Gambian kora virtuoso Dawda Jobarteh and Danish master drummer Stefan Pasborg join forces to release their exhilarating live album, ‘Live In Turku’. A captivating fusion of traditional West African sounds and contemporary improvisation, the record is set to release on April Records on May 17th.

Keef Hartley came to prominence as a member of the british R&B group the artwoods before joining John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in 1967. He contributed to the album crusade before leaving in 1968 to form the first line-up of his own band. He recorded his first album, "Halfbreed" for Decca's Deram label in March 1969. Regarded as a classic of the fusion of rock, jazz and blues, Hartley went one better later in the year by changing the lineup of his band to include gifted guitarist, vocalist and writer Miller Anderson. This new band recorded the wonderful "The Battle Of North West Six" for decca later that year, around the same time they performed at the legendary Woodstock Festival. Unavailable for many years, Esoteric Recordings are pleased to reissue the album with liner notes by Keef Hartley.

This reissue of Overdog features the bonus single edits of Roundabout, one of their best loved and most powerful works. Along with a reissue of The Time is Near, this release sees the beginning of a reissue campaign by Esoteric Recordings of the classic Keef Hartley Band albums.
After the subtleties and suppleness of 1970's The Time Is Near…, the Keef Hartley Band's third full-length, the group returned the following year with Overdog, a set that kicks them into overdrive. Opening with a dramatic flourish of wah-wah guitar, the anthemic "You Can Choose" instantly wipes all memories of the intricate design of the preceding album off the board. Big and brash, "Choose" pounds rock into funk with savage delight…

The mystical figure On Ka'a Davis returns for his second CD on Tzadik, and his first in twenty-five years - Blending the psychedelia of Sun Ra with Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix, this is an epic, direct from the ever-growing counterculture of Downtown New York - Performing on guitar, synth keyboard, programmed sounds, and percussion On is joined here by Don McKenzie on drums and Ali Ali on trumpet. Years in the making the music is wild, varied, and intensely felt. A New York Underground classic!

Formed in 1972, this ethnic/kraut jazz quintet (Jochen Leuschner, Reinhard Karwatky, Gerd Bock-Ehrmann, Deiter Kramer, and Ludwig Braun) released their self titled album the same year in a relative discretion. This album made an exploration in long / space rock improvisations relied on jazz grooves and weird electro -acoustic sounds. The "ethnic", mystical elements are obvious notably due to the acoustic percussions rhythm sections. Compositions are mainly instrumental and improvised, brightly showing the technical capacities of the musicians. After several departures the band will be organised under a trio form, recording in 1973 the seminal "Time Machine". This album features astonishing manifestations of freaky fusion jazz exercises mixed with weird experimentations and mysticism. This album was recorded at Dieter Dierk's mythical studio…

Keeping a band together, particularly among the mercurial community of jazz musicians, is no small feat. Other gigs beckon. Life outside of making art takes precedence. It’s a reality that makes the continued existence and progression of Portland quintet Blue Cranes feel so momentous. The ensemble — saxophonists Reed Wallsmith and Joe Cunningham, drummer Ji Tanzer, keyboardist Rebecca Sanborn, and bassist Jon Shaw — has been working together in a variety of formats since 2004, creating a solid body of work that has connected them to both the traditional sounds and the future-minded artists of their chosen genre.

Criminally underrated at the time, but borne into legend by the unspeakable tragedies that awaited its makers, the debut album by Patto can safely be described among the finest jazz-rock fusion albums ever cut by a British band. Mike Patto's vocals certainly match that billing, a throaty, emotive sound that puts one in mind of the effect that Steve Winwood spent much of his career pursuing, while first lieutenant Ollie Halsall's reputation as one of the era's hottest guitarists is revealed as only one of the strings to his bow - early into the opening "The Man," he unleashes a mean vibraphone solo as well. However, "Hold Me Back" quickly restates his lead duty and, though the song itself is little more than a crude rewrite of the Rolling Stones' "Stray Cat Blues," the riffs that scythe through the brew are sparkling enough to camouflage any lyrical redundancies…

Odd Brew is an idiosyncratic Finnish band, collecting elements from a diverse range of musics, such as Top 40 pop songs, classical tunes, Finnish folk, West African music, progressive rock, 80s fusion, and smashing them all into a blender full of jazz. Arranging and original compositions are penned by the bandleader Santeri Kaipiainen.

Formed as soon as 68 under the name psychotic reaction, this band evolved in two different era, the group changed their name to Missus Beastly (from the Negro doll Mistress Beastly) but was among the first of the jazz-rock progressive group in Germany, but folded after just one album recorded (soon bootlegged with a totally different artwork) in early 70 with a nascent groundbreaking jazz-rock. It must be said that the happy-go-lucky feeling of that era had the group evolve from the standard prog quartet to a sextet and even a heptet within months, obviously not too worried about financial matters, which soon brought the band to an end. The group even managed to have their names stolen from them and an usurping group managed to release a few albums under this name…

This is where Miles Davis turned funk into jazz, rock into soul, and chaos into Beauty. With a rotating cast of bands featuring keyboardists Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea, guitarist John McLaughlin, percussionist Airto Moreira, saxophonists Gary Bartz and Wayne Shorter, and myriad other explorers, Davis kept up with the times…and surpassed them. He rocked harder than Sly, got funkier than J.B., and turned jazz inside out, slicing the music open till blood spilled on to the floor. More focused than Bitches Brew, which is all the more surprising since it's actually a piecemeal recording from various dates and venues–some in the studio, some on stage, but all very much l-i-v-e.

Heaven, a Progressive/Jazz Rock group from Portsmouth, burst forth onto the British rock scene in 1970 when they appeared at the legendary Isle of Wight festival sharing a bill with The Who, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix et al. Making a stunning debut, the band (now managed by festival organiser Rikki Farr), soon secured a recording deal with CBS Records who signed the band for a large advance. The resulting double album 'Brass Rock 1' appeared in 1971, adorned in a lavish fold-out sleeve. Well received critically, the album failed to achieve the expected success and Heaven soon disbanded, leaving behind a fine example of classic jazz rock. Officially released on CD for the first time, this Esoteric Recordings reissue is digitally re-mastered from the original master tapes and restores the artwork of the album in full.

More than three decades after being founded by Leslie Mandoki, Mandoki Soulmates not only set new musical standards with their album "A Memory Of Our Future", but also present a masterpiece of production technology: the entire album was recorded and produced in analog form - from the first note to the finished vinyl.

U.K. is the self-titled debut album by the progressive rock supergroup U.K., released in May 1978 through E.G. Records and Polydor Records. It features John Wetton, Eddie Jobson, Bill Bruford, and Allan Holdsworth. "In the Dead of Night" and "Mental Medication" were both edited for single release. The album was well received by FM album rock radio and by the public during the summer of 1978. In 2015 Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as the 30th best progressive rock album of all time.

Flat Earth Society Orchestra (FES) is approaching a quarter-century of unreliable music production, with a mission that remains burningly topical and a role that is still not played out. On The One, the indomitable Belgian institute takes on the single-mindedness of truth. In a maddening world of jumbling perspectives, bawling personalities and hunger for comprehension, "The One" has become the highest good. One truth, one clarity, one version, one story.