“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.”
If ever an artist were to receive an award for pioneering a genre while defining several others, Don Cherry would be a prime candidate. His multi-instrumentalism speaks to that diversity. While trumpet was his main axe, his contributions on donso ngoni, Indian flute, piano and various percussion instruments embody an unceasing inquisitiveness that would traverse his 40-year multi-media odyssey. His first recordings were with Ornette Coleman’s ground-breaking 1958-1961 bands, Alongside drummers Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell and bassist Charlie Haden. One of these, the 1960 "Free Jazz" date, gave the emerging “New Thing” music one of its lasting appellations. In that vibrant scene, he worked with musicians as disparate as Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and the New York Contemporary Five.
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