For my guest today it is playing free music with Marion Brown or in Detroit where the spirits of Elvin, Tommy Flanagan and Yusef Lateef breeze by with a word of wisdom.

Maybe it was with Rashan Roland Kirk back when Universities like Oberlin College could bring in a Cecil Taylor or Horace Tapscott for a year residency. Bands of younger musicians would form under their leadership.

Because there were places to play cats could get loose on the bandstand at Slugs with Charles Tolliver or Jimmy and Tootie Heath. Late shows with Woody Shaw and long before our mothers cried with Sonny Fortune.


The most spiritual music is created by my guest. He is patient and can also real off flurries of notes. He understands time and place. The opportunities that presented themselves to his generation. He was co-founder of The Strata East label which fused the language of swing and bebop with blues and soul. The music on this label had an urgency to it that spoke to the loss of lives- Dr. King, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy and John Coltrane.

The seeming upward mobility of a musician cutting albums and touring. Reinventing themselves to sustain their legacy and more importantly the music. As we all know, it's a jazz life.

Stanley Cowell welcome to the JFS