All Categories — CDs  

A classic session of Italian modernist jazz – led by bassist Giorgio Azzolini, and featuring searing trumpet work by Enrico Rava! Pianist Franco D'Andrea and drummer Aldo Romano complete the group – and the tracks show a definite influence of the free jazz stylings that were sweeping... read more

A lost Italian gem from the 60s! Bassist Giorgio Azzolini was one of Italy's best players during the postwar years, and this handsome reissue brings to light one of his rarer sessions from the 60s. The record's a lyrical septet session, with Azzolini's warm round basslines right up front, and... read more

Mindblowing work from the early years of Schema Records – a set that really helped set a whole new tone for a generation – and which still sounds wonderful all these many hears later! Balanco work up a perfect blend of bossa rhythms and soulful jazz – all wrapped up with the kind... read more

One of the most soulful albums we've heard from Schema in many years – a brilliant batch of jazzy tracks from singer Andrea Balducci – served up with backing by a great lineup of players from both the Ricky Tick and Schema worlds! The core approach is jazz, but many of the songs are... read more

An incredible full length debut from vocalist Mario Biondi – a jazz singer we'd rank right up there with the legendary Mark Murphy – supported here with great backings from the High Five Quintet! The grooves here are in a soaring, tightly-stepping style – very much the best club... read more

A sparkling set of Latin jazz, done the Schema way – which means that the team of Favrizio Bosso and Javier Girotto are even tighter than on their previous release for Blue Note! The best tracks here bristle with an upbeat sense of rhythm that's undeniable – grooves that roll out... read more

A swirling blend of soul, funk, and jazzy grooves – and a super-rare album that we've never seen in the original! Supposedly, backing on the record is by the British Afro-Funk group Assagai – which sounds right to us, because there's a nice rolling conga groove on many of the tracks. ... read more

An incredible set of funky piano tunes from 70s Italy – featuring the sweet electric keyboards of Johnny Cabildo, grooving like work from a lost funky blacksploitation soundtrack! The album's got a dozen totally hot funk instrumentals, with a cool Italian Fender Rhodes feel, and nice Latin... read more

Very very very cool stuff from Italy in the 70's. This tight little combo featuring Fender Rhodes, electric bass, and congas lays down some super tight grooves with a very deep, very funky, very laid back feel. Originally intended for soundtrack use in TV and commercials, this disc has finally... read more

One of the more obscure reissues to come out on the great Rearward imprint – but an excellent lost session of piano jazz, recorded in Milan in 1969! Pianist Oscar Rocchi has a sweet soulful approach to the piano, with a tone that's almost slightly funky at times – partly in reflection... read more

Incredible work from Nicola Conte – Schema records maestro making his Blue Note debut with this set – and giving the label one of their best new albums of the 21st Century! The record's quite different than Nicola's programmed dancefloor work for Schema – and is much more of an... read more

A long-overdue collection of all the mixes, side-projects, and rare "Nicola Conte version" tracks that have cropped up in the past decade or so – work that's every bit as great as the material Conte includes on his own albums and singles! Nicola Conte's not a remixer – he's a... read more

Another great achievement from this groovy Italian group – an album that's head and shoulders above anything they were doing just a few short years ago! The Dining Rooms deep to deepen their sound more and more with each new record – hitting a range of tones and colors that take them... read more

The 3rd album by The Dining Rooms (in case you couldn't guess by the title!) – and the best so far! These guys have really matured from earlier outings – moving into a sophisticated realm of downtempo soundscapes crafted with a great deal of care, and which are put together with a lot... read more

Remixes and rare tracks from the mighty Gerardo Frisina – easily our second favorite Italian groover next to the mighty Nicola Conte! The set's a great counterpart to some of Frisina's other full albums on Schema – because it not only presents a few previously unreleased tracks, it... read more

An overlooked gem from the early years of Schema Records – a straight jazz set that crackles with classic modal energy! The group's really a great one – and features some tremendous trumpet from Fabrizio Bosso – plus trombone from Gianluca Petrella, piano from Stefano Bollani,... read more

The sound of Ricky Tick hits Schema Records – with a whole new groove in the process! Tenorist Timo Lassy has won our ears strongly with his previous records for Finnish label Ricky Tick – hardbop groovers that are filled with soul and life, and lots of spontaneous live jazz playing. ... read more

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Just a few of the songs here are from the 60s, and many of the rest are written by Gaetano Partipilo himself – and mixed with a few Brazilian numbers as well – all to round out a wonderfully rich sounding album that really lives up to the best Schema tradition! Instrumentation is... read more

Classic-styled funk from Alex Puddu – not only the greatest record we've heard from him so far, but a set that's definitely worthy of its "golden age" claim in the title! The music is all new, but it was done for a series of short Danish porno films from the 70s – and Puddu... read more

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Pretty great work from the team of Lorenzo Tucci and Lucxa Mannutza – two artists we normally associate with much straighter jazz material, but who really take off here together! The format is still definitely jazz, but the energy is quite free a times – just drums and effects from... read more

An amazing collaboration between musicians from three different nations – recorded high in the mountains in Northern Italy – with an equally majestic sound to match! The album's especially noteworthy for being a great space for vocalist Cleveland Watkiss to really rediscover the jazz-ba... read more

Sublime work from saxophonist Eraldo Volonte – a rare mid 60s session recorded in Italy, and totally hip work all the way through! Volonte's got a tone here that's really tremendous – clearly Coltrane-influenced, especially on the tenor selections – but also stretching out with... read more

The 5th volume in this great series is bigger than ever! Back when volume 1 first came out, the idea of modern bossa dancefloor tunes was a strange concept – now, thanks to the work of the Schema crew, in releases like this one, the groove is here to stay – and strongly! The set... read more

A fantastic collection of rare bossa material from Italy! The set's one of the best we've ever seen of this type, and it's a completely fresh batch of tunes that breaks past a lot of the other Italian compilations of recent years. Some of the artists are familiar names – like Morricone,... read more

Sublime bossa groovers from Italy! The first volume of this series was one of our favorite compilations that year it was released – and this second volume is equally as great! Schema groover Gerardo Frisina serves up a hand-picked batch of 16 tunes, mostly classic numbers from the late 60s... read more

A low price, but a really great package – one that's overflowing with some of the best recent work from the mighty Schema Records! If you read these pages at all, you'll know we think that Schema's one of the greatest things going these days – a modern label, but one that's committed... read more

A rich document of the growth in the Italian jazz scene in recent years – a great leap forward not just for individual musicians, but also for the Schema label as well! Schema first began in the 90s with a relatively programmed approach to jazz – a style that loved the classics, but... read more

A legendary set of sound library grooves – and actually one of the first to kick off the genre! The package brings together rare tracks from the small Italian Octopus label – not nearly as well-known as De Wolfe, KPM, or other sound library giants – but an equally great source of... read more

Stunning compilation of Italian grooves from the early 70's – and one that has a slightly different twist than some of the other one's we've been stocking. The folks at Schema have put this one together, and the set's got a feel that's similar to some of the newer releases they've been... read more