Stanley Cowell (1941 – 2020) was an American jazz pianist and co-founder of Strata-East Records.
Strata-East Records first gained notoriety outside the world of jazz after the British label Soul Jazz Records put out three anthologies of their recordings in the 1994-1997 period.
I give you “Travelin’ Man” (1974) in its first version.
Has anyone besides me noticed the likeness to “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes?
Gary Peacock was an American jazz double-bassist. He recorded a dozen albums under his own name, and also performed and recorded with major jazz figures such as Albert Ayler, Paul Bley, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Tony Williams.
On Life Time (Blue Note, 1964), Gary Peacock plays bass on tracks one to three.
Henry Grimes was an American jazz musician working in the free jazz idiom.
Giuseppi Logan American jazz musician working in the free jazz idiom.
Also, both were tortured artists.
I’ve always had a fascination with free jazz which veers from awe to disbelief to a mild form of even scorn.
It’s as if free jazz is the locus of strife between my need for entertainment and intellectualism.
This love–hate relationship appears to be my variety of the wild orchids and Trotsky.
But jazz itself was also that locus of strife.
Because it was somewhere in the 1940s that jazz begot bebop, and the road that had been jazz permanently forked.
One side continued its entertainment course.
Another side explored the realm of high art.
So as jazz became less popular, it became more highbrow.
Behind the scenes, rock and roll and R&B had been waiting impatiently to fill this entertainment void.
Jimmy Heath was an American jazz saxophonist, part of the Heath Brothers.
Like most Gen X melomaniacs who grew up with vinyl but switched to CDs (the musical fraud of the century), I discovered Mr. Heath on the Soul Jazz Love Strata-East (1994) compilation.
On that album is “Smiling Billy Suite Pt.II” (1975) from the album Marchin’ On (1975) by the Heath Brothers.
Here is that whole album: