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Jeff Parker, guitarist, songwriter and producer
“Hopscotch” by Charles Rouse
In 2001, Tortoise performed at one of the first versions of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. The festival was packed with people; supposedly around a million people attended throughout the weekend. We were hanging out after our show and I heard this crazy music on the gigantic PA: a hypnotic beat with an angular melody on top and unconventional instrumentation of tenor saxophone, electric guitar, acoustic bass and drums. Someone walked over to the DJ booth and discovered the song was “Hopscotch” by Charles (aka Charlie) Rouse from his “Two Is One” album on Strata-East Records. Serendipity found me at Peoples Records the next day and lo and behold, there was the album in the jazz bins (the only time I’ve ever seen it in the wild). I discovered that the composition was written by one of my favorites, drummer and composer Joe Chambers, and features Rouse on tenor, Paul Metzke on guitar, Stanley Clarke on bass, Airto Moreira on percussion and the great New Orleans drummer, David Lee. This album introduced me to Strata-East Records and I have been performing this song, following the label and collecting the records ever since.
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Greg Bryant, musician and broadcaster
“Wilpan” by Music Inc.
Inspired by the stroll of a former love interest, bassist Cecil McBee’s composition “Wilpan’s” highlights post-bop quartet Music Inc. live at New York City’s legendary Slugs’ Saloon nightclub. As few recordings survive of the music performed at Slugs, “Wilpan’s” provides essential documentation of a spirit and era that has inspired subsequent generations of forward-thinking swing-based improvisers.
From the start, McBee’s catchy ostinato bass figure immediately lights up the set. Trumpeter Charles Tolliver takes the first solo and navigates McBee’s melody with the confidence and cunning of a boxer. He hears that same enthusiasm in pianist Stanley Cowell’s improvisation that emphasizes the harmony of the melody along with powerful right-hand statements. Next, McBee performs a solo that is one of the most explosive on his album. He sometimes taps into the vocabulary of a broken guitarist and somehow never overdoes it. After the band sings the final melody, they follow the rhythm set by drummer Jimmy Hopps and McBee. As the highlight of the tune, it’s an infectious, upbeat swing that will make you want to get involved.
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Cosmo Baker, DJ
“Prince of Peace” by Pharoah Sanders
When I was 16, while going through a box of used records in the back of an old pet supply store in Philadelphia, I pulled out an old (good) loved) copy of “Izipho Zam (My Gifts)” by Pharoah Sanders – a copy I still have to this day, and my world was never the same.
This album was my introduction to Pharoah, starting a personal journey that still continues. It was an introduction to many of his collaborators: Sonny Sharrock! Cecil McBee! Leon Tomas! Primarily it was an introduction to both the Strata-East label and the philosophy, spirit and sound it exemplifies: the intersection of spiritual jazz, black consciousness and identity, avant-garde pioneering, among many more intangibles, and that’s as much for this album and Strata-East in general. As for Pharoah, the album is a look at his heartbreaking dedication to something bigger than all of us. Written words do not do this masterpiece justice, but “Prince of Peace” is a universal mantra that the world could use now and always.
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VCR, recording artist, violinist and composer.
“Winter in America” by Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson
Growing up, gospel, classical, jazz and folk music was the soundtrack of my life. This soundtrack has shaped the way I analyze, digest and compose music. But no seed sown had stronger roots than when my mother introduced me to Gil Scott-Heron. She always told me stories about her time at Harvard during her college years, where she followed her work in hopes of seeing one of her live shows. For a lover of poetry and jazz, there is nothing more authentic than Boston in the late 70s.
