Description
Founded in Oakland, The Black Jazz label was created to promote the talents of young African American jazz musicians and singers, and released twenty albums between 1971 and 1975. Some of the more notable artists to record for Black Jazz Records were organist/pianist Doug Carn, whose four albums were the most successful of any Black Jazz artist. Carn’s wife at the time, Jean Carn, sang on his albums; she changed her name to Jean Carne and went on to have a successful solo career as an R & B singer.
Other masters from the Black Jazz label that will be joining us are Calvin Keys and Henry Franklin. They will be supported by an all star cast of musicians, bringing the Black Jazz catalog to life. Listen to new mixes of the Black Jazz catalog from Giles Peterson, Theo Parrish and Dj Muro.
Doug's newest project, his entry in the Jazz Is Dead album series helmed by Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, takes his unique and timeless art and places it within the context of a musical culture that has always taken cues from his 70s classics. There's no mistaking the musical mind that created legendary albums like Infant Eyes and Adam's Apple, but the encounter of that with the distinctive jazz-hip hop-funk-noir that is the Younge/Muhammad/JID trademark creates something worthy of comparison to Carn's past work but which could only have been made right now. One can detect nods to musical motifs by Carn's jazz peers that have served as frequent sample fodder, but his compositional and improvisational integrity remain indisputable throughout.