Don Cherry Music

"New York Eye and Ear Control" - this has to be the best free jazz album title ever.
Not the best of free jazz group efforts though (even though I'm a great Roswell Rudd fan and there's some formidable Rudd moments on this recording), as I always found Ayler a little hard to stomach in a multiple reeds setting - Cherry's and Tchicai's subtle interplay ostensibly fared much better under Archie Shepp's guidance; I'd say the New York Contemporary Five (Cherry, Shepp, Tchicai plus Don Moore on bass and J.C. Moses on drums) was the defining quintet of the early free jazz age, look up their awesome live album (Copenhagen 1963, and ready for re-re-issue!) for ultimate proof.

After Ornette Coleman's 1960 landmark recording "Free Jazz", it seemed very common to find large group improvisations occuring. Albert Ayler's "New York Eye and Ear Control" is one such example of this. Recorded as the soundtrack to a film (that was performed to the music rather than the music to the film) by Michael Snow, Ayler augmented his working band of bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray with trumpeter Don Cherry and alto saxophonist John Tchicai of the New York Contemporary Five and Roswell Rudd of the New York Art Quartet. The session consisted of freely structured improv, with no apparent themes developed beforehand. The result is less than overwhelming.

Peacock and Murray freely associate, over which the horns all perform. Rudd and Tchicai sound terribly tentative, and neither seem to have much to say except when Ayler leads. Cherry manages a few intriguing licks (partiuclarly the introductory track "Don's Dawn"), but by and large is best in response to Ayler. Ayler, for his part, is overwhelming, way up front, and extremely aggressive. The problem is that Ayler's best improvs all launched his march-like themes, and without this touchstone, he seems to push the themes in on his own. This adds an implied structure that the rest of the band isn't ready for, and remarkably pits Ayler in opposition as being the one who occasionally enforces structure.

Net result-- it's an interesting listen, and playing with Cherry would be critical for Ayler's future, but the music itself feels like nothing. I never fully understand how this gets such favorable comments, I find the music nearly unlistenable (and I loved both "Free Jazz" and Ayler's other work). If you need to have this, get it, otherwise I'd pass it over for Ayler's better work.

The soundtrack to Michael Snow's all but forgotten film "New York Eye and Ear Control," now stands as a document of the New York's mid-60s avant-garde jazz scene. This disc, originally released on the ESP label, brings together some of the movements biggest players -- Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray. While this record is most often associated with Ayler (probably because he is the biggest name and it is his Trio at the time plus three) it is truly a collective group effort, with Rudd and Tchicai surprisingly stealing the show. Unfortunately, the Ayler-Cherry collaboration does not live up to its potential, but it is still worth exploring the "Eye and Ear."

Given the unbridled urge for artistic and political freedom in the 60s it's no surprise that so many avant-garde jazz artists were attracted to the idea of collective improvisation. It spoke to an egalitarian sensibility, a desire for the revolutionary, and an almost mystical belief in the power of Spirit and Art that certainly fit with the times. Unfortunately, many of the most recognizable versions of this collective improvisation never seem to live up to the promise of the idea. Ornette's Free Jazz record, while important as a historical statement, doesn't really quite work as music. The same also goes for Coltrane's Ascension, which often collapses under the sheer weight of all those horns! But this date is different. Perhaps it is the smaller number of participants, or their collective sensibilities, but this group turns in one of the most integrated, subtle and enjoyable examples of New York Collective Energy Jazz on record.

Credit must go to the sensitivity of all the players. Ayler takes the lead, by virtue of his huge tone and sonic roar. Cherry is equally inventive, but more melodic as was his wont. And both Roswell Rudd and John Tchicai are lyrical players who use a lot of space in their playing. As a result, the album is more transparent than either the Coleman or the Coltrane albums. The interplay between musicians is greater. The horns dovetail each other's phrases or set up balanced counterpoint. There doesn't seems to be any jockeying for dominance, as can happen in some collective situations. Each member leaves artistic room for the others. Gary Peacock is big toned and rock solid in the bass and Sunny Murray is quite simply a wonder, spreading his pulse out in every direction, creating a feeling of urgency without regular beat.

It is often fashionable for some critics to posit an influence of drugs and acid rock on the musicians of free jazz. But it is important to remember that this music was recorded in 1964...right at the start of the British invasion. Hendrix was still a struggling blues musician, the Greatful Dead hadn't been born yet and Janis Joplin was singing country music in her Texas high school. Free jazz was a precusor to the rock of the late 60's not the other way around. And, as far as I know, few if any of the musicians used serious drugs. In fact, few of them used any at all. This music is about something other than the drug culture of the 60's. It goes down deeper into culture, relating to humankind's earliest musical/mystical experiences.

i had heard alot about how great this album was and i was happy to finally find a copy and have the chance to wrap my ears around it. since i've bought this cd, it has spent considerable amount of time in my stereo. recorded in France on August 1971, Don cherry is joined by wild man percussionist Hans Bennink. they both put on quite a spectacle on this magical night. there is a strange and magical chemistry evident on these recordings among all the players. i was under the impression that this was going to be a free-jazz skronkathon, but most of the music flows quite smoothly with alot of carribean influence and cool percussion and simple melodic piano lines. Don Cherry tries to sing on alot of these numbers and at first i hated it. but it grew on me. there is a certain childlike quality about it that is appealing. hmmm..an aquired taste, i think. the sound here is on an average bootleg quality. but i'm not too picky about those sort of things, because that murky sound just adds to the unique feeling of "Orient." there is alot of different styles being played around with here and it takes some time to appreciate everything that was going on. but once you get adjusted to these factors, you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. i know that i did.

Hm. I wish my MU review were still on Amazon.com somewhere, it really like sets up this HISTORY, this foundation for understanding where Cherry's music was at this point, y'know? But MU goes in and out print, depending on folding Charlys and so forth, and my reviews of it go with it... Anyhow, by my theory, Cherry, having been thru free jazz, having arrived at chaos, having, with Ornette mostly, dispensed with ANY order extraneous to musical expression qua itself, needed eventually (like the whole free jazz movement) to find a place to rebuild -- an organizing principle to take us beyond chaos into a new order, bereft of falsity and Western canonical baggage. While most of the free jazz world, following Albert Ayler and I-must-stay-relevant-at-all-costs Miles Davis, ended up bringing in elements of funk, blues, and rock, delivering freedom unto the marketplace (and making some fine music doing so, don't get me wrong) Cherry chose a very different route, a more ascetic and romantically bohemian one, seeking roots of an "organic music" (the name of another long out of print disc of his) in neoprimitivism and world musics. MU is his master-statement of that, I think; it's the turning point, with he and Ed Blackwell FINDING IT, finding that primitive, rhythmic, spirtually rich place from whence the musical impulse comes. It CHANGED THINGS; it found tribal music as a way up from noise, recreating the birth of music itself, and it (when Cherry would later deign to recognize rock, funk, fusion, and so forth) laid the basis for another of his masterpieces, BROWN RICE, in that this neotribalism/primitivism opened the door to exploring and incorporating basically any sacred, ancient, "folk" musical tradition or instrument Cherry found interesting, in the name of making something completely new. The next step in this process (in terms of what's available out there) was ORIENT, which is most notable to me for having a truly fine record cover (yes, that's an ant on that egg yolk; good to see it again after all these years) but is definitley interesting to listen to. Here's where Cherry, to my knowledge, began incorporating influences as diverse as Tibetan and Indian chant and African percussion into his music. It's STILL JAZZ, but it freely draws on any number of influences. Cherry began to really SING a lot on this release, too, which he'd done a little on MU. He also plays piano; he's not so present at times on trumpet, which doesn't matter at all to me, tho' I guess it could for some... For people who've been making due with COOL, which incorporates some of this material, it is still very much worth picking up, and is more interesting than the also-reissued BLUE LAKE; and my copy of it, at least - not got thru this site - comes with a lovely LP-style gatefold cover, incorporating even the original Japanese liner notes. Thing is: as cool as this stuff is to listen to, as lovely as it is at times, the sound quaility on the original live recording was lacking, and it remains so. Han Bennink's drums on the opening cut, for example, begin as just a murky rumble in the distance, like something happening on your roof while the record plays. "Are those the drums?" is not a question one should have to ask about a recording. The music is engaging enough that it draws me past this, ultimately, and the long stretches where Bennink is on percussion OTHER than drums sound pretty okay; it's just anything in the lower register that ends up getting kinda murkified. I can never listen to this album, thus, without wishing it had been better documented; the music has a magic to it, and deserves a better presentation. Never to be, alas. Still, it's exciting to hear these guys taking jazz in such a new, unique, and still-mostly-unexplored direction, where small furry things living in the trees rouse themselves and look out with enormous eyes at the strange new form that's passing by, probably never to be seen again. How many records REALLY would merit such an image? This one does. PS, BLUE LAKE is pretty murky, too, and I think there's MORE of it on COOL. It's also shorter than ORIENT.

Buy it direct. I received a note from his wife thanking me for the interest.
Great sound and the Masters Song is on the last track and worth the wait.

I THINK I AM VERY LUCKY TO PROBABLY GET ONE OF THE LAST OF THIS CD THAT IS AVAILBLE. THIS IS A SMOOTH SINGER WHO NEVER GOT THE CREDIT HE DISERVED. HE IS A GREAT SINGER AND THIS IS A SIT BY THE FIRE AND ENJOY KIND OF ALBUM AND THEN GET UP AND DANCE.THIS ALBUM AND ALL THE OTHER'S HE RECORDED SHOULD BE RE- RELEASED---DON CHERRY WAS ONE OF THE BEST .

Absolutely the best. Don Cherry was one of the very top romantic singers of his time. This CD brings back the memories that have been recently lost.

Music belongs to all of us. Music has no borders, and the Earth should have no borders, because were made by people and not by nature.
The band Ya-sou was founded and created with these ideas in mind.
In 1973, Dimitrios Milo Kurtis formed Ya-sou to play and make music based on different cultures from all over the world. Its music is a mixture of jazz, contemporary, classical, folk and ethnic music as well as being influences by music from continents of Asia, Africa, North and South America. Indeed, a performance by Ya-sou is like a trip around the world. Many times we visit a region for a while, sometimes we pass quickly through. We meditate somewhere, dance in the mountains, get thirsty in the desert, float like a leaf on the ocean wave and arrive happily back home.
Furthermore, Ya-sou's sound is natural. The band uses only acoustic instruments including dotar, acoustic guitar, charango, mandolin, saxophones, flutes digirdu, congas, Arabic percussion, gongs, kalimbas, talking drum and many others. Some people call Ya-sou's music "ethnic jazz", some call it "avant-garde". And some simply refuse to categorize the unique sounds of this remarkable band.
Ya-sou stopped performing when Mr. Kurtis became a member of the legendary Polish band OSJAN. This band, like, Ya-sou, created the music influenced by different ethnic cultures and had already established a position within the Europe market, as well as collaborating with the famous trumpet player Don Cherry, sadly recently deceased.
Milo traveled with OSJAN allover the Europe performing with other bands and musicians and resided in Switzerland from 1985-87, than moved to the Francisco Bay Area. Deciding to come back to his musical roots, he re-established Ya-sou in 1994. Milo, on various percussion instruments and vocal is joined by fellow percussionist Horatio Altan from Guatemala, a student and researcher of Pre-Columbian and Native American people's musical forms. Horatio also performs with jazz groups and collaborates with dance and theatre companies. The other members of Ya-sou are: on saxophones, flutes, percussion and vocals, the Grammy Award nominee, Peter Apfelbaum; on dotar, guitar, charango, percussion and vocals, Jai Uyttal. Both musicians play in Jai's Pagan Love Orchestra and Peter's Hieroglyphics Ensemble, as well as having performed with Don Cherry's Multi-Kulti and one or another of Don's musical configurations. The members of Ya-sou are hoping you will be joining then soon on a musical journey.

In 1973, Dimitrios Milo Kurtis, a member of the legendary Polish band OSJAN, formed Ya-sou to play and make music based on different cultures from all over the world. It's music is a mixture of jazz, contemporary, classical, folk and ethnic music as well as being influenced by music from the continents of Asia, Africa, North and South America. Indeed, a performance by Ya-sou is like a trip around the world. Furthermore the sound of Ya-sou is natural. The band uses only acoustic instruments, including dotar, acoustic guitar, charango, mandolin, saxophones, flutes digirdu, congas, Arabic percussion, gongs, kalimbas, talking drums and many others. On this special live album Ya-sou is joined by members of OSJAN and distinguished trumpet player Tomasz Stanko.

This re-creats a pairing done for the State of Texas and Lady Bird Johnson several years on CD. But this one is BETTER. The only man to have a top 10 single and a top 10 finish ay the US OPEN (golf-Cherry) at the same time combines with a man who was in the 2nd group to be named to the Country Music Songwriter's Hall of Fame (Nelson)to present songs from that era that are wonderfully done. There is more Cherry here than Nelson, but he's a better singer and I cannot believe that two >75 y/os can sound this good!!!!!!!!!!!! ddoc2wcc

The Only part Willie has in this album is his picture on the cover. This is a big rip for the Willie fan.