Jazz | Fusion Preorder 431 Items

"When Losing a Dream To Reality" is the debut album from Swedish alto saxophonist and composer Hannes Bennich. Bennich is one of the most interesting new voices on the Scandinavian scene and presents all-original compositions for his first outing written for his band of pianist Britta Virves, double bassist Tomas Sjödell and drummer Emil Norman. Special guest vocalist Helen Salim joins for one track.

"Sisu" marks the beginning of a new chapter for esteemed Estonian pianist and composer Kristjan Randalu - as his first large ensemble project recording. It"s also the debut outing for the New Wind Jazz Orchestra conducted by Wolf Kerschek and features special guest trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and guitarist Ben Monder.

Recorded in just one day, Tripwire is the latest album from saxophonist and composer Will Vinson.Realising a long-held ambition to record a chord-less trio album, Vinson is joined here by bassist Matt Penman, one of today"s most adventurous bass players, and drummer Eric Harland, known for his impressive work with the world"s jazz luminaries.Special guest tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana also joins for two tracks. The record captures the energy of returning to the studio and playing for the first time since the Covid-Pandemic lockdowns, and further cements Vinson"s reputation as a virtuosic risk-taking leader.Tripwire skilfully brings together Vinson"s vision of freedom and collaboration into a cohesive album that documents the highly charged reunification of musicians, masterfully captured during a one-off recording session.

"Spirit To All" is the latest record by Polish bassist and composer Wojtek Mazolewski and his famed Quintet (WMQ), Mazolewski"s distinctive voice and vision are highly lauded and widely recognised for his contribution to the resurgence in Polish jazz and improv music on a global, crossover scale.

“There is a German satellite falling to earth!” a woman’s voice urgently announces. “She says, what if it hits me? Welcome to anxiety group.” A dense cloud on the horizon heralds a fresh onslaught from that infamous swarm of free jazz killer bees, a new project from self-described “conceptual kleptomaniac post digital free jazz outfit” Drone Operatør. Riding hard along the line between experimental electronics, blockbuster sound design and the loosest jazz improvisation, this rogue’s gallery of players, headed up by art world provocateurs Paul Barsch and Tilman Horning, take the fevered pulse of the relentlessly flattened now and note down four key observations which presented together make up Welcøme TO Anxiety Group. Coaxing lively theatricality from a continually provoked altercation between acoustic instrumentation and synthetic sound, each of the project’s four tracks provides a new perspective on what it means to improvise through technological mediation. “Here we are now,” write Drone Operatør. “22 after 2k. mp4 flex to 32bit float. The sax - the heart. The quadcopter - the brain. Duo d'Allemagne not wasting a life time learning jazz standards.” To open proceedings, our faithful operatør whips up exquisite dissonance with ‘Bot Møther’, smashing together squalls of saxophone and ripples of percussion with the sounds of sci-fi artillery, like an amphetamine-fuelled, midnight jam hammered out oblivious to an ongoing alien invasion. Slowing to a furtive creep for ‘German Satellite’, picking out keenly felt anxiety in suggestive plucks, stuttering clacks and strained wails, their cosmic warning signalling a neurotic climax before settling back into a post-coital skitter, flourishes of keys, both digital and analogue, harmonising with Drone Operatør’s weary welcome to the group. Eschewing the electronic completely for the cacophonous gallop of ‘Røhrstøck’, we’re invited to hold on for dear life during a mad scramble towards the ‘The Vessel,’ a staggering sequence of tumbling synthetic chimes, embellished with peals of ornate sax that flare up and out to illuminate the track’s irregularity, alternately submerged and retrieved through a subtle manipulation of filters. It’s a session that has to be heard to be believed, crammed with as much difficulty and as much revelation as any good therapy should. As Drone Operatør describe: “From iconic spamming to intellectual nonsense. Always never predictable, never not cheesy. Battery life cycles full of joy. You say you like free jazz. We don’t believe you.” Welcøme to Anxiety Group will be released on July 29th, 2021 by Participant, on limited edition clear red vinyl, and digital download via the Participant Bandcamp. The release will be accompanied by a series of films by Drone Operatør, featuring editing, FX, and CGI by digital artist Darío Alva. Text by: Henry Bruce Jones Participant is a record label and creative studio run by filmmaker William Markarian-Martin and conceptual artist Richie Culver

There is the contemporary music tradition, and then there is Dan Samsa. Seamlessly blending classical, techno, jungle and jazz, the musical pioneer joyfully imagines his debut album Contours as a genre-defying exploration far beyond the borders of sound as we know it.

Local jazz scenes keep evolving into new interesting variations, and this album by Copenhagen collective Jiyu, is no exception. A dusty brass opening, old as the sun, followed by a guitar/flute theme, driven by a lazy boom-clack beat, quickly outlines this hybrid-jazz sound, blown in from the future. The blend of dreamy, mellow jazz, hip hop, downbeat, bossa nova vibes, and cinematic electronic soundscapes, has caught the listeners attention worldwide, and the digital singles “So Many Moons to Go”, “King of Mañana” and “Parallel Dreams”, have made it to some serious jazz playlists on Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal. The album have been supported by radio dj’s in UK, DK, IT, ES and more… Jiyu is produced by guitar player and composer Emil Jonathan Søegaard A.K.A Low Pressure and former Stereo Deluxe recording artist EMO. The fellow musicians are, Bo Rande on trumpet, Lukas Rande on flute and sax. Carsten Skov on Vibraphone. Lennart Ginman on upright bass. Kinck on vocal, Thomas Dietl on drums, and AC. Woodman on Wurlitzer-piano.

Altercat proudly presents the definitive reissue of one of the crown jewels of South American jazz. Essentially the brainchild of Argentinian jazz's leading figure Jorge López Ruiz, the project Viejas Raíces marked Lopez Ruiz's departure from the traditional forms of jazz. The trio that recorded this album, consisting of López Ruiz joined by his life-long friend drummer Pocho Lapouble and gifted Chilean pianist Matías Pizarro, created a thrilling blend of jazz and Uruguayan candombe, surrounded by an undeniable cinematic feel spurred by López Ruiz's long experience in the soundtrack field. When read as one element, the cleverly chosen combination of group name and album title (in English: 'Old Roots of the Colonies of the River Plate') readily hints at the kind of sounds the listener will be challenged with when diving into this LP.

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 '70s. 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 its 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. - ThomJurek/AMG

Recorded in 1975 at Electric Lady Studios

Born in 1938, and raised in Glendale, California, Lloyd Miller has had one of the most unusual careers in all of jazz. By age 12 he had declared an
intent to make his living as a jazz musician, and by high school he had already begun to experiment, shunning swing music's mechanical perfection,
and chafing at his parents’ desire for him to nurture his talents with formal training. This tumultous relationship with his parents would eventually
lead to a stint in a psychatric hospital, before reuniting with them in moving to Iran, his father having accepted a job working for the Shah.
Stops in Hong Kong, Japan and Pakistan on the way to Iran deepened Miller's connection to other cultures he’d first felt while listening to old world
music compilations. He felt a definite calm and peace, an immense respect from everyone towards everyone else, and immersed himself in other
cultures and languages immediately. Miller spent a year in Iran with his family, picking up Farsi after a few short months, and steadily gaining more
and more of an appreciation for how deep the roots of Persian art run. However, still committed to his decision forge a career in jazz, Lloyd left Tehran
in 1958 to head to Europe to see if he could make a living from jazz music.
Miller kicked around the continent, first in Germany, then in Switzerland, Sweden and Brussels. He collaborated and performed alongside 60s jazz
legend Jef Gilson, and experimented with exotic instrumentation before returning to America to resume his studies at Brigham Young University in
Utah. In the years following his stint with Gilson, Miller had become more and more disillusioned with both modern music and modern society, which
had ashewed jazz for rock music, which he detested. In Miller’s conception, for a music to have value it had to have a deep connection to a tradition,
specifically connecting jazz to African lore. To Miller, something like “Tuareg African music is blues, just with no chord changes.”
Oriental Jazz was recorded, compiled and self-released in 1968 while Miller was studying at Brigham Young. The record, originally pressed in
a quantity of 300 copies, sought to combine a cool, modal style with the exotic arrays of instruments and styles that Miller had picked up during
his travels. Miller included songs he’d cut with Gilson in his Parisian studio years before, and a solo piano piece that he recorded in one of the
school’s practice rooms. Despite Lloyd’s professed aversion to modernity, there nevertheless is something strikingly new sounding about this
music, which fits together in startling juxtapositions. Traces of Bill Evans, Stan Getz and Jimmy Giuffre rub shoulders with Persian santur, Arab oud
and Turkish saz music.
Copies of Oriental Jazz languished in Miller's home for years after numerous failed bids for record contracts, before finally ending up in the hands of
record collectors decades later. After its release however, he would find a second life after returning to Iran, doing field recordings, and eventually
hosting a weekly television show that programmed both American jazz and the best traditional Persian musicians he could find. It was not to last
however, as he abruptly abandoned the country to return to the US in the late 1970s, predicting the arrival of the Islamic Revolution.

On their latest album, Laughing Bastards prove they are a quintessential Belgian band - soaking up sounds and influences from all over the place while maintaining a tight unity - with an international appeal.Combining jazz and chamber music with ideas from pop music and multi-colored strains does not only give their music an iridescent edge, but also keeps the interplay fresh and inspired, something to return to while waiting to see them live on stage.

Ever since their auspicious beginnings, more than a decade ago, Laughing Bastards have giddily delighted in impurity. Initially a reeds-guitar-bass trio modeled after the classic Jimmy Giuffre 3, the band has remained truthful to its original spirit. Saxophone player Michel Mast and guitarist Jan-Sebastiaan Degeyter have remained its core, but the band went through several permutations, first welcoming Eline Duerinck (cello) and Marcos Della Rocha (for Unanimal in 2019) and solidifying its present-day line-up with bassist Cyrille Obermüller.

Bastards. It's kind of a rude word to throw around carelessly, but there has always been that element of being irregular, being too stubborn to comply with what is expected, that has set them apart. This is nowhere more evident than in the material contributed by Degeyter, who wrote more than half of the album's compositions. A talented illustrator and designer (he created a few of their striking album covers) as well as a versatile guitarist, Degeyter always manages to add a strong visual component to his material. In combination with his knack for pulling exotic influences into the band's overall sound, it leads to a playful, cinematic eccentricity.

"Tigraman" and "Black Spoon" are examples of this. Both are infused with an Ethiopian-tinged sound, but while the first one develops the catchy throbbing of a trance-like soul/rock tune, the second exudes the lush cadence of Golden Age Ethio jazz, the kind that gets under your skin with those sensual, irrepressible rhythms. They are a nice match with the increasing drama of the Slavic-tinged "Red Lemon", the slow, dreamy flow of the Jamaican dance hall-inspired "Sand", a strong feature for Duerinck, and "Dosi", that shows Obermüller's knack for propulsive melody.

The synesthete in Degeyter gets free reign in "Calliope", chamber jazz in which sweeping sax and cello are kept grounded by guitar, bass and drums. Mast's odd meter-song "Fetish" is another showcase for the band's effortless dancing and some gorgeous tenor schmooze. Della Rocha's "Turquoise" starts off in brooding, contemplative way and keeps simmering on a low, glowing fire. To top it off, there are a few covers that remind you of the band's origins. A new take on Giuffre's rootsy "The Train and the River" stresses their loose flexibility with an Americana style somewhat reminiscent of Charlie Haden, while Carla Bley's evergreen "Vashkar" gets a carefully constructed makeover to close out the album with grace.

On their latest album, Laughing Bastards prove they are a quintessential Belgian band - soaking up sounds and influences from all over the place while maintaining a tight unity - with an international appeal. Combining jazz and chamber music with ideas from pop music and multi-colored strains does not only give their music an iridescent edge, but also keeps the interplay fresh and inspired, something to return to while waiting to see them live on stage.

LP on coloured vinyl. Food for the lovers of Khruangbin, Menahan Street Band and other instrumental soul bands. Including members from Nordmann, Kosmo Sound and Robbing Millions.
SUWI, with its strong live reputation, renowned for skillfully engaging and connecting with its audience, unveils its third studio album. Food for the lovers of Khruangbin, Menahan Street Band and other instrumental soul bands. Including members from Nordmann, Kosmo Sound and Robbing Millions.

Playing for Oscar is the raw power of nature speaking to you, the romance of 'dying is realizing that you are alive.' It manifests itself with the physical experience that is groove and the serenity and simplicity that we already know from their previous albums. The addition of lyrics and singing provides the biggest change in their band sound.

Cyriel Vandenabeele, an avid reader and transcriber of film, series, and game music, provides the compositions. The magic of SUWI is complete when they, as a trio, with Mattias Geernaert on bass and Elias Devoldere on drums, surrender to the moment. On this album as well, this results in the spontaneous and sincere expression that is love. Think Jimi Hendrix, Herman Hesse and Mariokart64.

Misha Panfilov Sound Combo “En Route” is back by popular demand!

Don't judge a book by its cover. Judge a record by its cover.

And, perhaps, its title.

Cedar Walton's Mobius is as outrageously, disorientatingly brilliant as the stunning jacket design, featuring the legendary jazz pianist morphing into a mobius strip, set against a beautiful sky filled with cumulus clouds. A proper jazz-funk fusion slapfest, Mobius is a stellar electric set from - essentially - one *hell* of a SUPERBAND.

Yes, in addition to Walton's Fender Rhodes wizardry, Mobius is elevated by Ryo Kawasaki's stinging electric guitar, pristinely clear vocals by Adrienne Albert and Lani Groves, rootsy percussion by Ray Mantilla and Omar Clay, alto and baritone from Charles Davis, trumpet from Roy Burrowes, Gordon Edwards on bass and Frank Foster's tenor sax. Oh and did we mention STEVE GADD ON DRUMS?!?!

Gem after gem of looping, bliss-inducing gold, it's an incredibly revelatory album. It presents a thrilling synthesis of R&B, funk, blues and hard bop (with a hint of rock), all driven by an idiosyncratic electronic keyboard. Walton, a giant in the jazz world, got quite the workout every time he played, from piano to arp synthesizer to clarinet to electric piano to mini-moog and back again.

Mobius was Cedar Walton's debut for RCA in 1975. The versatile artist confirmed his abilities as a player, composer, interpreter and arranger with this stunning record, and his own bright compositions offered a springboard for the improvisations of the different soloists. Coltrane's "Blue Trane" is the first classic to be given the funkafied Mobius treatment, Ryo Kawasaki let loose all over neck-snapping Gadd-drum gold before the horns take a fiery turn and subsequently give way to Cedar's virtuosity. A sparkling b-boy break version of Thelonious Monk's "Off Minor" (featuring an absolutely *fire* solo from Walton) really sets proceedings alight. Of the three original pieces, the shuffling, percussive power of "Soho" is just absolutely mind bending Latin-influenced jazzy soul whilst the mellow vibes of "The Maestro" bring elegant, sumptuous soul. And then there's the effortlessly funky "Road Island Red". Just too, too good.

Cedar Walton was born in Dallas, Texas, on January 17, 1934 and began his professional career in 1959 when he began touring for several years with the J.J. Johnson Quintet. He later joined the Art Farmer-Benny Golson Jazztet and then Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Pretty solid credentials, right? While based in New York City, Cedar played with such luminaries as Donald Byrd, Eddie Harris, Blue Mitchell, Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Heath and Milt Jackson. Without question, he was one of the most complete and gifted musicians of his time and Mobius provides proof of that. The fresh, danceable tracks, all firmly rooted in the living tradition of blues and gospel, are skilfully presented by a master who enjoyed keeping abreast of contemporary tastes and was always keen to renew his language.

As the album notes state: “Mobius, which is the theoretical shape of the infinite universe, makes use of the most modern recording techniques and synthesizers. We mastered and mixed so that it’s hotter than the competition, which should help radio play and in-store demonstration.” Indeed. Mobius is really gorgeous mid-70s fusion, ranging from the funky to the ecstatic. It's an absolute MONSTER that will completely blow you away; and, yes, it's as wild and hypnotic as the cover. The audio for Mobius has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring it sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

First time vinyl issue of a killer, impossibly rare document from NYC no wave pioneers Don King, the short-lived mid-'80s post-Mars band from Mark Cunningham, featuring Arto and Duncan Lindsay, Lucy Hamilton and John Erskine in their all-star lineup, on a hyper-sensual and humid, screwed Jazz tip.

Centred around two members of Mars - Lucy Hamilton and Mark Cunningham - renowned for featuring on Brian Eno’s legendary ‘No New York’ (1978) survey, as well as affiliates of Sonic Youth and Swans; Don King were a lesser known vehicle for the no wave rogues to follow their nose into the weirdo recesses of art-rock/free jazz that followed the rudimentary, DIY tenets of the original no wavers. The skronk quota is high on this one, but their performances are so much more sensual, humid and slower than the no wave bracket would suggest, revealing the band like some loose echo of Sun Ra or a spangled Arthur Russell jam with Peter Zummo in their performances surrendered from shows in Geneva, Lausanne, Toulouse, Barcelona, Padova and Parma, and first issued by Barcelona’s 4 Sellos label in 1987, in the years after their s/t debut and a 1985 single for Cabaret Voltaire’s Double Vision label.

The 10 pieces, room recorded in all locations, are replete with audience chatter in the air hovering through a brassy rabble in operation. Led by the twin trumpet and bass clarinet bleat of Mars’ Mark Cunningham and Lucy Hamilton, Sonic Youth producer John Erskine provides taped percussion tracks with backing from the Lindsays, and Toni Nogueira, as they roll out from the minimalist reps of ‘Fern Gully’ to a sonorous industrial tango, and Hamilton’s operatic wail on ‘Obsolescence’, taking in a skew of jazz standard ’Summertime’, fraying into proper no wave shred and racket on ‘Mediterrain’, and like a punk Sun Ra in ‘Don Rey’, reminding us of Alex Zhang Hungtai’s recent foray into voice-note recorded spiritual, concrète jazz.