4TH STREAM RECORDS

As part of the loft-jazz revolution of the late ‘60s and early ’70s, Michael Moss formed an early indie or independent record label to produce and distribute his own LPs and music that he called 4th Stream Records.  Many other artists began doing this at the time to permit composers to go at it more experimentally than large record labels permitted with their more formulaic approach and their predictable usual gang of suspects whom they attempted to raise through promotion to a level of stardom that would naturally sell records.  Unfortunately, this eliminated many approaches that would arguably reach a wider audience if given the same push.  The pressure of the extraordinary social revolution of the ‘60s was creatively expressed by indie jazz labels in the US and Europe.  Several conglomerates formed to distribute indie labels such as Paul Bley’s IAI and Carla Bley’s Jazz Composers Orchestra Association or JCOA (interestingly both Bleys).  You can see this 35 year old institution emergent in today’s web pages (of which this is but one).  New distribution schemas have begun to make the music of 4th Stream Records available on the web, and the credit card has become the coin of the realm through the auspices of groups such as Paypal.  Other such groups will grow and fade.  The important thing is you can now hear either soundfiles or CDs through MP3 .  It is for the purpose of growing into the 21st century that 4th Stream Records has generated its own web page.  On it you will find a growing discography of this indie that stretches off into the distant past when Mike Moss participated in ensembles consisting of some extraordinary musicians, and into the future of who knows what creative process.

https://m2-theory.com/4th-stream-records/michael-moss-billy-stein-duo/