| Summary: | The reunion of the co-founders of 1970s cult label Strata-East with vocals by Jean Carn! In 2015, the opening of the Banlieues Bleues festival rallied Parisian jazz lovers. What a set! Before the Sun Ra Arkestra took the stage, another group vied for cult status: the Strata-East All Stars, a group assembled to tell the story of the New York label that had a massive impact in the 1970s, thanks to the fifty-some albums it published and the artistic freedom that guided its creation. Its co-founders were there: pianist Stanley Cowell and trumpeter Charles Tolliver, whose album Music Inc. was Strata-East Records' first notable work, in 1971. There was a fantastic rhythm section as well, with bassist Cecil McBee (whose album Mutima was released by Strata-East) and drummer Alvin Queen (a frequent Tolliver collaborator). Finally, there was vocalist Jean Carn. Before she took over dance floors with her hits produced by Philadelphia International Records, she appeared on three of husband Doug Carn's albums, including *Spirit of the New Land* (Black Jazz, 1972), whose "Search for the New Land" was beautifully performed on this night. In addition to the concert, there are also accounts by Charles Tolliver and Cecil McBee, who were questioned by Gilles Peterson, a fan who came with some of the vinyls in his collection: Billy Harper's *Capra Black* and of course Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson's *Winter In America*, which left its mark on this journey. Until 1980, Strata-East combined "John Coltrane's spirituality, Sun Ra's innovation, and the Sex Pistols' punk attitude," according to Peterson, and this concert makes you want to dive right back into its catalogue.**Eric Delhaye**.
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