Glad this is back in print and this still includes a bonus track; a never-before heard second version of "All White"!!

Another overlooked, very fine album from Soft Machine, but this time the reason why is obvious; Robert Wyatt bailed a few months before the making of 5, and as vocalist and exuberant drummer, he was the most obvious focal point for the public, even as the band became more and more experimental and less 'pop'.
This finds the band trying out new directions, first via the...

Roy Babbington-bass
John Etheridge-guitar
John Marshall-drums
Theo Travis-saxes, flute, Fender Rhodes

In 2018, Soft Machine released a very fine album called ‘Hidden Details’ and following that release, they toured the world in 2018 and 2019.
Anyone who went to see them were treated to an excellent set of jazz/rock of old and new tunes, played with tremendous fire and drive and extremely well received.
This excellent (and excellently recorded) live album was recorded in Lo

Soft Machine were one of the greatest UK avant/jazz-rock bands of all time and their work, whether their earliest performances as a psychedelic band, who were contemporaries of, and shared stages with Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, all the way to being one of Europe's best known 'fusion' bands, their work continues to be name-checked by today's hip experimentalists.

By mid 1973, Soft Machine had gone through a tremendous amount of personnel turnover and a...

A very good album from 'way back when' with a fairly incredible story! I had never seen or heard it before now, although I knew its legend...!
Chris Spedding Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Roger Potter Bass, Double Bass
John Marshall Drums
John Mitchell Piano, Electric Piano
Paul Rutherford Trombone

"Between 1969 and 1972, Chris Spedding was a rock guitarist whose unique sound, style and musical literacy meant regular employment on the exploding British progressive jazz.

"Electronic duo Spring Heel Jack return with a collaboration with the legendary American trumpeter and Pulitzer Prize nominee Wadada Leo Smith. Wadada was born in the Mississippi Delta and became immersed in the music of the great blues masters as a young musician. He then moved to Chicago and became an early member of the AACM alongside the likes of Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, Malachi Favors and Roscoe Mitchell. Recorded 2017 in London, this LP sees Smith's authoritative trumpet joined by...

This reissues the three albums originally released by Ogun documenting a 1977 session (The Longest Night volumes one and two) and a 1993 session (Corner to Corner) by one of the founders of non-idiomatic free improvisation and one of his longest...

Here's a tiny label release of John Surman and John Warren composing and arranging for this band of Norwegian players. Fact you didn't know: legendary ECM engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug is a guitarist as well as an engineer and he appears here, as part of...

"Talinka - such an evocative name - wittily appropriate for this intimate set so sensitively arranged around Tali's straight from the heart, true and soulful voice. Since hearing Ms. Atzmon's discrete contributions to records by Gilad Atzmon and friends I've long wished she would make a record revealing her own deeply personal approach to music, and here, at last, is that record."-Robert Wyatt

John Taylor-Piano
Chris Lawrence-Bass
Tony Levin-Drums

A very nice, rather hip piano trio session from three Brit-jazz masters from MPS. It was recorded in 1972 and 1973 and released in 1973. This was John's second album, after the fantastic "Pause And Think Again".
There was one previous CD version, only in Japan, in 2006 but this is the first time it's ever been reissued on vinyl!

Paul Dunmall tenor & soprano saxes, James Gardiner-Bateman alto sax, Peter Fairclough drums, Kevin Figes alto & baritones saxes, Thad Kelly double bass, Ben Waghorn tenor sax, bass clarinet, Julie Tippetts voice, seed pods, Balinese xylophone, toy...

“The Unlonely Raindancer is undoubtedly a beginning, it is also an enigma. More than its means. The seminal first solo album by Keith Tippett released by Universal Productions in 1980 is a live recording from the previous year’s short tour of the Netherlands. The audience applause was edited out, leaving the listener with the intensity of one lone musician literally improvising into composition.
The word ‘unlonely’ could be described as uneven grammatically, but given nuance by juxtaposing the....

This is a hand-numbered, hand-packaged, limited edition of 500 copies!

“Another true masterpiece. A Mid Autumn Night's Dream faithfully report a one-shot concert that took place at Conservatorio Nicolini in Piacenza on October 1st, 2016. The four giants of new music never played together before: Keith Tippett, Julie Tippetts, Lino Capra Vaccina, and Paolo Tofani. As the lights turned off something magic started. A spontaneous interplay, an amazing flowing of notes. The subject was the night...

Recorded live at Ruvo Di Puglia, Italy on September 5, 2004, this exuberant live recording features Keith Tippett conducting and playing piano, Julie Tippetts (vocals), Louis Moholo-Moholo (drums) with Canto General, a 23 piece big band performing...

"In mid-October, 1969, I left the UK to meet up with bassist Barre Phillips and drummer Stu Martin to begin working with them as "The Trio".-John Surman (notes to “Way Back When”)
This was the band that Surman joined in the fall of 1969 that led to him becoming an early Brit-jazz expatriate for about 3 years but that also led to him becoming internationally known, especially on the European continent.
Their first release was a pretty powerful blast then as it still is today.
Due to his...

The roots of 'Brit-jazz' are right here. Conditionally recommended!

"First released in May 1961 as a (slightly premature) 10th Anniversary celebration of the famous Soho jazz venue. Founded in 1952, the Flamingo in Wardour Street played host to..

Composer John Warren is one of the greatest yet completely unheralded, Brit-jazz composers! Anything from him is a treat!

"A previously unrecorded suite of compositions by JOHN WARREN, recorded live by the JOHN SURMAN led BRASS PROJECT.
In the early 1980s John Surman and John Warren realized a long-held ambition and formed the Brass Project. The ensemble was conceived as a brass led group focusing on new compositions from Surman and Warren. The large group ‘had to survive without grant or...

Music by Mike Westbrook
Lyrics and singing by Kate Westbrook
Accordion by Kate Street
This is a very stripped down recording by a great, theatrical singer with well-placed, simple accompaniment.

“Kate is a fine writer and performer, with a brilliant approach to text.
The life of choreographer Bronislava Nijinska provides the inspiration for Kate's most recent piece, a collaboration with composer Mike Westbrook and accordionist Karen Street.
It's a moving piece, and Kate's

This is a wonderful find; the original album by Westbrook was released in 1975 by RCA and is a richly orchestrated jazz/rock work filled with the big names of the mid 70s Brit-jazz world.
But here is what I did not know:

“The debut performance of esteemed pianist/composer Mike Westbrook's cult 70s jazz masterpiece 'Citadel/Room 315', recorded live in 1974. Featured soloists throughout the album are the iconic ECM recording artist John Surman plus a crack team of top Scandi jazzers....

This album is rooted in the personal. Mike Westbrooks enduring creative partnership with his wife, the singer, lyricist and painter Kate Westbrook is represented by two songs they wrote together. Starcross is a rail station nearby the Westbrook home in Devon, near Plymouth where his creative life began all those years ago. His title track is dedicated to the tenor saxophonist Lou Gare, whose death in 2017 was a particular wrench. Starcross Bridge is an intricately woven network of musical and personal...