Clifford Jordan-Strata East Mosaic

[JSngry]

If anybody is lacking on Strata-East "Dolphy Series" issues and wants to remedy that, this set is a must.

And even if you're not, it's got the Wilbur Ware session that was only released by The Bass Institute Of Chicago (everybody snapped that one up, right?) as well as one altogether unreleased session that is good enough.

I had all but the unreleased session, but I bought the set because, to reiterate, I'll never not buy from Mosaic, no matter how hinky their workflow becomes. But yeah, the transfers trump a lot of the LPs by a good shot.

[aparxa]

Ed Blackwell!!!!!!!!!!

[BFrank]

Besides being music that will probably be hard to find, the clips sounded really good to me!

[sidewinder]

Essential music and a fine set. Buy recommendation !

and ignore the Mosaic nay-sayers on the other thread. 

[J.A.W.]

3 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Essential music and a fine set. Buy recommendation !

Thanks, but I listened to the audio samples of all the tracks on AllMusic and I'm still not convinced - some good music, and some that's not really my cup of tea.

3 hours ago, sidewinder said:

and ignore the Mosaic nay-sayers on the other thread. 

The negativity on this board never ceases to amaze me. Seems like some people here are always looking for things to complain, moan and whine about...

[Scott Dolan]

3 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Essential music and a fine set. Buy recommendation !

and ignore the Mosaic nay-sayers on the other thread. 

Or learn to read for comprehension. 

Not holding my breath. 

[David Ayers]

The two main albums on this set are Glass Bead Games and Izipho Zam. Those two, Payne and Brackeen were around for years on CD. All four are on Youtube, as is the other Jordan. 

[J.A.W.]

2 hours ago, David Ayers said:

The two main albums on this set are Glass Bead Games and Izipho Zam. Those two, Payne and Brackeen were around for years on CD. All four are on Youtube, as is the other Jordan. 

I know all that, but Strata-East was not a label I was very interested in and I skipped most of the stuff back in the day, with the exception of Glass Bead Games, which I found interesting but nothing more. After all these years I decided to give it another try and listened to the audio samples on AllMusic a few times, but, as I said earlier, I'm still not convinced by much of the music. For instance, Pharoah Sanders always sounded like a hoover to me in the 1960s, during his impulse! years, and the Strata-East doesn't do much to improve that impression, and that's just one example.

Edited July 15, 2017 by J.A.W.

[JSngry]

Jordan's "best" record ever, imo. People love them some Glass Bead Games, but that one's always seemed a little "reigned in" to me. Not this one.

 

[David Ayers]

2 hours ago, J.A.W. said:

I know all that, but Strata-East was not a label I was very interested in and I skipped most of the stuff back in the day, with the exception of Glass Bead Games, which I found interesting but nothing more. After all these years I decided to give it another try and listened to the audio samples on AllMusic a few times, but, as I said earlier, I'm still not convinced by much of the music. For instance, Pharoah Sanders always sounded like a hoover to me in the 1960s, during his impulse! years, and the Strata-East doesn't do much to improve that impression, and that's just one example.

 

I'm with you on this one. Glass Bead Games is of interest but IMO over-rated (like the novel!). And that is supposedly the stand-out album of this set. I sold all my Strata Easts which were in poor transfers. It's always nice to have a quality edition of something but I think this was a quirky choice. 

[JSngry]

Charles (underrated), not Joanne (overrated, as far as all that goes).

 

On 7/14/2017 at 1:00 PM, aparxa said:

Ed Blackwell!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly.

[AllenLowe]

my sense of this set is that it is incredibly important, historically and musically - like an assembly of musicians who had gone through the crazy musical changes of the 1960s and who were reevaluating everything about what they had learned. I plan on getting it. From the clips I have heard, there is some amazing music.

[JSngry]

From that historical standpoint, worth noting that Jordan produced many of these sessions pre-Strata-East, for a label that was to be called Futura or Frontier or some other F-Word. That's how I understand it anyway. Point just being that whatever quirks there are in terms of recording quality (and some people are apparently a lot more bothered by that type of thing than others) look at the people on these records, look at the time-frame, and then consider how many of them were being documented at all, never mind in totally unfiltered contexts like these.

None of these people are trifling musicians, and none of these sessions were sanitized for your protection or to catch your ear on the radio. Nobody had a new star to push or fads to capitalize on or images to cultivate or controversies to exploit. These were just people who had lives in the music. Lives, ok? Not just careers, lives. If there was an agenda, it was to document what those lives sounded like when left to their own devices. Not everybody's going to hear that, but ok, hear what your life sounds like, options abound, it's a big world. But this is for sure one very real part of it.

I get differences in taste, and I totally get differences in socio-cultural fields of vibrational sensory orientations,  but the notion that this specific set of music is a "quirky" choice is itself pretty darn quirky, to be honest. And that's giving the fullest benefit of the doubt 

Quirky?

Genetic code.

[J.A.W.]

I don't deny that this set is a historical jazz document and I don't deny its importance either, and I do occasionally buy sets just for those reasons if the music interests me in any way, but in this case the music doesn't quite do it for me and that's an important factor, the more so since my funds are far from unlimited. The fact that some of the recordings sound a bit quirky is less important, the ears do adjust to that after a while if the music does interest me enough.

Edited July 15, 2017 by J.A.W.

[JSngry]

Wilbur Ware always interest me.

[JSngry]

For that matter, so does Ed Blackwell. And usually so do Clifford Jordan and Don Cherry.

Remember, despite the set's title, only Glass Bead Games is a true "Strata-East" record. Everything else is stuff that Jordan had produced himself before that label came into being. Strata-East just released it. It was a few years in the can by the time it got out, and this Ware session, it was decades. The Blackwell-led date is just now getting out.. So to talk about this set in terms of "Strata-East as an overall label, that's not particularly accurate. Not at all accurate, actually.

For my money (which I have spent, and which was put where my mouth was), this a lot more the type of set that I appreciate Mosaic for than Bing Crosby or Rosemary Clooney, again, both of whom I really dig, but not in a Mosaic way.

Hey, Wynton Kelly away from Creed Taylor, Orrin Keepnews, of, even, Don Schlitten. Kenny Dorham in 1969. And when not KD, Don Cherry, not that the music is better suited for one than the other (point being made, certainly). Tootie Heat on half, Ed Blackwell and Roy Haynes on the other half, together at the same time! When not Wilbur Ware, Richard Davis. Julian Preister unencumbered. Everything unencumbered, players just playing, which is not a responsibility that just anybody can be given, there has to be discretion.

 

 

 

[jlhoots]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Wilbur Ware always interest me.

Me too.

I bought that WWI CD. Is that defunct now???

[sidewinder]

 

Quote

The negativity on this board never ceases to amaze me. Seems like some people here are always looking for things to complain, moan and whine about...

I just put the whiners on 'ignore'.

Edited July 15, 2017 by sidewinder

[jlhoots]

1 hour ago, sidewinder said:

 

I just put the whiners on 'ignore'.

So do I - names withheld so as not to offend!!

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Me too.

I bought that WWI CD. Is that defunct now???

Not as it appears: http://wilburwareinstitute.org/events/

[Bill Nelson]

I was thrilled to read the Jordan-Strata East was available again and ordered mine yesterday.   As Sangrey said, "This is a LOT more the type of set I appreciate Mosaic for."  (The only Strata East vinyl I've been fortunate to score are 'Glass Beads' and Brackeen's 'Rhythm-X'.)  That Malcolm Addey remastered this box set ensures this will be the best in physical media you'll ever hear. 

Also, I want to get this before the Last Chance Stampede when the curtain comes down.     

 

[David Ayers]

Wow. So anyone who doesn't rebuy at premium price mostly long-familiar music which has been around for decades on LP and CD is a 'whiner'? Since this music really has been available for decades, why do some people need to wait for it to be an official Mosaic before they are interested in it? It's good they are catching up to where the rest of us were a few decades ago but then also - the whiners have moved on...

[J.A.W.]

7 hours ago, David Ayers said:

Wow. So anyone who doesn't rebuy at premium price mostly long-familiar music which has been around for decades on LP and CD is a 'whiner'? 

I don't think anyone said that, at least I didn't. I was referring to the general negativity on this board as I perceive it. It's been around for a long time and it's one of the reasons I left. Mosaic's problems were the only reason I returned, but, as I said earlier after I had made the mistake of removing an entire thread, I probably shouldn't have. Oh well...

Edited July 16, 2017 by J.A.W.

[Scott Dolan]

No, what you and the other apologists have done is paint those of us who are highlighting a rather troubling flaw in the way Mosaic conducts their business as whiners, complainers, naysayers of Mosaic who will never do business with them again. None of which is true, but when labelled in such ways, you're goddamn right there is going to be some serious blowback. 

The enforced martyrdom of Mosaic is just as out of control as any of the perceived negativity. 

[JSngry]

I was bitching about my Mosaic voice mail experience being full-frontal clown-show, and now I'm highly strongly advocating for one of their sets. Either I'm bi-polar, or else I'm evolved enough to process multiple realities simultaneously.