Improvised

Cecil Taylor – Bemsha Swing (1956)

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“Cecil Taylor: Pianist, poet, free jazz pioneer — died 4/5/18 in his home.
A truly distinctive voice on piano, Cecil Taylor was a free jazz composer, performer, and improvisationist whose approach to the instrument often had people likening his style to playing a set of “88 tuned drums.” Starting his solo career in the ’50s, Taylor’s unconventional approach often had him swimming upstream as he waited for music critics and listeners to catch up to the sounds he was making. His career hit a groove in the ’70s, which included a performance in Jimmy Carter’s White House, and Taylor released an impressive number of albums over a career that stretched from 1956 to 2010.” Source

Thought Gang – A Real Indication (2018/early ’90s)

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“By the time Twin Peaks’ second season had aired and Fire Walk With Me had just began principle production, Thought Gang had been born. The esoteric jazz side-project of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti evolved from the seeds of Twin Peaks’ trademark slow cool jazz and blossomed into more experimental pastures: horizonless vistas of acid-soaked free-jazz, laced with spoken word narratives and sprawling noisescapes. Fire Walk With Me’s soundtrack would ultimately showcase two preliminary tracks (‘A Real Indication’ and ‘The Black Dog Runs at Night’) from a full-length album that wouldn’t see release for the next two and a half decades. Between May of 1992, and continuing throughout 1993, the bulk of the remaining material for the album was recorded in pieces. This dove-tailed into a string of contracted sessions for other Lynch-Badalamenti projects.” Source

Mythic Sunship – Elevation (2018)

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“Danish psych-rockers Mythic Sunship looked to the cosmic journeying of ’70s Krautrock and free jazz scenes as well as the volume of early proto-metal for a sound that hedged toward the heavier side of exploratory instrumental rock. The band created sounds that were dark and druggy, tending toward long-form jams that melted guitar riffs into a stew of echoes, eventually branching out to include explosive saxophone in their swarms of feedback.” Source

Albert Mangelsdorff Quartet – Never Let It End (Spanish Waltz for La Singla)(1970)

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Albert Mangelsdorff – trombone
Heinz Sauer – saxophone (tenor, alto)
Günter Lenz – bass
Ralf Hübner – drums, percussion

Label: MPS Records – MPS 15274
Format: Vinyl, LP; Country: Germany – Released: 1970
Style: Free Jazz
Recorded March 23rd, 1970 Walldorf Studio, Frankfurt, Germany.
Engineer – Torsten Wintermeier
Producer – Joachim Ernst Berendt
Fotos by Inge Werth, cover and graphic work by Günter Kieser

“Mangelsdorff hielt das Never Let It End-Album für eine besonders geglückte Aufnahme seines damaligen Quartetts; er erinnerte dabei besonders an die Solo-Passagen von Heinz Sauer auf dem Altsaxophon und die kollektiv improvisierten Parts. Mangelsdorff zählte Never Let It End zudem zu den herausragenden Alben der europäischen Szene, gerade durch die Verbindung zwischen freier Improvisation und einem gewissen Haften an der Tradition; er bedauerte nur die wenig engagierte Vermarktungsstrategie durch MPS nach der Veröffentlichung des Original-Albums in den 1970er Jahren.” Wiki

The Dreamers & John Zorn – Gormenghast (2015)

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Taken from: Pellucidar~A Dreamers Fantabula
Credits:
Cyro Baptista: Percussion
Joey Baron: Drums
Trevor Dunn: Bass
Marc Ribot: Guitar
Jamie Saft: Keyboards
Kenny Wollesen: Vibraphone
John Zorn: Arranger, Composer, Conductor, Producer

“The peculiar thing about Dreamers is that despite the stunning musical acumen of all involved, they aren’t really what one would call a “musician’s band”. Their performances are impressive, but in a subtle way. There are no flights of fancy, just an atmosphere to drape over your senses. When a cozy blanket is covering you, you don’t think about the individual fibers. And when you listen to a Dreamers album, you don’t think about Trevor Dunn’s time in Mr. Bungle. You think about how sweet life is and how having another Dreamers album is now a part of that sweet life.” Source

Masada – Ne’eman (2000)

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Live in Sevilla, recorded and released in the year 2000, is arguably the finest document in this extremely prolific jazz quartet’s catalog. If there’s anyone who still believes that John Zorn is nothing more than an avant-garde screamer, look no further. The interplay between Zorn’s alto and the trumpet of Dave Douglas is nothing short of amazing, and each one’s soloing is focused and intense. Joey Baron and Greg Cohen are a fantastic rhythm section; Cohen acts as anchor while Baron playfully dances around the beat, simultaneously supplying a driving pulse. Even when Zorn and Douglas enter the realm of extended techniques (as on the end of “Ne’eman”), Cohen and Baron keep things firmly grounded.”Allmusic

John Zorn – HuDie (胡蝶) (1995)

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Hu Die
Guitar – Bill Frisell, Fred Frith
Lyrics By [Text] – Arto Lindsay
Narrator – Zhang Jinglin
Recorded By [1986] – Kramer
Recorded By, Mixed By – Seigen Ono
Translated By – Ruby Chang

“New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands is an album by American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist John Zorn consisting of improvised music from paired instruments and narration in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. The pieces are listed individually within Zorn’s game pieces and were composed in 1986, 1988 and 1990 respectivel” Wiki

Buck Jam Tonic – Old Dragon (2003)

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Bass – Bill Lazwell*
Drums – Tatsuya Nakamura
Mixed By – Bill Laswell (tracks: 2-1 to 2-3), Tatsuya Nakamura (tracks: 1-1 to 1-5)
Saxophone – John Zorn

“Buck Jam Tonic is a double album of improvised music by John Zorn, Bill Laswell & Tatsuya Nakamura released on the Japanese WildDisk label in 2003 and consists of one disc mixed in Tokyo and another mixed in New York City. A vinyl edition was also released containing only the Tokyo mix” Wiki

Szun Waves – Constellation (2018)

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“Szun Waves’ jazz is as grounded by the earth’s elements as it is afloat in space. The experimental trio, comprised of Luke Abbott, Portico Quartet’s Jack Wyllie, and Laurence Pike of PVT, released their debut album At Sacred Walls in 2016, which recalled the celestial jazz of Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra mixed in with a grimier rock crunch. “Constellation,” the lead single from Szun Waves’ forthcoming record New Hymn to Freedom, draws from the same astral inspiration, expanding galaxies of sound while evoking earthy imagery.” Source