Cast
Charles Tolliver — Bandleader, trumpeter
Stanley Cowell — Pianist
Wayne Dockery — Double bassist
Alvin Queen — Drummer
Program notes
Charles Tolliver is forever immortalized by Strata-East Records, the label he co-founded alongside Stanley Cowell at the end of the Civil Rights Movement. Featuring artists such as Pharaoh Sanders and Gil Scott-Heron, this was music that reached to cosmic heights in the quest to reaffirm African-American pride and identity, while also acting as sharp social critique. In 1970s New York, it was artists like Tolliver that acted as the engine driving the scene forward and beyond his label duties, he was a prolific recorder and a master trumpet player in his own right.
Here, in 1971 in Paris, he performs at the ORTF Studio 104 alongside Stanley Cowell on piano, his SE co-founder and an accomplice to the likes of Sonny Rollins, Max Roach and Stan Getz, Wayne Dockery on double bass, who played with George Benson and Archie Shepp and Alvin Queen on drums, who also played with Benson, as well as Horace Silver and the legendary Oscar Peterson. Together, they perform a show around Tolliver's album Music Inc, which was recorded alongside a big band the previous year.
Music Inc was the first album recorded by Strata East and set the tone for one of the most respected and seminal recording movements in jazz history.