Dear friends:  Many apologies for the quite sudden and near-complete hiatus / blackout we entered into last fall, and for the delay in providing this statement. Many factors changed at once, and all in the context of the ongoing music business struggle with sales, especially physical goods, cds and LPs. If you are looking for product you might try the artists themselves. We will make some items available again in the possibly-near future, either on our website or in online forums such as Discogs or eBay. We’ll provide more info. Thank you for many years of love and for your current patience and understanding.

Out now...  in these times of all times: Mike Reed's Flesh & Bone. A life-threatening encounter with a neo-Nazi rally in the Czech Republic became a life-changing moment and unerasable memory, and in the years following, Reed and his band mates shaped thoughts and words into music. The core of the group is Reed's well-known People Places and Things, with additional Chicago support. "Flesh & Bone shines its light through a fog of bewilderment and outrage — moving from Mingus-esque miniature arrangements to open-air improvisations to the occasional splash of spoken-word poetry." (The New York Times)

Available today is a beautiful new LP from Israeli singer Ayelet Rose Gottlieb.

“Shiv’a was composed following the death of three dear friends in 2007…” writes Ayelet Rose Gottlieb in the liner notes, “… while I was living between three cities - Wellington, New Zealand and its wild birds and great ocean; New York, USA, with its fast pulse, close friends, loud sounds and crammed streets; and Jerusalem, Israel, where my ancestors’ wisdom resides, where the stones hum, where my soul stems from. In the process of dealing with this chain of losses, with my feet off the ground and the earth moving under me, music served, as always, as my anchor… This piece was the pipe through which it moved.“

Shiv’a is composed for string quartet and percussion, exploring the process of mourning. Inspired by Jewish and Buddhist traditions, the piece is performed by a stellar group of improvising musicians: the renowned string quartet known as ETHEL and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi.

“This project is different than my other music,” explains Gottlieb. “Usually I am a vocalist, but Shiv’a is mainly instrumental, composed for a string quartet and percussion.
“My music is a combination of styles: jazz, Arabic and world music, and poetry. All come into the sounds I create.”

Gottlieb is a founding member of John Zorn’s a cappella group Mycale, and has toured and performed with pianist Anat Fort for over ten years. Since moving to Canada in 2012, Ayelet has collaborated with some of Vancouver’s leading improvisational musicians, including guitarist Aram Bajakian and clarinetist Francois Houle.

Shiv’a is released as a limited edition vinyl LP with a digital download that includes a bonus track. Original artwork courtesy Noa Charuvi.


Thanks as always for your support!
 

A few quick updates to close out the year…

* About those vinyl releases we promised for this past fall… sometimes it takes a while to get these things right:

Shiv’a, from Ayelet Rose Gottleib (who just added a new member to her family, congratulations!), will now see release on February 5, 2016.

Tyshawn Sorey’s Koan will indeed appear on vinyl, as promised…  but we’ve yet to get the perfection we’re hoping for in the test pressings. Hopefully there will be news - maybe a finished record! -  by spring.

* If you haven’t yet heard the last two releases of 2015, here is what some people thought:

Mike Reed’s People Places and Things:  A New Kind of Dance

"...the earthy, driving intelligence of Mr. Reed and his crew points back to Chicago jazz culture, which sees no contradiction in heady abstraction with a bodily groove." - Nate Chinen, The New York Times  

-NPR Music's Favorite Songs Of 2015 ("A New Kind of Dance”)
-2015 NPR Jazz Critics Poll
-Best of 2015: must-hear jazz albums - Chris Barton, The Los Angeles Times
-Top 10 Jazz / Improv 2015 - Bill Meyer, Magnet
-10 Fantastic Jazz Albums 2015 - Jim Macnie, Lament for Straight Line
-The Best Jazz Of 2015 - Stewart Smith, The Quietus
-Best jazz albums of 2015 - Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
-Best of 2015 - Dave Sumner, Bird is the Worm
-Best jazz albums of 2015 - iTunes

Nicole Mitchell / Tomeka Reid / Mike Reed: Artifacts

"A second-generation AACM dream team… I absolutely loved this record from start to finish.” - Lee Rice Epstein, The Free Jazz Collective

-2015 NPR Jazz Critics Poll
-The Best Albums of 2015 - Nate Chinen, The New York Times
-Best Releases of 2015 - Troy Collins, All About Jazz
-The Best Jazz Of 2015 - Stewart Smith, The Quietus

* Best wishes to all in 2016…!

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  

"A second-generation AACM dream team... The album is packed with classic and little-heard gems from the AACM library... I absolutely loved this record from start to finish." - The Free Jazz Collective

"Fujiwara has been involved in surprisingly large number of stand-out recordings in the creative jazz scene over the last ten years" - Avant Music News

Things always seem to slow way down for most during the summer (in fact we are usually busy behind the scenes working on fall releases during the summer). For now, one last song before we (appear to) go…

Congratulations to Tyshawn Sorey who has just been named among the artists awarded a 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award. A well-deserved accolade which places him in the company of many elite artists and paves the way for many great things to come.

This is the part where we say that we will be reissuing Tyshawn’s album Koan on vinyl, in September 2015, as a double LP with additional material from some early improv sessions which took place featuring the same Koan trio.

Also in September comes Ayelet Rose Gottlieb’s Shiv’a, also on vinyl with a digital download included. Composed for the string quartet ETHEL and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi,  and featuring Gottlieb  on vocals only on the final track, this seven-movement work is alternately challenging and beautiful.  Also features appearances by Anat Fort and Sean Conly.

And at an as-yet undisclosed date this summer: Mike Reed’s People Places & Things: A New Kind of Dance. This will now be the... um, fifth work in the trilogy that originally began with Proliferation in 2008. A New Kind of Dance includes appearances from Matt Shipp and Marquis Hill.

And in case you missed it, April saw the release of After All is Said, the third from Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up, and "one of the most accessible, challenging and inventive recordings of recent vintage" according to All About Jazz.

Have a great summer...

Philadelphia: Ars Nova

"The Hook Up features artists who are among the more prominent representatives of new directions in jazz and improvisation. As anticipated, the musicians' synergistic output and cunning narratives yield bountiful fruit." - All About Jazz

Out now: Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up After All Is Said  : "...one of the most accessible, challenging and inventive recordings of recent vintage." (All About Jazz)

Out now: Mike McGinnis Angsudden Song Cycle : "a clarinet-centered, stringbased song cycle, portraying nature through achingly beautiful arrangements..." (New York City Jazz Record)

Harris Eisenstadt in the November Downbeat

Now available: Dana Reason: Angle of Vision : A really nice piano trio date from Dana, a long-time 482 friend, with Peter Valsamis and Glen Moore.

Sewn : "One of those remarkable albums that everyone should give a shot" - Bird is the Worm

Out today: Stirrup Sewn : "To call this jazz is only partially accurate, and other poorly defined classifications (chamber jazz, post-rock) also miss the mark..." (ChicagoMusic.org)