Free Jazz CDs: Best Sellers

If you already own the original El Saturn label LP by Sun Ra bearing this title, you will still desire a copy of this item from ESP-Disk for several [more]

The second entry in Gato Barbieri's series of Impulse albums dealing with Latin America picks up where the first one left off, and in its way, follows its format closely [more]

First things first: this is not jazz. Pianist/composer Lowell Davidson recorded one CD during his lifetime, on the legendary [more]

This colorful live LP features Archie Shepp on tenor, and a bit of his more basic piano, playing three lengthy compositions (Duke Ellington's "Solitude," Cal Massey's "A Message from Trane" [more]

This CD reissues what was arguably the finest of the John Coltrane-Pharoah Sanders collaborations. On five diverse but almost consistently intense movements ("The Father and the Son [more]

The classic John Coltrane Quartet made one of its final appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965. The tension among bandmembers is evident on the [more]

Air, the improvisational collective of Henry Threadgill on reeds, woodwinds, and lots of other stuff, bassist Fred Hopkins, and drummer/percussionist Steve McCall, was the first major group after [more]

Recorded in 1983 in Nessa's Acme studio in Chicago, Procession of the Great Ancestry is among Wadada Leo Smith's most obscure, but ultimately most satisfying, [more]

Charles Tyler's Saga of the Outlaws is one of the quintessential epic pieces of free improvisation in history, a 37-minute, one-piece of pure emotion and depth of spirit. [more]

Given that the three names that adorn this cover are placed in alphabetical order, it is safe -- before even hearing Farmers by Nature -- to assume [more]

The Full Blast trio includes Peter "Superlungs" Brötzmann on reeds and winds, electric bassist Marino Pliakas, and drummer Michael Wertmüller. The trio issued an intense workout that [more]

The Michigan-based Northwoods Improvisers collective meld the largely undefined sounds of world music with jazz stylizations. Here, multi-reedman Faruq Z. Bey [more]

Pianist Paul Bley's early ESP free jazz session combines the influence of the Jazz Composer's Guild with Ornette Coleman. On Barrage, Bley is joined by alto saxophonist Marshall Allen [more]

On The Moment, founding AACM sax player Kalaparush is accompanied by a much younger (and quite able) rhythm section formed of tuba player Jesse Dulman and drummer [more]

Recorded in 1969, this is one of three albums to feature drummer Sunny Murray as a leader in 1969. Issued on the French Actuel label, it showcases Murray's brand of [more]

The previous Art Ensemble of Chicago ECM album Nice Guys vaulted them to the top of improvised music groups in the U.S. and worldwide, paving the way for similar bands to be [more]

For even the astute early creative music lover, pianist Lowell Davidson is an obscure figure in the annals of jazz. Recommended to ESP-Disk by Ornette Coleman and [more]

The music on this CD (the original LP program plus a second version of "Sorino") is taken from a radio aircheck and a TV special, both originating from Stockholm. The remarkable [more]

Tenor saxophonist Odean Pope and bassist Wayne Dockery join Murray on this 1996 effort. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

This duet date from 1990 demonstrates the deep blues feeling and technical mastery Archie Shepp has on the tenor saxophone. Comprised of four standards -- "'Round [more]

Champion trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff was taped live at a concert in Tokyo with what was then his regular quartet. There's a very nice blend between the leader's agile but [more]

The mysterious bassist Henry Grimes, who disappeared altogether in 1967, only led this one recording session; it has been reissued on CD. Although Grimes played in a wide variety of [more]

This CD reissue (rather brief at 34-and-a-half minutes) is of limited interest, for it consists of five pieces featuring Milford Graves and [more]

One of the more mysterious figures on the always mysterious label ESP-Disk, Giuseppi Logan was a Philadelphia-born reedman who made only two recordings as a leader [more]

ESP-Disk has a long history of documenting avant-garde musicians who never became well-known but deserved exposure nonetheless; drummer James Zitro was one of them. After Zitro [more]

Get your boarding passes ready and queue up for an interstellar journey in This Musicship piloted by Yuganaut, a crew of three intrepid explorers skilled in traveling the byways of space [more]