About the Label
Founded by pianist and composer Rob Catterton, Sonoma Coast Records is an artist-run indie label based in Sonoma County, California. The label's catalog features improvisational piano, straight-ahead jazz tenor sax, psychedelic rock, and poetry set to music, rooted in the creative environment of Northern California.
Note from Rob
My journey as an improvising musician started when I was 15 — I had discovered the Grateful Dead, and was fascinated by Jerry Garcia's ability to reach into the other world and bring unheard sounds into being. One afternoon, when I was playing "Morning Dew" and searching for the sound, suddenly I began to play melodic lines that had never existed. That's when my adventure with the music really started — and since that day my life has never been quite the same.
The years passed, and my dedication only increased over time. I began to write music, and started developing my own sound, and played with a wide range of musicians. One of them was the great jazz tenor saxophonist, Sonny Lewis, who became my friend, jazz mentor, and inspiration. He played on gold records with The Whispers, but had never been recognized for his own amazing skills as an artist and leader. In service to the music and our friendship, I restored and released four albums that document his incredible legacy. Some were drawn from recordings I had made in clubs in San Francisco and San Jose, others were drawn from historic recordings from the 1960s and 1970s. After his kindness in helping me realize my talents as a pianist, I simply could not let his music slip away into obscurity.
I believe that music is a universal language that is capable of bringing people together, and dissolving the barriers between cultures. From jazz and blues transforming into rock and roll and psychedelic rock, to the warm embrace of reggae and Grateful Dead music in Japan, music has the ability to transcend our differences, and make us one. As I continued to develop the record label, these thoughts crystallized into a philosophy that has guided my efforts ever since: Peace Through Music.
I also believe that music is at its best, and most powerful, when it is a shared experience between the musicians and a live audience. The sound and the passion are directed from the musicians to the listeners, and reflected back to the musicians in an ever-ascending spiral that has no limits. This is the phenomena that Phil Lesh called the "group mind." It is at the heart of the jam band experience, and keeps the music alive, and vibrant.
Thank you for reading, and listening, and for being a part of the music. Peace Through Music, and love to you all.
