Loud Minority: Deep Spiritual Jazz from Mainstream

This is the first part of our in-depth look at the Mainstream label. Bob Shad's label is legendary for its high-quality recordings and had artists in the soul, jazz and psychedelic rock fields. Big Beat Records will handle the psychedelic recordings and BGP will take on the rest, starting with a look at the incredible jazz recordings made in the early part of the 70s.

Jazz in the 70s was in the depths of an economic recession, with clubs and record labels closing. Yet in lofts and in the few remaining live venues some incredible music was being made. Jazz musicians were influenced by the spirit of the age, be that radical politics, spiritual philosophies or pan-Africanism. Bob Shad was one of the few people still recording these sounds on a front-line record label and the recordings on this CD consequently offer a rare insight into an under-documented period of jazz music's history.

The title track, Frank Foster's The Loud Minority, sets the tone with forward-thinking jazz sounds and a political message. We also have similar lines of musicianship from Harold Land - two tracks from his legendary group with Bobby Hutcherson - and Roy Haynes. There is fantastic playing from Hadley Caliman, Buddy Terry and Charles McPherson and a rare date as a leader from the excellent Johnny Coles. Legends of soul jazz Blue Mitchell and Mike Longo appear, the latter with a previously unreleased version of Matrix.

All the Mainstream releases will have booklets with an incredible array of photographs from the original recording sessions and the photographic sessions for the cover. These have on the whole never been seen before and make the whole package a must have for fans of the jazz of the era.