About

Pianist Kenny Cox was the perfect singularity for this operation in late 1960s Detroit. He had studied at Cass Tech High School and the Detroit Conservatory of Music and would perform with greats like fellow Detroiter, Yusef Lateef. He eventually wound up on the road with Etta Jones for an extended period of time. When he returned home, he found a scene that was in big trouble.  There was little music going on. His wife, Barbara Cox, remembered, “When Ken got back to Detroit he was in the George Bohannon band. George elected to move out to California to do session work with Motown, when they moved out there. Ken stayed in Detroit." In 1967, he began working with Ron Brooks at the Old Town in Ann Arbor. Kenny said, “That group started quite by accident.  Ron Brooks had a trio gig.  Stanley Cowell had been working with him and Stan left to go work with Rahsaan Roland Kirk.  Ron asked me to come up and take Stan’s place and I did. It wasn’t too much later, no more than a week or so, that Charles Moore and Leon Henderson started showing up to sit in. That was the birth of the CJQ.” 

Kenny felt that the CJQ was the apex of his creative life. “The most important thing about that group, which was together for a solid seven years, was that we weren’t all necessarily socially compatible. But we were all committed to that music. We enjoyed playing together so much that we were actually breaking the curfew during the riots to go back-and-forth to Ann Arbor to play at the town bar.  We were running the risk of being shot or incarcerated just so we could play together.”

This previously unreleased limited edition legendary live concert, CJQ's The Black Hole, 180 Gram 2xLP Gatefold vinyl of 1000 copies was remastered from the original reel to reel master tapes. The original artwork has been restored and includes the original design sketches for the album. — via Label

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Label: 180 Proof Records, Strata Records
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Remastered, Gatefold
Released: 2020
Genre: Jazz
Style: Free Jazz

File under: Avant Garde / Free Jazz
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