Introducing Masma Dream World

Today, Devi Mambouka has shared her latest single as Masma Dream World, the thunderous and ceremonial “Ancient DNA,” The song is Mambouka’s first release since her 2020 album Play at Night, a record that established the multi-instrumentalist as a singular voice, combining field recordings, throttling bass, skittering electronics and traditional Gabonese rhythms for an awe inspiring, transportative sound. 

Buy / listen at Bandcamp

With roots in Gabon and Singapore, Mambouka is a child of the world. She recalls rainforest rituals and the presence of ghosts throughout her childhood in Gabon before immigrating to The Bronx. Here, instead of forests, she lost herself in record stores and began a spiritual, educational journey, DJing and immersing herself in NYC’s nightlife. A former Catholic school student, she studied religions of all kinds but found her guides in magic, maternal Hindu ancestors, the Black Madonna and Kali, the Hindu goddess of creation and destruction, and the mother of the forgotten ones.

On today’s single, Mambouka shares “The Melody came to me as a haunting whisper, while I was visiting my cousin Diyendo who investigates the evolutionary history of modern and extinct human populations using ancient DNA at Yale. - ‘Coded in our being we remember.’” 

Buy / listen at Bandcamp

Alan Braufman releases new song "Snow in Central Park"

Today, the acclaimed New York City-based saxophonist and flutist Alan Braufman shares “Snow in Central Park,” a new single that was recorded at the same time as his acclaimed album Infinite Love Infinite Tears. Braufman says about “Snow in Central Park”: “Last November, we recorded seven songs, six of which are on the album. A seventh song would have made an annoyingly short double LP, and the vibe of this song was quite different from the rest of the album. So we decided to release this last track from that session on its own. “Snow in Central Park” recalls the peaceful falling snow in the park on many wintery NYC walks and runs over the years.”

Buy / listen at Bandcamp

Alan Braufman releases new album, announces June 7 Brooklyn performance

Alan Braufman has released the new album “Infinite Love Infinite Tears” on LP, CD and digital formats.album.

“Infinitely rewarding - Jazz Collector

“Braufman’s spiraling, uplifting compositions occupy an evolving space where jazz’s past and future collide.” - MOJO / 4 stars

“Utter beauty in the form of intense fragments of joy and thunder” / “Like his free jazz predecessors, Coltrane, Cherry and Coleman, Braufman finds spirituality in every note.” Downbeat / 4 stars

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Alan Braufman will perform at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust on June 7 with a band that includes Patricia Brennan, Ken Filiano, Brandon Woody, Newman Baker Taylor, and an opening solo set by Cooper-Moore. Tickets are available HERE.

Alan Braufman announces new album, Infinite Love Infinite Tears

Alan Braufman has announced his new album “Infinite Love Infinite Tears.” the LP, CD and digital album will be released on May 17, 2024. “Infinite Love Infinite Tears” is a surprisingly catchy program of free jazz, richly detailed and forthright, embodying a range of emotions and circumstances that convey individuality, collectivity and hope. There is much history and love in this band, and in Alan Braufman’s art overall. Fifty-odd years after debuting on record, his sound-world is as vital and inviting as ever.

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Valley of Search celebrates 5 years

Valley of Search launched in 2018 as a vehicle to reissue Alan Braufman’s 1975 album of the same name. In the summer of 2018, Alan, Cooper-Moore, and a new band of New York musicians performed the album live for the first time since it was recorded. Valley of search label founder and Alan’s nephew Nabil Ayers wrote a substack post about the process of reissuing the album and the surrounding synergy. Below are some photos that Gabriela Bhaskar took on the day of the August 3, 2018 Brooklyn show.

Read Nabil Ayers’ substack post HERE

Read the 2018 New York Times feature HERE

Listen to Alan Braufman’s music HERE

Alan Braufman to perform in New York City May 11, 2023

Alan Braufman will perform at Brooklyn’s Soup and Sound with his band: Cooper-Moore (piano), Ken Filiano (bass), Andrew Drury (drums), and ​​Jason Kao Hwang (Violin). The band will perform music from Alan Braufman’s 1975 album Valley of Search and the 2020 album The Fire Still Burns. This will be Alan Braufman’s first US performance since January 2020, and the band will also debut new material.

Information

Alan Braufman, Patricia Brennan and Tomas Nordmark perform in Helsinki

On December 3, 2022, Alan Braufman, Patricia Brennan and Tomas Nordmark performed at a Valley of Search night at the We Jazz Festival in Helsinki, Finland. Braufman performed as a trio with the Finnish musicians Ville Herrala on bass and Joonas Leppanen on drums, while Brennan and Nordmark performed solo sets.

Buy / listen to the albums at Bandcamp

Alan Braufman announces archival live album from 1975

Alan Braufman has announced “Live in New York City, February 8, 1975.” The triple LP, double CD, and digital album will be released on April 8, 2022. This recently unearthed recording captures Alan Braufman with his five-piece band in an early 1975 live radio session soon after recording his debut album Valley of Search for the India Navigation label. This was the first meeting for William Parker and Cooper-Moore, whose musical partnership has flourished ever since. The 94-minute performance is spread over 5 album sides on 3 LPs, or a gatefold double CD set. Newly mastered with new liner notes by the host Susan Mannheimer.

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Valley of Search founder Nabil Ayers announces June 7 memoir

Valley of Search founder Nabil Ayers has announced his memoir, My Life in the Sunshine, to be published on June 7, 2022 via Viking/Penguin.

Ayers says about his memoir, “My Life in the Sunshine is about my struggle to connect with my father, Roy Ayers, whom I've never known. There are plenty of fun stories about growing up with my uncle, Alan Braufman, in New York City and Amherst in the seventies, being the only non-white person at a Tony Williams concert in Salt Lake City in the eighties, living in Seattle and touring in rock bands in the nineties, and my time in NYC running the record label, 4AD. But it’s mostly about the influence my father has had over me despite his absence, and the blurring of lines that define family and race.”

Pre-order at Viking/Penguin

Patricia Brennan - Best of 2021

Patricia Brennan’s debut album, “Maquishti” has made “Best albums of 2021” lists at The WIRE, The New York Times, The New Yorker and more. “Maquishti” is out now on gatefold double LP, CD and digital. Brennan, along with percussionist/turntablist Arktureye recently released "Maquishti Prismatic," an electronic re-working of “Maquishti.”

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Tomas Nordmark announces new album "Exit Ghosts"

Tomas Nordmark’s music operates on multiple, equally thrilling planes. Having cultivated a deep appreciation for conceptual art and the phase-shifting minimalism pioneered by the downtown avant-garde community of NYC in the ‘60s, Nordmark set out to blend that with his pop-oriented upbringing and unique perspective on electronic music. The Swedish-born, London-based composer's new album pulses with an unrelenting energy, waving and cresting around ambient tension and gorgeously realized melodies.

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Alan Braufman releases Angel Bat Dawid remix + new reissues

Alan Braufman has released the new “Angel Bat Dawid Sunset Remix” of his song “Sunrise.” Alan has also announced that his debut album “Valley of Search” will be made available on CD for the first time, and that the 1972 “Live at WKCR” session with Cooper-Moore will see a limited pressing of 250 copies worldwide on vinyl.

Buy / listen at Bandcamp

Patricia Brennan - debut album out now

Patricia Brennan has released her debut album, “Maquishti” on gatefold double LP, CD and digital. The WIRE says the album is composed of "Exquisitely sculpted spontaneous compositions,” and The New York Times says, "Brennan has recently started to make her presence known on the New York avant-garde."

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Patricia Brennan announces debut album

Mexican born, New York-based vibraphonist, marimbist, improviser and composer Patricia Brennan has confirmed the release of her debut full length album Maquishti, January 15, 2021. The twelve original instrumentals that make up the album were composed and performed solo by Brennan on vibraphone and marimba. Employing unusual performance techniques and occasional electronics, many of the compositions were borne from improvisations created live in the studio at the time of recording. At times exploring silence and space, stillness and patience the album investigates new sonic territories with an endless sense of curiosity.

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Alan Braufman - new album out now

Alan Braufman has released his first new album in 45 years, “The Fire Still Burns” on vinyl LP, CD and digital. Rolling Stone claims, “in 2020, we need the meditative focus and impassioned intensity of an artist like Alan Braufman more than ever.”

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Alan Braufman announces new album

45 years after his debut album Valley of Search (1975/India Navigation), jazz saxophonist Alan Braufman returns. The Fire Still Burns has that gritty, forthright sensibility we hope to hear in sonic collaborations borne out of beauty and struggle, but there’s a populist ease that comes with age and reflection. Put simply it’s natural music – complementary, individual, and full of the sweet, hot taste of celebration.

"A legend in free music" - Gilles Peterson / BBC6 Music

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Welcome Patricia Brennan

“A vibraphonist to watch out for…” according to the New York City Jazz Record. Mexican born vibraphonist, marimbist, improviser and composer Patricia Brennan "has recently started to make her presence known on the New York avant-garde, working with such prominent bandleaders as Matt Mitchell and Michael Formanek.” observed The New York Times.

Patricia will release her debut solo album in 2021. Buy/listen to “Sonnet” at Bandcamp.

Alan Braufman & Cooper-Moore - Lost 1972 recordings found

Master tapes were recently unearthed of New York saxophonist Alan Braufman and pianist Cooper-Moore performing live as a duo on Columbia University's radio station, WKCR on May 22, 1972. The session occurred two years before Braufman, Cooper-Moore and a full band recorded Braufman's legendary 1975 debut album on India Navigation (reissued by Valley of Search in 2018). Buy/listen at Bandcamp.

Tomas Nordmark releases debut album

"Eternal Words" is the debut album from Tomas Nordmark, an experimental Swedish composer, sound artist and designer living and working in London, United Kingdom. Nordmark was educated at the University of Linköping in Sweden where he studied Audio Culture and Contemporary Art. His compositions and works have been featured in short films, theatre plays and in exhibitions. Nordmark will release his debut album in early 2019. Buy/Listen at Bandcamp

Alan Braufman in The New York Times

Alan Braufman’s nephew and VOS label founder Nabil Ayers wrote an account of his childhood at 501 Canal Street, the New York City apartment building where Alan created Valley of Search in the early 1970s. Read at The New York Times.