Sabir Mateen is an American musician and composer from Philadelphia. His musical style is primarily avant-garde jazz. He plays tenor and alto saxophone, B♭ and alto clarinet, and flute.
Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist.
Steve Swell is an American free jazz trombonist, composer, and educator.
Matt Lavelle is a jazz trumpet, flugelhorn, alto clarinet, and bass clarinet player.
Ernest Dawkins is an American jazz saxophonist, principally active in free jazz and post-bop.
Live at the 6th Tokyo Music Joy is a live album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy recorded in February 1990 for the Japanese DIW label. It is the only recording to showcase both of the groups that Lester Bowie established and features performances by the Art Ensemble, the Brass Fantasy and both bands.
Michael Marcus is an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist. He plays B♭ & A clarinets, bass clarinet; sopranino, soprano, tenor, baritone, bass, and C melody saxophones, stritch saxophone, saxello, bass flute, tárogató & alto tarogato, and octavin.
Frode Gjerstad is a Norwegian jazz musician with alto saxophone as principal instrument, but he also plays other saxophones, clarinet, and flute. He has collaborated with Paal Nilssen-Love, Borah Bergman, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Bjørn Kjellemyr, Terje Isungset, William Parker, Sabir Mateen, John Stevens, Johnny Dyani, Kent Carter, and since 1979 has contributed to more than 50 recordings.
Double Sunrise Over Neptune is a live album by American jazz musician and composer William Parker, which was recorded in 2007 and originally released on the AUM Fidelity label. Though best known as a bassist, Parker on this album plays various ethnic double reed instruments and the African stringed instrument doussn'gouni.
Essence of Ellington is a double live album by bassist and composer William Parker's Orchestra, which was recorded in Italy in 2012 and released on the Centering label. The album features new arrangements of songs written by or associated with Duke Ellington in addition to new songs by Parker.
Eremite Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1995 by Michael Ehlers, with early involvement from music writer Byron Coley. Ehlers was a student of Archie Shepp's at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After college, he began producing concerts in the Amherst area, and Eremite evolved from those events. The label name came from an alternate title to the Thelonious Monk tune "Reflections": "Portrait of an Eremite". The label's logo, designed by Savage Pencil, is an image of a robed Joe McPhee playing soprano saxophone. Eremite organized a concert series in Western Massachusetts that ran through 2008 and produced roughly 100 concerts, including five Fire in the Valley festivals. From 1998–2018, Eremite managed a touring organization that arranged hundreds of concerts across North America for its artists.
Secrets of When is an album by American jazz multi-instrumentalist Sabir Mateen, which was recorded in 2001 and released on the French Bleu Regard label.
Vision Quest is the debut album by American jazz flautist Nicole Mitchell with her group Black Earth Ensemble, which was released in 2001 on Dreamtime, the label she established with David Boykin.
Velvet Songs, is a double album by Chicago Trio, a collective jazz group consisting of saxophonist Ernest Dawkins, bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Hamid Drake. It was recorded live in 2008 at the Velvet Lounge, the club owned by saxophonist Fred Anderson, and released on the French RogueArt label.
RogueArt is a French independent record label based in Paris. It was founded by record producer Michel Dorbon in 2005 and specialises in jazz and improvised music.
Perles Noires, Volumes 1 and 2, is a pair of live albums by the drummer Sunny Murray. The albums were recorded during 2002–2004 at various locations, and were released by Eremite Records in 2005. On Volume 1, Murray is joined by the saxophonists Sabir Mateen and Louis Belogenis, the pianist Dave Burrell and the double bassist Alan Silva. On Volume 2, he is heard with Mateen, the saxophonist and bass clarinetist Oluyemi Thomas and the pianist John Blum.
We Are Not at the Opera is a live album by drummer Sunny Murray. It was recorded in June 1998 at the Unitarian Meetinghouse in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States, and was released later that year by Eremite Records. On the album, Murray is joined by saxophonist Sabir Mateen.
Brothers Together is an album by drummer Hamid Drake and multi-instrumentalist Sabir Mateen. It was recorded in October 2000 at PBS Studios in Westwood, Massachusetts, and was released in 2002 by Eremite Records.
Blissful is the second album by drummer Hamid Drake and his group Bindu. It was recorded on July 12 and 13, 2007, at Soma Electronic Music Studios in Chicago, Illinois, and was issued on CD in 2008 by Rogueart. On the album, Drake is joined by vocalist Dee Alexander, guitarists Joe Morris and Jeff Parker, and double bassists Josh Abrams and William Parker. Lyrics were written by the 18th-century poet Ramprasad Sen, and were excerpted from Mother of the Universe: Visions of the Goddess and Tantric Hymns of Enlightenment by Lex Hixon.
Reggaeology is the third album by American drummer Hamid Drake and his group Bindu. Tracks 1 through 6 were recorded during May 6–8, 2009, at Soma Electronic Music Studios in Chicago, Illinois, while the remaining track was recorded on July 28, 2009, at Sape Shoppe Studio in Chicago. The recording, which blends jazz and reggae, was released on CD in 2010 by Rogueart. On the album, Drake is joined by vocalist Napoléon Maddox, who also provided most of the lyrics, trombonists Jeff Albert and Jeb Bishop, guitarist Jeff Parker, and double bassist Josh Abrams.
