DIAZ, FELIPE The Latin Jazz Quintet (Palladium) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The title of the album is a bit of a misnomer, being that there are six people in this group, or maybe it's that leader Felipe Diaz forgot to count himself in. Who knows. though there's no recording date, by the sound of it, I'd guess it was recorded in the sixties. Diaz leads his group on vibes and, whether he was first or not, sounds just like Cal Tjader. But the weirdest thing about this album is that it features jazz head Eric Dolphy filling out the wind section with flute, clarinet, and alto sax.

DICTAPHONE M.=Addiction (City Center Offices) cd 14.98

DIKEMAN, JOHN A Combination Of Events (aRCHIVE) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the same label that released the amazing and now out of print live Growing cd, as well as exclusive, limited and long gone releases from Sunn 0))), Boris, and the mighty Keiji Haino. This most recent release comes from free jazz saxophonist John Dikeman. Four extended pieces. The first, a pecussion / sax duo, a beautiful moody, skronky romp, the final two tracks, extended jams with Dikeman and full quartet, wild and spastic, lots of chaotic drumming, splattery percussion and free jazz skronk. Our favorite though has to be the second track, a solo sax / harmonica piece for modern dance (the picture on the front of the sleeve shows dancer Zack Fuller all ablur along side Dikeman and his sax), the harmonica wheezes out extended drones, the sax careening through ear piercing high ends, moaning out rumbling bleating lowend, thw whole thing desnse with the big empty room reverb. Quite nice! Packaged in a gorgeous full color oversized sleeve.
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"

DILL, STEFAN TRIO Run For Heaven (Transparency) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
New Mexico-based guitarist Stefan Dill has spent the better part of the last decade concentrating solely on solo acoustic flamenco guitar, and so recently felt the need to play some loud electric guitar again (presumably a return to his teenage roots?). With bassist Dave Nielsen and drummer Dave Wayne (who, from the cd booklet/tray photos, both look pretty much identical to Stefan himself -- it really appears from the photos that they're all the same guy!) he formed this jazz fusion trio to crank it up and rock out. Loud, burning, skronky stuff (although, they do calm down at times and indulge in some more restrained, quiet passages). It's all very beautiful if you're into this sort of thing, definitely for fans of Mahavishnu John McLaughlin and Nels Cline!! Cool.
RealAudio clip: "Wrath Of God"

DIRECTIONS IN MUSIC s/t (Thrill Jockey) lp 16.98

DOLPHY, ERIC Out To Lunch (Blue Note) cd 11.98

DOLPHY, ERIC Out To Lunch (Blue Note) cd 12.98

MPEG Stream: "Hat And Beard"
MPEG Stream: "Something Sweet, Something Tender"

DOLPHY, ERIC Out To Lunch (Blue Note) lp 12.98

DOLPHY, ERIC WITH HERBIE HANCOCK Gaslight 1962 (Get Back) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Miss Ann"
MPEG Stream: "Left Alone"

DOLPHY, ERIC WITH HERBIE HANCOCK Gaslight 1962 (Get Back) lp 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Miss Ann"
MPEG Stream: "Left Alone"

DONEDA, MICHEL / BENAT ACHIARY / KAZUE SAWAI Temps Couche (Victo) cd 14.98

DORGON + LAURA CROMWELL Mar (Jumbo) cd 12.98

DORGON + LAURA CROMWELL Upsidedowncross (Jumbo) cd 12.98

DOROUGH, BOB Devil May Care (Bethlehem) cd 11.98
Cult jazz pianist turned vocalist whose style jazz critic Leonard Feather deemed, "curious, nervous and attractive." This collection features a mix of Tin Pan Alley tunes, jazz standards, and originals. Reissue of the 1956 classic.

DOUGLAS, DAVE A Thousand Evenings (RCA) cd 15.98

DOUGLAS, DAVE Five (Soul Note) cd 15.98
Hard-to-find Italian import of this trumpeter recently heard with John Zorn's Masada. Mark Feldman on violin, plus Erik Friedlander on cello, Drew Gress and Michael Sarin. Excellent.

DOUGLAS, DAVE Moving Portrait (DIW) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

DOUGLAS, DAVE Stargazer (Arabesque Recordings) cd 15.98
"Music by and for Wayne Shorter" featuring John Zorn's Masada members trumpeter Douglas and drummer Joey Baron, along with Chris Speed, Joshua Roseman, Uri Caine, and James Genus.

DOUGLAS, DAVE The Infinite (RCA/Victor) cd 16.98
Masada's trumpeter teams up with some of Downtown NY's hardest working sidemen for six new original pieces and covers of Rufus Wainwright, Mary J. Blige and Bjork! Yeah! Feelin' it! The sssmooove sssoundsss of jazzzzzz!
RealAudio clip: "Unison (Bjork)"

DOWNES OPEN MUSIC, BOB Episodes at 4 A.M. (Paradigm Discs) cd 18.00

DOYLE, ARTHUR & SUNNY MURRAY Dawn Of A New Vibration (Fractal) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two "outside" jazz legends in a duo together: Arthur Doyle on tenor saxophone, flute & vocals; Sunny Murray on drums. Studio recording made March, 8, 2000. Vibrate.

DOYLE, ARTHUR & SUNNY MURRAY Live at Glenn Miller Cafe (Ayler) cd 15.98
Arthur Doyle has had a fascinating career, winding through bebop, the New York ESP free jazz scene of the sixties, and No Wave when he played with the Blue Humans around 1980. He released an acclaimed album of Ayler influenced free jazz in 1978 when such music was far out of fashion in US jazz cirlces, then spent years in prison in Paris on false charges where he composed hundreds of songs anyway, and ended up making lo-fi bedroom recordings in Endicott, NY (hey, just like the much-maligned by everyone at AQ but me experimental pop weirdo Gary Wilson!). In his multi-decade career, characterized by under-recognition, he has played with everyone from Sun Ra and Pharaoh Sanders to Keiji Haino and Thurston Moore. Throughout, he has honed his uniquely raw tenor sax, flute and vocal stylings. This recording is from his 2000 European tour with drum legend Sunny Murray. Consisting of primarily just Murray and Doyle, with a bit of help from Swede Bengt Frippe Nordstrom on alto, the amount of racket conjured is pretty amazing. Just as the textures available from only sax and drums start to become repetitive and uninteresting, Doyle livens things up with simultaneous flute and vocals, at points interjecting emotive guttural vocalisations on their own. Murray starts fast and furious, but becomes more spare and textural as Doyle's intricate flute and vocal manipulations take center stage. This sounds like it would have been awesome to witness live, and it ain't half bad on record either. Another step toward deserved wider recognition for the highly interesting Arthur Doyle, although not one that challenges 1978's "Alabama Feeling" in the consensus of his best recordings.
RealAudio clip: "Spontaneous Creation Part 2"
RealAudio clip: "Spontaneous Creation Part 3"

DRESCH QUARTET Riding The Wind (November) cd 16.98

DRESSER, MARK Marinade (Tzadik) cd 16.98

DRESSER, MARK, FRED FRITH AND IKUE MORI Later ... (Victo) cd 15.98
Recorded at the Great American Music Hall in 1994, this monster improv trio amble, tweak and scrape through nine pieces of downtown avant jazz.

DRUM CIRCUS Magic Theatre (Garden of Delights) cd 21.00
Here's a pretty cool, jazz-damaged, percussion-heavy Krautrock obscurity that we just got hip to, thanks to this recent cd reissue on Garden Of Delights. As you might expect from something called Drum Circus from 1971, this has a definite hippy attitude, full of Om-drones and space-jazz piano and cosmic Eastern raga moves. It's a bit like Alice Coltrane meets Lothar And The Hand People meets early (pre-robotic) Kraftwerk. On the 21+ minute title track you'll groove to martial drums, unison chanting of mystical slogans, ominous organs...what's not to like? I mean, this has got both free-jazz freakouts and ranting incantations -- with lotsa lyrics by none other than Timothy Leary! And Drum Circus then get into some '70s Miles Davis styled funk on the aptly titled "Groove Rock". There's even some nice melodic elements too -- Andee thinks the male singer on "All Things" sounds like Roger Daltrey. But overall though, this will probably appeal more to say, folks partial to recent Boredoms output than to fans of The Who...
MPEG Stream: "Magic Theatre"
MPEG Stream: "Now It Hurts You"

DRYER / HEULE / LINDSAY Idea Of West (Creative Sources) cd 13.98
When we first got this record in, we thought we had it totally figured out. Just take a look at the lineup: Tony Dryer, an accomplished double bassist and former touring member of the Flying Luttenbachers, Jacob Lindsay, local clarinet free-jazz virtuoso, and last but not least, Jacob Heule, a member of SF's only acoustic free/death/grind duo Ettrick! So naturally we figured this record would be a chaotic frenzy of fierce free jazzy madness. And while it is definitely loosely composed and rather abstract, the trio delve into some unexpected territory here. We checked out Heule's website and he describes the Idea of West as an album of "quiet and static acoustic musical territories explored through the pragmatic application of compositional and improvisational structures". Damn, and we thought we had this one figured out!
"In Order to Reroute the Wind" starts things off on a rather minimal note. Rickety scratching and scraping that sound like creaking boats swaying in a harbor of sizzling electric waste. Quiet industrial, barely there type of sound meanderings, a reserved and delicate sound for these ferocious free jazz contemporaries. On first listen, the jazz aesthetic of Idea of West is a bit hidden underneath a more ambient guise. Don't get us wrong, this sounds more like a jazz collaboration than a drone/ambient record, but it defiantly lacks the smack you in the face ferocity of other releases put out by these dudes. But that doesn't mean Idea of the West isn't an awesome piece of work in its own right. On the contrary, the trio confidently evolve Idea of West into a beautifully arranged aural invitation into a strange world of alchemic precision and skilled musicianship. Like a sorcerer who meticulously adds ingredients to a potion, paying careful attention to every detail in hopes of casting the perfect spell, these dudes play with close attention to detail. The record builds up and dissipates as the trio feed off each other's playing, letting chance determination sculpt their meditations into a hauntingly beautiful sonic narrative. Perfect for those of you aQ-addicts open to the weirder, more mystical side of free jazz!! And most certainly recommended by us!
MPEG Stream: "Before There Was Mass"
MPEG Stream: "Light From Another Light"
MPEG Stream: "Meant And Memory"

DUNN, TREVOR TRIO-CONVULSANT Sister Phantom Owl Fish (Ipecac) cd 17.98
The former Bungle and current Fantomas bassist unleashes the second album of spazz-jazz from his Trio-Convulsant (following up one from long ago that we can't get anymore). Ranging from hard (almost metallic) to soft (cocktails, anyone?), and generally pretty high on the notes-played-per-unit-of-time count. Complex compositions and loose improv coexist here, and the playing is at a very high level, from Dunn as well as his cohorts Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Ches Smith (drums). If you have Zorn, Cline, Ribot, that sort of stuff in yr "jazz" collection, you'll find that the Trio-Convulsant fits in there quite nicely too.
MPEG Stream: "Liver-colored Dew"
MPEG Stream: "The Single Petal Of A Rose"

DUNN, TREVOR'S TRIO-CONVULSANT Debutantes & Centipedes (BUZZ-Records) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn, with Adam Levy on guitar and Kenny Wollesen on drums make up the Trio-Convulsant.

EAST NEW YORK ENSEMBLE DE MUSIC At The Helm (Ikef) cd 14.98
"Bilal Abdurahman's East New York Ensemble de Music emerged out of the fertile, cross-fertilizing community of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, where African, West Indian & black American cultures converged. This rare 1974 disc, originally issued on Folkways, is back in print for the first time in nearly 30 years and what a gem it is! At The Helm is a gorgeously careening collection of indo-jazz that draws heavily on the near and far eastern sounds of Turkey, Korea, North Africa, India and China and threads them into a distinctively forceful Black Jazz idiom. In his lifetime, Bilal had always referred to this meld as a kind of 'Black Magical Music' and the tight, energetic compositions on this unsung masterpiece only supports the elevated, otherworldly claims. Take one listen to their rendition of Freddie Hubbard's beautiful 13 minute epic, 'Sun Flower', and you'll hear why this is a must for fans of rare groove & spiritual black jazz."

EAST NEW YORK ENSEMBLE DE MUSIC At The Helm (Smithsonian Folkways) lp 16.98

EAST NEW YORK ENSEMBLE DE MUSIC At The Helm (Smithsonian Folkways) lp 16.98

EHLERS, EKKEHARD Plays Albert Ayler (Staubgold) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The second solo recording from the former Autopoeses member, in which Ehlers samples fragments of Albert Ayler. However, it is debatable as to how much Ayler is actually present on this recording, musically. Consisting entirely of digitally altered cello recordings, these two sidelong pieces gently swell, teeter and expand, forming beautiful, haunting drones that lie beneath digital snippets of arhythmic ephemera. Like Stephan Mathieu, whom Ekkehard has collaborated with on this year's "Heroin" cd, Ehlers simply restructures a mundane cello recording into a wonderfully reticular songpoem. Very highly recommended.

EICHSTAEDT, BJOERN House Of Horror... 7" 2.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Volume 1 in 7" series of duos featuring German experimental/improv musician (and Italian suspense film fan) Eichstaedt. Side one, "House Of Horror" features Bjoern on keys and samples and Thomas Maos on guitar, creating an appropriately spooky soundscape to go along with the title. Side two, "Samuel Chillian vs. Batman (And His Mad Dogs From Transsylvania)" continues the fun with conspirator Leoon Gruenbaum.

EIGHTY MILE BEACH Inclement Weather (Om) cd 13.98
One of the many diverse branches of Ms Beth Custer's formidable creative tree. This one takes her into a melting pot of electronics, dance and jazz.

EKSWYZIA Live @ Phthalo (Phthalo) cd-r 12.98
Similar in intent to Squarepusher, Ekswyzia is dedicated to fusing the expressiveness of jazz within electronica programming. While Squarepusher definitely embraces a grooviness from jazz, Ekswysia takes the freeform jazz approach with a frenzy of squelchy synthetic screeches and sampled cymbals, snares, and toms clattering away with a frenzied often irregular pace. Challenging to say the least.

EL-P High Water (Thirsty Ear) cd 15.98
Latest in Thirsty Ear's Blue series, discs where jazz players are matched up with non-jazz performers (electronic, hip hop, etc.) for some cross genre explorations. The results have been mosly great, with past participants including the Antipop Consortium and Spring Heel Jack. This long awaited volume matches up the usual jazz suspects: Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Daniel Carter, Guillermo Brown, and Steve Swell with Definitive Jux head honcho El-P. Thankfully El-P shows an amazing amount of restraint here, and instead of dropping beats everywhere, and scratching and rapping all over the place, he lets the band just go. And in fact, the band goes in all sorts of new directions, some seriously dark and gritty, like on the opening track turning their avant bop into a creepy crawly cinematic jazzscape of pounding piano, wailing horns and slamming propulsive drumming. Sounds like the darkest scariest sample Shadow never dug out of a musty old crate. And things continue on in that vein, dark and boppish soundscapes, and it's not really until the end of track five where El-P makes his presence known, subtley, with a shuffling hip hop beat over muted trumpet and simple piano chords. For the second half of the record, El-P adds more and more beats, nothing bombastic or booming, just simple and groovy, totally complimenting the groups jazzy explorations. Track seven features some raspy jazz vocals over a creeping, minor key dirge, that is so intensely dark and moving. Once again, DJ Shadow would kill to come up with a track like this. So while there are beats and occasional hip-hop-isms, this is basically at heart a jazz record, albeit a dark and funky and creepy one. Maybe the best in the series so far!
MPEG Stream: "Get Your Hand Off My Shoulder, Pig"
MPEG Stream: "Intrigue In The House Of India"

ELECTRIC MASADA At The Mountains of Madness (Tzadik) 2cd 23.00

ELECTRIC MASADA John Zorn's 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 4 (Tzadik) cd 16.98
Wow, when John Zorn turns 50 he really makes a big deal about it. Umpteen concerts and commorative compact disc releases. Oh well, you're only 50 once (if you're lucky enough to make it that far). And I guess Zorn doesn't want anyone to think he's gonna be slowing down with age. So here's another one of Zorn's birthday presents to us. Seven tracks performed live at NYC's Tonic by Electric Masada -- an electric (natch) octet edition of Zorn's famed 'Jewish jazz' outfit, fully amped up with Marc Ribot's guitar, Ikue Mori's laptop electronics, Trevor Dunn's bass, Jamie Saft's keyboards, both Joey Baron and Kenny Wollesen's drums *and* Cyro Baptista's percussion. Plus of course the birthday boy himself on sax. Sounds like they'd be capable of making a lot of noise? Damn right. The obi suggests this possesses the energy of Zorn's Naked City and the mayhem of one of his Cobra projects, unleashed on the Masada songbook...and the obi could be right. Although this has its moments of delicate beauty, it's the hard rock shocks this delievers that might make it a must buy for old Zorn fans who'd like to hear a (50 year) old Zorn & co. kick some ass...
MPEG Stream: "Tekufah"
MPEG Stream: "Idalah-Abal"

ELLINGTON, DUKE AND HIS ORCHESTRA Jubilee Stomp (Monk) lp 21.00
Legendary composer Duke Ellington gets the deluxe Monk Records treatment here, bringing together 17 songs recorded in 1927 and 1928, right as his success was really beginning to take off thanks to a lucrative contract with agent Irving Mills. Ellington was an incredibly prolific songwriter and served as the perfect example of a big band leader. He also helped bring his art to the attention of white Americans, leading to unprecedented fame and elevating jazz music to a level of respectability that could not be ignored within America or the rest of the world. This record captures Duke and his Orchestra performing a variety of mostly Ellington penned tunes, with a couple of other numbers as well. Listening to this stuff is exciting, as one really gets the sense of a distinctly American artist creating and drawing on a distinctly American style of art, while also demonstrating how important the contributions of African-Americans were in establishing this new identity. Another winner from Monk!

EMERGENCY Homage To Peace (America) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. For some reason these are incredibly limited, so these have been a bit tough to get, so we're going to list a few at a time as we can get them.
Emergency were a mysterious and unlikely group, even by the always seemingly esoteric standards of the world of free jazz, two African-Americans, two Japanese and one French gypsy. The most well known of the lot, Glenn Spearman, a protege of legendary ESP free jazz saxophonist Frank Wright, handled the soprano and tenor saxophones, while the group was rounded out by some lesser known, but incredibly skilled players who had done time with Peter Brotzman, Derek Bailey, Misha Mengelberg, Steve Lacy and Cecil Taylor among others: Takshi Kako on piano, Bob Reid on double bass, Sabu Toyozumi on drums, and guitar prodigy Boulou Ferret, who was only 21 when this session was recorded. The various members gravitated from their various homes toward Paris, the free jazz hub of the early seventies, and eventually found themselves jamming as Emergency. This performance, a live session from 1970, is a dense psychedelic jam, an acid rock free jazz fusion, swirls of abstract guitar, clattery shuffling tribal throb, flurries of piano sprinkled atop burbling slippery basslines, while horns soar and skronk and squeal above it all. Lots of tripped out guitar effects, occasional Art Ensemble-ish vocals, some stretches of doomy jazzy ambience, some super angular abstract freakouts, but it's ultimately Ferret's acid fired guitar that takes center stage, sometimes shrikeing and scraping, sending fiery strands of distorted wah into the stratosphere, sometimes, slow and smooth channelling a little Wes Montgomery, sometimes locked in heated battle, wildly butting heads with the other instruments, the musical equivelent to one of those cartoon clouds when a bunch of people are in a fight, a big wirling cloud of notes and rhythms, a horn poking out here, a drum stick there, just spinning wild and chaotic. So great.
Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet with the original album sleeve notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "People In Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Infidels"

ENGKILDE, AUGUST Police Beat Box (Cheap) cd 17.98
Cheap is a Viennese label that seems to have gotten sort of wacky evidenced by the electron purity of Robert Hood and Sil Electronics, and now August Engkilde's "Police Beat Box" extends Cheap's propensity for silliness, with this computer-manipulated mix of the brassy jazz laden rock of Engkilde's band Inner Urge and a Bollywood gangster movie.

ENSEMBLE MODERN / FRED FRITH Traffic Continues (Winter & Winter) cd 15.98
Avant guitar great Fred Frith, along with Ikue Mori (drum machines) and Zeena Parkins (harp), join one of Germany's premier new music ensembles (the aptly named Ensemble Modern) for what sounds amazingly like, if you can imagine, Aaron Copland at the Knitting Factory. A downtown NYC jazz take on 20th century classical, verging into Carl Stalling cartoon-music territory at moments. Not silly-sounding though, rather it's beautiful, pastoral and grand. Really great. On Winter & Winter, with their distinctive packaging. Dedicated in part to the memory of cellist Tom Cora.

ET CETERA s/t (Long Hair) cd 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
1971 strikes again. Holy moly, the planets must have been extra-aligned that year. Here's a krautrock classic from '71 that kinda fell through the cracks (though not the cracks in the cosmic egg). Well, it's certainly been lauded by some but we'd never heard it before now, anyway. In fact, this is its first time on cd, apparently, and we're glad to have it! Wild stuff here, a trip indeed, starting off with a serious dose of crazed, freakout action for synth and drums entitled "Thursday Morning Sunrise". Seriously psychedelic jamming jazz weirdness, like Sun Ra gone heavy. The synth squiggles and squeaks, growls and grumbles, and drums tumble and splatter, for almost 12 minutes. Some sunrise! But if you think that this is gonna be an album of improvised, uh, "drug jazz" (which it is, in part), you'll be surprised by what's to come on this disc... lovely acoustic guitar melodies ("Mellodrama Nr. 2 A"), faux-Eastern bliss-out vibes ("Raga"), and spoken word beat poetry set amidst angelic vocal arrangements ("Lady Blue")... like we said, a trip! But then again, all this eclectic awesomeness - from moody jazz to ethnic groove to fuzzy acid rock instrumentals - isn't all that unexpected in a krautrock band, especially one featuring members of Embryo and Exmagma, as well as mastermind Wolfgang Dauner (of The Oimels fame). They deliver the goods with a great deal of groove and gusto, making music both beautiful and bizarre... it could be the soundtrack to some avantgarde psychedelic art film from the '70s, like a Jodorowsky epic. Despite the not-so-cheap import price, this is a recommended reissue, done right. Snazzy, colorful cover, remastered sound (from original masters), 3 lengthy & quite excellent bonus tracks, liner notes... the works!
MPEG Stream: "Thursday Morning Sunrise"
MPEG Stream: "Lady Blue"
MPEG Stream: "Tau Ceti"

ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE 21st Century Union March (Silkheart) cd 16.98

ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE Ka-Real (Silkheart) cd 15.98
The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble's jazz builds complexity from simplicity, diversifies through repetition, transcends time by emphasizing it. Their laser-like ability to set the rhythm button on infinite repeat creates a hypnosis similar to the mind-buzz of classical minimalists like Steve Reich and Terry Riley.

ETTRIC Feaders Of Ravens (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98

ETTRICK Infinite Horned Abomination (Heule) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On the same label as the more spaced out free-form black jazz ambience of Hodag (reviewed elsewhere on this list), Ettrick on the surface seems like they must be a way more metal proposition, the record's called Infinite Horned Abomination for chrissakes! And their logo is of the spiky illegible classic metal style, but in fact, this is way more of a sputtery skronky free jazz, with wild horns and chaotic bursts of sputtering drum splatter. Each half of this duo handles both sax and drums, each player safely ensconced in their own channel, sometimes it's two horns, sometimes it's horn and drums, sometimes all drums, a dizzying barrage coming scattershot from both the left and right channels, as if there were some sort of free jazz monkeys screaming and beating their chests wildly in each channel, pelting the listener with sonic stones and hurling great handfuls of free jazz dung! Intense and aggressive and furiously freaked out. You might think you're tough, jazz sissy, and we're happy to let you have a go, but this stuff is dangerous, and sharp, and sort of scary, so stand back and let the more highly decorated free jazz warriors step forward, unless you're feeling particularly brave today...
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! Each disc packaged in a cool hand screened cardboard sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Before The Semantic"
MPEG Stream: "Village Of Necromposition"

EVANS, BILL AND JIM HALL Undercurrent (Blue Note) cd 15.98

EVOLUTIONARY JASS BAND Change Of Scene (Community Library) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The strangely monickered Evolutionary Jass Band features two ex members of free noise abstract improvisors Jackie-O-Motherfucker, and while that pedigree definitely informs the sound of the EJB, their sound is much more aligned with traditional jazz, a mix of dark New Orleans funeral jazz and skittery post bop, but all sort of laid back and dreamy, dark and dolorous. Horns don't skronk so much as swoon and shimmer. Dark tones shift and slide, drifting thick and rich over dense tribal drumming, and simple slippery bass. There's even some sitar to add some droney buzz. The EJS are a pretty big ensemble, but it doesn't sound cluttery or crowded, each player contributes and deftly interacts with the rest of the group, but also knows when to let someone else step forward.
This will definitely hit the spot for modern jazz-heads, and might even appeal to the more traditionally inclined, but folks who dig the abstract clatter and free form drift of bands like JOMF, No Neck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand Of The Man and the like, might dig this too. It could be their gateway to a lifelong love of jazz, which is at least partially responsible for informing the new breed of improvised abstraction that is all the rage these days.
Great stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Aunt Dot"
MPEG Stream: "Change Of Scene"