Label:
BYG Records – YX-4012-13
Format:
2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Japan / Released: 1973
Style:
Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded in
France, April 22 (B2, C1, C2) and August 11 (A, B1, D), 1971.
Artwork
– Shigo Yamaguchi
Liner
Notes [Japanese] – Masahiko Yuh
Photography
By – Masatoshi Sunayama
Manufactured
By – Toho Geion Co., Ltd.
A - Orient
(Part-1) ....................................................................
16:21
B1
- Orient (Part-2)
.................................................................... 8:57
B2
- Eagle Eye (Part-1)
............................................................... 6:50
C1
- Eagle Eye (Part-2) ...............................................................
5:31
C2 - Togetherness
..................................................................... 11:41
D - Si
Ta Ra Ma .......................................................................
19:30
All
compositions written-by – Don Cherry
Musicians:
A-B1
- "ORIENT (Parts 1 and 2" / D - "SI TA RA MA"
Don
Cherry – pocket trumpet, flute, piano, vocals
Han
Bennink – drums, percussion, accordion, vocals
Mocqui
Cherry – tambura
B2-C1 - "EAGLE EYE (Parts 1 and 2)" / C2 - "TOGETHERNESS"
Don
Cherry – pocket trumpet, flute, piano, vocals
Johnny
Dyani – bass
Okay
Temiz – drums, percussion
Orient captures the nomadic Don Cherry in two live sets in the early '70s with two different trios. Cherry's work from about 1967-1978 was concentrated in his desire to bring to bear as many influences from musical cultures around the globe as possible into his music. Prominent among these include Indonesian gamelan, Indian Karnatic singing, rhythms from West and South Africa, and American Indian rituals. Also common during this period was Cherry's tendency to spend equal time on piano, flutes, and vocals alongside his pocket trumpet. All of these figure into the two sets here, one including the great Dutch drummer Han Bennink, the other with the amazing South African bassist Johnny Dyani. Fans of Cherry will recognize several of the themes herein, including the very beautiful "Desireless" from his Relativity Suite, but it's fascinating to hear him work in material from Indian scales to township dance music to Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage." Orient is definitely a valuable document and recommended.
_1. Jazz music has never had the influence or
monetary sway that pop or rock has had. It has had (when distilled to its most
primal impulses) the temperament of defiant ingenuity and an eager willingness
to always be open and ready for anything. In this respect, jazz is at once
self-serving and giving in both its musical and cultural exchange.
Many
jazz artists have experimented with sounds from all over the globe, helping
give shape and form to what has come to be known as “fusion jazz” (jazz’s
sometimes unfortunate offshoot). One artist conspired to go beyond all borders,
confines and genres to create a highly expressive and unique presentation of
melding cultures—jazz rethought and relived in the constant grind of invention.
Don Cherry, born 1936, would essentially become the harbinger of a melting pot
consciousness.
Having
first learned the ropes as player in Ornette Coleman’s boundary-breaking and
highly influential collective, Cherry first appropriated the stylings of
Coleman’s free jazz workings, abandoning structure and form for free tonality.
After his notable work on Coleman’s groundbreaking album, The Shape of Jazz to
Come, Cherry would strike out on his own with a number of significant
recordings for Blue Note, including Complete Communion and Symphony for
Improvisers.
These
two albums were a far cry from the globe-trotting material Cherry would explore
in his later years, but they hinted at the exotic musical delights of which the
artist was enamoured with. In Symphony for Improvisers, one hears only the
faintest traces of Latin influences that would eventually blossom on future
recordings...
_2. If anyone wanted to closely pinpoint
where jazz opened up to a world and wealth of new sounds, they might look
towards Cherry’s Mu, released in 1969. This recording is now regarded as a
landmark work which introduced the world to a bevy of global sounds, including
Indian Karnatic music, Latin and African percussion, Arabic scales and Native
American folk. The blend of these worldly sounds are, surprisingly, undisturbed
by the volatile cadences of Cherry’s jazz; they never dissolve into the heated
flows of rhythm—they simply become the elemental grafts on the scrim of which
Cherry conceives his designs.
Mu
would simply be the beginning of a series of works that would expand upon the
disparate influences that Cherry would pick up on his travels from around the
world, each album exploring the respective culture he found himself immersed in
at the time. Spells in places like Morocco, Turkey, France and the Far East
would transform the artist into a roving human sponge, soaking up every curious
sound laid bare to him by a newfound friend. Cherry made a lot of friends, in
fact, and it was not unusual for many of them to become members of his constantly
rotating collective.
Orient
(1971) detailed Cherry’s adventurous and romantic exploits in the Far East and
his hypnotic strains of Oriental instrumentation found a perfect and unlikely
match in the alternately storming and restrained drum work of Hans Bennink and
Okay Temiz. Tracks like “Si Ta Ra Ma” examined the shamanistic interiors of the
soul with Cherry exploring traditions of Hoomii, the throat-singing of
Mongolia.
Elsewhere, the jazz
elements took precedent, such as on the frenetic crash-and-burn rhythms of the
title-track. Cherry would push even further into Eastern sounds on the eerie,
esoteric Organic Music Society, which further ploughed the depths of Indian
mysticism he touched upon on Orient. By this time, the artist had fully steeped
himself in the fashion of the times; Eastern philosophy, psychedelia and Zen
teachings (introduced into public consciousness by the rise of hippie culture)
were an integral part of Cherry’s work...
DON
CHERRY – Blue Lake (2LP-1974)
Label:
BYG Records – YX-4022/4023
Format:
2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Japan / Released: 1974
Style:
Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live in
Paris, France on April 22, 1971.
Liner
Notes [Japanese] – Masahiko Yuh
Photography
By – Masatoshi Sunayama
A1
- Blue Lake
.............................................................................. 4:55
Written-By – Don Cherry
A2
- Dollar And Okay's Tunes (Part 1) ........................................ 17:05
Written-By – Dollar Brand, Okay Temiz
B - Dollar
And Okay's Tunes (Part 2) ........................................ 15:14
Written-By – Dollar Brand, Okay Temiz
C - East
(Part 1)
......................................................................... 13:10
Written-By – Don Cherry
D - East
(Part 2)
......................................................................... 13:42
Written-By – Don Cherry
Personnel:
Don
Cherry – pocket trumpet, piano, flute, vocals
Johnny
Dyani – bass
Okay
Temiz – drums, percussion
Blue Lake is a live
album by jazz/world musician Don Cherry recorded in 1971 and first released on
the BYG label in Japan in 1974.
This
live set, Blue Lake, is a worthy introduction to his solo work. The first part of
the set begins with Cherry on a Native American flute. His simple song is as
moving and spare as a New Mexico mesa. Next, he and his band move into their
interpretation of some Dollar Brand tunes. First, they lay the melodies out
straight and give the audience a window into this neglected composer's mind.
Then it's time for their ferocious, free-wheeling, Ornette Colemanesque take on
the same tunes. The last brace of tunes finds Cherry mostly singing á la Sam
Rivers. Like Rivers' voicings, one forgets that this is a man, and hears only
another instrument. Just when the tension rises to almost unbearable levels,
Cherry breaks loose with some forceful, controlled soloing. The tone is
muscular, and the ideas as sure and stringent as bitter salt. Cherry's journey
as a musician has been that of a consummate artist. His remarkable career
deserves stricter attention from fans and critics alike.
_3. It wasn’t until 1975, however, that
Cherry’s fusion between the core jazz elements of his work and the ethnic
influences he experimented with truly found the musical equilibrium he had been
seeking for years. Brown Rice, a smorgasbord of international flavours that
pulled from every corner of the world, was infused with the renewed electricity
of the burgeoning funk scene that bled over rock, pop and disco. The album’s title-track is pure kitchen-sink
drama (that would be everything and the sink); warbles of cosmic funk
intermingle with saxophone skronks and electro-bongos to create the closest thing
a jazz artist could ever come to pop. It was not just new ground for Cherry but
for jazz as well, and the remaining album cuts showcased an even deeper
understanding of global-pop aesthetics.
In
the heart of the album the two numbers, “Malkauns” and “Chenrezig”, were
further travels along the astral bodies of spiritual sounds; mired in the
trance-inducing thrums of Charlie Haden’s bass, the two cuts pointed, once
again, toward Cherry’s previous influences of Indian ragas. A daring, peculiar
and darkly mysterious effort, Brown Rice has also proven to be one of Cherry’s
most misunderstood recordings. Drawing a clear line between jazz purists and
fusion enthusiasts, Brown Rice has continued to polarize fans of both Cherry
and jazz in general, a testament to the artist’s ability to provoke and stir
listeners by the sheer force and flow of ideas alone...
_4. One of Don Cherry’s last excursions into
music was Multikulti, his 1991 effort that refined some of the rougher edges of
his earlier work for a smoother confluence of multicultural sounds. A notable
release that garnered some praise for Cherry’s ability to incorporate newer,
contemporary influences, Multikulti can be seen as a bridge that unifies the
emotional impulses of both pop and jazz.
A
few years later following Multikulti, Cherry would pass away from liver
failure, having left behind a legacy of work not always rightfully acknowledged
or widely embraced. His stepdaughter, Neneh (who’s own work has encompassed
everything from hip-hop and punk to R&B, jazz and pop), had already reached
a level of fame around this time with her own inspired brand of music, no doubt
influenced by her stepfather.
It
was reported once that Neneh had stated that artistic success depended on good
ideas rather than expertise. This sentiment echoes both the struggles and
triumphs that her stepfather would undertake throughout the trajectory of his
career; true enough, Cherry, at times, was criticized for his technique. Yet it
was the constantly renewed energy of spontaneity and joy alone that gave him
his musical longevity. Cherry’s travels stopped in 1995, the year of his
passing. Nearly 20 years later, his
music continues to travel – through the world, space, time, mind, soul…
I'm offering you
today only a small fragment of his genius. Enjoy!
If
you find them, buy these albums!
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