The first time that Chris Strachwitz blew my mind open was in the mid-1990s.
It was my first pilgrimage to Down Home Music, the El Cerrito record store that serves as home base for Arhoolie Records, the label that Strachwitz founded in 1960. Intrigued by the cover art of Pachuco Boogie, I added the CD to my stack, allowing me to discover a liminal moment when Mexican-American musicians started absorbing the jump blues and early R&B of their Black neighbors in 1940s Los Angeles. The irresistible sound sparked an epiphany about the buried cultural geography of my hometown, which had recently been torn apart by the LA riots.
Strachwitz, who died at his apartment in Marin on May 5 at the age of 91, appreciated that story. A tireless ethnomusicologist, he seemed to experience life as an ongoing series of musical revelations, and he liked nothing better than sharing those transformative sounds. Running into Strachwitz, a longtime Berkeley resident, at a show or on BART was always a treat, as he was garrulous, opinionated and usually bubbling over with enthusiasm about something he’d recently heard.
Strachwitz spent his life documenting, preserving, producing and releasing a far-flung roster of roots music traditions, including country blues, gospel, bluegrass, jazz, zydeco, Cajun and Tex-Mex music. His massive catalog of Arhoolie albums and compilation projects introduced several generations of listeners to sounds assiduously avoided by mainstream outlets.
“I didn’t care for the slick R&B,” he told me in an interview for Arhoolie’s 50th anniversary. “I liked the raggedy stuff, the stuff where the musicians are obviously expressing themselves. I like honking bands, the beat, the powerful rhythm, and I don’t care if it’s hillbilly or gospel.”
