After 14 years in Squidco's existence we wonder why we're still excited about the new music that arrives almost daily. The answer to that riddle is the music itself: the more the industry pushes us to their preferred (and bland) stream of sound, the more the diversity of what we carry compels us to keep exploring, to find new approaches, ideas, or realizations of music that we've never heard before.
2016 was no exception, with about 825 new titles added to Squidco from labels around the world, a great mix of improvised, composed, intuitive, or indescribable music, a number of which meld all of those adjectives into a single release. As is our habit, we allow our customers to have the final say, and their picks are the first list. What follows is Philz' grudging list, grudging because he's the main buyer and stands behind most of what we sell. Still he has his favorites, and 25 of them are listed below the customer list. Carl Kruger, ceaseless audio explorer that he is, spent the most time on his list, which he works on during the year. Between the three lists there is a wealth of extremely interesting albums that you and we feel are worthy of your ear's time.
Customer Best Sellers for 2016
A list of the top 25 best sellers from 2016 releases in sales order.
Following that is:
Phil Zampino's Top List for 2016,
Carl Kruger's Top List for 2016.
 Angry Waves (Takyanagi / Ino / Yamazaki)
Angry Waves / Vol.1
(Jinya Disc)
The late free improvising Japanese guiatarist Takayanagi Masayuki's free jazz trio with an Albert Ayler intent, formed in 1982 with Nobuyoshi Ino on bass and Hiroshi Yamazaki on drums, a pre-cursor to Takayanaki's Action Direct.
 Angry Waves (Takyanagi / Ino / Yamazaki)
Angry Waves / Vol.2
(Jinya Disc)
The late free improvising Japanese guiatarist Takayanagi Masayuki's free jazz trio with an Albert Ayler intent, formed in 1982 with Nobuyoshi Ino on bass and Hiroshi Yamazaki on drums, a pre-cursor to Takayanaki's Action Direct.
 Ayler, Albert Quartet with Don Cherry
European Radio Studio Recordings 1964
(Hatology)
Recorded during Albert Ayler's 1964 European tour with Don Cherry on cornet, Gary Peacock on bass, and Sunny Murray on drums, perhaps Ayler's best band and most creative period, well captured at Hilversum in The Netherlands and for Danish Radio Copenhagen, Denmark.
 Braxton, Anthony
Quintet (Basel) 1977
(Hatology)
Reissuing and remastering Braxton's outstanding radio concert for Radio DRS in Safranzunft, Basel in 1977 in a quintet with George Lewis on trombone, Muhal Richard Abrams on piano, Mark Helias on double bass, and Charles "Bobo" Shaw on drums.
 Braxton, Anthony
Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993, 2nd Set
(Hatology)
Remaster of the exhilarating second set from saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton's concert at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, CA, 1993, one of 7 nights performing with the quartet of Marilyn Crispell on piano, Mark Dresser on bass, and Gerry Hemingway on percussion.
 Braxton, Anthony / Quartet
(Santa Cruz) 1993 1st Set [REPRESS]
(Hatology)
Reissuing and remastering saxophonist Anthony Braxton's stellar release documenting his 1993 live performance with Marilyn Crispell on piano, Mark Dresser on bass, and Gerry Hemingway on percussion & marimba, demanding collective improvisation from masterful players.
 Doran, Christy
In The Corner Of The Eye
(Hatology)
Irish guitarist Christy Doran in a quintet with NY Downtown stars Hank Roberts (cello) and Marty Ehrlich (reeds), UK legend Ray Anderson (trombone) and Swiss sax master Urs Leimgruber, in recordings from 1989-1991 showing incredible melodic, technical and creative skills.
 Eskelin, Ellery Trio (w/ Gary Versace / Gerry Hemingway)
Willisau Live
(Hatology)
2015 recordings of tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin's trio with Gary Versace on organ and Gerry Hemingway on drums, an ebullient set live at the Jazz Festival in Willisau, Switzerland, sequencing Count Basie, Victor Young, Ernie Burnett, and Thelonious Monk tunes.
 Feldman, Morton
Clarinet & String Quartet
(Hat [now] ART)
2 works for clarinet and string quartet, active compositions with a unique perspective in sound & texture; 2 versions of the 2 part 1961 work, and the larger 1983 composition.
 Fujiwara, Tomas / Ben Goldberg / Mary Halvorson
The Out Louds
(Relative Pitch)
The first release from the NY/West Coast trio of Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Ben Goldberg on clarinet, and Mary Halvorson on guitar, a collaborative improv of lyrical and nuanced improv, using great skill and sophistication in dialog that takes unexpected twists and turns.
 Geerken, Hartmut And Chris Trent
Omniverse Sun Ra [BOOK]
(Art Yard)
Originally published in 1994, Hartmut Geerken and Chris Trent's comprehensive reference of Sun Ra includes a pictorial and annotated discography, essays and photo documents, photographs; this 2nd edition adds new photographs, photo documents, and essays.
 Halvorson, Mary Octet
Away With You
(Firehouse 12 Records)
Mary Halvorson continues her string of excellent modern jazz albums with this octet release with fellow guitarist Susan Alcorn, Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Jon Irabagon & Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Jacob Garchik (trombone), John Hebert (bass) and Ches Smith (drums).
 Hawkins, Alexander / Evan Parker
Leaps in Leicester
(Clean Feed)
Established players on the London and European Free Jazz scene from two generations, saxophonist Evan Parker and pianist Alexander Hawkins come together for a duo of remarkable insight, technical skill, and inventive dialog from two masterful players.
 Lacy, Steve Four
Morning Joy ...Paris Live [reissue]
(Hatology)
One night at the Paris Sunset Club by saxophonist Steve Lacy's Quartet with Steve Potts on sax, Jean-Jacques Avenel on bass and Oliver Johnson on drums, performing an exuberant mix of Lacy originals and Thelonius Monk tunes, remastered & expanded for Hat's 40th Anniversary.
 Laubrock, Ingrid / Tom Rainey
Buoyancy
(Relative Pitch)
Drawing on several years and many shared projects, the duo of Ingrid Laubrock (sax) and Tom Rainey (drums) recorded this excellent album of sophisticated improvisation at the end of a 17-date tour, performing for a studio audience at Audio for the Arts in Madison, Wisconsin.
 Lyons, Jimmy
Push Pull [2CDs]
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Originally issued on the Hat Hut label as a 3-LP set, this 1978 recording of Cecil Taylor compatriot, saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, performing live at Collective for Living Cinema in New York in a unique band with Karen Borca (bassoon), Munner Bernard Fennel (cello) and Roger Blank (drums).
 Malaby, Tony Paloma Recio
Incantations
(Clean Feed)
NY Saxophonist Tony Malaby's Paloma Recio with Ben Monder on guitar, Eivind Opsvik on double bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums in a studio album performing Malaby's 4-part "Incantation Suite", lyrically free improvisation with a shimmering essence invoking dreamlike states.
 Moondoc, Jemeel / Hilliard Greene
Cosmic Nickelodeon
(Relative Pitch)
Jemeel Moondoc's third release on New York's Relative Pitch label is this duo with bassist Hilliar Greene, a soulful album of bluesy free playing, Greene's solid finger and bow work anchoring Moondoc for beautiful, informed, quirky and sincerely heartfelt playing.
 Morris, Joe
Perpetual Frontier The Properties of Free Music [BOOK]
(Riti Publishing)
Joe Morris wrote this book to discuss aspects of free music, including responses to his questionnaire written by Joe McPhee, William Parker, Jamie Saft, Ken Vandermark, Marilyn Crispell, Nate Wooley, Jack Wright, Matthew Shipp, &c.
 Morris, Joe
Shock Axis
(Relative Pitch)
A limited edition release of guitarist Joe Morri's new NY-area aggressive improvising trio with younger players Dave Parmelle on drums and Chris Cretella on electric bass, shredding with awesome technical skill and intense harmonic and melodic force, really powerful stuff!
 Oliveros, Pauline / Roscoe Mitchell / John Tilbury / Wadada Leo Smith
Nessuno
(Angelica)
The unexpected and open-minded quartet of Pauline Oliveros, Roscoe Mitchell, John Tilbury and Wadada Leo Smith performing live in Italy at the Angelika Festival in 2011, presenting the three part improvised work "Nessuno"; delicate, virtuosic, rewarding music from 4 masters.
 Swell's, Steve Kende Dreams (Swell/ Brown / Crothers / Parker / Taylor)
Hommage A Bartok
(Silkheart)
Trombonist Steve Swell presents an homage to composer Bela Bartok, applying jazz techniques to the composer's music to find something new and unexpected, in an amazing quintet with Connie Crothers (piano), William Parker (bass), Chad Taylor (drums) & Rob Brown (sax).
 Taylor, Cecil
Garden, 2nd Set
(Hatology)
The second set of Cecil Taylor's superb live set at Grosser Saal Volkshaus, in Basel, Switzerland in 1981, performing solo over five improvisations, presented for the first time in the original concert sequence.
 Threadgill, Henry Ensemble Double Up
Old Locks and Irregular Verbs
(Pi Recordings)
Henry Threadgill's tribute to friend, composer-conductor Lawrence D. Butch Morris, in a detailed 4-part work with an excellent set of improvisers: Henry Threadgill, Jose Davila, Jason Moran, Christopher Hoffman, David Virelles, Roman Filiu, Curtis Macdonald, and Craig Weinrib.
 Turner, Roger / Satoh Masahiko / Otomo Yoshihide
Live at Hall Egg Farm
(Doubtmusic)
During legendary UK free improvising drummer Roger Turner's 2015 tour of Japan he met with guitarist Otomo Yoshihide and pianist Satoh Masahiko to record this monumental and astounding 66 minute improvisation at Fukaya City's Hall Egg Farm.
Phil Zampino's Top 25 for 2016
As I wrote last year, these are presented (mostly) in release order, so the
position in the list does not suggest that any one release is "better" than any other. Because they draw from so many of approaches to making music, and some are multi-disc sets that include material from various times and configurations, it seems wrong to try to rate them further. In 2015 we added roughly 825 titles to our catalog, so one way of looking at these titles is to delcare them my top 3%. Given that most of the releases we carry are directly recommended or related to important labels or artists, it somewhat of a crime to not include many more qualifying releases. Needless to say, this was a difficult list to compile.
 Icepick (Nate Wooley, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten & Chris Corsano)
Amaranth [VINYL + DOWNLOAD CODE]
(Astral Spirits)
Nate Wooley (trumpet), Chris Corsano (percussion) and Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten (bass) recording in Austin, TX for their first proper release as Icepick, 3 tracks of powerfully creative and downright smoldering modern jazz using exceptional skill and passion.
 Rova Channeling Coltrane
Electric Ascension - Live At The 2012 Guelph Festival + "Cleaning The Mirror - A Documentary by John Rogers" [Blu Ray + DVD + CD]
(RogueArt)
Rova led by saxophonist Larry Ochs expands their translation of John Coltrane's "Ascension" in this amazing 3 disc CD/DVD/BluRay set of their cathartic performance at the 2012 Guelph Jazz Festival with a stellar lineup including Mazurek, Frith, Cline, Mori, Drake, &c &c.
Ayler, Albert Quartet with Don Cherry
European Radio Studio Recordings 1964
(Hatology)
Recorded during Albert Ayler's 1964 European tour with Don Cherry on cornet, Gary Peacock on bass, and Sunny Murray on drums, perhaps Ayler's best band and most creative period, well captured at Hilversum in The Netherlands and for Danish Radio Copenhagen, Denmark.
Threadgill, Henry Ensemble Double Up
Old Locks and Irregular Verbs
(Pi Recordings)
Henry Threadgill's tribute to friend, composer-conductor Lawrence D. Butch Morris, in a detailed 4-part work with an excellent set of improvisers: Henry Threadgill, Jose Davila, Jason Moran, Christopher Hoffman, David Virelles, Roman Filiu, Curtis Macdonald, and Craig Weinrib.
 Bowles, Paul
Music of Morocco: Recorded by Paul Bowles, 1959 [4CD & BOOK + DOWNLOAD]
(Dust-to-Digital)
A beautiful box set presenting 4 CDs that author and musicologist Paul Bowles recorded in 1959 of Moroccan, Algerian and North African music, with a 120 page leatherette book of liner notes by Philip Schuyler, field notes by Paul Bowles, and an introduction by Lee Ranaldo.
 Koch, Hans / Thomas Peter
Wucherungen
(Herbal International)
A dynamic set of wind and object improvisations from multi-reedist Hans Koch, using extended techniques to elicit a diverse and astounding range of sounds from his instruments, and Thomas Peter creating indescribable sound on amplified objects and live electronics.
 Brooklyn Express, The (Fonda / Tononi / Cavallanti / Swell / Robertson)
No Time Left!
(Long Song Records)
Long time collaborators, Italian saxophonist Daniele Cavallanti and drummer Tiziano Tononi, travelled to NYC to record with friends new and old, the results of which are this dynamic free jazz album recorded with Steve Swell (trombone), Herb Robertson (cornet) and Joe Fonda (bass).
 Gustafsson, Mats And Friends
MG 50 - Peace & Fire [4 CD BOX SET]
(Trost Records)
A box set documenting the October 2015 3-day event held at Porgy and Bess in Vienna for the 50th birthday of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson (The Thing, Fire! and innumerable duo/trio/ensemble formations) with a who's-who of collaborators invited to join in various formations.
 Nilssen-Love, Paal
News From the Junkyard [VINYL]
(PNL)
Assembling a wide range of percussive instruments accumulated through world travels, from Korean gongs to scrap metal sheets from Ethiopia, Paal Nilssen-Love presents an intense and wide-ranging solo percussion tour-de-force, recorded in Oslo by frequent collaborator Lasse Marhaug.
 Harth, Alfred 23 / Wolfgang Seidel
Five Eyes
(Moloko Records)
A fascinating psychedelic stew of improv and audio construction dovetailing tremendous playing with unexpected concrete and electronic interventions from the duo of Alfred 23 Harth on reeds, trombone, keys, and misc., and Wolfgang Seidel on drums, percussion and misc.
 RED Trio w/ John Butcher
Summer Skyshift
(Clean Feed)
The second collaboration between the Portugese Red Trio of Rodrigo Pinheiro (piano), Hernani Faustino (double bass) and Gabriel Ferrandini (drums) with UK saxophonist John Butcher, performing live at Jazz em Agosto Festival in 2015, revealing new aspects to their project.
 The International Nothing
The Power Of Negative Thinking
(Monotype)
The 4th album from The International Nothing, originally the clarinet duo of Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke, now extended with Christian Weber on double bass and Eric Schaefer on percussion, adding new facets to their sonic spectrum of precise microtonal interaction.
 Wooley, Nate
Seven Storey Mountain V
(Pleasure of the Text Records)
The 5th of 7 large and inspiring works that began with a Festival of New Trumpet commission in 2007, here in an ensemble of 19 players including C. Spencer Yeh, Ben Vida, Ben Hall, Matt Moran, Chris Dingman, Dan Peck, Josh Sinton, Colin Stetson, the TILT brass octet, &c.
 Wooley / Antunes / Queijo / Costa / Corsano
Purple Patio [VINYL]
(NoBusiness)
A very open album of improvisation, using an intensely responsive section of three drums and one bass, with Wooley in amazing form playing about the fray, from introspective reserve to seething runs, supported by a wicked undercurrent of astounding, criss-crossing rhythm.
 Rammel, Hal
The Amplified Palette: A History in Pictures [BOOK + 2 CDS]
(Penumbra)
A book and 2 CDs celebrating the 25th anniversary of this unusual and fascinating musical instrument designed and built by Hal Rammel, an artist's palette outfitted with a contact mic and vertically-mounted rods, played with a variety of uniquely designed bows and mallets.
 Baron, Marc
Un Salon Au Fond D'un Lac
(Potlatch)
Beautifully paced and enigmatically interesting compositions from Marc Baron, using only analog processes in three compositions for reel to reel tape, blending field recordings, cut-up, noise, found sound, pre-recorded and degraded tapes in unusual and absorbing ways.
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