Black Fire documentary film explores DC's Black-owned independent Jazz label
/by Maya Gold
The Home Rule Music and Film Preservation Society is taking a closer look at a specific chapter in our city’s musical story: Black Fire Records, a Black-owned independent jazz record label that started in DC in the 1970s.
The Black Fire label “promoted progressive Black art of the day, existing at the intersection of free jazz, Afrofuturism, spiritual jazz, the Pan-African Movement, the Black Consciousness movement and the burgeoning Go-Go movement,” says Charvis Campbell, president of The Home Rule Music and Film Preservation Society. Campbell also owns Home Rule Records at 702 Kennedy Street NW (one of only 37 Black-owned record stores in the entire country).
Founded in 1975 by Jimmy Gray and James “Plunky” Branch, the Black Fire label was inspired by Strata-East cooperative model. As a Bandcamp investigation into the record label notes, “the artist would press the first 1,000 copies of the album, and the label assumed distribution costs—provided the record performed well. Artists on Black Fire also enjoyed an extremely favorable royalty rate.” Notable groups on the label included Experience Unlimited’s first album, Free Yourself, in 1977, and Oneness Of Juju.
Oneness of Juju album cover
The documentary film will take a look at DC’s music and cultural heritage by highlighting the documents, images, photographs, art, video footage and the people behind Black Fire Records. The film promises to explore Black entrepreneurship, boutique jazz labels, Black cultural movements of the 1970s and 80s, and family — the sons of both Jimmy Gray and Plunky Branch are involved in the project. (Plunky Branch and Charvis Campbell are the executive producers of the documentary.)
Kickstarter Campaign to Support the Film
The project received a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, covering two months of filming. To complete Phase 2 of the project, including the remaining days of filming, archival research and editing, they’ve launched a Kickstarter and are asking for your support.
Consider supporting this local and important project!
