Cherie Nutting
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Cherie Nutting is a New York City photographer and musical artist manager. She is best known for her photographs of American author Paul Bowles published in her book Yesterday's Perfume: An Intimate Memoir of Paul Bowles (2000). The book, an impressionistic collage of Nutting's photos and reminiscences of her 13-year friendship with Bowles, also includes some of Bowles' journal entries and unpublished writings.
She studied photography at the New England School of Photography and at New York School of Visual Arts. Enchanted by Morocco since her first brief visit to that country as a child in 1960, she met her first husband in Marrakech ten years later. Her husband gave her a copy of Paul Bowles' book The Sheltering Sky shortly before they divorced. She became a fan of Bowles' work and felt again drawn to visit Morocco. After writing Bowles about her interest in the region and his work, she began photographing him in Tangier at his invitation in 1986. She remained friends with the author until his death in 1999.
In spring of 1989, Nutting married Moroccan musician Bachir Attar, leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka and began managing his career, which soon began to pick up momentum. She helped organize the June 1989 visit of the Rolling Stones to Tangier to record the song "Continental Drift" for the Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels release. She served as a music coordinator for the BBC film of the event, The Rolling Stones in Morocco.
She served as additional music coordinator for Bernardo Bertolucci's film The Sheltering Sky (1990) and David Cronenberg's film Naked Lunch (1991). Nutting coordinated arrangements in Tangier for Bill Laswell's crew during the production of Apocalypse Across the Sky on Axiom (1992). As official photographer for her husband's Master Musicians of Jajouka group, she contributed photos to the album booklets and covers for the group's album releases during the 1990s. She also contributed photographs to Bachir Attar's 1992 solo album on CMP, The Next Dream, and to his 1994 album with Elliott Sharp on Enemy Records, In New York.
Nutting was one of three executive producers on the 1995 CD release Jajouka Between the Mountains on WOMAD by recorded by Bachir Attar's master musicians. She served as project coordinator on the 1995 Point Music CD reissue of the Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka album originally recorded in 1968 by the master musicians group led by Bachir Attar's father, Hadj Abdesalam Attar. Her photos were including in a 1998 book about life in Tangier called The Tangier Diaries 1962–1979, by John Hopkins.
Nutting and Attar amicably parted in 1996. Her book about Paul Bowles came out in 2000, a year after Bowles' death. By the mid-2000s she was helping manage Bachir Attar and his Master Musicians of Jajouka, while continuing her photography career.
[edit] Further reading
- Aiken, Stephen (2001). Morocco: The Collected Traveler. Three Rivers Press.
- Bowles, Paul (1991). Days: Tangier Journal: 1987-1989. The Ecco Press.
- Carlson, Jon (Spring 2001). "Book Review: Yesterday's Perfume". Rain Taxi Literary Review, vol. 6, no. 1.
- "Cherie Nutting Discusses Paul Bowles on Jerry Jazz Musician". Jerry Jazz Musician. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
- Hopkins, John (1998). The Tangier Diaries 1962-1979. Arcadia Books. ISBN 1900850028.
- McMurtrie, John (December 10, 2000). "A Relationship That Clicked". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
- Nutting, Cherie, with Bowles, Paul. (2000). Yesterday's Perfume: An Intimate Memoir of Paul Bowles. Clarkson Potter. ISBN 0-609-60573-9.
