In the early '60s, flutist Prince Lasha's work with alto saxophonist Sonny Simmons was often compared to the trailblazing free jazz that Ornette Coleman was exploring at the time. To be sure, Coleman was a major inspiration to both of them. And yet, The Cry! demonstrates that Lasha's work with Simmons had an avant-garde energy of its own. Coleman is a strong influence on this 1962 session – which Lasha co-led with Simmons – but The Cry! isn't an outright imitation of Coleman's work any more than Phil Woods' recordings are outright imitations of Charlie Parker's.

The second of two collaborations by Prince Lasha (on flute, alto, and alto clarinet) and Sonny Simmons (alto and English horn), this set has been reissued on CD. Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Charles Moffett offer stimulating support and close interplay with the two lead voices, who contributed all five selections. The music is influenced by (but not too derivative of) Ornette Coleman's free jazz style, and the improvisations are pretty advanced and sometimes quite emotional. Lasha and Simmons made for a potent team, making one wish that they would have a reunion someday. An underrated classic of its kind.

Cecil Taylor has never compromised his ideals, and this recording is no exception. During the course of more than one hour, Taylor and his quartet perform only one piece, but do it with such exquisite finesse that it incorporates dozens of shades and styles of expression…

Trio X (Joe McPhee - reeds/brass, Dominic Duval - bass, Jay Rosen - drums) This numbered and limited edition box contains most of the results of a 2006 Mid Western Tour by this distingished trio which has been together since the mid 1990s…

It’s difficult to say if it was Evan Parker who invited Jacob Anderskov’s trio Kinetics to start this new collaborative project or if the initiative came from the Danish pianist. The doubt results from the permanent equilibrium of forces detected in “Chiasm”: the British saxophonist can be the protagonist, the frontline voice, but the music reflects in every step the most important motivation for Anderskov and his Kinetic partners, Adam Pultz Melbye and Anders Vestergaard: to celebrate the entire evolution of jazz by means of using some particularities of that patrimony through a compositional concept turned to the invention of the future.

Live In Japan is a 4CD compilation of live material by the late American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. It consists of material recorded in Tokyo in 1966, originally released in Japan and features Pharoah Sanders, Jimmy Garrison, Rashied Ali and wife Alice Coltrane. This became the first American release, done in 1991 by GRP/Impulse.

A major early release by tenorist Murray, 3D Family appeared originally on Hat Hut records as a double LP before eventually being re-released on disc by hat ART. Murray performs here in a live context with one of his very strongest rhythm sections: the intensely musical South African bassist Johnny Dyani and veteran master drummer Andrew Cyrille. The program consists of all Murray compositions, weaving between burners, funky dances, and soulful ballads…

Maciej Sadowski's unique style, in the shape of his original compositions collides fervently with emotional improvisations, drawned from many musical genres. The result of the impact is a unique and stunning sound.

The ECM folks do much better by Wadada Leo Smith than ever before with this solo recording, a true masterwork of its kind and one of the purest, most enlightening demonstrations of the connected natures of folk, blues, jazz, and creative music. That Smith is the man to do this is certainly no surprise; he laid it all down in print years before this release in his self-published books and liner notes. But the way he does it, with so much grace and style (and with the excellent production by Steve Lake), really results in a totally polished statement. It is a deep and rich recording, with Smith playing in a manner that incorporates both versatility and the genius of simplicity, sometimes all in one note. Not just for fans of "out" music, this is one to pull out when you are trying to get friends to go beyond their Phish records.

Ever since the days of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, electric guitar/bass guitar/drums trios have primarily been vehicles for rock music. They are comparatively rare in jazz, and rarer in free improvised music. Those that do exist often blur the boundaries with rock, using its vocabulary but not its syntax or vice versa. Because of its rock legacy, the format itself attracts players who have affinities with rock…

141 BC: Hipparchus of Nicaea, mathematician and astronomer, laid the foundations of trigonometry. 1924 A.D.: In an article entitled "The Music of Tomorrow", Edgar Varese claims a new and simplified art; he urges us to forget the piano. A few decades later, electronic lutherie devices fulfilled his wishes.

When Angels Speak of Love, released in 1966 on Sun Ra's Saturn label, is a rarity, there having been limited pressings (150 copies, by one estimate), which were sold thru the mail and at concerts and club dates. The tracks were taped in New York during two 1963 sessions at the Choreographer's Workshop, a rehearsal space/recording den with warehouse acoustics. Ra spent countless hours at the CW from 1961 to 1964 sharpening the Arkestra during exhaustive musical huddles. John Corbett calls this "one of the most continuous, best-documented periods of Ra's work"; much tape from these seminal sessions has survived and been issued on LP, CD and digitally.

Recorded live at 3rd Street Music School, New York on October 24, 1981. Konstanze's Delight consists of just three long pieces, the first of them an opportunity for the whole band to show its stuff. As so often in this context, Parker is the cement, setting off on dark, seductive chant that gradually reels in Moondoc, Campbell and the underrated Jamal, who conjures up storms on this record. The two horns seem to be engaged in a game of one-on-one ball, chasing, dodging, body-checking and setting up half a dozen false climaxes before the whole thing unwinds. At longer than half an hour, it palls pretty seriously before time's up, but it's part of a live set and is doubtless pretty typical of what Moondoc was doing at the time. "Chasin' the Moon" is high-octane stuff, a starring vehicle for Jamal and Christi.