Strata-East Records was a pioneering record label founded in 1971 that went deep down the post-bop, spiritual jazz path most famously explored by John Coltrane on his iconic 1964 work "A Love Supreme." Strata-East was a radical label, featuring radical sounds by the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, label founders Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell, Clifford Jordan, Pharaoh Sanders, Cecil McBee, Sonny Fortune, Shirley Scott, and other greats.
I'm just beginning to check out the history, edges, and intersections of the jazz genre(s), and I had never heard of Strata-East until I visited San Francisco's legendary Groove Merchant record store several weeks ago. I told proprietor Chris Veltri that I love "A Love Supreme," Alice Coltrane, and Pharaoh Sanders, and asked where I should go next. Without missing a beat, he answered Strata-East. And now I can't get enough. My primers are Andy Thomas's excellent article "A Guide to Strata East," the killer compilation Soul Jazz Loves Strata East (from top-shelf reissue label Soul Jazz), and DJ Gilles Peterson's incredible Strata East Mix, celebrating a Strata-East Live event that took place in London earlier this year. Listen to Peterson's mix below:
(illustration above from Peterson's event poster)
