In 1969, pianist Gene Russell and percussionist Dick Schory founded a revolutionary record label in Oakland, Calif., that personified a new sophisticated approach to jazz that embraced the era's black power and pan-African movements. The Black Jazz label featured young black artists and jazz that wasn't entirely acoustic but certainly not fusion. The music was culturally rich, geared to the newly emerging FM radio dial and guided by a fresh sense of what it meant to be creative, intellectual and black in the early 1970s. [Photo of Doug and Jean Carn, prior to a concert at New York's Lincoln Center, c. 1975]
I bought many of the 20 vinyl LPs that were released on the label between 1971 and 1975, and I acquired them all digitally over the years. Each album is a precious, soulful adventure and remains a vivid snapshot of the black jazz expression during those socially conscious times. In fact, if you want to know what those years in black jazz were about, this music still provides a vivid portrait. The Black Jazz label existed as an honest oasis surrounded by rambling free jazz, long-winded fusion, weary acoustic jazz and slick jazz-pop.
Among Black Jazz's most popular artists was keyboardist Doug Carn, who with Jean Carn, his wife at the time, recorded four excellent albums for the label. All remain classics, not only for the deeply moving music recorded but for the boldness of their divergence from the usual thing and how hard the Carns worked to create their own sound and expression.
The four albums Doug recorded with Jean were Infant Eyes, Spirit of the New Land, Revelation and Adam's Apple. Each is a masterpiece. Carn's work on the organ and piano as well as his compositions and vision for executing the albums remain remarkable. Jean's voice was beautiful and soulful, and exhibited a wide, earthy range. Doug and Jean Carn's recordings could be as peaceful and as tender as a resting cat while others were stormy and tumultuous. In all cases, melody and message mattered. Through Doug's music with Jean, one could hear African-Americans' growing impatience with institutional racism, the financial celebration of white artists and the duo's identification with Africa's culture and history.
I recently learned that Doug and Jean, who live in Florida, have reunited for tours. I'm surely late to that knowledge. Hopefully Doug will reach out and let me know their tour schedule so I can share it with you.
The Black Jazz label closed in 1976 with the death of co-founder Gene Russell. For six brief years, a black-owned label documented what black artists were feeling about the culture and let them express those sentiments in a way that kids like me fully grasped. Doug's music and Jean's voice remain commanding and floral, and the albums are just as timely today as they were in the early '70s.
JazzWax tracks: The Black Jazz catalog doesn't appear to be available digitally (though I own all 20 releases digitally). The vinyl doesn't seem to be a problem. I have no idea who owns the Black Jazz catalog now, but I hope they make the 20 albums available again soon, digitally.
If you find a site that's selling the albums as CDs or as digital downloads, please let me know and I'll let JazzWax readers know.
JazzWax clips: Here's Bobby Hutcherson's Little B's Poem, by Doug and Jean Carn on Infant Eyes (1971)...
Here's Bill Evans's Blue in Green from Doug and Jean Carn's Spirit of the New Land (1972)...
Here's Doug Carn's Fatherhood from Revelation (1973)...
And here's Doug and Jean Carn on Mighty Mighty from Adam's Apple (1973)...
