no business records

Started in 1997 as a second hand music shop under an unpretentious name “Thelonious” our glorious enterprise developed considerably to embrace other music related activities – namely carrying out concerts, producing and releasing recordings. For these purposes an NGO “Thel” (concert management) was opened in 2004 and “No Business Records” (music releasing) – in 2008. Since the beginning “Thelonious” has been a special place on the city map – “a must visit” for anybody interested in jazz and improvised music. It didn’t take long before a community of dedicated fans united around the shop and it turned into some sort of club. Friendly relationship with local musicians has been established. By 2004 our love to music and an experience gained from listening and collecting records prompted an exciting idea: to invite our favourite artists to Lithuania. The NGO “Thel” was established and the first concert was successfully carried out. A list of our guests includes some of the most innovative and creative musicians of our time:

Piotr Mamonov – Solo programme,
Leonid Feodorov, “Aukcyon”,
William Parker, Matthew Shipp – Duo Performance,
Max Nagl, Steven Bernstein, Noel Akchoté, Bradley Jones – Big Four,
Vladimir Volkov – Volkov Trio,
Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen – Trio X,
Kruzenshtern I Parohod,
Sergey Letov – Sax Mafia,
David S Ware – DSWQ,
Jameel Moondoc, Roy Campbell, Hill Green, Klaus Kugel,
Mats Gustafsson,
Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins), Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mothers Temple),
Liudas Mockunas, Stefan Pasborg, Jacob Riis – Rod Planet…

We take every chance to document these memorable encounters. A documentary was filmed about Russian legendary musician and actor Piotr Mamonov (Zvuki Mu) during his visit to Lithuania. It has been shown on Vilnius TV. Another documentary created by our crew was released on CIMP in DVD format in 2007. It is “The train and the river” about Trio X. The film contains extensive conversations with Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval and Jay Rosen; fragments of concert performance in Lithuanian Congress Hall and material filmed in the streets of old city. Lithuanian State Television was invited to film a concert by Matthew Shipp and William Parker in Lithuanian Philharmonic. Unfortunately this exceptional video is not available for release at present. Some of the concerts appeared on TV in a music programme “Džiazo pasaulis” (The world of jazz).

Apart from that we have recorded other concerts in audio and/or video format. Some of them might appear on NoBusiness records in a due time. We are full of hopes and excitement. More concerts, more recordings is what we are looking for and who knows what encounters the future holds?!