These sessions were recorded exactly two years apart, in early November 1966 and 1968 (both were released in 1969). While they can’t be called “bookends” by any means, they do bracket a remarkable period in Don Cherry’s musical evolution, on his journey from the more strictly jazz environments, as adventurous as they were, of Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and others, to a philosophy that embraced many non-Western traditions. While these included various African forms, especially those of west-central Africa. Cherry extended his research into Northern Indian music and, as brilliantly evidenced in ‘Eternal Rhythm’, the percussion music of Southeast Asia.   – Brian Olewnick