After the train-wreck disaster of Holdsworth's first solo release, the infamous Velvet Darkness, it wasn't until three years later that he reconsidered doing a real solo release versus the earlier ripoff of an authorized studio mishmash product he suffered. So in 1979 he recorded I.O.U. on a wing and a prayer and loans (ergo, an IOU recording project). With his very successful stints with other groups in the intervening time period, such as UK and Bruford, Holdsworth's guitar prowess and name were clearly on the map. Holdsworth now needed to be the leader he clearly was and thus release an official solo record. The real Allan Holdsworth unleashed is at last revealed on I.O.U. in his original compositions and well-crafted soloing, versus being merely part of a group and forced to stay within certain boundaries of other bandmates' design. I.O.U., as a solo release, is high-quality jazz fusion interplay, offering emotive compositions, ethereal guitar atmospherics, complex chordal progressions, and intense legato explosions of guitar that set the standard for many guitarists to come. There is no acoustic guitar this time, but a wee bit of Holdsworth on violin appears in one song.

For a little background, back in the '80s the SynthAxe was invented. It looked like something that fell out of a UFO. It was guitar-like with sets of strings and other onboard controls that allowed the triggering (playing) of synthesizers. What was unique was that guitarists could therefore play a synthesizer without needing a great amount of keyboard expertise. The SynthAxe was the interface that very uniquely interpreted a guitarist's skill into synth sounds. For guitarist Allan Holdsworth, it was yet a whole new way to achieve the sounds unvoiced in his soul in ways he just couldn't do with a standard guitar. Holdsworth has always sought a horn-like voicing with the ability to manipulate a note in a myriad of ways. He is known for being one of the most unique stylists on guitar, but it is the SynthAxe that allows him to go places a guitar can't reach. This release was special in that it marks Holdsworth's first use of the SynthAxe alongside electric guitar.

Bamboo present the first ever reissue of Paul Bley's The Paul Bley Synthesizer Show, originally released in 1971. This stunning album was recorded over three sessions in New York City on December 9th, 1970, January 21st, 1971, and March 9th, 1971. The Paul Bley Synthesizer Show produces new songs and tough translations of previous works from Mr. Joy while joining the likes of other seminal works in 1972's Dual Unity (BAM 7018CD/LP), 1971's Improvisie (BAM 7019CD/LP), and Bley-Peacock Synthesizer Show's Revenge: The Greater The Love, The Bigger The Hate (1971). Featuring the songs of Annette Peacock, this collection sets another milestone in the abstract, free jazz spectrum and joins the above trilogy in celebrating an innovative and iconic figure. A classic piece of Paul Bley's work with synthesized free jazz in the 1970s – an essential release for fans of free jazz, fusion, and progressive music. Includes liners with interviews, background notes, and rare archival photos.

Soul Jazz Records’ new album ‘Kaleidoscope – New Spirits Known and Unknown’ brings together many of the ground-breaking artists involved in the new jazz scene that has developed in the UK over the last few years. Featured artists include Matthew Halsall, Yazmin Lacey, Ill Considered, Tenderlonious, Theon Cross, Emma-Jean Thackray and many, many more in this ground-breaking release.

Oscar Peterson, Count Basie, Art Tatum, Ahmad Jamal and more!

Nat King Cole, Bille Holiday, Chet Baker, Miles Davis and more!

On November 23, 2024, Avishai Cohen and his Quintet gathered at the world-renowned Little Big Beat Studio for a special Studio Live Session. In the intimate setting of this legendary space, Cohen was joined by Roni Kaspi (drums), Itay Simhovich (piano), Yuval Drabkin (saxophone), and Yonathan Voltzok (trombone). Together they created a performance that was both powerful and delicate, marked by spontaneity, deep interplay, and the unmistakable energy of musicians fully attuned to one another.

A White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean (1973). While it still lies much closer to Nashville than Key West (like in the boisterous slide guitar solo that lights up "The Great Filling Station Holdup"), Jimmy Buffett's A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean does begin to delineate the blowsy, good-timin' Key West persona that would lead him to summer tour stardom and the adoration of millions of drinking buddies everywhere. "Why Don't We Get Drunk," "Railroad Lady," and "Grapefruit - Juicy Fruit" rightly became crowd pleasers. But Buffett reveals himself a storyteller with the touching sigh of "He Went to Paris," where a slide guitar appears again to lend a subtle gleam to the arrangement, or in the gorgeous, sweetly sad tale of a passed-away poet's unlikely posthumous success…

Though an expectedly eclectic mix of blues, calypso, Caribbean music, and bits of reggae, disco, and other pop forms, Music Fuh Ya (Musica Para Tu) was not one of Mahal's more inspired outings. No one could criticize Mahal for lack of ambition in his efforts to integrate more styles into the folk-blues blend at the core of his music. But the surfeit of instrumentation, particularly the steel drums, were sometimes distractions more than enhancements, resulting in a forced, slick party atmosphere to cuts like "You Got It." Something like a cover of the blues-folk classic "Freight Train" plays much more to Mahal's strengths, but the trimmings of jazzy sax and steel drums aren't necessary when Taj alone could do a more convincing version…

Scott LaFaro left us a very small number of recordings due to his unexpected and untimely death in 1961. He was a genius who developed a revolutionary way of playing the bass. Whether a studio or live recording, they are all worth listening to. This album consists of three ABC "Stars of Jazz" TV programs as well as a very rare rehearsal session at Bob Andrews' Recordville, the record store belonging to Andrews, the famous devotee of the West Coast jazz scene. All are 1958 performances while Scott was with the Victor Feldman group.

A German band formed in 1978 largely of musicians from the Giessen region, Anabis produced three studio albums before disbanding in 1988. The band's music has proven somewhat difficult to classify, with a psychedelic element that has been compared to fellow countrymen Eloy, and a singer (Holger Sann) who has engendered comparisons to the theatrics of Gabriel-era Genesis.

Experimental musician Claire Rousay and visual artist Dani Toral have been in each others’ orbit since young adulthood in San Antonio, but it took a decade for them to find A Softer Focus. Before Rousay had put her compositional gray matter to task for the album’s music, she knew she wanted to work with Toral- being familiar with her past work centering her Mexican heritage. Toral’s vibrant color palette and reinterpretations of comfort in oneself and the natural, vegetative world connected easily with her explorations in communication and intimacy. Historically, Rousay primarily operated in non-melodic experimental music, sculpting compositions from obsessive field recordings, inserting voice-to-text, percussion played via text message sounds, conversations, and daily life…