Jazz Compilations from 001 Records

001 Records is three labels in one. The Chilean label has its electronic label, an ambient-drone-noise-space-experimental label called Organic Acoustic, and a jazz compilation series.

Recórcholis, the first in the jazz series, knocked our socks off when it was released in 2010 and remains one of our all-time favorite free jazz albums. It is proof that jazz is alive and well and thriving in the República de Chile.

We have not spent as much time with Replicas, the second in the series, but it is high quality jazz, as well.

The label writes, "'Recórcholis (Perdimos A Uno)' by Claudio Rubio, one of Chile’s 'new jazz' saxophonists, was commissioned in December of 2009 to headline a series of compilations of music created during the year. Thus the CD Recórcholis is snapshot of a very productive season in which composers and improvisors have recorded works that mark the route to higher levels in Chilean jazz."

In addition to the official website, 001 Records is also on the Internet Archive where you will also find easy downloads of the jazz comps

Volume 1: Recórcholis
Volume 2: Replicas

Music License: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND

Free-Jazz from White Russia

Viktar Siamashka and Co, a free-jazz quartet in Mink, Bielarus, just released their Biotope album on the avant-garde netlabel Black Square (Чёрный квадрат). These spontaneous improvised pieces were recorded live "in anticafe Fisher House, Miensk, Bielarus" and fans of improvised free-jazz will want to hear this one.

Siamashka performs beautifully on woodwinds and brass. The group -- Viktar Siamashka (winds, percussion), Eryk Arlou-Shymus (double-bass), Maxim Iukin (voice, percussion), Raman Jarash (big drum) -- holds together as if they have played these pieces for years.

"Free music from 'the last dictatorship in Europe'. Spontaneous improvisation. Operative composing. Something at the intercrossing of free-jazz, folk, academic and electronic music. All compositions were created together, alive, 'here and now' and without the using of phonograms or rehearse fragments."
-- Viktar Siamashka and Co

Official Website | Black Square |  Album Review on Experty.by (Belarussian music site)

Download album
Black Square | Internet Archive

Location: Minsk, Belarus
Music License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

Incredible Shrinking Band

Stealing Orchestra continues to give away the albums they originally released commercially. The newest free offering is their album, The Incredible Shrinking Band, originally released in 2003 on Zounds/Sabotage.

The album is just what you have come to expect from Stealing Orchestra, instrumental performances with copious samples presented as rock, alternative, free jazz, waltzes, and weirdness. The world is a better place with creative musicians like these infiltrating the music.



license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License

Recently Added to the FMA

Some albums recently added to the Free Music Archive by Oddio Overplay

Aaron Ximm - Handpans and the Hang
Aaron Ximm, also known as the Quiet American, is well-known for his One Minute Vacations project and his field recordings. In this casual recording, Ximm continues to be a quiet American as he experiments with a hang with calm, unearthly results....


Ant Neely - Not Fit For Human Consumption
Elements of Fat Boy Slim and John Barry collide with a mixture of funky beats, bleeps, old public domain voice recordings and orchestral textures. Contains elements of Morse Code, old educational film clips (courtesy of the Prelinger Archives) and is part of a Geotracking experiment....

Arrizabalaga, Bravo, Laginestra, Martinez - Contenido
Free-jazz improv from Spain featuring Pelayo Arrizabalaga of the Breuss Arrizabalaga Quintet

Various Artists [Freesound.org] - Walla Walla Walla 
Walla walla is the American term for atmospheric crowd background sounds in film and radio. In Japan, it is known as gaya, rhubarb the UK, rhabarber in Germany, and rabarbar in the Belguim, Netherlands, and Scandinavia.... This collection features actual groups and crowds recorded all over the world and generously donated for reuse at Freesound.org. Such recordings may be helpful to and appreciated by FMA visitors creating audio and video productions.

2010 Gold

After repeatedly playing FMA favorites in an attempt to list the top 10 tracks among those added to the archive this year, it was clear that there is just too much music worth celebrating at the FMA. The task soon morphed into praising the best five to ten selections for many genres in 12 mixes.
These are genre specific mixes showcasing recordings added to the Free Music Archive in 2010 that have been favorites at the Oddio Overplay headquarters this year.

Choice Cuts Added to the FMA in 2010: Oddio Overplay's picks across genres

2010 Gold: Beats
2010 Gold: Classical
2010 Gold: Gentle People, Folk
2010 Gold: Jazz
2010 Gold: Old Time, Historic
2010 Gold: People's Music, International
2010 Gold: Pop
2010 Gold: Rock
2010 Gold: Soul, Rhythm and Blues
2010 Gold: Space Age Pop Styles
2010 Gold: Spoken, Poetry, Field Recordings
2010 Gold: The Avant Garde, Far-Flung Genres

image: Women musicians in a detail of a fresco in Chehel Sotoun ("Forty Columns" in Persian) Palace, Esfahan, Iran, c. 1650

Frigiliana Free Jazz by Breuss Arrizabalaga Quintet

This fantastic, energetic concert of free jazz was performed by the Breuss Arrizabalaga Quintet in Frigiliana, Málagua, Spain on 19 July 2003. (Tracks 9 and 10 were recorded in performance in Madrid.) The concert was released as an album, Nfamoudou-Boudougou, on Hazard Records.

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s. The music created by free jazz pioneers varied widely, but the artists shared a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the preceding decade.

Free jazz musicians attempt to "alter, extend, or break down the conventions of jazz, often by discarding hitherto invariable features of jazz, such as fixed chord changes or tempos. While usually considered experimental and avant-garde, free jazz has also oppositely been conceived as an attempt to return jazz to its 'primitive', often religious roots, and emphasis on collective improvisation."* (* source: Wikipedia)

album license: Public Domain License