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Strata-East: Seizing the Time

By Chris May
April 19, 2020
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I was listening to John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Marvin Gaye, Albert Ayler, Martha & The Vandellas. One way and another, they were all revolutionary.
—Idris Ackamoor

Operating on minimum finance and maximum passion, Brooklyn's Strata-East label was a pivotal platform for the spiritual-jazz movement that emerged during the Civil Rights struggle of the 1970s. Its closest contemporary comparator was Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Both were non-profit organisations. The AACM was non-profit by design. With Strata-East, co-founder

Charles Tolliver

trumpet
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Tolliver once said, it just worked out that way.

Strata-East was founded by Tolliver and pianist

Stanley Cowell

piano
1941 - 2020

" data-original-title="" title="">Stanley Cowell in 1971. By the end of the decade, the label had released 58 albums of near-uniform artistic excellence, a remarkable achievement for an independent company run on a shoestring by two musicians with no previous business experience.

Tenor saxophonist

Idris Ackamoor

saxophone
b.1951

" data-original-title="" title="">Idris Ackamoor came out of the same radical, community-focused zeitgeist and, though he was never formally associated with either Strata-East or the AACM, admired both organisations. In a 2018 interview, Ackamoor said: "Our music emerged alongside the Civil Rights movement. It was all about black consciousness. There was a revolutionary spirit running through African American music. I was listening to

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane,

Jimi Hendrix

guitar, electric
1942 - 1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Jimi Hendrix,

Pharoah Sanders

saxophone, tenor
1940 - 2022

" data-original-title="" title="">Pharoah Sanders,

Sun Ra

piano
1914 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Sun Ra,

Marvin Gaye

" data-original-title="" title="">Marvin Gaye,

Albert Ayler

saxophone, tenor
1936 - 1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Albert Ayler, Martha & The Vandellas. One way and another, they were all revolutionary. When I grew up, music was about making change happen."

Strata-East and AACM operated with collegiate rather than competitive purpose and it was this, according to Ackamoor, that defined both entities and gave them their fundamental strength. "Earlier generations of African American musicians were raised to be crabs in a bucket," said Ackamoor. "From the 1920s onwards, they were brought up on the idea of the cutting school, where you'd try and best each other in head-to-head jam sessions. 'I'm badder than this cat, I'm badder than that cat.' But my generation felt that the priority had to be unification. Competitive cutting was opposed to unity. It was opposed to 'each one teach one' as the saying went. There was a race war going on in the US. We needed to present a united front."

In London in 2020, the same team spirit is a feature of the alternative jazz scene fostered by

Gary Crosby

bass, acoustic
b.1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Gary Crosby's Tomorrow's Warriors.

In 1974, Strata-East's balance sheet was temporarily boosted by the success of

Gil Scott-Heron

vocals
1949 - 2011

" data-original-title="" title="">Gil Scott-Heron and

Brian Jackson

piano
b.1952

" data-original-title="" title="">Brian Jackson's Winter In America. The album made Billboard's top ten jazz albums chart and breakout single "The Bottle" was a top twenty R&B hit. The discs did not make Strata-East rich—its contracts were weighted in favour of the artists—but it allowed the label to pay some debts and stay solvent for a few more years. Strata-East had become less active by the early 1980s and in 2020 its business is mainly confined to licensing items from its back catalogue for reissue by other labels.

As with Blue Note, you can pick up any Strata-East album you run across and, without needing to play it, be confident it will deliver the goods. The ten albums listed below are an indicative rather than a definitive selection.

Mtume Umoja Ensemble
Alkebu-Lan: Land Of The Blacks
1972

Percussionist

James Mtume

percussion
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">James Mtume was a bankable songwriter and producer in the 1980s, crafting hits for

Stephanie Mills

" data-original-title="" title="">Stephanie Mills,

Phyllis Hyman

vocals
1941 - 1995

" data-original-title="" title="">Phyllis Hyman and other soul / jazz crossover artists with his collaborator, guitarist Reggie Lucas. In the early 1970s, however, Mtume trod a less glossy path in community-orientated spiritual jazz. This live album, recorded at Brooklyn's East Club, features saxophonists

Gary Bartz

saxophone, alto
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Gary Bartz and

Carlos Garnett

saxophone, tenor
b.1938

" data-original-title="" title="">Carlos Garnett (Mtume played with both in

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis' band) and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians's

Leroy Jenkins

bass, electric
1932 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Leroy Jenkins on violin. Its heady blend of free jazz, funk and radical performance-poetry vividly evokes the black-consciousness informed New York scene in which the music blossomed.

Shamek Farrar
First Impressions
1974

First Impressions is the first of two masterpieces which alto saxophonist

Shamek Farrah

saxophone, alto

" data-original-title="" title="">Shamek Farrah recorded for Strata-East before going off-radar in the early 1980s. The other is The World Of The Children (1977), co-headlined with pianist

Sonelius Smith

" data-original-title="" title="">Sonelius Smith, whose trippy piano playing is also featured here. First Impressions wins the cigar by a short neck, if only for the title track, which is powered by a bass ostinato that will not be denied. It was played by

Milton Suggs

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Milton Suggs, who in 1974 also worked with

Byron Morris

" data-original-title="" title="">Byron Morris & Unity, contributing more killer bass to the band's cult hit, "Kitty Bey."

Pharoah Sanders
Izipho Zam
1973

Izipho Zam was recorded a year after the release of Sanders' tour de force, Tauhid (Impulse!, 1967). Inexplicably, it stayed on the shelf until Strata-East picked it up, by which time Impulse! had released eight more Sanders discs. Tauhid was made with a sextet, Izipho Zam with a group twice that size. The most significant returnee is free-funk guitarist

Sonny Sharrock

guitar, electric
1940 - 1994

" data-original-title="" title="">Sonny Sharrock. New faces include pianist

Lonnie Liston Smith

keyboards
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Lonnie Liston Smith and vocalist

Leon Thomas

vocals
1937 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Leon Thomas. Both albums are transitional, between the unrelenting ferocity of Sanders' work with John Coltrane and the more blissed-out albums he went to make with Smith, Thomas and

Alice Coltrane

piano
1937 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Alice Coltrane.

JuJu
A Message From Mozambique
1973

With track titles such as "Freedom Fighter" and "Make Your Own Revolution Now," the debut album from JuJu, a percussion-heavy sextet led by saxophonist Plunky Nkabinde, placed the band firmly on the explicitly politicised wing of spiritual jazz. The music sounds like an angrier version of Pharoah Sanders' contemporaneous albums, though with one hand still activating the melodicism lever. Nkabinde later repositioned the group as a four-on-the-floor funk outfit, variously calling it Oneness Of JuJu and The Space Rangers.

The Descendants Of Mike And Phoebe
A Spirit Speaks
1974

A curiosity with serious provenance. Film director Spike Lee's composing and bass-playing father leads a family band through a funk-friendly jazz album dedicated to their slave ancestors, which brims with great musicianship and glowing tunes. Some of the wordless-vocal passages sound uncannily like those on

Kamasi Washington

saxophone
b.1981

" data-original-title="" title="">Kamasi Washington's discs. The line-up includes three of Lee's children: flugelhornist Cliff, pianist Consuela and singer Grace, augmented by drummer

Billy Higgins

drums
1936 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Higgins. Today, Bill Lee is best known for his soundtracks for Spike Lee's movies Mo' Better Blues, Do The Right Thing and She's Gotta Have It.

M'Boom
Re:Percussion
1973

M'Boom was a nine-piece drums, percussion and marimba and vibraphone ensemble led by bop godfather and political activist

Max Roach

drums
1925 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Max Roach. The group's lineage goes back to bands led by the Nigerian-born drummer

Babatunde Olatunji

drums
b.1927

" data-original-title="" title="">Babatunde Olatunji in New York the late 1950s. Re:Percussion features two lesser known drummer-composers of stellar talent. One is

Joe Chambers

drums
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Chambers, who notably propelled bands led by

Eric Dolphy

woodwinds
1928 - 1964

" data-original-title="" title="">Eric Dolphy,

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus and

Wayne Shorter

saxophone
1933 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Wayne Shorter. The other is

Roy Brooks

drums
b.1938

" data-original-title="" title="">Roy Brooks. Brooks' all-but-forgotten album The Free Slave (Muse, 1972) is among spiritual jazz's most outstanding recordings.

Gil Scott-Heron / Brian Jackson
Winter In America
1974

Strata-East's biggest-selling album came along midway through the label's purple period and helped finance another few years of revolutionary recordings. Despite distribution problems—as an African American-owned independent, Strata-East struggled for attention when up against the majors—popular demand ensured the single pull, 'The Bottle,' became a top twenty R&B hit. Winter In America was a key progenitor of latter-day rap, and Brian Jackson's stripped-down instrumental arrangements remain an object lesson in how to say more with less.

Jayne Cortez
Celebrations And Solitudes
1974

Poet

Jayne Cortez

poet / spoken word

" data-original-title="" title="">Jayne Cortez's album covers subjects as harrowing as those on Winter In America and then some—including a real-life lynching in New York and the fatal shooting of ten year old African American Clifford Glover by a white undercover policeman in 1973, for which the policeman was acquitted on all charges. She performs in a duet with bassist

Richard Davis

bass, acoustic
1930 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Richard Davis, who recorded with Eric Dolphy and

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

woodwinds
1935 - 1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Rahsaan Roland Kirk among other important jazz musicians—and with Van Morrison, on Astral Weeks (Warner Bros, 1968). For ten years, Cortez was married to

Ornette Coleman

saxophone, alto
1930 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Ornette Coleman, and was the mother of drummer

Denardo Coleman

drums
b.1956

" data-original-title="" title="">Denardo Coleman.

Billy Harper
Capra Black
1973

A tenor saxophonist of gospel-like fervour,

Billy Harper

saxophone
b.1943

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Harper is one of the best-kept secrets of post-John Coltrane jazz. After periods with

Gil Evans

composer / conductor
1912 - 1988

" data-original-title="" title="">Gil Evans and

Art Blakey

drums
1919 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Blakey, both of whom kept his compositions in their books long after he had moved on, he made this own-name debut. He is accompanied by a septet which includes trombonists

Julian Priester

trombone
b.1935

" data-original-title="" title="">Julian Priester and

Dick Griffin

trombone
b.1939

" data-original-title="" title="">Dick Griffin and drummers

Billy Cobham

drums
b.1944

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Cobham and

Warren Smith

drums
b.1934

" data-original-title="" title="">Warren Smith (augmented on occasion by

Elvin Jones

drums
1927 - 2004

" data-original-title="" title="">Elvin Jones). The closing "Cry Of Hunger!" is among the highlights.

Clifford Jordan
Clifford Jordan In The World
1972

One of Strata-East's first releases, tenor saxophonist

Clifford Jordan

saxophone, tenor
1931 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Clifford Jordan's sublime In The World was the label's most straight-ahead post-bop outing. Recorded in 1969, it has little overt connection with spiritual jazz. Trumpeters

Don Cherry

trumpet
1936 - 1995

" data-original-title="" title="">Don Cherry and

Kenny Dorham

trumpet
1924 - 1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Dorham share the frontline, and the rhythm section includes pianist

Wynton Kelly

piano
1931 - 1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Wynton Kelly. Swinging hard from start to finish, the album sounds, in a good way, like it could have been recorded anytime between the late 1960s and 2020.

Strata-East poster artwork: Ben Connors

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