Strata Records
Strata Records was an American independent label from Detroit that existed in the first half of the 1970s.
History of the label
The label Strata Records released six LPs from the field of jazz , funk and soul music from Detroit between 1969 and 1975 . The idea for the independent record label came about after the race riots of 1967 and the assassination attempt on Martin Luther King ; The protests against the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement in the USA had further influence . Was founded Strata 1969 by the trumpeter Moore Charles and pianist Kenny Cox , who had previously released two albums with Blue Note Records with his Contemporary Jazz Quintet (CJQ) had published. Strata initially acted as a not-for-profit organization initially setting up food programs and jazz events at the local level. After initially running the label from his living room on Michigan Avenue, Cox found space in a studio on Selden Avenue, where it became a meeting place, the Strata Concert Gallery , in the early 1970s . There occurred u. a. Charles Mingus , Ornette Coleman , Elvin Jones and Herbie Hancock . Major supporters of the Strata label included John Lennon ; contact came through the poet John Sinclair , who was manager of the Detroit rock bands The Stooges and MC5 at the time. After Lennon's support for the imprisoned Sinclair with the protest song John Sinclair (included on Lennon's LP Some Time in New York City , 1972), he supported the Strata project by financing a portable recording studio and a Hammond B3 organ .
The material from over 30 master tapes recorded in the Strata studio resulted in a total of six LP productions by 1975, including the album Time (1975) by Marvin Gaye saxophonist Larry Nozero , which shows the influence of Motown on Strata; many of the Strata musicians worked as studio musicians for the hit label of Berry Gordy until 1972 . Strata's last album was the Lyman Woodard Organization's Saturday Night Special .
For Kenny Cox, Strata was in a line of tradition with the befriended Detroit musician collective Tribe , the Black Artists Group in St. Louis and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in Chicago ; artistic independence as a political statement took precedence over financial considerations in order to break with traditional structures of the music industry and marketing. The cover artwork was provided by Michigan artists Herb Boyd and John Sinclair, whose characteristic was the rough black and white aesthetic.
The label had an influence on the further establishment of an independent label in jazz, Strata-East Records in New York City. The catalog is currently owned by Amir Abdullah, who publishes the historic Strata albums and previously unreleased material on his 180 Proof label . From the label's estate, 180 proofs a . a. Kenny Cox's album Clap Clap: The Joyful Noise! released in 1975.
Discography
- SRI-101-74 - The Contemporary Jazz Quintet - Location (1973)
- SRI-102-74 - Bert Myrick- Live'n Well (1974), with Kenny Cox, George Bohanon
- SRI-103-74 - Sphere - Inside Ourselves (1974), with Ed Nuccilli , Larry Nozero
- SRI-104-74 - Maulawi - Maulawi (1974), u. a. with Rufus Reid , Maulawi Nururdin , Adam Rudolph , Edwin Williams
- SRI-105-75 - The Lyman Woodard Organization - Saturday Night Special (1975)
- SRI-106-75 - Kenny Cox - Clap Clap (The Joyful Noise)
- SRI-107-75 - Contemporary Jazz Quintet - The Black Hole
- SRI-108-75 - Ron English- Fish Feet
- SRI-109-75 - Larry Nozero Featuring Dennis Tini - Time
Web links
- Strata Records at Discogs (English)
- The Story of Strata Records
- Amir Abdullah: Rebuilding Strata Records
- The Saga Of Strata Records
- Recreating a Jazz Scene with Amir Abdullah of 180 roof Records , Noisey .