Great funky avant work from this mad German duo – sounding very much here as they do on their Mad Rockers mode! The lineup features work from John Surman on baritone, Eje Thelin on trombone, Barre Phillips on bass, and both Stu Martin and Jacques Thollot on drums – one in each channel! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the boldest statements from the French avant garde of the late 60s – a fairly free set led by Michel Portal, and featuring a quintet that includes Joachim Kuhn on piano, alto sax, and percussion, JF Jenny-Clark on bass, and Aldo Romano and Jacques Thollot on drums and percussion. Portal himself plays tenor, clarinet, and bass clarinet – as well as other percussion – and overall, the album's a fairly percussive affair – pulsating along with the rhythmic intensity of an ESP session, but even taking things further, with FMP-like full-blown, free range improvisation. Titles include "Our Meanings & Our Feelings", "A Train In A Very Small Town", "Dear Old Morocco", and "For My Mother". LP, Vinyl record album

Sam Rivers on saxophone and flute, Tony Hymas on piano, Noel Akchote on guitar, Paul Rogers on double bass, and Jacques Thollot on drums. CD

Here's a summer house we'd really like to visit on our next vacation – a legendary spot in Sweden, where Don Cherry created freely with some of the hippest players on the local scene in 1968! The tracks here were all recorded for later commercial release, which never ended up happening – and they represent a key bridge in Cherry's career between his important American work of the mid 60s, and his growing global consciousness to come – maybe a first chapter in the sound that would become the Organic Music Society! The set features work from an array of musicians that includes Cherry on pocket trumpet and flute, Bernt Rosengren on tenor and flute, Gunnar Lindqvist on reeds, Tommy Koverhult on tenor and a variety of flutes, Jacques Thollot and Leif Wennerstrom on drums, Torbjorn Hultcrantz and Kent Carter on bass, and percussion from Bulent Ates – plus other members of the group! There's no vocals, but there's a strong sense of rhythmic cohesion throughout – freewheeling jazz, but not entirely free either – and filled with a global inspiration that makes the whole thing come off with an organic sense of beauty. Titles include "The Machine Age", "Sir Charles Brackeen A", "Mao", "Samba", "Plotslight", and "Human". LP, Vinyl record album