Don Cherry (jazz)
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- For other individuals named Don Cherry, see Don Cherry.
Don Cherry (November 18, 1936 – October 19, 1995) was an innovative jazz trumpeter probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman.
Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and raised in Los Angeles, California.
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. Cherry appeared in a variety of settings with the leading musicians of the day through the 1960s: he co-led the Avant-Garde session with John Coltrane, recorded and toured with Sonny Rollins, co-led the New York Contemporary Five in Manhattan, recorded and toured with Albert Ayler and with bandleader and composer George Russell.
He then lived for a number of years in Paris and Sweden.
In addition to bebop, Cherry incorporated influences of Middle Eastern, traditional African, and Indian music into his playing. His album Relativity Suite was notable in that respect.
He appeared on Coleman's 1971 LP Science Fiction, and from 1976 to 1987 he reunited with Coleman alumni Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell in the band Old And New Dreams.[1], recording a total of four albums, two for ECM and two for Black Saint.
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.
He continued to seize a wide range of playing opportunities, whether with Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill project or recordings with Lou Reed, Ian Dury, Rip Rig & Panic and Sun Ra.
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.
Don Cherry died in Málaga, Spain.
His stepdaughters Neneh Cherry and Titiyo and his son Eagle-Eye Cherry are also musicians.
[edit] Select discography
- The Avant-Garde (a joint date with John Coltrane) (1961)
- Complete Communion (1965)
- Symphony for Improvisers (1966)
- Where is Brooklyn? (1966)
- Eternal Rhythm (1968)
- Escalator over the Hill (1971)
- Brown Rice (1975)
- El Corazon (1982)
[edit] with 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
- Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation (1960)
