Jazz

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Jeff Parker’s 2016 album The New Breed was a turning point for both Parker and International Anthem, changing the trajectory of his solo career as well as drawing an abundance of attention to our fresh imprint despite our then very limited catalog. Most importantly though, the album is the first to give voice to Parker’s wholly unique take on sample-based beat construction augmented by improvisation and live instrumentation (performed in this case by the high-level crew of Paul Bryan on bass, Josh Johnson on alto saxophone and keys, Jamire Williams and Jay Bellerose on drums, Parker's daughter Ruby on vocals, and Parker himself on guitar, synths, and other instruments).

What began as Jeff’s interest in understanding his own idea of hip-hop processes (and how they related to his work in jazz) expanded into a blueprint for much of his work since then. (Hear also: The New Breed’s expansive followup Suite For Max Brown, the gentle deconstructionist solo guitar of Forfolks, and the long-form slow bloom improvisation of The Way Out of Easy.)

The IA11 Edition LP features our IARC 2025 obi strip, plus a new 16-page 11x11" insert booklet with unpublished session photos, new liner notes by album co-producer Paul Bryan, and an in-depth conversation between Jeff Parker and IARC co-founder Scott McNiece.

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Jameszoo (Mitchel van Dinther) returns to Brainfeeder with a wonderfully cinematic album embarking on adventures on the fringes of jazz and contemporary classical. Much like in 2019 when he worked with the Metropole Orkest to adapt his album ‘Fool’, Jameszoo is back writing for a sizeable ensemble reinterpreting his youngest record ‘Blind’, navigating it into uncharted waters heaving with fun and beauty.

Imbued with the same spirit of adventure and experimental outlook as his previous work on the label, ‘Music for 17 Musicians’ is a new work written for and performed by the renowned ensemble Asko|Schönberg, percussion group HIIIT and Jameszoo’s own “blind” group: Niels Broos (keys), Petter Eldh (bass) and Richard Spaven (drums). The title is a nod to Steve Reich’s masterful 1978 album on ECM ‘Music for 18 Musicians’.

The record is a largely acoustic piece diving deeper into and reflecting on the ideas behind ‘Blind’ with the Disklavier (motorised piano) at the heart of the ensemble, allowing for the execution of passages unplayable by the human hand.

Jameszoo released his debut album “Fool” in 2016. It featured cameos from two outright legends: Brazilian composer Arthur Verocai and pianist Steve Kuhn; in addition to virtuoso bassist Thundercat. In 2017 Jameszoo opened ADE with a very special collaboration with Jules Buckley and the Grammy-Award winning Metropole Orkest at the iconic Melkweg concert hall. The recordings of this momentous collaboration were released via Brainfeeder in May 2019.

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Irreversible Entanglements’s debut album was originally released in September 2017, and features the first music ever played together by the freshly assembled Philly/NY/DC-based quintet of poet Camae Ayewa (aka Moor Mother), bassist Luke Stewart, saxophonist Keir Neuringer, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, and drummer Tcheser Holmes. The explosive collection of improvised free-jazz with spoken word accompaniment was born after the group's initial meeting at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event (organized by musicians/comrades Amirtha Kidambi and Peter Evans following the state-sponsored killing of Akai Gurley).

As the original press release puts it: “the spirit and subject the band channels and explores represent a return to a central tenet of the free jazz sound as it was founded—to be a vehicle for Black liberation. As creative and adventurous as any recording of contemporary avant-garde jazz but offering listeners no abstractions to hide behind, this is music that both honors and defies tradition, speaking to the present while insisting on the future.”

It’s that balance of honor and defiance that is so palpable in this early music of Irreversible Entanglements which, despite its system-shocking effect, sits squarely in the lineage of East Coast free jazz (often echoing the mid-1960s work of The New York Art Quartet and Amiri Baraka, among others). That line can be traced through all of the band’s recordings, including 2020's Who Sent You? and 2021's Open The Gates, both via International Anthem, and their 2023 album Protect Your Light (released by Impulse!). Now ten years on from their first collective sound captured for this self-titled debut, it’s clear that Irreversible Entanglements's intensity of spirit and purity of purpose influenced our label as much as it did its own community.

The IA11 Edition features a new 8-page 11x11" insert booklet with unpublished session photos and liner notes by bassist Luke Stewart.

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Yowzers is a new album by Chicago composer, improvisor, and musical folklorist Ben LaMar Gay.

Gay's de facto debut album—the 2018 compilation Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun—properly introduced him to the world by placing fifteen stylistically diverse tracks from seven then-unreleased albums next to one another. His critically-acclaimed 2021 song cycle Open Arms To Open Us followed. In addition to being featured on a staggering number of International Anthem releases (including albums by Makaya McCraven, jaimie branch, and Damon Locks), Gay is one of the most prolific collaborators in creative music today, making active contributions to Mike Reed’s Separatist Party, Joshua Abrams’s Natural Information Society, Bitchin Bajas, Theaster Gates’s Black Monks of Mississippi, and more.

A uniting factor in Gay's deep, multi-faceted discography is a never-ending commitment to taking the stories of the past and pushing them outward, filtered through a sense of self, to keep that information moving. Information moves through Yowzers via the intuitive physicality of Gay’s creative polyrhythmic constructions, as he covertly delivers familiar folk melodies. “It’s the most natural thing,” says Gay. “That’s how the world is. There are overlapping rhythms all around us, and so it reminds you of the reality of the world when you hear them. It’s a loop and the loop is always changing.”

The album recalls the high-minded freedom of Liberation Music Orchestra, the glitched-out electronic webs of Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, the unbridled rhythms and sandpaper bellows of Bukka White, and the harmolodic cartoon glory of Arthur Blythe’s Illusions. It’s all there, filtered through an improvisational approach and a lifetime of secrets embodied. For a man who has inhabited and traveled these continents so extensively, it’s safe to call this work true “Americana,” despite what that word might mean to the average person in the United States.

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Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Interplay is a 1963 album from legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans, originally released on the Riverside label. Joining Evans are Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Jim Hall (guitar), Percy Heath (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums). This new edition of the album is released as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series on 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes at Cohearent Audio and a Stoughton Tip-On Jacket.

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This was Sonny's second Contemporary album and his second West Coast session, a year and a half after the historic Way Out West. Jazz labels acquire "personalities" not only from the musical tastes of the owner/recording director but also from the roster of musicians signed to the company. The "Contemporary Sound"-every bit as distinctive as the competing "Blue Note Sound," "Prestige Sound," and "Pacific Jazz Sound"-was largely a product of the work by Hampton Hawes, Barney Kessel, and Shelly Manne, all of whom had won Down Beat awards for their respective instruments and recorded as "The Poll Winners." with Hampton Hawes, Barney Kessel, Leroy Vinnegar, Shelly Manne, Victor FeldmanSonny Morgan, and others. Tracks: I've Told Ev'ry Little Star, Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody, How High the Moon, You, I've Found a New Baby, Alone Together, in the Chapel in the Moonlight, the Song Is You.

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Sonny Rollins - "Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders (Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series)" [180gram Heavy LP] Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders was originally released in 1959 by West Coast jazz label Contemporary Records. Rollins is backed by a who's who of the labels players, including Hampton Hawes (piano), Barney Kessel (guitar), Leroy Vinnegar (bass) and Shelly Manne (drums). This edition, released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series, features (AAA) lacquers cut from the original master tapes by Bernie Grundman and is pressed at RTI on 180-gram vinyl, and presented in a tip-on jacket. Concord Music Group; Craft Recordings; Jazz; Catalog [180gram Heavy LP]

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Recorded in 1967, Hank Mobley's Third Season was a typically high-caliber hard bop outing by the tenor saxophonist with a 7-piece band, featuring James Spaulding (alto sax), Lee Morgan (trumpet), Sonny Greenwich (guitar), Cedar Walton (piano), Walter Booker (bass), and Billy Higgins (drums). This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

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Double vinyl LP pressing with 28-page 12 x 12" book. On March 15, 2018, legendary saxophonist, composer and jazz mystic Charles Lloyd celebrated his 80th birthday at The Lobero - his hometown venue in Santa Barbara, CA. He was joined by an unprecedented group of musicians including guitarist Julian Lage, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland.

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"The beauty of Oscar Peterson's sound has never been as superbly captured as this." (Jazz critic Gene Lees in the original liner notes) - When the world-renowned Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson came to Villingen in 1961, there was a mood of intense excitement all round. Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer (HGBS), former owner of the hifi dynasty SABA, had just set up the first version of his studio, equipped with the most advanced recording technology of the time, above the living-room in his villa. This was the bait used by the piano enthusiast to attract the famous pianist to the Black Forest. After a guest performance in Zurich, Peterson climbed into a limousine and embarked on a journey across the mountains. As soon as he arrived, along with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen, the international star was led to the Steinway grand in the living-room where several excited guests were eagerly waiting. - In the following years, the Canadian pianist returned again and again to the Black Forest with various line-ups to capture his musical vision on tape. As Peterson was still under contract to Verve, the recordings could not be released before 1968. The legendary Exclusively For My Friends series was the first release for Brunner-Schwer's newly-established MPS label. - Never before had a recording captured every aspect of Peterson's ground-breaking sound so vividly: the virtuosity and the speed as well as the delicate inspiration he brings to the subtle and reflective moments. These recordings, made over a short period of five years, also reflect the transformation from equal member of a trio to soloist. All albums beside "Mellow Mood" and "Travelin' On" were released in 1968, with those two being released in 1969. - This will be the first time MPS reissues all the recordings from the "Exclusively For My Friends" series as standalones. All editions will have a scan of the mastertapebox and the original linernotes included.

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Jackie McLean's '60s output ran the gamut from hard bop to avant-garde with his 1964 album, Action, splitting the difference from the searing title track to the plaintive ballad "Wrong Handle," and the grooving "Hoonan," with a quintet of Charles Tolliver, Bobby Hutcherson, Cecil McBee and Billy Higgins. This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Series was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

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Africa/Brass is a studio album by the jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane. It was released on September 1, 1961 through Impulse! Records. Coltrane's working quartet is augmented by a larger ensemble that brings the total to twenty-one musicians.

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2014 vinyl LP reissue of the jazz trumpeter's 1957 album. It was initially released as a 4 song ten inch vinyl pressing in 1955. Musicians include J.J. Johnson, Hank Mobley, Cecil Payne, Horace Silver, Percy Heath, Art Blakey & more.. This release is part of the classic jazz label's 75th anniversary vinyl reissue series spearheaded by Blue Note Records President, Don Was.

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Double vinyl LP pressing. Deluxe edition features eight bonus tracks - alternate takes from the surviving four-track session reels, including an explosive rendition of the single, "Soul Vibrations," extended versions of the title track and "Little Sunflower," plus two fantastic jazzy readings of "Theme from Valley of the Dolls." Afro-Harping is the first of a rarefied and outstanding trilogy of soul-jazz albums by Dorothy Ashby. Remastered from the original tapes, Afro-Harping is filled front-to-back with sumptuous and hypnotic grooves. It's African percussion, soulful orchestrations, in-the-pocket rhythms and Dorothy's virtuosity take it beyond jazzy mood music and made it a favorite of beat heads and producers.