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Don CherryThe Summer House SessionsBack to the record
Jazz Journal
★★★★

“Capturing brilliant and organic improvisation, The Summer House Sessions offers a fascinating glimpse into Cherry’s world of musical research and experimentation.”

Elliot Marlow-Stevens · 18 May 2021

Presenting an interesting transitional point in the history of one of jazz’s most innovative players, The Summer House Sessions captures Don Cherry leading an experimental group in Sweden, soon to shift his focus toward the incorporation of world music into jazz improvisation.

Cherry had been a key member of Ornette Coleman’s quartet, also having worked with other free-jazz luminaries such as John Coltrane and Archie Shepp. Cherry moved to Stockholm in 1968 and began running weekly workshops with an ensemble of musicians, exploring and researching new musical techniques and ideas. Out of these workshops came a series of recordings, including this album, made in a summer house with eight musicians not far from Stockholm. Until now it has been held in the Swedish Jazz Archive.

Originally published by Jazz Journal.Read it on Jazz Journal

6 other reviews

The Quietus

“Most radical (and most indicative of Don’s nascent intentions) is the insistence that the music be communal and solo-free.”

Uncut

“These 1968 sessions are looser, aesthetically pan-global, embracing a nascent spirituality alongside a cartwheeling energy.”

Point of Departure

“Ultimately this is a record of people at play.”

Jazz Magazine

“Car ces “Summer House Sessions” (magnifiquement) enregistrées par l’ingénieur du son Göran Freese n’ont absolument rien perdu de leur force libertaire, de leur inspiration rieuse et de leur invention mélodique.”

Free Jazz Blog

“The music demonstrates Cherry's aspiration for a universal language through music, incorporating many ideas and rhythms, all integrated in one joyous and communal interaction.”

Dusted

“It’s like a looser version of the music Cherry made for Blue Note in the 1960s, free and joyous, but the references to Anatolian folk music point it towards the music he would do with Okay Temiz and Johnny Dyani.”