Don Cherry (jazz) Totally Explained

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Don Cherry (November 18 1936–October 19 1995) was an innovative jazz trumpeter whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, and who would go on to live and work with a wide variety of musicians in many parts of the world.

Biography

Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and raised in Los Angeles, California. He lived for a number of years in Paris and Sweden.
   Cherry became well known in jazz in 1958 when he performed with Ornette Coleman, first in a quintet with pianist Paul Bley and later in what became the predominantly piano-less quartet which recorded for Atlantic Records. During this period, "his lines ... gathered much of their freedom of motion from the free harmonic structures."
   Cherry also co-led the Avant-Garde session which saw John Coltrane replacing Coleman in the Quartet. He also recorded and toured with Sonny Rollins, co-led the New York Contemporary Five in Manhattan with Archie Shepp, recorded and toured with Albert Ayler and with bandleader and composer George Russell. His first recording as a leader was Complete Communion for Blue Note Records in 1964. The band included Coleman's drummer Ed Blackwell as well as saxophonist Gato Barbieri, whom he'd met while touring Europe with Ayler.
   After leaving Coleman Don Cherry eschewed the trend towards funk/fusion and continued to play a sparse jazz often in small groups and duets (many with ex-Coleman drummer Ed Blackwell) during a long sojourn in Scandinavia and other locations.
   He would later appear on Coleman's 1971 LP Science Fiction, and from 1976 to 1987 would reunite with Coleman alumni Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Blackwell in the band Old And New Dreams, where his "subtlety of rhythmic expansion and contraction" was noted. That band recording a total of four albums, two for ECM and two for Black Saint.
   During the 1980s, he also recorded again with the original Ornette Coleman Quartet on In All Languages, as well as recording El Corazon, a duet album with Ed Blackwell.
   In addition to bebop, Cherry incorporated influences of Middle Eastern, traditional African, and Indian music into his playing and from 1978 to 1982, he recorded three albums for ECM with "world jazz" group Codona, consisting of Cherry, percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and sitar and tabla player Collin Walcott. Other playing opportunities in his career came with Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill project or recordings with Lou Reed, Ian Dury, Rip Rig & Panic and Sun Ra.
   Don Cherry was only 58 when he died in Málaga, Spain in 1995 due to liver failure brought about by hepatitis.
   His stepdaughters Neneh Cherry and Titiyo and his sons David Cherry and Eagle-Eye Cherry are also musicians.

Instrument

Don Cherry was closely associated with the Pocket trumpet, a smaller version of the regular trumpet. Closer to a cornet, the pocket trumpet helped Cherry produce his distinct sound as well as allowing him to "smear" notes due to its idiosyncratic slotting. He often spoke about changing horns and mouthpiece sizes to constantly keep him in unfamiliar territory when playing and aiding in the avoidance of cliches.
He also performed as a percussionist and pianist, often playing the pocket trumpet with one hand while playing the piano with the left.

Discography

Leader

The Avant-Garde (1961, co-leader with John Coltrane)
Complete Communion (1965, Blue Note Records)
Symphony for Improvisers (1966, Blue Note Records)
Where is Brooklyn? (1966, Blue Note Records
Eternal Rhythm (1968, w/Sonny Sharrock
Mu (1969, duet with Ed Blackwell
Orient (1971) - trio recordings, live in France, with Han Bennink
Blue Lake (1971) - live trio, with Johnny Dyani and Okay Temiz
Organic Music (1972)
Relativity Suite (1973) - Jazz Composer's Orchestra
Brown Rice (1975) - A&M Records with Billy Higgins and Charlie Haden
Hear and Now (1976) - jazz-funk fusion outing with guitarist Stan Samole.
Codona, Volume 1 (1978)
El Corazon (1982) - ECM Records with Ed Blackwell
Multikulti (1988) - A&M Records
Art Deco (1988) - A&M Records with James Clay and Billy Higgins
Dona Nostra (1993) - ECM Records

Sideman

Ornette Coleman

Something Else! The Music of Ornette Coleman (1958)

The Art of the Improvisers (1959)

Tomorrow is the Question (1959)

The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)

Change of the Century (1960)

This is our Music

(1960)

Crisis (1969)

Science Fiction (1971)

In All Languages (1987)

Other projects

Albert Ayler The Hilversum Session (1964)

Carla Bley Escalator over the Hill (1971)

New York Eye and Ear Control (1965)

Rip Rig & Panic I am Cold (1982)

George Russell At Beethoven Hall (1965)

Sun Ra "Purple Night" (1990)

Sun Ra "Somewhere Else (Sun Ra album) (1993)Further Information
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