Various Artists, “Strata-East: The Legacy Begins”

http://strata-east.bandcamp.com/album/strata-east-the-legacy-begins

Founded by trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist Stanley Cowell, Strata-East Records was representative of a larger contemporary striving for self-determination by artists (in particular, Black artists) in the jazz world. As they so often were, Charles Mingus and Max Roach were ahead of their time, founding their Debut Records label way back in 1952 and paving the way for such artist-run imprints as Tribe, Incus, and the more limited self-releasing efforts of Horace Silver, Julius Hemphill, Mary Lou Williams, and others.

Strata-East’s founding in 1971 followed on the heels of such variably successful attempts at collective organizing as Bill Dixon’s Jazz Composers Guild in New York, the Black Artists Group in St. Louis, and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in Chicago. Tolliver and Cowell didn’t set out with such high-minded ideals; they just wanted to put out a record: Music Inc., a Tolliver-led big band outing that had met with budget-wary indifference by the labels they’d approached. They decided to go it alone, following advice shared by their mutual mentor Max Roach, and in conjunction with Strata Records, recently launched by pianist Kenny Cox in Detroit.

That most of these efforts (save the AACM, going strong at 60) tend to be remembered with the term “short-lived” appended is indicative of the struggles faced by artists in contention with the mass marketplace as well as with each other’s egos. Given how their Motor City sibling released a handful of albums over just a couple of years, the fact that Strata-East built a rich and diverse catalog over the course of the ensuing decade is a feat in itself.

Even more impressive is how prescient and path-forging that body of work seems in retrospect. It hasn’t hurt the label’s slowly growing esteem that many of its releases have become hard-to-find collectors’ items over the years. Far more light will now shine thanks to a new partnership with Mack Avenue Records, which is making nearly three dozen Strata-East titles available for streaming in April. This wide-ranging, 33-track, 4 ½-hour long anthology serves as a massive teaser and handy guide through that initial trove.

Most of the core musicians who recorded for Strata-East grew up with bebop and came of age at a time of rapidly developing social, political, and spiritual consciousness. Broadly speaking, the label’s music as showcased on The Legacy Begins is sparked from that continuum, evolving post-bop styles in combination with Afrocentric rhythmic elements, pointed social protest, and a tangible urgency to move forward.

In the post-Kamasi Washington world, these eclectic efforts tend to get shoveled together under the nebulous umbrella of “Spiritual Jazz,” and pieces like Pharoah Sanders’s “Prince of Peace” or Cecil McBee’s “Voice of the 7th Angel” are certainly prime, soaring examples of the form. Still, Tolliver’s elegant and mystery-shrouded writing for Music Inc. stands in contrast to the ambitious, Quincy Jones-derived arrangements of Bill Lee (bassist and father of Spike) for his Bass Violin Choir or Brass Company. The Piano Choir amasses seven gifted players (including Cowell and Harold Mabern) at an array of keyboards, whereas Heath Brothers and longtime Thelonious Monk saxophonist Charlie Rouse delve into gritty funk; Clifford Jordan laments John Coltrane while Charles Brackeen explodes into unbridled velocity. Woven together more by a hard-fought spirit of independence than by anything explicitly stylistic, Strata-East is no mere spiritual jazz label—it’s a multiverse encompassing so much more.

from bandcamp