Don Cherry Music

Very much an ECM recording - austere and stark and rarely swinging. Jazz legend Don Cherry works with a quintet of European musicians; Cherry gets top billing but he's the guest sitting in as opposed to leading. The first three and a half minutes of "Fort Cherry" consist of Don Cherry playing trumpet in a trio with drummer Anders Kjellberg and percussionist Okay Temiz. Anders Jormin contributes some scraping and other percussive sounds on the bass before pianist Bobo Stenson joins with some abstract chording. Saxophonist Lennart Åberg and Cherry trade the languid theme back and forth before the piece ends - they have sort of a Euro-World-Jazz thing going. The following track "Arrows", one of several tracks that is credited to all members, sounds more like an improvisation than a composition - like a Jackson Pollock painting where all the random bits and pieces come together to create the whole. All of the tracks save one have the same slow tempo and almost sound like a suite rather than different songs. The one track that stands out is Ornette Coleman's "Race Face", a grooving hardbop-style tune that gives Åberg and Kjellberg a chance to cut loose (Kjellberg is scorching). Outside of the Ornette tune there's not much to offer the diehard jazz fan. But for fans of abstract-improvisational-worldbeat-Eurojazz "Dona Nostra" is a rewarding recording. In fact, if you ever wondered what the Bley/Surman/Peacock/Oxley ECM recording "In the Evenings Out There" would sound like with a trumpet added - and who hasn't - this is it.

Well, the beauty of this album took me quite by surprise. Knowing Don Cherry from the Codona recordings, I expected a little more playfulness. Instead, this is a serious and experimental record, very beautiful and with a rich, dense ensemble sound. Though there are some extremely loose improvisational pieces, the tuneful ones (Race Face, What Reason Could I Give) make it seem like a melodic record, as well. Highly Recommended.

Very much an ECM recording - austere and stark and rarely swinging. Jazz legend Don Cherry works with a quintet of European musicians; Cherry gets top billing but he's the guest sitting in as opposed to leading. The first three and a half minutes of "Fort Cherry" consist of Don Cherry playing trumpet in a trio with drummer Anders Kjellberg and percussionist Okay Temiz. Anders Jormin contributes some scraping and other percussive sounds on the bass before pianist Bobo Stenson joins with some abstract chording. Saxophonist Lennart Åberg and Cherry trade the languid theme back and forth before the piece ends - they have sort of a Euro-World-Jazz thing going. The following track "Arrows", one of several tracks that is credited to all members, sounds more like an improvisation than a composition - like a Jackson Pollock painting where all the random bits and pieces come together to create the whole. All of the tracks save one have the same slow tempo and almost sound like a suite rather than different songs. The one track that stands out is Ornette Coleman's "Race Face", a grooving hardbop-style tune that gives Åberg and Kjellberg a chance to cut loose (Kjellberg is scorching). Outside of the Ornette tune there's not much to offer the diehard jazz fan. But for fans of abstract-improvisational-worldbeat-Eurojazz "Dona Nostra" is a rewarding recording. In fact, if you ever wondered what the Bley/Surman/Peacock/Oxley ECM recording "In the Evenings Out There" would sound like with a trumpet added - and who hasn't - this is it.

It should be pointed out that free jazz or the jazz avant garde whichever ones pefers to call it was a reaction against the jazz status quo and in the 70's and 80's the self parody of fusion and this lp is a good example of that doctrine. With that siad this lp released in 1982 is a somewhat somber affair featuring two of the most important figures to imerge in modern jazz. The music contained herein is relatively low key and quite excessible and it should appeal to most jazz listerners in general. It accurately employs Cherrys passion for exploring world music and Blackwells intense and ever impressive rhythmic accumen. The standout track is the opening piece which really is a composite of four compositions one of which is a take on Monks Bemsha Swing; basically improvisation within standard song structure for the most part. As for the rest it is much of the same with equal time consumed by both Cherry and Blackwell. There is a hint of some self indulgence but nothing too detracting and given that Cherry and Blackwell are the only players this is to be expected. Highly recommended.

It should be pointed out that free jazz or the jazz avant garde whichever ones pefers to call it was a reaction against the jazz status quo and in the 70's and 80's the self parody of fusion and this lp is a good example of that doctrine. With that siad this lp released in 1982 is a somewhat somber affair featuring two of the most important figures to imerge in modern jazz. The music contained herein is relatively low key and quite excessible and it should appeal to most jazz listerners in general. It accurately employs Cherrys passion for exploring world music and Blackwells intense and ever impressive rhythmic accumen. The standout track is the opening piece which really is a composite of four compositions one of which is a take on Monks Bemsha Swing; basically improvisation within standard song structure for the most part. As for the rest it is much of the same with equal time consumed by both Cherry and Blackwell. There is a hint of some self indulgence but nothing too detracting and given that Cherry and Blackwell are the only players this is to be expected. Highly recommended.

Eternal Rhythm is to world music what On the Corner is to fusion. In other words, its a mind blowing experience that redefines the genre. Every instrument from gamelan to flute to yup that's Sonny Sharrock on guitar is explored here. If you are looking for peaceful world music look elsewhere. However, if you are in the mood for a challenging listen that will take you to other places and redefine what jazz means to you get ready. This is by far Don Cherry's best album. The reissue was well worth the wait.

Eternal Rhythm is to world music what On the Corner is to fusion. In other words, its a mind blowing experience that redefines the genre. Every instrument from gamelan to flute to yup that's Sonny Sharrock on guitar is explored here. If you are looking for peaceful world music look elsewhere. However, if you are in the mood for a challenging listen that will take you to other places and redefine what jazz means to you get ready. This is by far Don Cherry's best album. The reissue was well worth the wait.

This album, along with "Mu", is a transitional album between his classic Blue Note recordings from the mid-1960s and his later more world-music-oriented albums of the 1970s and 1980s. Cherry plays a variety of instruments throughout the piece (divided into parts one and two here to reflect the original lp), including his pocket trumpet, bamboo flute, and gamelan. Sonny Sharrock appears on this performance, but his guitar seems pretty low in the mix. Overall, this is raging, passionate late-1960s free jazz that will satisfy fans of this genre and fans of Cherry's mid-1960s recordings as a leader. My only complaint would be the price of this recording, though given the contents of this cd, that's a pretty minor complaint.

This disc is common in Japan, though a limited edition has come out done in a mini-sized "lp"-style cover, which might be what's being sold here (sorry, I dunno!). It's a terrific recording, in any event. Recorded live in Berlin in 1968, the lineup consists largely of European musicians (Arild Andersen, Joachim Kuhn, Karl Berger, Bernt Rosengren, and others); the only really familiar name featured is Sonny Sharrock, who, as far as I know, is not on record anywhere else with Cherry. Cherry can be heard here incorporating gamelans, prepared piano, gongs, varied flutes and bells, and other at-that-time "unusual" instruments into the composition, which is a huge, at times VERY free, very intoxicating work (and also features saxophones, trumpets, drums, and other conventional jazz instruments, in case that isn't clear). It's still tied more to his free jazz work than the gorgeous multicultural textures of BROWN RICE (which I personally consider the highlight of Cherry's career as a composer and innovator, though it's barely even a jazz album), but the movement from the one to the other is clearly underway and visible on this recording. It's is an intense experience, so much so that it's tempting to whip out references to "Dionysian rapture" and so forth. If free jazz is a transcendent experience for you, this album will satisfy immensely. Cherry's in good form as a player here, too; he even plays two flutes at once on one cut, one from Bengal, the other made of bamboo -- a fascinating moment. Oh, and by the way -- it's all basically one piece of music, though reflecting the LP division is divided into two movements.

This recording is a marvelously laid-back, positive experience, both Lacy and Cherry in fine form and interacting beautifully with each other. I know more about Cherry's work from this period than Lacy's, and that makes the disc very interesting for me, since Cherry's playing here is quite different from the exuberance he was exhibiting around the same time in his playing with Ornette; it's just as vibrant, but much mellower. He and Lacy enter an interesting, thoughtful space with each other. Lacy, too, is quite gentle, and while, of his Monk-oriented work, I prefer his recordings with Roswell Rudd -- this is a fine performance. Three of these cuts, note, are also available on the Giants of Jazz Don Cherry compilation, intermingled with tunes by Ornette.