Strata-East: The Legacy begins

[felser]

If the contents of the digital sampler indicate what recordings they have rights to, then it would appear that there's some good news (Harold Vick!, remastered Billy Harper!, we maybe finally get a full digital release of the first Piano Choir set, some scarce Bill Lee-related albums become available) and some bad news (no Mtume, Keno Duke/Jazz Contemporaries, Sonny Fortune, Charles Sullivan, Cosmic Twins, Charles Davis, Juju, etc.).  We shall see, and give thanks for what we do get. @JSngry , thanks for the insight on Mack Avenue.  I always thought they must just be another Concord based on their releases which I am familiar with, but now know better.

[JSngry]

Worth remembering that Strata-Eadt was actually on offshoot of Strata, which was a Detroit label whose own releases are highly overlooked today.

Also - some of these SE records were either owned outright by the artists or else reverted back to the artists.

Mack Avenue is also a MAJOR sponsor, underwriter, and talent provider of the Detroit Jazz Festival. So they ain't Concord.

[Pim]

In the meanwhile the guys at the Hoffman Board keep on going guessing whetether it's AAA or semi AAA, a little AAA, mostly AAA, very AAA or not AAA at all. If it's taken directly from the master tape, indirectly taken from the master tapes, taken from a copy tape or......

It must be hard if that's you're minimum standard for buying music. You might miss a lot of good music.

[barnaba.siegel]

I'm so happy they're issuing those albums also on CD's. Hope the price would be reasonable too. 

[Eric]

2 hours ago, Pim said:

In the meanwhile the guys at the Hoffman Board keep on going guessing whetether it's AAA or semi AAA, a little AAA, mostly AAA, very AAA or not AAA at all. If it's taken directly from the master tape, indirectly taken from the master tapes, taken from a copy tape or......

It must be hard if that's you're minimum standard for buying music. You might miss a lot of good music.

😂

[T.D.]

5 hours ago, Pim said:

In the meanwhile the guys at the Hoffman Board keep on going guessing whetether it's AAA or semi AAA, a little AAA, mostly AAA, very AAA or not AAA at all. If it's taken directly from the master tape, indirectly taken from the master tapes, taken from a copy tape or......

It must be hard if that's you're minimum standard for buying music. You might miss a lot of good music.

Isn't that an audiophile forum (I don't visit)? I expect a predominance of that kind of discussion on a 'phile forum. [I'm sure there exist Hoffman posters who are less obsessed with AAA, but they'll be less visible.]

[felser]

On 2/8/2025 at 1:40 AM, JSngry said:

Worth remembering that Strata-Eadt was actually on offshoot of Strata, which was a Detroit label whose own releases are highly overlooked today.

Also - some of these SE records were either owned outright by the artists or else reverted back to the artists.

Mack Avenue is also a MAJOR sponsor, underwriter, and talent provider of the Detroit Jazz Festival. So they ain't Concord.

There was a comprehensive Strata reissue campaign a few years ago,and I picked up several of them.  Mixed bag, but some gems by Kenny Cox, Bert Myrick (I owned that one back in the day on vinyl thanks to hearing it at Third Street Jazz), Lyman Woodward.   I am aware of the S-E albums reverting back to artists, remember Chuck sharing that several years ago on a board discussion.  Some of them (Fortune, Shirley Scott, Gil Scott-Heron, and others) have made it out on other stray reissues through the years in addition to the titles that Bellaphon released in the early 90's, which seems to correlate with the titles which appear to be part of this reissue campaign.  I fear that some of the other ones such as the Keno Duke/Jazz Contemporary titles, the Cosmic Twins, and the Mtume are not going to ever be available for reissue, which is a loss.

[JSngry]

There was a sharity blog that had them all up for download. So nothing's going to disappear.

And some things...resonate better with the patina of age and such. They were songs from the underground then, they are even more that now.

If Keno Duke is not a ghost, who the hell is?

If Alke-Bulan is not a ritual from a distant ever-dimming age, nothing is.

For some things, restoration is vainglorious deception.

[felser]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

There was a sharity blog that had them all up for download. So nothing's going to disappear.

And some things...resonate better with the patina of age and such. They were songs from the underground then, they are even more that now.

If Keno Duke is not a ghost, who the hell is?

If Alke-Bulan is not a ritual from a distant ever-dimming age, nothing is.

For some things, restoration is vainglorious deception.

Different strokes for different folks 🙂.

[JSngry]

[Pim]

14 hours ago, T.D. said:

Isn't that an audiophile forum (I don't visit)? I expect a predominance of that kind of discussion on a 'phile forum. [I'm sure there exist Hoffman posters who are less obsessed with AAA, but they'll be less visible.]

Yeah but lots of music lovers as well

[Rabshakeh]

Alkebu-Lan is a record that never really jelled with me. It is murkily recorded and, to my dumb ears, the music and narration is average and almost self-parodic. I am happy to listen to it occasionally as a document of what the late 1060s and early 1970s was probably really like in jazz, but I've always been a bit confused by the reverence in which it is held.