Established in the late 70s as an independent marketing company, Thirsty Ear pioneered the concept of specialized marketing to the yet-unnamed alternative music world in the U.S. As such, Thirsty Ear was hired to implement campaigns in this new area for virtually every major label, working with such now-legendary artists as David Bowie, The Talking Heads and The Police, among many others.

In the mid 80s, Thirsty Ear partnered with English labels 4AD and Beggars Banquet and established their US operations out of Thirsty Ear's offices. The Beggars Banquet alliance proved fruitful and continued for ten years, firmly establishing them as one of the premier English independent labels in America. In 1990, Thirsty Ear made its emergence as a record label of its own, quickly accelerating its position and becoming one of the top alternative independent labels within the U.S. music industry.

A unique partnership with 2.13.61 Records, the label founded by punk legend Henry Rollins, led unexpectedly to Thirsty Ear's relationship with jazz iconoclast Matthew Shipp. Shipp would go on to become the Artistic Director of a new line of recordings named the Blue Series. The concept of the Blue Series was born from Thirsty Ear's desire to marry jazz's many languages into a cogent new one and perhaps shake up what was, and to a certain extent still is, a stagnant musical climate.

Since its beginning in 2000, the story of the Blue Series has been one of focused, organic evolution. From free jazz masters, legends in their own time, to some of the most innovative producers working in the world of modern hip-hop and electronic music, the Blue Series has come to encompass some of the most exciting developments in creative music since the turn of the new millennium. Featuring such present-day jazz legends as William Parker, Tim Berne, David S. Ware and Matthew Shipp, and augmented by DJ Spooky, U.K. electronica titans Spring Heel Jack, and hip-hop innovators El-P and Antipop Consortium (to name just a few,) the Blue Series acknowledges jazz's luminescent past without allowing it to smother its artists' desires to pave new ground. 

Solo Andata are @kane-ikin and @paul-fiocco 
New Album - Slip Casting - https://linktr.ee/soloandata

We are an independent record label based in Montréal, releasing experimental music we care about in the most careful ways we can.

About Greenleaf Music
Greenleaf Music is an independent music company owned, operated and curated by trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas. While concentrating on releasing jazz, post-jazz and world music, the company's primary focus is creativity in musical expression. Greenleaf’s sound is defined by the artists signed to it, and the room they are given to explore their own sonic world. What truly interests listeners is not just the recorded product, but the artists themselves. As such, Greenleaf strives to create interactions with fans that go beyond traditional recorded music sales. Producing CDs, vinyl records, downloads, sheet music, subscriptions, a bi-weekly podcast and a blog with artist commentary and discussion, Greenleaf Music creates a dynamic community of fans that supports artists fully and fairly.

For up-to-date info and updates, visit www.greenleafmusic.com
To reach our store, visit www.greenleafmusic.com/store/

About Dave Douglas
Dave Douglas is a prolific trumpeter, composer and educator from New York City. His unique contributions to improvised music have garnered distinguished recognition, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland award and two Grammy nominations. Douglas has developed his work for several unique ensembles with whom he’s currently active, including his new quintet; Keystone, an electric sextet; and, Sound Prints, co-led with saxophonist Joe Lovano.

Since 2005, Douglas has operated his own record label, Greenleaf Music, releasing his own recordings as well as albums by other artists in the jazz idiom. Through his artist-friendly approach and innovative practices, he continues to prove himself a pioneer among artist-run labels.

Douglas has held several posts as an educator and impresario. From 2002 to 2012, he served as artistic director of the Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music at The Banff Centre in Canada. He is a co-founder and director of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2012. In 2013, he began his second year as International Jazz Artist in Residence at the Royal Academy of Music in London and launched his own Jazz Workshop, dedicated to enriching the musical experiences of younger players.

"Dave Douglas is the unassuming king of independent jazz, a model of do-it-yourself moxie, initiative and artistic freedom." - Frank Alkyer, Publisher, Down Beat Magazine

300 acting spaces is an open public, independent and non-commercial artistic research project initiated by the electronic musician Alex Gunia. It deals with the installation of especially designed underground performance laboratories for electronic and elctro-acoustic music located in Oslo, Berlin, New York, Beijing and Tokyo during the years 2012 until 2015. Together with national and local artists, these facilities will be used to go into an open, creative process of performing three hundred concerts. 300 acting spaces shall mainly be recognized as an open arena for modern musicians, but in addition to that, there will be a constant interdisciplinary exchange with visual artists. 
All performances will be professionally recorded and (live-) streamed in the internet and 300 acting spaces will create an open source for artists, observers, scientists and the interested general public. By using social media platforms and the internet as a main communication tool the project is also experimenting with the usage and development of modern technics for the worldwide dispersion of music. The team of independent creative cells and specialists being involved in finding practical solutions, creating artistic meaning and developing theoretical contributions around 300 acting spaces is constantly growing.
Following the main idea of artistic research and in addition to the artistic outcome, a constant blog during the whole project and personal critical reflections in combination with an specified evaluation process incorporating the audience and the performers will be the basis for a final documentary book.

REALLY COOL PLANTS is following