Don’t forget our latest pre-order bundle is ending this Friday March 8th.

LEMADI TRIO – TRYPTOPHAN SUITE
GARUDA TRIO + RODRIGO PINHEIRO – TONGUES OF FLAMES
SANTANA / LENCASTRE / DO MAR / ALMEIDA – DEFIANT ILLUSION

We are offering them for this week at a special price of only 35 EUR (incl. worldwide postage). Go here to order

Here at the headquarters of A NEW WAVE OF JAZZ we are extremely proud to share these 3 great new releases with you.  It’s perhaps a coincidence that these 3 new albums are predominantly made by Portuguese musicians but also not as we’ve discovered a mutual musical language that is beautifully in sync with our kind of improvisation we like on the label.  3 releases which are significantly diffferent and yet interconnected. 

 These 3 albums are going into pre-order TODAY March 1st and officially out on March 8th.
We are offering them for that week at a special price of only 35 EUR (incl. worldwide postage).  Go here to order.

LEMADI TRIO – TRYPTOPHAN SUITE (cd)

Our 2nd release in the Axis series, graced with the beautiful b&w photography of Martina Verhoeven, is a special one.  When José Lencastre came over last year for a recording with Dirk Serries (a pending release somewhere), we did this last-minute trio concert for the Jazzblazzt series in The Netherlands.  With Martina Verhoeven on the electric crumar piano, this trio became something else.  Tryptophan Suite represents the very first notes this new trio played together. Stars were aligned and the music flowed effortlessly in a profound conversation where each personality and instrument matters. Fresh music is rooted in ancient principles that is uplifting and deep and also nostalgic and beautiful as only life can be. Portuguese saxophonist José Lencastre’s first encounter with Belgian guitarist Dirk Serries and pianist Martina Verhoeven resulted in exquisite musical storytelling. Unique in its line-up each instrument, with each musician behind it, has room to excel and brings a beautiful melange of (free) jazz, improvisation, and avant-garde to life that is clearly their own. Check out the album here.

GARUDA TRIO + RODRIGO PINHEIRO – TONGUES OF FLAMES (cd)

Truly an honor to have these 4 exceptional artists on our label.  Hugo Costa already graced our label with his outstanding duo album with Philipp Ernsting but here with Garuda Trio he’s in company of some of the top players from the Portuguese free jazz scene : Hernãni Faustino on the bass, João Valinho on drums and the fantastic Rodrigo Pinheiro on piano. Check out the album here.

“Listen how these four move around each other, and work with volume, density, textures, iridescent atmospheres and a finale in which lava-like energy morphs into something hypnotizing. The quartet somehow merges gravity with playfulness and never settles for conventionality, putting the act of spontaneous creation front and center.” Guy Peters

CARLA SANTANA/JOSÉ LENCASTRE/MARIO do MAR/GONÇALO ALMEIDA – DEFIANT ILLUSION (cd)

And if we thought we couldn’t top a line-up, here’s this unique quartet who brings a totally different experience. While Garuda Trio with special guest Rodrigo Pinheiro musters a fine balance between classic free jazz and improvisation, this quartet dives deep into the fantastic realm of pure improvisation and textural dialogue : the electronics of Carla Santana, the subtle horn contribution of José Lencastre, Maria do Mar drawing linear lineson the viola and the ever unpredictable Gonçalo Almeida on the double bass.  When Dirk Serries was asked to master the album, it became totally clear upon first listen, that this work was a keeper and needed to be on the label.  Stellar mood music. Check out the album here.

” It’s a combination of personalities and backgrounds that could lead to a free-for-all, a wicked carnival of sounds and ideas, but never does. If anything, it’s the coherence of Defiant Illusion that impresses most of all. The music is often ominous, occasionally dense and certainly requires a serious effort from the listener, but they will be rewarded with an aural spectacle that gets richer with each successive listen.” Guy Peters

The latest episode of the outstanding US radio show of Fred Kellogg on KAOS Olympia 89.3FM (Olympia, WA. USA) contains another fine collection of music we released on our label and music of musicians, affiliated with our label. Thank you, Fred, for the wonderful support.

Listen here : https://spinitron.com/KAOS/pl/18578010/Free-Jazz-with-Fred

A lovely review by Eyal Hareuveni for the SALT PEANUTS webzine of HUNT AT THE BROOK AGAIN/HUNT AT THE BROOK WITH NEIL METCALFE.

“The double album Hunt at the Brook Again / Hunt at the Brook with Neil Metcalfe features Thompson in a trio in the first album with clarinetist Tom Jackson and violist Benedict Taylor, recorded at Stamford Brook in London in April 2019, and in a quartet in the second album, with the addition of veteran flutist Neil Metcalfe (known for his ongoing work with Paul Dunamll and the London Improvisers Orchestra), recorded at the same location a month later. Engineer Dave Hunt captured both sessions. The album’s title also refers to the first recording of the trio of Jackson, Taylor and Thompson, Hunt at the Brook (FMR, 2015), recorded at the same place, and by Hunt.

The trio brings a chamber sensibility to free improvisation and suggests a delicate and introspective exchange of ideas. These six improvisations flow organically and are much more relaxed and playful, rich with extended techniques, and often create a hypnotic and poetic, collective sound painting, as Guy Peters observed in his liner notes. These improvisations also balance the joyful spontaneity of the moment with the sensibility of instant composition. The four quartet improvisations introduce an intense and restless, risk-taking dimension to the intimate and chamber dynamics of the trio but the quartet finds its balance immediately. These improvisations create a collective tapestry of ideas and gestures, again, as complex compositions, with pure lyricism, especially on the third improvisation, and surprising elegance.” Salt Peanuts – Norway

UK’s MUSIQUE MACHINE just reviewed our 2023 release of HUNT AT THE BROOK’s double disc. This double album unites DANIEL THOMPSON, TOM JACKSON and BENEDICT TAYLOR again but also expand to a quartet with flutist NEIL METCALFE. This release is available through our bandcamp store. Thanks to Musique Machine for the publication.

“Here’s a two-CD set bringing together two different improv sets, and as it appears on Belgian-based New Wave Of Jazz, it sits at the more abstract, shifting, at points fairly visceral side of the improv genre. Both sets here were recorded at Stamford Brook in London in April and May of 2019- not sure if this is a small venue or studio, as doing an internet search didn’t seem to bring up much aside from the Tube station. Both sets were also recorded by one Dave Hunt- so hench the release’s Hunt At Brook title. So, the first set/ disc is from April and features the three-piece of Tom Jackson – clarinet, Benedict Taylor – viola, and Daniel Thompson – acoustic guitar- who offer up six tracks. We go from “Second Improvisation” which is the second longest track here at just over fourteen and a half minutes. It opens with a blend of dark plucked/ angular guitar that is edged by sourly simmering string tone & descending horn sustain. We then move from a blend of more rapid and playful clarinet, dating guitar stutt, and seared viola sipes. Onto counterbalances of sawing ’n’ baying sting work, which are shifted by exuberate horn playing. “Fourth Improvisation” slides in at the eight-and-a-half minute mark- opening with a very manic blend of darting horn piping, stop-start guitar pluck ‘n’ scrub, and searing ‘n’ swooping viola. Around the mid-way point, things become less demented/ more spaced with shifting horn wavers, and smaller compressed scrubs ‘n’ shifting neck fiddles- though things start to get manic again fairly soon.
The second set/ disc is from May- featuring Tom Jackson – clarinet, Neil Metcalfe – flute, Benedict Taylor – viola, and Daniel Thompson- acoustic guitar. We open with the nearing sixteen & half minutes of “First Improvisation” which moves between a mixture of warbling horn haziness and malevolent pick ‘n’ pluck. And higher pitch horn fleeting’s meet vigorous string saw ‘n’ grate. “Third Improvisation” slides in just over the eleven-and-a-half minute mark- moving drifting horn bay & darting pick. Onto more flighty blend horn flight ‘n’ warble, meets manic saw & scrab. Through sour whistling & forlorn twang. The disc is finished off by “Fourth Improvisation” which is just over the four-minute mark- this is a decidedly swift & urgent blend of manic warble, fitful pluck, and jarring saw. Both discs here are rewarding- with a nice amount of shift & dart about the improvising. Though I’d say the second disc stood out most to me with its even balance of string and wind instrumentation, as I found the general pull/ shift of these tracks slightly more engaging.” Musique Machine – UK