“Previously released in 1980 on David Toop's Quartz label at a time when improvised music in London was settling into a long spell of excellence.
The players here are Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack, Terry Day, and David Toop. Terry had been a member of The People Band in the '60s, one of the groups forming part of the first wave of British improvisation. The rest of the group could be regarded as pioneers of a second generation of improvisers who emerged out of the explosion of musical development...

"Archive release. This debut release of Neil Ardley and his New Jazz Orchestra BBC broadcasts from 1971 measure a year of change for the band's musical director.
The first session captures the full majesty of the NJO at the height of it's powers in a Jazz Club session from February with a 20-performer line-up pre-recorded at London's Camden Theatre. Humphrey Lyttelton helms proceedings; musicians include Ardley, Harry Beckett, Ian Carr, Henry Lowther, Derek Wadsworth, Mike Gibbs, Don Rendell...

The Artchipel Orchestra, led by conductor / arranger Ferdinando Farao, is a Italian big band (over 20 participants) and Ferdinando is a big fan of the British jazz and jazz rock scene of the 70s, having previously covered tunes by Alan Gowen, Dave Stewart, Mike Westbrook & Fred Frith, among others.

Here, he's tackling the Soft Machine book, but even though the title is "Play Soft Machine", a more accurate title would be "Plays Hugh Hopper's Tunes For Soft Machine", as that's what this mostly is....

The Artchipel Orchestra, led by conductor / arranger Ferdinando Farao, is a Italian big band (with 25 participants on this album) and Ferdinando is a big fan of the British jazz and jazz rock scene of the 70s, having previously covered tunes by Hugh Hopper, Alan Gowen, Robert Wyatt, Dave Stewart, Mike Westbrook & Fred Frith, among others.
For this, their third album, he has chosen to highlight the compositions of the late Lindsay Cooper. They band perform:
1. Half The Sky (from "Western Culture").

"Born of a time when jazz musicians crossed in to the world of rock music, Atlantic Bridge was a quartet featuring Mike McNaught (piano, electric piano), Daryl Runswick (bass, bass guitar), Jim Philip (flute, soprano sax, tenor sax) & Mike Travis (drums). All four musicians were seasoned players on the London jazz circuit, but sought to expand their musical horizons.
Influenced by the experimentation of Miles Davis on his album Bitches Brew and by the work of British musicians such as Keith Tippett..

"A reissue of Derek Bailey's Lot 74, originally released by Incus in 1974. Recorded at a private house in West London, the side-long title track is a masterwork: a twenty-two-minute, starkly personal, freely expressive, itchily searching re-casting of orders of rhythm and sound into a new, quicksilver kind of affective and musical polyphony. Never mind the guitarist's championing of "non-idiomatic improvisation", the poet Peter Riley gets the ball rolling in his identification of the various hauntings...

This fine album, one of the few recorded examples of Muir's pure improvisational playing, has been out on vinyl before - in its original issue in 1981 - but not with this fantastic photo on the cover, which I had never seen before....

"A reissue of Jamie Muir and Derek Bailey's 1981 duo album, Dart Drug, originally released on Bailey's Incus label. Percussionist Jamie Muir was a member of King Crimson during the recording of Larks' Tongues In Aspic, in 1973. Staying less than a year with Robert..

Lucian Ban - piano
John Surman - baritone & soprano saxophones, bass clarinet
Mat Maneri - viola

This is everything you would want from an exploration of folk music melodies of Romania from these three distinctive players. Surman particularly sounds amazing here - like he was born to play this music!.

“Their mutual interest in the work of Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist Béla Bartók led to their new recording, Transylvanian Folk Songs, an assortment of arrangements

Django Bates is a Brit-jazz band leader, pianist and tenor horn player of great reknown in the UK. He founded Human Chain in 1979 and in the 1980s he rose to prominence in the big band Loose Tubes. He has performed as a member of Bill Bruford's Earthworks and in the bands of George Russell and George Gruntz.
For this release, he has revisited The Beatles 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', with rather great results, as long as you don't mind hearing a cultural icon get shaken up and remade...

Gordon Beck - piano
Jeff Clyne - bass
Tony Oxley - drums

"Pianist / composer Gordon Beck, one of the true forefathers of modern British and European Jazz, has been a source of inspiration and musical joy to Jazz connoisseurs since the 1960s. His formidable technique and more importantly overwhelming musicality are completely unique and unrivaled. This, his 4th recording as a leader, deserves a special notice for many reasons. Stylistically it is somewhat atypical to Beck’s usual output...

Gordon Beck (piano)
John McLaughlin (guitar)
Jeff Clyne (bass)
Tony Oxley (drums)
Joy Marshall (vocals)
This is very nice, lightly swinging jazz standards. John gets one solo. Don't buy this expecting Extrapolation or Bitches Brew, but still, LOOK AT THIS BAND!

"Gordon Beck, English jazz pianist and composer, broke onto the London scene in the early 1960s joining the Tubby Hayes group in 1962. Forming his own succession of groups from 1965 onwards. A subsequent 26 album car

A great set in the classic Ornette 4tet vein, mixed with a Brit-jazz feel! I dont know any of these players (Roberto-double bass, Claude Deppa-trumpet, Jason Yarde-alto & soprano sax & Brian Abrahams-drums), but all play fabulously well. [SLAM]

Dudu Pukwana – soprano & alto saxes
Chris McGregor – piano
Louis Moholo – drums

“On October 25th 1986 the world of jazz and improvised music lost one of its most original and creative musicians, when the bassist Johnny Mbizo Dyani died in Berlin. This album is dedicated to the man and his music by his South African brothers with whom he left South Africa as a member of the Blue Notes in 1964.
Recorded in London on 18 August 1987. The CD album is now available again, for the first tim

Dudu Pukwana – alto sax, whistle, percussion, vocals
Chris McGregor – piano, percussion
Johnny Dyani – bass, bell, vocals and most of the words
Louis Moholo – drums, percussion, vocals

“This music was recorded on 23rd December 1975 in a rehearsal room in London. It is the spontaneous tribute of four musicians who had assembled in London for the Memorial Service to their friend. No discussion took place beforehand and nothing was said during the session, save through the music....

Dudu Pukwana - alto saxophone
Chris McGregor - piano
Johnny Dyani - bass
Louis Moholo - drums

The entire band sounds great, but as the main solo voice, the concert is carried on the able shoulders of Dudu Pukwana. Typically distinctive Blue Notes performance!

“Recorded live at the 100 Club, London, on 16 April 1977 by Ron Barron. Some of this music was originally available on LP as OG 220 (Ogun, 1978) however this expanded CD edition has only ever been released as part

"He is an icon of the Rock world: the legendary song writer, bassist, pianist and singer Jack Bruce. In 2006 at the 37th German Jazz Festival Frankfurt, he joined forces with the hr-Bigband to perform a highly acclaimed concert, presenting classic Cream songs and other landmarks of his career in gripping new arrangements. It was a magic moment of dialogue between Jazz and Rock that roamed between composition, improvisation and vibrant, virtuoso performances. The hr-Bigband is one of the most innovative...

“When Bill Bruford emerged from Yes, his reputation as a drumming legend was firmly established. He then went on to refine and expand his individual technique and style with King Crimson. His solo career, while not as commercially successful as those bands, has also been impressive. His explorations with Allan Holdsworth continued to carry the fusion torch with dignity.
Never one to rest on his laurels, Bruford continued to search for different contexts in which to express his musical and percussive..

“A re-issue of British trumpeter and bandleader Ian Carr's iconic jazz-fusion-rock hybrid 'Belladonna' from 1972.
Originally released on the Vertigo label, complete with collectable 'swirl' record centre design, this sought-after jazz-rock-fusion rarity features some of the cream of the UK jazz musicians of the 70's. Comprised from groups such as Nucleus, Brian Auger's band, Soft Machine, Stan Tracy group, the players included Brian Smith (tenor and soprano saxophones, alto and bamboo flutes)...

Mark Charig: cornet, tenor horn
Keith Tippett: organ, zither, piano, voice, bell
Ann Winter: voice, bell

Much needed reissue of this rather obscure album which had some very quiet parts, which sounded terrible on the original...

Graham Collier: conductor
Harry Beckett: trumpet, flugelhorn
Ed Speight: guitar

The Swedish Radio Jazz Group:
Arne Domnérus: alto saxophone, clarinet
Claes Rosendahl: tenor and alto saxophone, flute
Lennart Åberg: tenor and soprano saxophone, flute
Erik Nilsson: baritone saxophone
Americo Bellotto: trumpet, flugel horn
Bertil Lövgren: trumpet, flugel horn
Jan Allan: trumpet, alto horn
Håkan Nyquist : trumpet, flugel horn, French horn

Graham Collier – double bass
Nick Evans – trombone
Harry Beckett – trumpet
Karl Jenkins – oboe, piano
Stan Suzlmann – alto and tenor sax
John Marshall – drums

This hits ALL the right Brit-jazz buttons of 1969! Hugely recommended!

“Previously unreleased recording of bassist/composer Graham Collier's seminal British jazz album 'Down Another Road' recorded live in 1969 at Stockholm's Jazz Day festival, his all-star sextet includes jazz heavyweights Harry Beckett, Stan..

Graham Collier is one of the best known and most important British jazz composers and over a 40 year career, his list of compositions and commissions has grown to encompass ensembles around the world. He is well-known as an author and educator, having

"Colosseum's 1969 debut album is a notably pioneering endeavor in its combination of British blues-rock with British jazz-rock, even if the writing and singing aren't as impressive as the confident playing. Graham Bond and some of the horn-augmented...

“Music recorded at London's ICA in July 1982. It's a miracle of group interaction, wonderfully paced, moving steadily between moments of mounting intensity and tension. The passage about halfway through -- when Derek Bailey's harmonics ring out above a sheen of inside piano tremolos and shimmering electronics, topped off by Julie Tippetts's soaring vocalese -- is simply sublime. After which it's fun to try and tell the two pianists apart. Are those runs Ursula Oppens, with her formidable technique honed...

This has been out of print for some years and completely unavailable on these shores. Well worth getting if you don't already have it.
A repressing of bassoonist/oboeist/saxist/composer Lindsay's first two solo albums. Lindsay first made her name in Henry Cow and was also greatly featured in News From Babel. Both of these were film scores.

"Consists of the whole of the LP previously issued as Re/arc and most of "The Golddiggers".
Featuring Lindsay Cooper, Sally Potter, Phil Minton...