ISSUE NO 01
The subsequent influx of product allowed Black Fire Distribution to act as D.C.’s premier one-stop for jazz music, but in order to stay on track, Gray needed a helping hand. For that he turned to Richmond, VA friend James “Plunky” Branch. Together they would craft a look and feel that would become the Black Fire imprint. A number of fine artists were brought on to supply Afro-centric visuals for covPlunky performs with Oneness Of Juju
The next eight releases continued the pattern, with covers
er art. Plunky and his band, Oneness of Juju, jump-started the release process with African Rhythms.
that reflected the black experience, and music that gave it deeper meaning. Arguably the most notable (after the Oneness catalog) was an album by Experience Unlimited. At the time, Experience Unlimited had just begun emerging from a black rock centric shell, having only recently embraced much of the funk, soul, jazz, African, Latin, and horn driven sounds that permeate the final product. They’d not yet gone through the personnel changes necessary to develop their future sound, that of the go-go band E.U., but the foundation for the transition was already being laid. Overall, it’s hard to go wrong with any Black Fire project, whether it be one of the original releases, ie: Experience Unlimited, a ‘90s CD (which housed much of the previously unreleased material), or one of the recently discovered
Jimmy Gray in his home office with Pages from his Black Fire Magazine on the wall
tracks that have been liberated to high praise in a series of issues by Strut. Disclaimer: This article was written totally independently of A.M. Wolfe’s article on Black Fire Records and independent of the Black Fire-centric celebration at the Home Rule Festival . Kevin Coombe was given complete editorial freedom to choose the labels he did for this piece.
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