In A Mellow Tone, June 4: Charles Tolliver, Stanley Cowell and Music Inc

A deep dive into recent reissues of Music Inc releases, including previously unreleased tracks

Strata-East Records was a record label founded by two jazz musicians – Charles Tolliver and the pianist Stanley Cowell – in 1970. Heavy Ben did a show on the history of the label on In A Mellow Tone in February of 2021.

Mack Avenue Records has recently reissued 35 albums from the Strata-East catalogue - some of them available digitally for the first time. On this show, I am featuring the various iterations of Music Inc - always with Charles Tolliver and sometimes with Stanley Cowell. In future shows I will feature other releases from the Strata-East reissued catalogue.

The show will start with a bit of pre-history of Music Inc. In 1968, at the age of 26, Charles Tolliver recorded his first session as a leader under the group name of Charles Tolliver and his All Stars – with Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Joe Chambers on drums. Although initially released on Polydor Records in 1971, it was subsequently reissued on Strata-East. The new remastered release is the first time in digital format and includes a previously unreleased take of “Repetition”. On the show we will hear two tracks from this release - “Household of Saud” and the previously unreleased take.

Stanley Cowell and Charles Tolliver first met when they played with Max Roach. In 1969 they formed the group Music Inc. Although it was a cooperative venture, Charles Tolliver was the leader. While on tour in Europe, they recorded for the first time together under the name Music Inc. The album “Ringer” included Steve Novosel on Bass and Jimmy Hopps on drums.

In 1970 they recorded another album in a session under the name Music Inc. – this time with 15 other musicians including Cecil McBee on Bass, Bobby Brown on flute, Jimmy Heath on tenor sax, Clifford Jordan on tenor sax, and Curtis Fuller on trombone.

The recording was met with indifference from established record labels and thus Strata-East records was born – this is the fist recording on the label, released in 1971. The reissue of the self-titled album includes a previously unreleased track, “Dave’s Chant” that will be played on the show.

Music Inc recorded live at Slugs in New York City in 1970 and those recordings were released on Strata-East in 1972 and 1973 as “Live at Slugs, vol. 1 and 2”. On the recording, Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell were joined by Cecil McBee on bass and Jimmy Hopps on drums. On the new reissue is a previously unreleased track from those performances – “On the Nile”. We will hear that track on the show.

In March of 1972, Music Inc recorded a live album for Enja Records, with Ron Mathewson on Bass and Alvin Queen on drums. Confusingly, this album is entitled Impact – and not to be confused with the studio album of the same name by Music Inc, released in 1975. We are going to hear the title track from the live album.

In August of 1972, Charles Tolliver was joined again by Alvin Queen on drums, but this time with John Hicks on piano and Reggie Workman on bass at a live performance in Holland – the album “Live at the Loosdrecht Jazz Festival” was the outcome. We will hear the track “Truth” from that release. Here’s a fiery trumpet solo also on the album.

In the summer of 1973, Charles Tolliver travelled to Edmonton with John Hicks on piano, Clinton Houston on bass and Clifford Barbaro on drums. This performance was released on Reel to Real records last year (“Live at the Captain’s Cabin”). We will hear “Black Vibrations”.

In 1975, Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell returned to the studio to record under the name “Music Inc Orchestra”. The orchestra was over 20 musicians with a trio of strings. The musicians on this release included Harold Vick on flute and soprano sax, Charles McPherson on Alto Sax, George Coleman on tenor Sax, and Jon Faddis on trumpet. We will hear a track from that release.

In 1977, Charles Tolliver recorded another album under the Music Inc name with Nathan Page on guitar, Steve Novosel on Bass and Alvin Queen on drums. The album was called “Compassion”. On the show we will hear two tracks from that release, the title track plus “Impact”.

In 1988, Charles Tolliver recorded a live album in West Berlin at the club Quasimodo, with Alain Jean Marie on piano, Ugonna Okegwa on bass and Ralph van Duncan on drums. For this album, he dropped Music Inc from the band name, going with just Charles Tolliver. On the just released reissue of this recording, there is a previously unreleased track “‘Round Midnight” that we will listen to.

Music Inc had a short recording career - but Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell reunited in 2006 to record a big band record again, under the name “Charles Tolliver Big Band”. The album “With Love” released on BlueNote Records, also included another original member of Music Inc - Cecil McBee on bass.

Stanley Cowell died in 2020 at the age of 79.

Charles Tolliver is now 83. He was still performing as recently as 2021. Here is a performance at Dizzy’s in New York City from 2016.

You can listen to the show live in the National Capital Region at 93.1 on the FM dial, or live stream via CKCUFM.com around the world, on Wednesday from 9 to 11 p.m. The show is also available for on demand streaming.