Using a participatory compositional process, the NY trio of Brad Barrett on bass & cello, Joe Morris on guitar, and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, follow a framework to make choices based on density, rhythmic ratios, register, melody, and timbre, encouraged to employ small particles of sounds and blend timbres with an awareness of implied pulse and an inclination to disrupt it.

A 6-CD boxset of recordings from the DKV Trio of Hamid Drake (drums), Kent Kessler (bass), and Ken Vandermark (reeds), plus guest Joe McPhee, the box dedicated to James Baldwin, recorded during the quartet's 2017 tour in Europe, and at shows in Chicago and Milwaukee that year, documenting six concerts with performances including Joe McPhee's "Nation Time".

Radical masters of free jazz--Spanish pianist Agusti Fernandez and British bassist Barry Guy--meet young(er) radical trumpeter Peter Evans at the Moscow Cultural Center DOM for this 2017 concert of free improvisation, a fiery and informed concert of two sets, each in three parts, and an encore, showing technical mastery, inventive interaction, and sheer excitement in performance.

Performing at St. Ann's Church in Dublin, Ireland, the trio of Japanese pianist living in Ireland, Izumi Kimura, is joined by London bassist Barry Guy and Swiss based drummer Gerry Hemingway for 8 superb improvisations, including renderings of Guy's "Blue Horizon", "Ancients" and "Finding It" and Agusti Fernandez' "How to Go Into a Room You Are Already In".

The Catalan free improvising trio Phicus of Alex Reviriego on double bass, Ferran Fages on electric guitar, and Vasco Trilla on drums, continue their pursuit of 4th partners, here joined by Swedish saxophonist Martin Kuchen on tenor & alto saxophones for a studio album of collective improvisation with elements of ea/lowercase playing balanced with dynamic language.

A 33 rpm 7" from Washington, DC sound artist Chester Hawkins, which "contains highly concentrated extracts" of two remixes of live recordings at Logan Fringe Arts Space and Red Onion Records, from his limited-edition USB release "Cops Need Serial Numbers"; mesmerizing and hypnotic electronics from a masterful performer and kosmiche explorer.

The long-running duo of Norwegian saxophonist Kasper Skullerud Vaernes and drummer Andreas Wildhagen, who also work together in Nakama's KNYST! trio with bassist and Nakama founder Christian Meaas Svendsen, and the Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, in an album of five freely improvised dialogs of great technical skill, intent listening and exchange, and dynamic energy.

The long-running duo of Norwegian saxophonist Kasper Skullerud Vaernes and drummer Andreas Wildhagen, who also work together in Nakama's KNYST! trio with bassist and Nakama founder Christian Meaas Svendsen, and the Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, in an album of five freely improvised dialogs of great technical skill, intent listening and exchange, and dynamic energy.

Ritual and unveiling of Buddhist philosophy in a 3-CD exploration of the relationship between form and freedom, between modern Western culture and traditional Eastern culture, and between written and open musical material, from composer and bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen presented in 3 parts: (1) ensemble and a chant-choir, (2) ensemble, and (3) solo bass.

Brought together by dummer Paal Nilssen-Love for the 2018 Roskilde Festival in Denmark, this quintet merges Norwegians Nilssen-Love and long-time collaborator Frode Gjerstad on alto sax with the Brazilian trio of Felipe Zenicola on electric bass, Kiko Dinucci on electric guitar, and Paulinho Bicolor on cuica, for a thrilling and exuberant concert of energetic improvisation.

For their 10th album, the duo of multi-reedist Ken Vandermark and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love took inspiration from experimental cinema, enlisting producer Lasse Marhaug to scour YouTube for concerts from their past 10 years, extracting 60 seconds of audio from each and joining them into 2-minute segments, 21 of which create this unusual album of awe-inspiring performance.

The third album from the Arashi trio of Akira Sakata on alto saxophone, Bb clarinet & vocals, Johan Berthling on double bass, and Paal Nilssen on Love on drums & percussion, formed in 2013 at the Molde Jazz Festival in Norway and touring steadily since, here captured live at Pit Inn, in Tokyo for four intense free improvisations of inspired power.

Trimmed back to a mere 14 musicians, the Fire! Orchestra core trio of Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin and Orchestra original singers Mariam Wallentin and Sofia Jernberg add a string quartet, expanding their palette as they release their warmest and most embraceable album to date, from original material to covers of Robbie Basho and Chic.

Producer & bassist Marc Urselli devised this first meeting between himself and Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo, filmaker/guitarist Jim Jarmusch, and drummer Balazs Pandi's, recording in Urselli's NY studio to capture these live analog recordings of improvisations using no overdubs, a twilight set of evolving and absorbing explorations merging rock & experimental approaches.

Producer & bassist Marc Urselli devised this first meeting between himself and Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo, filmaker/guitarist Jim Jarmusch, and drummer Balazs Pandi's, recording in Urselli's NY studio to capture these live analog recordings of improvisations using no overdubs, a twilight set of evolving and absorbing explorations merging rock & experimental approaches.

Reissue and fresh master of saxophonist Lee Konitz, pianist Don Friedman and guitarist Attila Zoller's great 1995 Hat release, original compositions of live melodic interplay.

Cuban born NY pianist David Virelles documents the musicians of his birthplace, Santiago de Cuba, home to musical styles such as son, changui, nengon, and conga, in two distinct projects: Volume I, where Virelles introduces Orquesta Luz de Oriente tracing the roots of the Cuban big band tradition; and Volume II, reinterpreting the piano music of iconic pianist Antonio Maria Romeu.

From Mnemonists to Biota, this box collects the first 5 studio albums released by the Colorado collective on the UK Recommended Records label, adding a bonus disc of all new recordings built from the group archives, and includes a 14-page booklet of artwork & historical notes shedding light on their gorgeous abstractions through free improvisation and studio composition.

This Heat and Camberwell Now drummer, songwriter, vocalist, experimenter and sociological observer Charles Hayward steps away from his drums for an intimate album of song, performing on piano with minimal accompaniment as he presents new songs and new versions of songs including pieces from Camberwell Now; powerfully fragile, insightful, fascinating.

A unique pairing of reeds, piano and spinet captured live at Le Singe Club in Biel, Switzerland in 2018 between multi-reedist Hans Koch and keyboardist Jacques Demierre, a wild ride from frenetic interaction to introspective experimental, both using unusual techniques and Demierre playing inside his keyboards, a truly excellent and thrilling concert.

Wind player and composer Anna Weber pays homage to 20th Century composers' works for percussion, using Xenakis, Feldman, Varese, Stockhausen, Babbitt & Cage as influences in compositions leaving room for improvisation from her septet of Jeremy Viner (sax & clarinet), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Christopher Hoffman (cello), Matt Mitchell (piano), Chris Tordini (bass), and Ches Smith (drums).

Marking 50 years for Chicago's most important and innovative ensembles, formed in 1969 to advance creative musicians as part of the AACM, is this tribute to and based on music written by late members Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors, and Joseph Jarman, performed by 15 innovative musicians young and old, and presented in 2 CDs: one in the studio and one live at the 2018 Edgefest.

The sophisticated compositions of New York pianist Matt Mitchell on piano, also performing on synthesizer, are heard in this quintet with Miles Okazaki on electric & acoustic guitars, Patricia Brennan on vibraphone & marimba, Kim Cass on bass, and Kate Gentile on drums & percussion, a challenging album that rewards through intensity and incredible detail.

A working subset of the UK saxophone-heavy band crossing composition with improvisation, The Remote Viewers led by David Petts, here as a trio with Adrian Northover on alto sax, Petts on tenor sax, and John Edwards on acoustic bass, present 15 new compositions, 10 penned by Petts and 5 collective improvisations, a mix of ferocious timbre and exciting interaction.

10 years after drummer Han Bennink, pianist Misha Mengelberg, and saxophonist Willem Breuker formed the ICP co-op, Bennink & Mengelberg formed this 10-piece "Tetterettet", an all-star international group including Peter Brotzmann, Tristan Honsinger, John Tchicai, this their first incredible and far-ranging album, remastered and available on CD for the first time.

Recorded at the ICP Jubileum festival in Uithoorn, Holland, in 1978, this concert brings together the core of the Instant Composers Pool--pianist Misha Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink--with legendary South African alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana (Blue Notes), Bennink also playing trombone, clarinet, and viola, in a lyrical and unpredictable set filled with humor and astounding playing.

Since 2015 Chicago's Experimental Sound Studio has hosted a series of concert followed by a discussion with the artist, with funding for the series assisted by Corbett vs. Dempsey; this CD collects recordings from the last year, including Susan Alcorn, Gerry Hemingway, Greg Kelley, Kris Davis, Wayne Horvitz, Ingrid Laubrock, LaDonna Smith, Sandy Ewen, Douglas Ewart, &c &c.

Caught live at Jazzklubb Fasching in his home of Stockholm, Swedish bassist Torbjorn Zetterberg's The Great Question band with Susana Santos Silva on trumpet, Mats Aleklint on trombone, Jonas Kullhammar on saxophone & flute, Alberto Pinton on reeds, and Jon Falt on drums, perform 6 inventive compositions in an amazing concert of modern, upbeat, innovative jazz.

Created by Felicie Bazelaire, CoO is a string ensemble drawn from the French new music ensemble ONCEIM; CoO develops new repertoire for strings, collaborating with composers like Bertrand Denzler, who wrote this innovative composition "Arc" in two parts, a work applying unusual techniques to bowed strings, particularly lower bass tones, for fascinating results.

Performing at Knuttel House, in Tokyo, Japan in 2018, the wonderfully complex and trio of Pat Thomas on piano, Joel Grip on double bass, and Antonin Gerbal on drums, bridging traditional jazz piano trio with contemporary forms, in the first of a 2-part installment, each track named for a flower as they balance dense highly active playing with abstract lyricism.

Compositions for percussion from Berlin drummer and accordionist Hannes Lingens (Musaeum Clausum, Antoine Beuger, Lucio Capece, &c), composed over six years, each using a restricted set of materials, instrument or instrument type, Lingens performing solo, and as a duo and quartet using overdubs, employing microphone techniques for detail and ambiance.

French free improvising soprano saxophonist Michel Doneda, using profoundly unusual techniques on the reed instrument, meets percussionist Le Quan Ninh, performing on "surrounded bass drum", a large drum affected by various objects across the skin, for 5 dialogs at Montreuil-sous-Bois, France, and then joined by noh theater drummer Shunichiro Hisada in Tokyo's Shushinkan Hall.

A truly unique album of free improvisation and unusual narrative from the Berlin-based quartet of Tristan Honsinger on cello, Antonio Borghini on double bass, Axel Dorner on trumpet, and Tobias Delius on tenor saxophone, clarinet, a mix of Honsinger compositions and collective improv, since 2010 a working band combining music, movement and theater; masterfully idiosyncratic.

Recording in electric harpist Zeena Parkin's office at Mills College in Oakland with Jon Leideker, aka Wobbly, performing on mobile phones, tablets, booper, and mixer, their output run through a series of simple listening devices, machines designed to sing along with the melodies they believe themselves to be hearing, though they are often wrong; singular and surprising!

Blending a punk rock sensibility with Sephardic tribalism via a taste of North African Gnawa magic, Abraxas is one of the most primal and rocking ensembles in the Masada family, here taking on the 5th edition of Masada Book Three, "The Book Beri'ah", recording in Bill Laswell's studio for 9 joyfully exuberant and intensely executed interpretations of Zorn's compositions.

Downtown bassist mainstay Trevor Dunn, a vital element of many Zorn projects, alongside his own improvisation and compositional work, in his first chamber music album: quartet and trio orchestrations with Trevor Dunn on contrabass, Carla Kihlstedt, Cornelius Dufallo or Jennifer Choi on violin, Vicky Chow on piano, Yves Dharamraj on cello, and Lev Zhurbin on viola.

Having played in trio settings before, pianist Satoko Fujii and Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez seized the opportunity to record as a duo in the studio in NY, bringing just two Fujii compositions to guide them, they began freely improvising, creating this stunning album of elegant interaction, peaceful yet detailed, intuitively beautiful and sophisticated music.

Guitarists Julian Lage and Gyan Riley take on John Zorn's third book of Masada, "The Book Beri'ah", here in the fourth volume performing the rich melodic music in 10 compositions of passionate interplay, from languid passages to rapid interplay, their familiarity lending itself to exceptional extended runs and tight synchronized playing.

John Zorn composed this suite of compositions drawing inspiration from the mystic world of the Tarot and its wide range of impressions, emotions and inferences, from breathtaking activity to introspective elegance, performed as a piano trio by a spectacular group of Downtown NY performers: Brian Marsella on piano, Trevor dunn on bass, and Kenny Wollesen on drums.

From 2008-16 until drummer Frank Rosaly moved to Amsterdam, alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella's Trio was an active part of Chicago's creative jazz scene; in early 2018 Rosaly returned for a visit and Mazzarella composed a suite of 6 new pieces to commemorate the trio's tenth anniversary, the exuberant result this excellent concert recorded at Co-Prosperity Sphere!

Stochastic music for percussion and synthesizers from New York avant conceptualist and keyboardist Charlemagne Palestine, here on piano & electronics, with the Italian duo Trrma' of Giovanni Todisco on percussion and Guiseppe Candiano on synth, in two side-long works of irregular rhythm, complexity and dissonance that build and recede in a suspenseful journey.

Debut of this group named by NY multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter, with Stelios Mihas on guitar, Federico Ughi on drums, and (mysterious) Irma Nejando on bass, presenting this studio album of free, well-matched and interactive collective improvisations of acoustic and electric instrumentation, each track dedicated to artists who inspired the members of the quartet.