist Nobuyoshi Ino--formed this "Tryangle" to invite third improvisers for their performances, here joining forces with alto saxophonist Eiichi Hayashi (Catle Band, Aki Takase) for this exceptional live concert at Koen-dori Classics, in Tokyo, Japan in 2022. ... Click to View

New Monuments (Don Dietrich / Ben Hall / Camille Dietrich / Tony Gordon):
Language is the Skin [CD w/ DOWNLOAD] (Torn Light)

Recording in Detroit in 2021 the ruggedly extreme free jazz quartet New Monuments of Don Dietrich (Borbetomagus) on saxophone, Ben Hall on percussion, Camille Dietrich on cello and Tony Gordon on electric bass guitar shred through six collective improvisations, taking time for burning solo moments and electrically-fueled exchanges; scorching! ... Click to View

Nickolas Mohanna :
Sight Drawings [VINYL w/ DOWNLOAD] (Run/Off Editions)

Using sources from the world about him--field recordings, sampled orchestral noises, and voice recorders--New York composer and sound artist Nickolas Mohanna explores the spatial impressions of sound within a delicate acousmatic language, weaving inexplicable sounds into reorganized, recognizable components, creating a solid and compelling structural language. ... Click to View

Marina Rosenfeld :
roygbiv&b [BOOK] (Run/Off Editions)

A handsome spiral-bound book to accompany experimental sound artist and turntablist Marin Rosenfeld's roygbiv&b project riffing on the title through performance memory exercises, with text including a "User's Manual", a foreward by musicologist Benjamin Piekut, color & b/w images from the performance & exhibition, and four fold-out pages with scores. ... Click to View