On their first stand-alone record as a duo, Ken Vandermark and Hamid Drake celebrate their 30+ year playing relationship with an electrifying live set of pieces, all featuring music composed by legendary free jazz musician Don Cherry. Restricting himself here to tenor saxophone, Vandermark has developed an almost telepathic understanding with Drake, whose masterful work on the drum kit has rarely been more focused and relaxed. The music was recorded in Corbett vs. Dempsey's main space on the closing day of the gallery's exhibition of work by Moki Cherry, Don's partner in the Organic Music Society, whose powerful tapestries and paintings were often key elements in the Cherry's performances. Drake and his family in fact lived with the Cherry family in their home in rural southern Sweden in the 1970s, and the drummer's personal experiences with her visual art added a special depth to the concert with Vandermark, diving into music from across the great trumpeter's songbook. The program, some of which runs as medleys of different tunes, comes from as far back as Cherry's groundbreaking '60s Blue Note LPs ("Elephantasy," "Complete Communion"), up through the title track of the killer 1975 A&M side Brown Rice, and more culled from later LPs on ECM, including the band Old And New Dreams ("Guinea," "Mopti") and Cherry's beautiful duo album with drummer Ed Blackwell ("El Corazón," "Solidarity"). During the concert, mid-set, Drake stopped playing to tell the story of his time with Don Cherry, including his harrowing experience contracting malaria while playing in Africa; this stirring narrative is transcribed as the liner text in the LP's gatefold. Gorgeously recorded, with Moki Cherry's tapestry "Spirit" on the cover, Eternal River keeps flowing with the ease and wonder of two brilliant Chicago musicians at the top of their game, in their hometown, playing the music they love. 

In the winter of 1980, Chicago tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson (1929-2010) brought his quartet to Milwaukee, where they were recorded live in concert. These tapes were first plumbed for The Milwaukee Tapes Vol. 1 on the Unheard Music Series in 2000. Anderson's group featured his long-time trumpeter Billy Brimfield (1938-2012) as well as his protege and percussionist Hamid Drake, then known as Hank, and bassist Larry Hayrod. Finally, after another couple of decades during which both Anderson and Brimfield have passed, Corbett vs. Dempsey is proud to present The Milwaukee Tapes Vol. 2, a full CD of previously unissued material from the same concert. Among the five tracks are four penned by Anderson, including his classic "3 On 2," as well as a rare composition by Brimfield, "He Who Walks Alone." The trumpeter is lithe and mercurial in this context, playing with his typical sense of mystery, while Anderson's huge tenor sound and unique approach to linear improvisation are in top form. Drake is, as always, the element that gets everything warmed up, his kit a veritable furnace, as propulsive as humanly possible. On The Milwakee Tapes Vol. 2, the influence of Edward Blackwell on the 25-year-old drummer is clearly audible, with intricate polyrhythms and a full head of steam. Recently rediscovered, this second half of the Milwaukee session fills out the picture completely, offering a glimpse of one of the great figures of AACM Chicago in his prime, with a simpatico working band on a great night. The package includes beautiful portraits of Anderson and Brimfield, the contemporaneous color shot of the leader never before seen. Fred Anderson - Tenor Saxophone Billie Brimfield - Trumpet Larry Hayrod - Bass Hamid Drake - Drums All compositions by Fred Anderson except where noted. Recorded live in Milwaukee, January or February, 1980

Repertoire for cello represents a little-explored niche of the greater jazz songbook. In 2013, cellists Tomeka Reid and Fred Lonberg-Holm turned their arrangerly and composerly attention to this terrain, assembling a selection of four originals (three by Lonberg-Holm, one by Reid) and four works by other composers. The latter include “Pluck It” by pioneering jazz cellist Fred Katz, member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet and soundtrack composer for Roger Corman films; “In Walked Ray” by intrepid hardbop bassist and cellist Sam Jones, who worked extensively with Cannonball Adderly; “Rally” by legendary bassist and cellist Ron Carter, who played with everyone from Miles Davis to Eric Dolphy to A Tribe Called Quest; and “Monti-Cello” by Harry Babsin, the least recognizable name in the group who played cello duets with Oscar Pettiford and recorded the first jazz cello solos with Dodo Marmarosa Trio in 1947. These new takes on old charts provide a storied backdrop and contemporary diving-board for Reid and Lonberg-Holm. By turns achingly beautiful – utilizing all the woody resonance of the twinned instruments – and probingly exploratory, they pay reverence to and also rethink their predecessors’ music. Alongside these historically-mined tracks are the player’s own deeply engaging compositions. Reid’s “Alla Mingus For La Bang” pays homage to one stringsman by way of another: bassist Charles Mingus to violinist Billy Bang. Lonberg-Holm’s “Fragile,” C’mon,” and “How Can We?” all investigate the bowed and pizzed cosmos of the celli with devilish relish. Gorgeously recorded direct-to-stereo sans audience at Chicago’s Logan Art Center, with a cover that sports a painting by Lonberg-Holm. Recorded at Logan Art Center, Chicago, direct-to-stereo by David L. Allen on September 21, 2013. Prepared for release by Gordon Comstock. Mastered by Alex Inglizian, Experimental Sound Studio.

In 1961 Sun Ra took off from Chicago – where he had established the Arkestra, his dedicated ensemble and the vehicle for his mission to better the planet – and with a scaled-down version of the band he landed in NewYork. Their first recording session was in Newark in October of that year. The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra, recorded for the Savoy label, is a beautiful document of the material they'd honed during a long residency at the Wonder Inn at the end of the Chicago period. Among tracks left in the vault from that day in the studio were these two great ballads sung by Ricky Murray, both of them redolent of the bright popcraft that had long been part of Ra's repertoire, with classic Afrofuturist themes of navigating outer space and altered destiny cloaked in sweet songs with tart arrangements. This 7-inch vinyl single is limited to 1000 copies, with full-color cover including a rare photo of the band with Ricky Murray. --- Released: Corbett vs Dempsey

Globe Unity is available on vinyl CvsDLP003 and CD CvsDCD091 In 1966, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach assembled his first large ensemble to play his compositions “Globe Unity” and “Sun.” This 14-piece band, which brought together some of the leading figures in European improvised music, would eventually expand – incorporating not only Europeans but also American and Asian musicians – and assume its rightful name: Globe Unity Orchestra. In its nascent outing, beautifully recorded at Ariola Studio in Cologne, Schlippenbach’s band was already sensational, performing at various festivals and solidifying the reputations of some of its star players. Most notably among these was a 25-year-old saxophonist named Peter Brötzmann, whose whole band – saxophonist Kris Wanders, drummer Mani Neumeier, and bassist Peter Kowald, the latter of whom would for a period assume nominal leadership of Globe Unity – was incorporated into the large Schlippenbach group. Globe Unity was Brötzmann’s first outing on LP. Kowald’s too. And future drum heroes of the krautrock genre, Neumeier (with Guru Guru) and Jaki Liebezeit (with Can) constitute the incredible rhythm section. If you factor in German early-free-music mainstays Gunter Hampel (here on flute and bass clarinet, no vibes), trumpeter Manfred Schoof, bassist Buschi Niebergall, and tenor saxophonist Gerd Dudek, Dutch saxophonist and clarinetist Willem Breuker, French trumpeter Claude Deron, the enormity of the band’s potential becomes apparent. Add Schlippenbach himself, an absolute cyclone on the piano as well as prominent tubular bells and gong, and the global scene is set. Schlippenbach’s unique position at the time, as one of the foremost players in German free music, but also as a rising young composer who’d studied with Bernd Alois Zimmermann, allowed him to serve as exactly the right conduit for several approaches to creative music, from introducing his graphically notated scores to making a perfect context for the debuts of future star improvisors Brötzmann and Kowald.Schlippenbach’s Globe Unity was first issued on SABA in 1967, then MPS a couple of years after that. It has long been out of print and has only ever appeared on CD in a tiny Japanese version published in 1999. Corbett vs. Dempsey is reissuing this classic record in a special, strictly limited edition of 500 vinyl LPs and 1000 CDs, with a faithful facsimile of the original LP’s gatefold cover. The music was remastered from the original tapes and is licensed directly from MPS. Anyone interested in the history of improvised music needs to hear Globe Unity, which retains a sense of urgency 56 years after it was waxed. Track List: 1. Globe Unity 20’122. Sun 20’34 Musicians: Manfred Schoof Claude Deron Willi Lietzmann Peter Brötzmann Gerd Dudek Kris Wanders Willem Breuker Gunter Hampel Karlhanns Berger Buschi Niebergall Peter Kowald Jaki Liebzeit Mani Neumeier Aleaxander von Schlippenbach Produced by: Joachim E. Berendt Recording director: Willi Fruth Engineer: Gert Lemnitz Recorded December 6th and 7th, 1966 at Ariola Studio Cologne Cover painting: “C 12” by Henry Garde Photos: Uwe Oldenberg Cover design and layout: Gigi Berendt Compositions by Alexander von Schlippenbach

Original deadstock copies of 46,000 Fibres’ ‘Reconstructed’, an album released on short-lived South London label Dyscfunctional in 1999. 46,000 Fibres are a UK-based improvisational group, formed in 1993 out of a group called Koven-oe, which included Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner). When he left, the remaining trio of Richard Clarke, Tonal Davidson (aka Tonal D) and Leon Maurice-Jones decided to switch from structured material to explore electro-acoustic free improvisation. The idea was not to arrange or talk about the music but to rely on the musical telepathy between them and, without resorting to cliches, create ‘something unique’. The results ranged from ethereal delicacy to hard industrial, space rock, gamelan stylings, radical jazz, dark funk and their forte of sonic soundscapes. The line-up for the group was often fluid, though with a core of Tonal D & Leon Maurice-Jones. Musicians who they’ve collaborated with over the many past years include Nik Turner, Lol Coxhill, Scanner and Ashley Wales. In 1999 they put out three live albums as part of their fifth anniversary together. Later that year, they released ‘Reconstructed’, an album where band members and guests were invited to sample moments from their improvisations to make something a bit more coherent and more for the contemporary dance/club scene. Placing this album in their catalogue, it’s certainly their most commercial outing and could be viewed as their nod to the 90s chillout scene. In any case, it doesn’t take much to imagine how chilled an album put together by a bunch of misfit experimental jazz improvisers might be… Some of the tracks are up on YouTube, though a few of the best are not..

Anthony’s post-Slapp Happy output, for years an underrated-to-outright unknown quantity, achieves a new dimensional plane with this third archival release from his personal tape library. Home of the Demo triangulates upon the art-pop qualities found in his previously unreleased 1976 LP OUT, and ‘79’s new wave-adjacent Flying Doesn’t Help, finding Anthony’s early/mid-80s home recordings drifting whimsically in and out of the actual mainstream.

‘Since the 16th century, the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas has been home to a unique Afro-Indigenous culture originating in the integration of the Indigenous Chachi and Nigua peoples with African Maroon communities. Juyungo documents significant Esmeraldan artists and bands playing the Afro-Ecuadorian folklore of the province, as well as including some older field recordings. Based mostly on the marimba, whose origins lie partly in the African balafon, partly in Indigenous percussion instruments, the music is laced with call and response chants, ambient insect and bird noise, the filigree finger-styles of the Andean guitar tradition and the panpipes of the mountains. This is resonant insider roots music at its headiest — the mystic revelation of Esmeraldas, gully deep and lustral.’ Francis Gooding, The Wire. The fifth in our series of LPs compiling classic music from Ecuador. Customary Honest Jons runnings: a beautiful gatefold sleeve; superior pressing, with vivid, intimate sound; full-size, sixteen-page booklet, in colour throughout, with detailed, fascinating, bi-lingual notes, and stunning photographs. The music is transfixing, magical; not like anything else. From start to finish, this album is continuously, profoundly immersive; a kind of journeying, trippy meditation about slavery and cultural resistance, identity and mix, places and spaces, futures and pasts. It’s inscrutable to net-surfing, algorithms, Shuffle. But for a taste try the insurgent marimba roller Agua Largo, jet-propelled by Rosa Huila’s rapturous blend of African spiritualist and Christian chant. ‘Healing music,’ Zakia called it on Gilles Peterson’s BBC show recently. And the ravishing pasillo Kasilla Shungulla — ‘calm your heart’ in the Quichua language — a duet between the Peruvian master-guitarist Raúl García Zárate and viola da gamba by Juan Luis Restrepo from Medellin, recorded in a baroque church in Buzbanza, Colombia.

Beautiful vinyl pressing from Drag City of Scott Walker's monumental, groundbreaking masterstroke from 1995

Four songs breeze past in nothing flat. O'Rourke gets jiffy wit it.

He's alive!!! And can he sing! Could this be the world's first experimental MOR album? Nah, but time will tell whether or not it is the most supreme. Wackos of the world, take over.

Raw, deep and spiritual Gnawa music from Morocco to carry you through the night... Recorded in a single late night session in a house in Casablanca, using a Tascam field recorder and 2 microphones, Dead of Night is the incredible new solo album from Maalem Houssam Guinia, the son of Maalem Mahmoud Guinia, and one of Morocco's most exciting young Gnawa masters. The album was recorded live on the night of 3rd January 2022 in a relaxed session that lasted into the early hours of the next morning, and it captures Houssam at his most natural, singing and playing the Gnawa songs that have been with him since his birth, completely solo and free without percussion or backing vocals. Houssam described the album as containing the songs he knows best as these were the pieces his father would play and sing late into the night in their home when he was an infant. What you'll hear on Dead of Night is raw, deep Gnawa music in its purest form played by a young Maalem who has been immersed in the culture his whole life and is a master of his craft. The whole performance has been beautifully and sympathetically captured by bassist and producer Karl-Erik Enkelman.

HOME RECORDINGS (2018-2021) “Who is Yara Asmar and how does she make music so strangely beautiful? The 25-year-old instrumentalist-puppeteer lives in Beirut with her cat, Mushroom, and presumably that’s the feline’s shadow next to the artist’s on the album’s back cover. The warm light of that photograph and the quiet beach scene of an abandoned lifeguard’s station and an empty net tells you all you need to know. Home Recordings 2018-2021 is an assured debut album that builds an eerie tension out of dreamlike layers of isolation” Spectrum Culture "Tiny worlds expand and contract in the palm of Yara Asmar’s hand. These recordings are remarkable in their ability to command attention in the gentlest terms. There are stories to find on this album and new worlds to discover." Foxy Digitalis SYNTH WALTZES & ACCORDION LAMENTS “Melancholic drifts sound through the overcast skies of synth waltzes and accordion laments, infusing ageless melodies with a sense of falling backward through time. History is stitched through gilded aural silhouettes and elegiac drones. Asmar’s music is visceral. While electronics beckon beyond the sunrise stretched through a metallic shimmer, synth waltzes and accordion laments sticks with us while we remain lost in the hazy doldrums, always crawling forward tethered to our past lives. Highest recommendation.” The Capsule Garden “ …these tracks are a cushion against reality. Asmar creates music that unfurls in evanescent bliss, an invitation to a safe space both isolated and welcoming.” The Quietus “…a set that transmutes the instrument’s droning tones into a sweep of introspective, breath-catching moments of beauty“ Pitchfork, 30 Best Jazz & Experimental Albums of 2024 

Originally from Kingsport, Tennessee, New York-based Zoh Amba is a notable rising star in the avant-garde music scene. Growing up in the Appalachian mountains, Amba practiced saxophone to the forest that surrounded her home before she later traveled to study with David Murray in New York, and also at the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music & New England Conservatory in Boston. Today, her music is full of folk melodies, mesmerizing refrains, repeated incantations and powerfully executed Free Jazz reminiscent of Albert Ayler. Her sound is courageous and bold, commanding her instrument with a loving force that soars from muted hums to squeaky trebles, producing a confident sound imbued with spirituality.  On this project, Zoh Amba is joined by legendary artists William Parker (Bass) and Francisco Mela (Drums), who temper her daring saxophone with a lush percussive foundation and a reassuring bassline. On one of the album’s 4 tracks, Amba also opts for flute, cutting through the noise with a quieter, adventurous tone, and offering listeners a more exclusive look at her multi-instrumental prowess. The album, O Life, O Light, Vol. 1 will be released on CD (available 5/20/22) and on black and limited color vinyl editions planned to arrive late 2022 but available for pre-order now—the vinyl editions will also include an extra bonus track. If you enjoyed this album please look out for Vol. 2!

Net of Atoms is a new album from Otis Jordan, drawing closely from the previous two albums for Them There - Dodger Point (2020) and Restless Guests (2022) - Jordan delivers his most ambitious and well articulated full length work to date, perfectly rounding off a trio of releases for the label. The Glasgow based band leader has remained active since his last outing for Them There with contributions to the ongoing research project Folklore Tapes’ most recent V/A compilations and a split tape for the nascent ‘Ceremonial County’ series on the label. Most notably and surprising perhaps was his recent collaboration with Sam Mcloughlin’s Hood Faire imprint ‘Early Experiments in Recording Vol 1 (1976 - 2021)’ - a compilation which Jordan curated that unearthed early recordings from a slew of experimental heads and many now renowned in their field musicians. More so than ever before, the songs on Net of Atoms stomp sure-footedly through the meandering instrumental textures of Otis Jordan’s vivid musical landscape. Ever off-kilter and unpredictable - violin motifs, clarinet themes and hammered found sounds disappear into the mist as suddenly as they arrived leaving behind breadcrumbs to be picked back up later. Recurring variations on melodic themes act as waymarks through the webs of rhythms and resonance as each short scene side-steps into a new tempo and timbre rewarding repeat listens. “This is the most ‘song’ based album I’ve ever made, with vocals on nearly all of the tracks” says Jordan - and the voice does also help guide the listener, although the vocal lines remain linear and consistently curious, rarely repeating. Instrumentally, any given moments can swiftly abscond from smokey Jazz feels to Captain Beefheart-y low-key Psych and freeform Folk ditties recalling the early noughts ‘Twisted Nerve’ jams of Aidan Smith and frequent collaborator Samandtheplants. All the while compounded by a restless forward drive that seems determined to explore the furthest reaches of this exotic sound world. Once again Jordan assembles a multitude of esteemed musician friends for the assignment. Many of the players from the ‘Restless Guests’ live session return including the nimble Moondog-esque percussive touches of Finn Rosenbaum, locally renowned virtuoso DBH offers up some violin and Lost Map’s Molly Linen returns to lend her dulcet, whispered tones on the track ‘Pendle Hill Conversation’. New friends such as Manchester's legendary DIY enthusiast Paddy Steer and the trumpeter Hermon Mehari also feature across the album. For the most part however, Jordan records and composes these crafty, intricate records himself in true DIY style across various home studios from Todmorden to Glasgow and shows no signs of slowing down.  Finn Rosenbaum - drums (4) Hermon Mehari - trumpet (4,14) Ike Goldman - vocals, glockenspiel, guitar and musical saw (7) Molly Linen - vocals (8) Dan Bridgwood-Hill - violin (8,11) Paddy Steer - lap steel (11) Zola Mooney - words and vocals (11, also end of 2) Sam McLoughlin - electric guitar, bass and keyboard (11,12) Marley Moat - violin (12) Other instruments played by Otis Jordan

This 2xLP vinyl compilation with twenty tracks, combining original archival recordings from Mount Athos and new takes by contemporary artists as Jimi Tenor, Holy Tongue, Jay Glass Dubs, Gilb'r, Inre Kretsen Grupp, Prins Emanuel or Murat Ertel.