Trumpeter Charles Tolliver is an unsung hero in jazz. After becoming a sought-after sideperson in the sixties with Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, Horace Silver, Roy Ayers, and more, he and late piano god Stanley Cowell formed the innovative Strata-East label to showcase the talents of himself and his fellow travelers. Strata-East became known in the seventies as a place for artists who weren’t on the fusion or free jazz trains to experiment, pushing their sounds in directions not quite in line with mainstream jazz at the time.
Live at the Captain’s Cabin captures a prime 1973 gig in Edmonton, Alberta, with Tolliver’s band Music Inc. Sticking with brisk tempos, Tolliver, pianist John Hicks, bassist Clint Houston, and drummer Cliff Barbaro blaze away, leaving strips of burning grass behind them. Starting off strong with Houston’s “Black Vibrations,” the quartet announces its intention immediately: to stretch out and twist the boundaries of acoustic jazz, all while keeping melody in mind. Interpolating Latin, funk, blues and bop into a thrilling gestalt, Music Inc. takes tunes like Neil Hefti’s “Repetition” and the leader’s “Impact,” “Truth,” and “Compassion” into dimensions that few explored. Solos rip, rhythms swing, and everyone plays with one brain focusing on intensity and expression.
The band ends the show with a high-energy take on Tolliver’s “Stretch,” starting with a bravura Houston solo and ending with as melodic a showcase for Music Inc.’s musicianship as could be desired – a fitting end to a stunning performance. Not quite free, but bristling with a similar energy, the music made here by Tolliver and company is why the term “posbop” was invented.
