At a time when acoustic jazz may have been losing ground to electric instruments and fusion, Music Inc remained steadfast with one foot in the tradition and the other firmly in the present yet looking ahead.
Strata-East SES-1972-25LP
Charles Tolliver (trumpet); Stanley Cowell (piano); Cecil McBee (bass); Jimmy Hopps (drums)
Recorded May 1st, 1970
Strata-East is the record label co-founded by Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell and it is great to welcome back some of the albums released by the imprint back in the early seventies. Carefully prepared for re-issue through Mack Avenue Records, this 180-gram vinyl is a quality production from the heavy cardboard gatefold sleeve and informative liner notes by Marcus J. Moore.
More importantly is the quality of the pressing which I found to be of a standard that has sadly been lacking in many LPs that have been produced in recent years. Mastered from the original analogue tapes, the music is pristine in terms of sound quality and the noticeable lack of surface noise, and quite rightly this allows the music to shine through.
Led by Charles Tolliver, the trumpeter said at the time that “Music Inc was created out of the desire to assemble men able to see the necessity for survival of a heritage and an art in the hopes that the sacrifices and high level of communication between them will eventually reach every soul.” Judging by the audience reaction at Slugs’ and the communicative power of the music presented here, there were a far few souls reached, and the opportunity to reach more with this excellent release.
Bringing together the two original single releases on Strata-East released in 1972 we are presented with a double album that that is packed with exciting and innovative music. From the first number ‘Drought’ on the originally released Volume I, Tolliver’s opening trumpet phrases ring out magnificently. Full and lyrical they communicate and connect instantly. The rhythm section kick in hard and Stanley Cowell’s piano unfurls at this brisk tempo in a most satisfactory manner. This is immediately followed by the trumpeter with his big brassy sound eating up the changes in a dynamic and lucid solo.
And this sets the tone for the entire set, smoulderingly hot on the fast numbers and deliciously tender on the ballad’s on McBee’s ‘Felicite’ in which the composer takes his own excellent solo in addition from some excellent work from Tolliver and Cowell.
Volume II delivers up some fine compositions from the trumpeter, with’ Spanning’ being a lively tune that hints at several directions that could be taken before settling into groove, and the closing ‘Our Second Father’ which is dedicated to the memory of John Coltrane. Following on from Cowell, on this up tempo number, Tolliver plays a scorching solo ably supported by the rhythm section who are pushing hard.
At a time when acoustic jazz may have been losing ground to electric instruments and fusion, Music Inc remained steadfast with one foot in the tradition and the other firmly in the present yet looking ahead. They were not a hard bop band, neither did they play free jazz, but what they did was (like Miles’s quintet with Wayne Shorter) work with some excellent compositions and push them to their limits.
