Don Cherry
From the very beginning, Los Angeles-raised Don Cherry (1936) displayed an anti-virtuoso attitude that contrasted with the ruling dogmas of jazz music. Cherry shunned both acrobatic exhibitions and radical experiments in favor of humility and pathos (thus appealing more to the rock crowd than to the jazz crowd). His style focused on the idiosyncratic timbres of his pocket trumpet and on languid phrases that evoked ancestral worlds via the abstraction of exotic styles, predating Jon Hassell's "fourth world" music (and the whole world-music bandwagon) by more than a decade.
From the very beginning, Los Angeles-raised Don Cherry (1936) displayed an anti-virtuoso attitude that contrasted with the ruling dogmas of jazz music. Cherry shunned both acrobatic exhibitions and radical experiments in favor of humility and pathos (thus appealing more to the rock crowd than to the jazz crowd). His style focused on the idiosyncratic timbres of his pocket trumpet and on languid phrases that evoked ancestral worlds via the abstraction of exotic styles, predating Jon Hassell's "fourth world" music (and the whole world-music bandwagon) by more than a decade.
New York Eye And Ear Control
Originally released in 1966. Featured artists: Albert Ayler (tenor sax), Ed Blackwell(trumpet), Don Cherry (trumpet, cornet), Sunny Murray (drums), Gary Peacock (bass), Roswell Rudd (trombone), John Tchicai (saxophone, alto sax). Michael Snow is a Canadian national treasure, a true Renaissance man. He assembled a stellar group to improvise a sound track for his art film, titled Walking Woman, featuring a silhouette that is rumored to have been inspired by Carla Bley. Digitally remastered. Manufa…
Music / Sangam
Paris, 1978. Don Cherry walks into a French studio with a suitcase full of instruments nobody expected and meets Ustad Ahmed Latif Khan for the first time. No rehearsal, no plan, just two musicians who recognize each other immediately as kindred spirits. What happens next is one of Cherry's best efforts - an album only hardcore fans know about, recorded in Paris, released only in France in 1981, disappeared, and now back again in a special edition that demands attention. This is what "world musi…
Organic Music Society
Organic Music Society is an album by trumpeter Don Cherry. Many critics consider this album the one which gives a fuller picture of Cherry as ensemble leader, spiritualist and cultural synthesizer. Indeed, Organic Music Society is a bold exploration of global musical traditions, reflecting Cherry's vision of music as a universal. Here, Cherry makes a significant shift from his free jazz roots toward a more expansive, world music fusion. Recorded in Sweden, the album features a diverse ensemble b…
Organic Music Societies
Archival documents and new writings on the intermedia collaborations of avant-garde jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and textile artist Moki Cherry
Tomorrow Is the Question!
This was definitely a perfect title for Ornette Coleman's second and last album for Contemporary before switching on Ertegun's Atlantic label. Originally released in 1959 "Tomorrow is the Question" was an early evident step towards the revolution to come. An adventurous yet accessible, bluesy album with Coleman and Don Cherry tasting for the first time the freedom of a pianoless rhythm section featuring Percy Heath or Red Mitchell on bass and the great Shelly Manne on drums.
Relativity Suite
*2025 much needed repress!* Reissue of Don Cherry's 'Relativity Suite', recorded with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra in 1973. At this time, Cherry was becoming increasingly interested in Middle Eastern and traditional African and Indian music, having traveled extensively and studied with Indian musician Vasant Rai. This suite of songs was particularly influenced by the Indian karnatic singing tradition, as can be heard from the very opening moments of the album. Featuring Carla Bley on piano, Cha…
Sonny's Time Now
** Rare original copies. Early 80s LP reissue. Unplayed copies from a dead-stock, minor wear due to ageing on covers ** A seismic moment in the history of free jazz, Sonny’s Time Now stands as a raw, uncompromising manifesto of musical liberation. Recorded in New York City in November 1965 and released on the visionary Jihad label founded by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), this is the first album led by the revolutionary drummer Sonny Murray-and it’s nothing short of essential.
With a lineup that re…
Where Is Brooklyn?
Where Is Brooklyn? by Don Cherry returns as a Japanese UHQ-CD, featuring Pharoah Sanders, Henry Grimes, and Ed Blackwell. This classic Blue Note session is remastered for superior fidelity, capturing the spirit of avant-garde jazz with exceptional clarity.
Actions
Tiiiip! *180gr. Vinyl* A memorable live recording of a unique encounter of jazz and contemporary classical music is available again! Recorded live at the Donaueschingen Music Festival on October 17, 1971, Actions features a truly mind-bending confluence of musicians of the avant-garde, in the broadest sense of the term. Don Cherry -- the brilliant American free jazz trumpeter -- had recently expatriated to Sweden and was finding his way not only among the emerging free-jazz scene of Europe but a…
Art Deco
Temporary Offer. Verve by Request Manufactured at Third Man Pressing in Detroit MI 180g Audiophile Quality Vinyl. As one of the last albums Don Cherry recorded before he passed away in 1995, “Art Deco” could be considered something of a return home – or at least a glance back over the shoulder. By 1988, the non-conformist trumpeter had been travelling the planet for about three decades, absorbing folk music of all styles, which led to collaborations with a wide variety of musicians. From South A…
Symphony for Improvisers
Biggest Tip! 180 gram Vinyl Edition. Recorded in 1966 and released by Blue Note Records in August of 1967, Don Cherry's Symphony for Improvisers features Gato Barbieri, Henry Grimes, and Ed Blackwell, all of whom had appeared on Cherry's previous album Complete Communion. Also featured are Karl Berger, Jean-François Jenny- Clark, and Pharoah Sanders. The abum received a rating of ***** on AlMusic, with reviewer Steve Huey string that, "Even though the album is full of passionate fireworks, there…
1964 Recordings
"A long life can contain a certain amount of waste. Live long enough and posterity doesn’t notice the occasional unproductive gap. A short life adds value to every moment and every creative act. This new issue of Albert Ayler’s brief association with Don Cherry includes further material from their time in Copenhagen, a period when the saxophonist daily reinvented the themes that were coursing through his mind, breath and fingers. These are not a collector’s fetishes. These are fresh document…
Music For Turkish Theater 1970
Huge Tip! Never before released recording of the Sensational and Banned Turkish Theater Play by James Baldwin and Engin Cezzar, Istanbul 1970. Licensed by Gökhan Akçura, author of Engin Cezzar's autobiography, who was personally entrusted with the original master tape by Engin Cezzar. "One of the most shocking and daring plays staged in Turkish theaters was banned by the Istanbul Governorship on February 7, 1970. The ban on the play, which was watched by 30,000 people in 60 days, did not last lo…
Human Music
*2024 stock* "This 1969 avant-garde collaboration between trumpeter Don Cherry and electronics pioneer Jon Appleton was originally released on legendary jazz producer Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman label. Consisting of four compositions with the titles 'Boa,' 'Oba,' 'Abo,' and 'Bao,' Human Music finds Cherry stretching out on various flutes and African percussion instruments in addition to pocket trumpet. Original artwork. Detailed liner notes." Includes two bonus tracks, "Don" and "Jon".
At the d…
The Avant-garde
**Yellow vinyl** Though Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane were two of the prime forces in what came to be known as free jazz, their approaches couldn't have been more different. While Coleman's music dispensed with chords and rejected instrumental virtuosity in favour of unbroken horizontal development of melodic line, Coltrane's music for the most part relied on stacking up chords in blocks and exploring the results with fearsomely complex, passionate harmonic interrogations.
However Coltrane w…
Codona Live Willisau, Switzerland September 1, 1978
The magical encounter of three skillful players, right before their self titled debut on ECM. On September 1, 1978, the musical trio Codona performed live in Willisau, Switzerland. This Swiss FM broadcast captured Codona in full flight, with Collin Walcott on sitar, Don Cherry on trumpet, and Nana Vasconcelos on percussion. Their performance weaved a magical web of sound. The opening track, “New Light,” is a 16-minute journey of pure joy
Decision In Paradise
Absolute killer session recorded at Vanguard Studios, New York, September 24 and 28 in 1984, with an intense line-up of some of our all-time-fav players of free music, including of tenor-saxophonist Frank Lowe, trumpeter Don Cherry, trombonnist Grachan Moncur III, pianist Geri Allen, bassist Charnette Moffett, and drummer Charles Moffett, ensures that this music is worth going for. Phrasing is super articulated and the whole vibe is just contagious. Outstanding interaction. The tandem communicat…
"Mu" First Part
** Deluxe 180gr. Black vinyl edition. Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve. Original 1969 BYG album. Mastered to vinyl from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins. Exclusive liner notes by author John Masouri ** Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell, graduates of the revolutionary Ornette Coleman quartet, are in perfect accord on this seminal free jazz set, recorded in Paris during the late sixties. The emphasis, as on all Don Cherry releases, is on the life-giving, often magical qualities of pure sound, c…
"Mu" Second Part
** ** Deluxe 180gr. Black vinyl edition. Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve. Original 1970 BYG album facsimile-edition. Mastered to vinyl from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins. Exclusive liner notes by author John Masouri ** ** Second chapter of Don Cherry’s "Mu" recordings for BYG - a landmark of free jazz improvisation. Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell had both played with Ornette Coleman and contributed to the revolutionary free jazz movement of the late fifties and early sixties. …
"Mu" First Part & "Mu" Second Part
** 2-CD set gathering the seminal albums “Mu” First Part and “Mu” Second Part. Restored & remastered from the original tapes by Nick Robbins. New & insightful essay by author & music journalist John Masouri. 6-panel deluxe digi-sleeve echoes the vibe of the original LPs & includes a 16-page booklet. Two printed inner wallets replicate the original LP covers back and front ** Two historic 1969 recording sessions by Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell now assembled on this deluxe 2-CD set that co…