Theo Parrish's musical skills have always seemed those of a sculptor rather than painter, shaping source material into a deformed something new. The output of Black Jazz - recorded and released entirely between 1970 and 1975 - seemingly had a similar outlook of 'music as sound sculpture', albeit unable to electronically subvert the fourth dimension quite as effectively as Parrish. The label was founded by pianist Gene Russell, whose subsequent death in 1976 (though there are conflicting reports as his death date) signalled the end for Black Jazz. Both music and label are often pigeonholed alongside ‘African spiritual jazz’ and the like, and while its artists did indeed share a similarly Pan-Africanist outlook, they never really made it the focus of the music.