Tribe Records

Tribe was a mid-1970s existing Detroit Musicians Association, which included an eponymous record label and a magazine.

History of the Association

In 1972, a group of Detroit musicians founded the collective Tribe, the concerts organized, produced records, artists and was promoting a magazine published. Tribe, which had its seat in the 81 Chandler Street in Detroit, was part of the " 1970 - movement of a cultural self -determination." It was founded at a time when the Detroit label Motown had moved to Los Angeles and the automobile industry of the city was in decline.

The saxophonist Wendell Harrison, who ( officially W. Harrison & Associates) led the company from his family seat, was with Phil Ranelin, Marcus Belgrave, Harold McKinney, the initiator of the project. The music of the label, which offered a range of funk, soul jazz to avant-garde jazz, experienced in later years, a rediscovery, particularly through the producer Carl Craig and Gilles Peterson; different labels applied Rare Groove reissues of Tribe records on the market. To the environment of the label and comprised of bassist Ron Brooks, the trumpeter Charles Moore and drummer Doug Hammond.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the collective Wendell Harrison said in 2012:

Phil Ranelin adds: "The aim of what Tribe to Provide work opportunities and produce original music. It was an umbrella where composers from Detroit Could showcase Their music. It was about survival. "

The Tribe magazine reported from a radical African-American perspective on topics such as civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, the Watergate scandal, Sun Ra or over the Detroit radio disc jockey Butterball. Among the productions of Tribe also included plays, poetry readings and socially critical music. Among the jazz theater productions included An Evening with the Devil, Message from the Tribe, Farewell to the Welfare and Mary Had an Abortion.

The activities of Tribe were lower at the end of the 1970s, the members of the collective increasingly developed their own projects. So Doug Hammond moved to Europe, Belgrave expanded the activities of his Jazz Development Workshop, Phil Ranelin went to Los Angeles and Wendell Harrison broke up at this time of his first wife, Pat, who was heavily involved in the project. With his second wife, the pianist / composer Pamela Wise and Harold McKinney Harrison started the company Rebirth, which was a similar organization as Tribe. In its 25 years of existence Rebirth organized numerous concerts and produced a series of records, including artists such as Leon Thomas, Eddie Harris, Woody Shaw, Eddie Jefferson and Jimmy Owens

Jim Dulzo sees the musician 's own project parallels to similar enterprises of Sun Ra, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians ( AACM ) in Chicago and the Black Artists Group (BAG ) in St. Louis.

Discography

• From the Tribe: An Anthology of Tribe Records 1972-77 ( Universal Sound / Soul Jazz )
• Vibes from the Tribe ( P -Vine )
• Reawakening ( Rebirth )
• Birth of a Fossil ( Rebirth )