Before being half of the duo Kon & Amir, label manager of Wax Poetics and boss of 180 Proof Records, DJ Amir is first and foremost an accurate record collector and music lover. That’s why, on the occasion of the reissues of Strata pioneering spiritual jazz LP’s at BBE, we asked him to go back, on his story as a digger, but also on the history of the mythical Detroit label.

When did you start digging records?
I started digging seriously for records probably around 81’ or 82’ but I started collecting records way earlyer than that.

What LP’s did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
The LP’s that I started buying when I began my journey into collecting records were Stevie Wonder ‘Innervisions’, Grover Washington Jr. ‘Mister Magic’ and ‘Inner City Blues’, and any James Brown records I could get.
I still listen to all of these records. It’s funny a lot of people think that record collecting is all bout finding and listening to just the rarest records on the planet. This is so not what I am about. I love music (cue in The O’Jays) common and rare!

Do you have a particular style or favourite period?
I guess my favorite period of music is definitely the 60’s and 70’s of music ; everything from jazz to soul to funk to disco. For example, I love not only hard bop jazz but also jazz fusion. Whatever the music genre it has to have some complexity that still keeps the essence of funk from the soul.

Are you still digging, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
I am definitely still digging and collecting vinyl. Although, not as much as I used to because as I have gotten older life and relationships start to become more important then digging all day everyday. However, when I can I am going to record shops more than online. I find that shopping online doesn’t give me the same exciting feeling as actually going to a record shop.

What was your first release on 180 Proof Records?
My first release on 180 Proof Records was the previously unreleased Kenny Cox ‘Clap Clap ! The Joyful Noise.’ This was released at the end of 2012. By the way, Kenny Cox was the owner and founder of Strata Records, Inc.

Kenny Cox
Clap Clap A Joyful Noise

Why did you choose this name: 180 Proof Records?
I chose the name 180 Proof Records because it is kinda of a play on 180 Gram vinyl. I wanted my records to be at the highest sound quality imaginable and the packaging to be impeccable.

What could be your editorial/esthetic line?
My editorial or esthetic line is something I borrowed from Strata which is «All Musics For All Peoples». Basically, the sound that I am trying to bring to the world is for everyone that has a heartbeat.

What could be the label’s leitmotiv?
The leitmotiv that best fits what Strata was all about is their moniker «The Sound of Detroit». They tried to represent the sound of Detroit in the best way possible.

You talk about mission about the rediscovery of Strata Inc.. A heritage mission? Memory? Inheritance?
My mission to rediscover Strata began when I was running Wax Poetics Records. I had contacted Lyman Woodard to reissue his Saturday Night Special album and he lad me to Barbara Cox the owner of Strata. Also I was commissioned around the same time to create an online exhibition for the Scion iQ museum that centered around lost youth culture. I decided to submit something on Strata and I was accepted.
My mission is to bring the history and legacy of Strata to not only the world but also to the Black American community in America that may not know about the legacy of labels/movements like a Strata Records. For example, how Strata was not only a record label but also an artist collective based on the idea of an artist run and controlled label. They also founded the first jazz music program at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio in 1970 and started community food based drives in Detroit.
Strata came out of the insurrections as most Detroiters call the riots of 1967 and 1968. This lead to a revolution in art, culture and politics. I definitely feel it is my inheritance and duty to tell the story of Strata !

About Strata Inc label, you had evocated a catalog which includes 30 unreleased masters in addition to the label’s 6 official commercial releases. Will you publish that?
The catalog of Strata I will definitely be publishing once I have gone through all of the masters. It is very expensive to transfer and remaster original reel to reel masters. In addition, it is also has been very difficult researching certain masters and artists because there has been little to no information on the original master tape.

Remember the day you listened to Strata’s first album? What a feeling?
I certainly remember listening to my first Strata record which was the Lyman Woodard Organization ‘Saturday Night Special’ album. At the time I knew about Strata Records but had not heard any of the records. It just so happens that I had a friend who wanted a rare hip hop promo 12” of Common Sense aka Common ‘The Bitch in You.” I traded my Common 12” for a mint copy of the Lyman album. When I first heard the album was blown away by the soulful and funky grittiness of the album. The grooves were so infectious that it instantly became one of my favorite albums.

The Lyman Woodard Corporation
Creative Musicians

Strata is emblematic of a 70’s jazz scene. What were its characteristics? And what differences with nowadays?
While Strata is very emblematic of the 70’s jazz scene there are definitely some differences. For example, not many jazz labels whether independent or commerical were community based artists collectives that focused on the revolutionary nature of art and culture. Not many labels were able to approach colleges and universities to propose starting a jazz music program or open their creative space so that local artists could come to rehearse or perform.
Morever, Strata was dedicated to the upliftment of the Black community of Detroit. As I mentioned before, Detroit suffered through two riots which devasted the city.The first riot is 1967 was caused by the constant harassment and killing of Black people by the Detroit police. This lead to a severe crack down by the National Guard in which several people were killed. Then in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated and like many inner city Black communities Detroit erupted. The assassination of Dr. King also birthed the creation of the Black Panthers as well as other political and social movements like Strata.
Nowadays, jazz has become marginalized by mainstream America and has lost a bit of its edge and ability to speak to the youth. There are some examples of those who are trying to ‘push the envelope’ in jazz like Kamasi Washington, Gregory Porter, or Thunder Cat. However, for the most part, jazz does not hold the weight cultural and artistical that it used.

Strata East is best known, and yet Strata was created before. Charles Tolliver even says that this was the exemple which served them. How do you explain this lack of recognition in the official jazz sphere?
I think the lack of recognition of Strata in the official jazz sphere stems from the lack of releases. Unfortunately, they were only able to release 6 albums. Strata East I believe has over 50 releases or more. I know some of the biggest jazz record collectors that either not heard of Strata or do not know the difference between Strata East and Strata.
Furthermore, Strata East was able to do records with the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, the Heath Brothers, and Shirley Scott to name a few. Being able to have such jazz heavyweights record with Strata East definitely helped to cement their legacy as one of the great jazz labels.
Lastly, just being based in New York City also helped Strata East gain access to more funding as well as the artistic talent.

Kenny Cox was at the creation of the label. What were his motives at the time?
As the creator of Strata Records, inc., Kenny Cox was motived to create an artist collective based on self-reliance and pushing forward the art and culture of jazz. I don’t think Kenny saw Strata becoming something with a cult status. Most artist and labels never envision this. They just create from the heart and soul.

Larry Nozero
Impressions Of My Lady

Was there a vision, an objective, a political one?
Again, the vision and objective of Strata was to create a movement based on artist collective based on self-reliance and pushing forward the art and culture of jazz. In addition, I firmly believe Kenny was trying to elevate the Black community of Detroit and America as a whole.

Detroit is a big city on the map of Great Black Music. How do the different scenes that compose it dialogue together? And do you think Strata Inc. is a good example of their eco-system?
The different music scenes in Detroit worked somewhat well together. For instance, many of the artists that recorded with Strata were musicians that played on a lot of Motown records. For example, Larry Nozero actually played the horn on the Marvin Gaye song ‘What’s Going On.’ Also Lyman Woodard was the musical director for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.
Additionally, there was a lot of collaboration between labels like Tribe Records and Strata in Detroit. Both shared the same goal of self-reliance, community uplift and artistic freedom. Labels like Strata are a perfect exemple of the eco-system of the Detroit music scene. Hence, why Strata’s moniker was ‘The Sound of Detroit.’

The young DJs of Detroit still remember these rich hours?
There are some young dj’s in Detroit who remember the legacy of Strata but it is really the older dj’s like Theo Parrish, Moodymann, Juan Aktins, Carl Craig and others that remember Strata legacy the most. Mainly, because people like Moodymann have worked with some of the Strata artists like Norma Jean Bell. I remember when I first met Theo Parrish almost ten years ago and he was surprised that I was the one that reissued the Lyman Woodard ‘Saturday Night Special’ album through Wax Poetics Records. He was excited to talk about how he grew up listening and following Strata as a child.

Why and when did Strata Inc. stop?
Unfortunately, Strata closed its doors in 1976 due to lack of money to continue to run the label. Like most independent labels, when your distributor doesn’t pay you on time or at all it is very hard to keep things running.

Bert Myrick
Scorpio’s Child

Do you have other ideas for reissues, other than Strata Inc.?
I definitely have other ideas of labels that I want to reissue but for now I am keeping that a secret !

There are more and more reissues of old LP’s, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
I do think the reissue market is beginning to reach a bit of saturation but labels like myself that continue to not only release great music but also educate and evelate music will always survive.

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to reissue?
The only negative feedback that I have received from some of my releases is that I have made some of them double vinyl. There have been some people complaining that they have to get up to turn over the vinyl too quick and that the high quality that I present my releases is really for the bourgeoisie not the masses. You cannot please everyone!

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
The LP if it ever does exist would the project that Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, and Tony Williams supposedly recorded. It is also rumored that Jimi had asked Paul McCartney to join them on bass. That would be the ultimate release for me!

Maulawi
Street Rap

Click here to check for Strata Catalog

Since the late 60’s, the native from Connecticut has played an important role in jazz history. After hosting a radio jazz show and writing for ‘Down Beat’ and other music magazines, he started working for record companies : Atlantic, Motown, ABC, Freedom and finally… Blue Note. Since 1984, Michael Cuscuna has been a special consultant, producer and the reissue director of the mythical label… During the same period, he also managed Mosaic Records, the indie company well known for its reissue boxsets of jazz legends.

 
 

Before directing Blue Note, you worked for various labels such as ESP, Muse, or ABC … Is Blue Note the label you dreamed of working for?
There were two labels that I dreamed about working for – Atlantic and Blue Note. I was a staff producer for Atlantic in 1972-74. I was friendly with a lot of jazz musicians and many of them told me about great Blue Note sessions that they played on that had never been released. I started to keep a notebook with all of their memories and tried to contact Blue Note to get into the vaults to see what might be worth releasing. But George Butler was running Blue Note and his interest was not in jazz. The label had changed and was nothing like the old Blue Note. Finally in 1976 I met Charles Lourie who had just joined Blue Note and he was a great jazz fan. He got me into the vaults and I have been working with this material ever since.

What lays behind the identity of Blue Note? What makes the difference, gives it a different edge compared to other Jazz labels? The Pop dimension?
What gave Blue Note the creative edge and made it better and different than most labels is that Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff were interested in keeping jazz pure, BUT ALSO in helping to create a situation in which to make great jazz, they befriended artists, they had planning meetings and rehearsals and tried to encourage musicians to compose and make new music that they would be proud of. The difference was in the care and hard work they put into everything.

Do you think the history of Blue Note can be split in several periods? If so what are they and why?
The different periods of Blue Note are basically defined by the style of music they recorded at the time. The first period is 1939-46 when they recorded boogie woogie, New Orleans jazz and small group swing. The second period is 1947-54 when they discovered modern jazz and made great first sessions by Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, James Moody, Kenny Drew, Wynton Kelly, Lou Donaldson and Horace Silver. 1954-67 is the period when Blue Note discovered its identity through sound (Rudy Van Gelder), design (Reid Miles), photography (Francis Wolff), production (Alfred Lion) and the style of the music (Horace Silver, Art Blakey with the birth of the Jazz Messengers). In this third period, the music grew and changed but it was basically the same creative team and the growing group of great musicians who recorded with the label, moving from soul jazz to hard bop to modal to avant-garde. Alfred Lion left in 1967 and Francis Wolff and Duke Pearson tried to keep the identity of Blue Note going until Frank’s death in 1971. The fourth period is the 70’s when George Butler ran the label. Some older artists like Horace Silver, Bobby Hutcherson and Elvin Jones stayed for a while, but the label’s sound was mainly controlled by the Mizell Brothers and Larry Rosen & Dave Grusin who were turning out successful, commercial albums by Donald Byrd, Earl Klugh and others. The next phase would be from 1985 when Bruce Lundvall restarted Blue Note to 2010 when he retired. In that era, we recorded a variety of music so it is hard to define what we have done. This is a different time.

To try and study the history of Blue Note, its evolution and singular aesthetic may sometimes sound like trying to understand the history of jazz. Why do you think this is?
Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff were jazz fans and they followed the music as it grew and changed. It is natural that people as smart and talented as them would mirror the evolution of the music in what they did. Sometimes they were followers like when they discovered bebop two years after other labels were recording it and sometimes they were the creators of change like when they signed Jimmy Smith before the organ was a jazz instrument and before the popularity of soul jazz.

Why do you think Blue Note succeeded in bringing together so many different artists, from Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor to Lou Donaldson and Lonnie Smith, without losing its originality and unity?
That is the key behind Blue Note. You could go from Ike Quebec to Jackie McLean to Lonnie Smith to Ornette Coleman and what is common about each artist is that they were making their best records for Blue Note. The sound, the packaging, the planning – it all makes each record special in the sense of Blue Note quality. We tried to do that in the 80’s. 80’s and 00’s. But of course we had different engineers, producers, studios and designers so we did not have the consistency that Alfred and Frank had.

What was the essence behind the fascinating Blue Note artwork? What kind of directions were given to the graphics designer to achieve such a harmonious and unique series of design?
This is very interesting. The early Blue Note designers like Paul Bacon and John Hermansader were modern designers and jazz fans. But by the time of the 12” (30 cm) LP, they settled on Reid Miles as their designer. Reid only liked classical music so he never listened to any of the hundreds of Blue Note albums that he designed covers for. And yet, he captured each album perfectly. The reason is that Alfred, who was a very enthusiastic and talkative man, would describe to Reid the spirit and intent of each album and Reid created the ideal design for each one. He also had that rare gift that every album cover looked different from the rest, but together they all looked like Blue Note covers.

There are some musicians that were all about Blue Note in their style but never got a release on the label like Mal Waldron or Charles Tolliver. What criteria did you mainly use to select your artists?
Well, Mal Waldron never recorded for Blue Note in any session, but I understand your question. Charles Tolliver and Woody Shaw were promised contracts with Blue Note but when Alfred sold the label to Liberty Records and didn’t like the way they were doing business, he told Charles and Woody that he didn’t want to sign new artists because he wanted to leave the label himself. Others like James Spaulding are a mystery. I asked James once why he never made a Blue Note album as a leader. He said, « They never asked me. » Well, James is a shy guy and probably he never asked them either! There is no logic to all of this.

Blue Note is by far the most collected and famous jazz label. Are you familiar with all the pressing details (the ear, the R, the deep groove, the flat edge etc …) that make it such a fascinating record series to collect and what is your opinion about it? And how did so many pressing variances occur?
I don’t know all the ins and outs of the collector details for Blue Note. Fred Cohen who runs the Jazz Record Center in New York City published a whole book about it. I am amazed at how collectable original Blue Note pressings and all the attention paid to little details like the label address on the pressings etc. By the way, the ear in the wax that collectors talk about is actually a P for Plastylite, the pressing plant that pressed all the Blue Notes in the 50’s and 60’s.

During the 90’s, Blue Note Japan reissued a number of previously unreleased sessions on LP including material by Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Dexter Gordon, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter… Most of these recordings are awesome. Why weren’t they released at the time? Do you plan to release new issues of those recordings for the rest of the world?
Actually, in 1976 I started going into the Blue Note vaults for unissued material. I was amazed at the quality of a lot of it. Some artists like Lee Morgan and Grant Green recorded so frequently (probably because they wanted to earn more money) that the label could never put out everything, but much of what they did not release was every bit as good as what they did release. Both Lee and Grant were very successful so Alfred and Frank probably leaned towards their more commercial sessions to release at the time. Others are a great mystery like Wayne Shorter’s ‘Et Cetera’ or Bobby Hutcherson’s ‘Oblique’. Brilliant sessions. I asked Alfred once about all the unissued material and he didn’t really remember leaving so much good material in the vault. So I started putting these sessions out in the late ‘70s in the US. But the record business was in bad shape at the time and the label lost interest in issuing them. So I talked to King Records in Japan who were distributing Blue Note at the time. They put a lot of them out. Then when Toshiba EMI took over Blue Note we put more out and then started converting everything to CD. I have gotten just about everything out that deserves to be released at least in Japan if not everywhere. In the past few years, Japan has begun to reissue of lot of these and classic Blue Notes on hi-res CDs.

Our favorite recordings on the label belong to what we call the « Dark Jazz » genre, like Duke Pearson’s ‘The Phantom’, Andrew Hill’s ‘Lift With Every Voice’, Bobby Hutcherson’s ‘Oblique’ or Jack Wilson’s ‘Easterly Winds’! These are still largely underrated. Any idea why?
Well, most of the albums that you name are from the late 60’s and early 70’s. This was a bad time for jazz in USA. Underground FM Rock like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead were attracting the young white audience and the avant-garde was driving away the middle-aged black audience and jazz was left with very little support. These albums were created and issued during that time and were overlooked. I think that is why history has forgotten them.

Pete La Roca’s ‘Basra’ is one of our favorite LPs on the label. Why did Pete release only one LP for Blue Note?
I don’t know. A lot of guys only made one or two albums for a label during that time. And guys like Pete (in demand drummers and bassists) got a lot more work by playing with different groups than trying to lead their own group. Of course, Pete did make another album for Blue Note 30 years later !!!

75 years is quite an achievement! How do you explain the longevity of the label?
I think the longevity of the label is owed to the great music of the classic Blue Note period (1954-67) that Alfred and Frank recorded and that remains vital and alive today and the fact that Bruce Lundvall, myself and Don Was who followed since the 80’s have never tried to duplicate what they did, but we respect it and try to live up to their legacies in our own way.

The Blue Note identity (the artwork, the quality of recordings, …) is part of the label’s mythology. Do you have any type of strategy to keep the myth alive?
Well, we’ve always kept that legacy alive by issuing the classic Blue Note albums in the best possible sound with original packaging and liner notes to keep the spirit of the original Blue Note alive. That identity does not exist for new Blue Note recordings since 1985 because we have so many different producers, engineers, photographers and designers. We have always tried to keep the quality high, but it doesn’t have an identity like the original Blue Note did.

What could eventually endanger the Blue Note brand?
What would endanger Blue Note would be if the kind of person who only cared about music as a commercial commodity instead of an art were to take over the label. Then bizarre projects like Rod Stewart sings Gershwin or Barry Manilow duets with dead people would destroy the integrity of the label and lose the trust of the fan.

Do you think a label like Blue Note could see the light today? If so, which other label could potentially look like Blue Note today?
Yes, I do. But it would have to be an independent label, not part of large corporation. I think in the 70’s ECM in its own musical style created an independent label with a very strong identity. I think Criss Cross in the 80’s till today is doing very much what Blue Note of the 50’s and 60’s did. And newer labels like Palmetto and ACT are recording pure jazz and forging their own identities.

Are you interested in the current jazz scene?
Yes, I don’t have the time to follow it as much as I would like but there are an amazing amount of talent artists on every instrument. I think the fact that people like Herbie Hancock and Terence Blanchard give their time to jazz education has really helped too.

Current Blue Note artists like Gregory Porter or Robert Glasper are very promising. Do you think they will be part of the Blue Note legend one day?
Yes I do. We have been very lucky over the past 30 years to record people like Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, John Scofield, Greg Osby, Tim Hagans, Joe Lovano, Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Robert Glasper and Gregory Porter. They are all original and they are here to stay.

Are you enthusiastic about the return of vinyl records? How do you see the future in that respect?
I don’t think the return of vinyl affects the style or quality of music, but it does make us more conscious of upholding great sound quality when producing a record.

We owe you the re-discovery of the Monk quartet with Coltrane. Do you have many more unreleased tapes? Where do you find them?
Well, they come from different places. That one came from Larry Appelbaum at the Library of Congress. Author Lewis Porter found an ad for that concert in a New York newspaper and kept asking Larry to look for it in the Voice Of America radio tapes. A couple of years later, Larry found it by accident !!!! They called me and we made a deal. This was a major find. I doubt we will ever see anything that significant again. I believe most of the next discoveries will come from INA, the BBC, RAI and other European radio and television companies that taped the great American artists in the 60’s.

What would be the Blue Note release of your dreams?
I don’t know how to answer that. Since 1976, I’ve gotten all the great unissued music released. Since 1985, I’ve gotten all of the classic catalog issued on CD in good sound with bonus tracks. I’ve also been able to produce a lot of wonderful artists like Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Don Pullen-George Adams, Joe Lovano, Terence Blanchard and more. I think my dreams have come true.