It's really quite strange that it took
me 13 years of progg blogging before Don Cherry got his own post
here. He's emblematic to what I think is the true spirit of the blog,
a place where all kinds of music meet as long as it has a mind of its
own. And perhaps that's why I overlooked his inclusion for so long:
he's so huge and obvious that maybe I thought he was here already.
Well, he actually is if only in small portions as he appears on
albums by Bengt Berger and Bitter Funeral Beer Band.
Born in
Oklahoma City in 1936 with music running in the family, he made his
mark on jazz already in the late 1950s when teaming up with Ornette
Coleman for a long series of albums including milestone releases ”The
Shape Of Jazz To Come” and ”Free Jazz”. He also performed with
John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, George Russell, Albert Ayler, Charlie
Haden – he passed gracefully through jazz history and jazz history
passed smoothly through him and his trumpet. He even played
percussion on Allen Ginsburg's album of William Blake
interpretations, collaborated with Polish composer Krzysztof
Penderecki and Terry Riley, and co-wrote the score for Alejandro Jodorowsky's
surrealist movie ”The Holy Mountain”. There's also a famous 1976
recording of Lou Reed live at The Roxy in Los Angeles with Don Cherry
sitting in. He often did that – I know several Swedish musicians of
different kinds who can tell stories of how they suddenly heard a
beautiful sound on stage and when they turned around, there was Don
Cherry with his pocket trumpet joining in, uninvited but welcome.
He spent time in Europe in general and Scandinavia in particular. There are for instance a set of great recordings from the Montmartre jazz club in Copenhagen 1966 released on ESP Disk in the late 00s. But it's his recordings with Swedish musicians that stand out from his European years. Cherry's playing was usually great no matter who he performed with, but it was here in Sweden he really found a home both musically and physically. He moved permanently to Sweden in the late 60s, bought a defunct schoolhouse i Tågarp in the beautiful Österlen region of the southern county of Skåne with his wife Monica ”Moki” Cherry. Moki was a textile designer; her works were as colourful and striking as her husband's music and graced several of Don's album covers. They had several children involved in music, with Eagle-Eye Cherry being the best known. Don's stepdaughter Neneh Cherry has also had an interesting and multifaceted career in music.
The house in Tågarp became something of a centre for friends and musicians, and the place where Don Cherry's Organic Music Society shaped and developed, a concept that to all intents and purposes was the forerunner to what would later be known as 'world music', only freer and more open.
Outpourings of Don Cherry's Swedish
years weren't that many to begin with, but there's been an upsurge of
archival recordings from this period, especially after Cherry's
untimely death at 58 in 1995. I have included every album recorded in
Sweden and/or with Swedish musicians between 1967 and 1977, except
for those where only Moki Cherry appears usually on tamboura. That's
not to dismiss her efforts but because I consider her and Don a unit.
Also, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I consider Maffy Falay and
Okay Temiz Swedish musicians too even though they techncially were
Turks. There are also recordings featuring Swedes prior to 1967, such
as ”Psycology” [sic!] with domestic free jazz pioneer Bengt
”Frippe” Nordström and released on his own Bird Notes label in
1963 (an album that interestingly enough also features drummer Bosse
Skoglund on one track). A George Russell live document from Beethoven
Hall in Stuttgart 1965 has both Don Cherry and Bertil Lövgren on
trumpets, but that too is excluded due to the early date.
Movement Incorporated (Anagram, 2005; rec. 1967)
Instrumental
International relevance: ***
Don
Cherry used to hold workshops and music classes at ABF, the labour
movement's education centre, and this disc was recorded at one of
their locales in July 1967. Old friend from years back Frippe
Nordström appears along with Leif Wennerström and Okay Temiz on
drums, Maffy Falay on trumpet and flute, Tommy Koverhult on tenor sax
and Bernt Rosengren on tenor sax and flute, plus American trombonist
Brian Trentham. I'm not sure how official this release actually is.
Anagram had a few interesting discs out (including a great one by
Gilbert Holmström). The sound quality is nevertheles a good mono
recording and once it gathers momeutum, the recording is an excellent
example of spontaneous collective composing. ”Suite 3” and
”Surprise Surprise” particularly point to the future with their
clear Oriental/Arabic influence. Not easy to find these days – I
suppose it only had a small run and the label is now definct, but
it's well worth looking for.
Recorded at various Stockholm locations during the course of four years with roughly the same group as on ”Movement Incorporated”, this is one of my favourite Don Cherry releases. Not only am I a fan of Bernt Rosengren in general, but him in combination with Cherry is usually explosive matter. The sound quality varies due to the different sources, but it's a varied and vivid selection. Some continues along the lines of ”Movement Incorporated” with free jamming while other tracks are composed and focused. If you don't mind the fidelity fluctuations (nothing sounds bad) and the stylistic span, this is a wonderful compilation of an excellent composite of musicians.
Much
like a latecoming expansion pack to the Flash Music disc above, these
recordings originate from 1968 and 1971, with the half-hour long
”Another Dome Session” being recorded the same night as ”In A
Geodetic Dome” on ”Brotherhood Suite”. The remainder of this
release is dedicated to the two-part ”ABF Suite” with the second
portion being based on Turkish folk melodies brought in by Maffy
Falay. Again a collaboration between Cherry and Rosengren's group,
but it's a bit different than the two albums above. Here you can
sense the direction in which the trumpeter was heading in the future,
getting closer to a more dissolved, genre bending style, the musical
crossroad of the entire world. As a study of his development it's
certainly rewarding, but it doesn't quite have the same impact as
other Rosengren/Cherry documents.
This is an absolutely fantastic album
that perfectly melds Cherry's free jazz power with his search for a
universal expression! It was recorded in the summer home of Göran
Freese, sound engineer and musician (appearing on, for instance, G.L.Unit's ”Orangutang”), and mixes members from the ”Live In
Stockholm” band with musicians from his international ensemble New
York Total Music Company. The idea was to have them jam and rehearse
freely without any intention of making an album, but thankfully the
tapes rolled and the recordings were finally presented to the world
in 2021. The undemanding setting made for some stunning performances
that rank among the finest ever from Cherry and his cohort. The music
flows freely between traditions, and Turkish hand drummer Bülent
Ateş really adds an extra dimension. Essential!
Another
international grouping comprising American, German, Norweigan and
French musicians, plus Swedes Bernt Rosengren and Eje Thelin,
recorded live at the Berlin Jazz Festival in November 1968. It's a
long suite notable for utilizing a large number of flutes and an
array of Gamelan percussion. A giant step in Cherry's career, and the
first album to properly predict the 'organic music' concept. With
names like Albert Mangelsdorff and Sonny Sharrock it's clear from the
start that the music is grounded in free jazz, but when adding the
unusual (for jazz) timbres of the metal instruments, it becomes
something else, something wider in scope and emotion. The thing is
that is doesn't sound at all contrived suggesting that Don Cherry had
a very clear idea worked out in his head what he wanted to achieve by
using them. AllMusic's Brian Olewnick called ”Eternal Rhythm”
”required listening” and I am the first to agree.
Having
already acquainted Maffy Falay and Okay Temiz, Don Cherry was no
stranger to Turkish music, and in late 1969 he got to play at the
U.S. Embassy in Ankara with Temiz, saxophonist Irfan Sümer and
bassist Selçuk Sun. Despite relying heavily on Turkish traditional
material, it's a fairly straightforward set revealing strong traces
of Cherry's past with Ornette Coleman (especially with two Ornette
compositions in the set). It's not very exciting, and the dull sound
also hampers the experience a bit.
Another
Turkish recording, this time with an interesting backstory. The music
was commissioned for a play written by James Baldwin who was living
in Turkey off and on between 1961 and 1971 having fled racism and
homophobia in the U.S., and produced by theatre owner Engin Cezzar.
Dealing with gay relationships in an Istanbul prison, the play was
controversial and banned by the Turkish government in after 30,000 people had already seen in it in two months. The music has
its moments, but it's by no means essential. It's value lies mainly
in the story behind it. Released physically on vinyl only, it came
with four different covers, all in limited editions and now sold out.
A trio date from Paris, 1971 with
Cherry, Temiz and bassist Johnny Dyani. I don't like it at all. First
of all, I don't think Temiz and Dyani is a good team (see thisreview), and second of all I don't like Don Cherry's vocals and
there's a lot of that on ”Blue Lake”. The playing is messy and
sometimes simply directionless, it just goes on forever without
getting anywhere. The album was originally released only in Japan
1974 but has for no good reason been reissued several times since.
A
sister album to ”Blue Lake” released the year before, with half
of the double album having more tracks from the same
Cherry/Dyani/Temiz date, meaning they also sound about the same. The
two albums were reissued together on CD in 2003.
The album that most of all epitomizes Don Cherry's 'organic music' theories. It's intriguing and annoying, messy and flourishing, intense and flaccid all at once. There are field recordings and studio takes, focused performances and half-baked ideas in a raffle of sound and it's sometimes hard to make sense of it. That is the album's weakness but also its strength, and what you think of it probably very much depends on your current mood. I personally would have preferred the double album slimmed down to a single disc, keeping side 2 and 3 (despite Cherry's vocals) and perhaps keep the rather captivating ”North Brazilian Ceremonial Hymn” as an opening track. It would have narrowed the scope of the organic music idiom and by that missed the point, but it would have made a more cohesive album.
A nice list of performers though: Tommy
Koverhult, Christer Bothén, dynamic duo Temiz & Falay, and –
most importantly – Bengt Berger. Engineered by Göran Freese, the
summer house owner who initiated the majestic 1968 recordings.
Instrumental, English vocals, other languages, wordless vocals
International relevance: ***
The organic music brought to the stage
for the very first time. With Christer Bothén and various tag along
friends from Sweden plus Brazilian percussionist and berimbau player
Nana Vasconcelos performing as Don Cherry's New Researches in the
Southern France. Much more focused than ”Organic Music Society”
although Cherry's vocals are still a major snag.
With the organic music concept being
worked on for a couple of years, the essence of it had finally
crystallized on 1974's ”Eternal Now”. A mellow and spiritually
gripping album that stands head and shoulders above any previous
attempts in the style. Maybe because not every Tom, Dick and Harry
creaks and clangs and babble their way into the music – with a
personnel of only five including Cherry himself, they can move in the
same direction without any distraction from unnecessary outsiders.
Especially as they're such a tight unit to begin with, with Cherry,
Berger, Bothén and Rosengren at the core with Agneta Arnström only
adding Tibetan bells to one track and ngoni (a West African string
instrument) to another. ”Eternal Now” (a beautiful title!) oozes
with midnight magic, it's like incense for the ears and enlightenment
for the soul. Without a doubt one of Cherry's best 70s albums and one
of Moki's best album cover works to boot.
A live recording from The Museum Of Modern Art in Stockholm in early 1977. Per Tjernberg from Archimedes Badkar finally makes an appearance on a Don Cherry album – it seems just so appropriate. More unexpectedly, so does Jojje Wadenius who sounds a bit lost to begin with when on electric guitar but blends in better once he switches to the acoustic. (He returns to the electric towards the end and seem a bit more comfortable then.) It's a set heavy on Indian influences so it's surprising not seeing Bengt Berger here. I think he might have been a great staibilizer, because although the performance is rather pleasant, it's a bit trying and uncertain.
However, like I said earlier, Berger's and Cherry's collaboration continued later with Cherry being a vital part of the excellent Bitter Funeral Beer Band. A collaboration that extended beyond the time frame of the Swedish Progg Blog.
There are of course numerous of other
Cherry albums without any Swedish connections, some of them less good
but some of them among the best jazz music ever put to disc. Don
Cherry was a true master, and as a Swede I feel honoured that he
chose to live here for so long and also produce some of the finest
music of his career while doing so. He was not only a real visionary,
he was also a true genius.
Movement Incorporated no links found
Brotherhood Suite full album
Live In Stockholm full album playlsit
The Summer House Sessions full album playlist
Eternal Rhythm full album playlist
Live Ankara full album
Music For A Turkish Theatre full album playlist (Bandcamp)
Orient / Blue Lake full album playlist
Organic Music Society full album playlist
Organic Music Theatre full album playlist (Bandcamp)
Eternal Now full album
Modern Art full album playlist
There's also an hour-long Don Cherry documentary called "Det är inte min musik" (="it's not my music") made by Swedish Televison in 1978 that gives some further insight into his life in Sweden. You can watch it here.