don cherry complete blue note

5/13/2018 Don Cherry Complete Blue Note

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D O N C H E R R Y Born on November 18,1936 in Oklahoma City, DonaldEugene Cherry remembers s taying up late and li stening tomusic as a toddler at the Cherry Blossom nightclub which hisparents operated in Tulsa. The fami ly moved to Los Angeleswhen Don was four. There he had the opportunity to hearmore l ive music at the Plantation Club where his fatherworked as bartender.

Don began s tudying the piano at age seven and switchedto trumpe t five years later when his mother bought him ahom. He would eventually learn to play most of the brassfamily of instruments in high school. He and grade-schoolfriend George Newman were fast becoming interes ted inmodem jazz, thanks in large par t to the hip record collection

At the Village Vanguard rehearsing for the December 24, 1965 session.

ofschoolmate Jayne Cortez, who would later become OmetteColeman's f irst wife and an acclaimed poet. "She would lendus a record, but we'd have to learn both sides of the recordbefore we could borrow another."

Although he did not attend Jefferson High, he would cutthe last class at hi s own school, Freemont High, to s tudy therewi th Samuel Brown, a renowned music teacher who 'd taughtWardell Gray, Hampton Hawes and Art Farmer among others. 'The Jefferson High's dance band book included THINGS TOCOME and MANTECA f rom the Dizzy Gi llespie Orchest ra andeven some John Lewis charts . Cherry was eventually caughtcutting his last class and ended up in Jacob Reese, a truantdetention school where he first met Billy Higgins.

Don soon began to f ind profess ional work much to thechagrin of his father, who 'd seen the late-n ight music worldf irsthand. He'd often have to sneak out to gigs , many ofwhichhe played as a pianis t with bass is t Harper Crosby, who firsthelped Cherry learn how to play on chord changes, anddrummer Larance (usually misspelled as Lawrence) Marable.

Cherry and alto saxophonis t George Newman, whom Donhas often referred to as a "genius," started woodsheddingregularly with Billy Higgins on drums. Their repertoireconsi sted primari ly ofNewman arrangements ofa number ofCharlie Parker and ear ly Gerry Mul ligan tunes .At this point, Fats Navarro, "the only trumpet player I

really cared to copy phrases from," seems to have been hisprimary influence. Indeed, throughout his career, Cherry'sarti culation on runs and clenched, yet open sound seemdescendent f rom Fats. As for "me and the trumpet, there werethree people who were of great importance. Of course, therewere Dizzy and Miles, but I was listening to Fats Navarro. InCalifornia , I heard (a lo t of) Sweets Edison, who had animportant impact on me. Jack Sheldon, Conte Candol i andChet Baker were around, but Fats . ... And when Cli ffordBrown took an interest in me! I was young but held close tohim. I felt the trumpet was a thing of beauty in jazz."

Cherry eventually quit school "because education alwaysseems . .. to close you up and to indoctrinate you. Educationshould open you up, draw things out of you so that you realizethey 're in you." Music was now a ful l t ime profession for him.It was around this time (1955 or '56) that he met tenorsaxophonist James Clay, a Dalla s native. "Up to the time Imet him, I'd been concentrating on krwwing everything Iplayed, and James Clay came along and played what heheard and really felt-and he could make you ClY . "

Soon thereaf ter, in 1956, Don would meet another Texassaxophonist from neighboring Ft. Worth who would irrevoca-bly alter h is l ife: Ornette Coleman. Thei r f irst encounter wasat a music store in Watts where Ornette "was trying a #4 1/2or #5 reed (that's the thickest reed you can get). He had longhair and a beard; it was about 90 degrees, and he had on anovercoat. I was scared ofhim."

Ornette Coleman's playing and writing are immediatelystriking in their soulfulness, iconoclasm and magnificent self-contained logic. Cherry, Newman and Higgins became jnstantdisciples, joining Clay, bassist Don Payne and trumpeterBobby Bradford in constant rehearsals with Ornette.Coleman, who'd spent 1951 in Los Angeles and returned in1954 rooming with his New Orleans friend Ed Blackwel l, was

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At the December 24, 1965 session.

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s ti ll an outcast. He drew react ions of either out rage or pol itepuzzlement from the s tatus quo.

Clay, Cherry , Payne and Higgins did two weeks at theCellar in Vancouver in August , 1957. They performed aheal thy amount of Ornette tunes, which led to a VancouverJazz Society concert la ter that year wi th Cherry as leader,Ornette, p ianist Don Friedman, bassi st Ben Tucker andHiggins. This was the saxophonist 's only paying gig of 1957and probably his f irst professional job playing his own music.Then, thanks to Red Mitchell's support, Ornette made his first

two albums for Contemporary in early'58 and early '59, withCherry on both and Higgins on the first. Between those albums,the three ofthem joined Paul Bley and Charlie Haden for sixweeks in October and November at the Hillcrest Club in LosAngeles, a gig made all the more important because Omette foundin Haden his ideal bassist and because tapes have survived thatgive us our first glimpse ofmany classic Coleman compositionsand allow us tohear Omette and Cherry blowing on such tunes asKlACTOVEEDESTENE.With the release ofthe f irst Contemporary album SOME-

THING ELSE!!!, word ofthis st range new sound spread. Pianis t-composer John Lewis , an ear ly champion, brought the quartetto Atlantic Records , for whom they first recorded in May of'59. In November , the group came to New York for a two-weekstint at the Five Spot, which stretched into two and a halfmonths, attracting an amazing amount ofat tent ion and con-t roversy in the jazz world , the art world and general press.Ornette's records were suddenly sel ling in the 50 to 60,000range!

The fol lowing April Bi lly Higgins had caberet cardproblems and had to leave the group and was replaced by EdBlackwell , who'd recently moved to New York. Charlie Hadenwas later replaced by Scotty LaFaro , then J immy Carr ison .And by mid 1961, Bobby Bradford and Charles Moffett hadreplaced Cherry and Blackwell ; Ornette and Atlantic par tedcompany, and work opportuni ties were suddenly drying up.Apparently the hype and the novelty had passed .

During this period, Cherry recorded as a leader in his ownr ight for Atlantic. In June and July of 1960, he made his firstalbum using John Coltrane, Charlie Haden or Percy Heath onbass and Blackwell on drums. The music sat in the can for sixyears before f inally being issued as a Col trane-Cherry album.On November 29,1961, Cherry went in wi th Henry Grimeson bass and Blackwell to cut half an album. It was neverf ini shed and never issued. That same month, he did appearon a wonderfu l Steve Lacy quartet album ofThelonious Monkcompositions entitled EVIDENCE on Prestige.

In the summer of '62 , Cherry and Higgins jo ined SonnyRollins & Co. with Bob Cranshaw on bass (to be replaced inthe fall by Henry Grimes) . They recorded for four nights, Ju ly27-30, at the Vi llage Gate, and only three selections, whichcomprised Rollins's OUR MAN IN JAZZ (RCA), were issued. Theband's repertoire was essentially standards and older Rollinsoriginals wi th at least one Cherry composit ion. And at times,they would free-associate for an enti re set with no composi-tional premise.The band became the target of those cri ti cal ofRoll ins 's

new direction and disbanded nine months after i t had begun.But during the winter, i t toured extensively throughoutEurope, including England and Scandanavia, where Cherry


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made many new friends. Back in the States, they cut threes tandards for RCA, totalling less than thir teen minutes, whichwere used on a multi -arti st album THREE IN JAZZ .

That summer, Cherry joined forces with tenor saxophonistArchie Shepp, alto saxophonis t John Tchicai, bass is t DonMoore and drummer J. C. Moses to form the New YorkContemporary Five. Except for a few appearances in NewYork, the band 's short li fe was primari ly spent in Europewhere they recorded an album for Fontana and two livealbums for Sonet. Wi th originals by Bi ll Dixon, Shepp, Cherryand Tchicai and composit ions by Monk (arranged by RoswellRudd) and Ornette (arranged by Don Cherry), thi s quin tethad a wonderfu l book and could have developed into some-thing had it had an economic chance. In February of '64,Archie Shepp was asked to record half an album for Savoyand reassembled some of the group using the same name.With Ronnie Boykins on bass, Sunny Murray on drums andTed Curson on t rumpet , they recorded two tunes. Cherryarrived to play on the final tune, his own CONSEQUENCES.

Don wrote in D ow n B ea t M us ic '64, "Jazz has reached apoint where its scope is much wider. We are in a time andperiod when a musician can' t poss ib ly th ink ofjus t oneapproach. We can bring music from all over the world intoone room in a t rue form of improvisation. We can improvisefrom forms, not just a tune. I am working on setting up forms.

" If a feeling is st rong enough and complete enough, it willswmg.

"'Change' has meant chord change in modern jazz. A'change ' should be more ofa modulat ion ofmood.

"I f you play what you feel-which is definite ly a part ofwhat you know from a standpoint of technique, it causes themusic to be a much purer form of improvisation . Feelings arefirst."

I t was on that European tour with Rollins that Cherry f irstheard the astonishing music ofAlber t Ayler. By the summerof '64, Ayler had found his perfec t rhythm section in GaryPeacock and Sunny Murray and made his f irst U.S. recordingfor ESP-Disk . " I f irst heard Alber t Ayler when I was touringwith Sonny Rollins, and I got a big shock. I had the samefeeling when I first heard Ornette. It's an unexplainablesensation. I also experienced it when I f irst heard LouisArmstrong and some ofthe old records ofFreddie Keppard.All the jazz musicians I've liked have had a special quality ofmaking me fee l the wind in my face."That July Ayler's trio with Cherry, Tchicai and RoswellRudd added, recorded the music for Michael Snow's f ilm NEWYORK EYE AND EAR CONTROL, which was issued on ESP-Disk.Don then joined the trio for its European tour in the fall of'64, which resulted in a l ive recording for Debut ( later boughtby Freedom) at the Monmartre in Copenhagen. Anotherconcer t f rom Hilversum, Holland later surfaced on OsmosisRecords . "Ayler was a pure folk musician", Cherry wouldlater say.

When the others r eturned to the States, Don stayed inEurope. He formed his own international quintet in Pari s withGato Barbieri on tenor saxophone, Karl Berger on vibes andpiano, Jean Francois Jenny-Clark on bass and Aldo Romanoon drums. "Aldo Romano, an I talian , also spoke French. GatoBarbieri spoke no Engli sh. Berger spoke French, German andEngli sh . I 'd tell Karl something, he'd tell Aldo, and he'd tell

Cato-e-because Italian was the closest thing to Spanish."In April '65, they'd cut an album for the Italian Durium

label entitled TOGETHERNESS. This was Cherry's f irst use ofweaving five separate composit ions into a suite that wasplayed wi thout in terruption , a technique he used on his f irsttwo Blue Note dates. The quintet worked with some regular-i ty . Cherry was also able to play throughout Europe as guestarti st with a var iety of musicians. His appearance wi th theGeorge Russel l Sextet in S tuttgart in 1965, which wasrecorded by MPS, is a documented s tandout .When offered a contract wi th Blue Note later that year ,

Cherry came back to New York with Barbieri and brought inold friends Grimes and Blackwell for the f irst session onDecember 24, which produced COMPLETE COMMUNION. Itconsists of two suites, each with four compositions, recordedcontinuously in one take. A month before th is date , Cherry,Grimes, Ayler and Lewis Worrel l recorded wi th SunnyMurray for the Jihad label.

For his September 19,1966 date, he came back with 4/5ofhis European quintet ( leaving Romano behind) andblending Pharoah Sanders, Grimes and Blackwell into theproceedings. Again, he recorded two suites offour composi-t ions in s ingle takes. Twomonths later, for h is f inal Blue Notesess ion, he recorded each tune s ingly with jus t Sanders,Grimes and Blackwel l. Barr ing fal se s tart s, each ofthese wasalso accomplshed in a single take.

In Europe, Cherry had experienced a wonderful intema-t ionali sm that homebound Americans cannot imagine. Hisstrong, instinctive fascination with other cultures, musics andcus toms was given full reign. And since 1966, he has becomea citi zen ofthe world , the l iv ing musical embodiment ofrealfusion, recording and performing with European classical ,Indian, Arabic and African musicians in a variety ofset tings .He's even played and recorded wi th contemporary rockperformers such as Lou Reed and wi th poet Al len Ginsburg.His palette is limited only by his imagination. In 1971, hetold Art Taylor, "We live on Planet Earth, and I'm at a periodin my life where I have come close to Mother Earth and livein the rota tion of the seasons. I had lived in cities most of mylife, and I reached a point where I had a polluted brain, apolluted soul. The only cure for me was nature. I settled in afores t, on the ear th , without boundaries ...There are all kindsof different people and languages. But there's one universallanguage: the language ofmusic. When people believe inboundaries, they become part of them. When did they firsts tart having passports? That' s the only way I can categorizemusic. I have read diffe rent books on jazz. I have neve r beento New Orleans, but I know a drummer f rom New Orleanscalled Edward Blackwell , who's from New Orleans.

"When I came to Europe, especially France, I heard a lotof records I had never heard before: Bubber Mi ley, o ld DukeEl lington, Freddie Webster and a lot ofLouis Armstrong. I 'vebeen rai sed in the envi ronment ofJ immy Lunceford. J immyWitherspoon was a good friend ofthe family. A few musiciansmy father knew had different records ofPres and Django.Django was incredible, and he was in Europe . All of usshould write a book to record these things. I have been veryclose to and studied with Dollar Brand. To me, he is a veryimportant person, as are his music and his melodies. I havebeen where people have taught them to other people and

could sing these melodies. Itfeels so close to when I wasgoing to the Bapt is t church or heal ing someone playing thepiano. Also s tudying music from India, which has beenbeautiful for my concentration. Ifwe're categorizing jazz, wecan speak of different systems of music. Like the music ofChina, of the Orient, f rom Bali , or the music from north India,south India, the music from the Congo, the music from theDagoons. Each one has such spi ritual qual ity to i t."The breadth ofDon Cherry's projects over the past twenty-f ive years has been enormous. Whatever the premise, format

or blend ofcul tures, hi s work is consi stently fascinating , andhis ident ity also makes i ts cons iderable imprint in an egolessway. Here is a man truly willing to consider the possibili ties.

Along the way,Cherry has always come back tothe system ofmusic first forged by Ornette. In January, 1968, he participated ina series ofsessions produced by Clifford Jordan, many ofwhichappeared briefly on Strata-East. The most successful was analbum by tenor saxophonist Charles Brackeen called RHYTHM X,which brought Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins backtogether. "Ornette's compositions ...lead improvisers to improviseform as well as melodies and make it swing, too.Tome, it'sachallenge; it's difficult for musicians because not many [can doit}-Charles Brackeen is the only one I can think of-his concepthas come through Ornette's and become his own."

Cherry has made various guest appearances with Colemanover the years, including a 1969 New Yorkconcert issued onImpulse as CRISIS. And the original quartet with Haden andHiggins has reunited inthe recording studio on three occasions: in1971 for CBS, in 1976 for a still unissued Coleman productionand 1987 for Caravan Of Dreams.

Cherry, Dewey Redman, Haden and Blackwel l formed OldAnd New Dreams to perform Omette's music as well a s theirown. The group toured periodical ly into the ear ly eight ies andrecorded for Black Saint and ECM. In the same mold isCherry's 1988 A&M album ART DECO, which really reachedback into the L.A. days bringing together James Clay, Cherry,Haden and Higgins.

Cherry's natural cur ios ity and deep interest in othercultures and ethnomusicology has taken him in a variety ofdirections . His body ofwork is enormous and impress ive. St il lthe Blue Note sessions in this -set remain some ofhis freshestand most vital work in a jazz style that he helped to create.

-Michael CuscunaMarch, 1993T he v ar io us D on C he rr y q uo te s in th is e ss ay a re d er iv ed

f rom A rt T ay lo r' s J un e 26, 1971 i nt er vie w p ub li sh ed i n h is b oo kn ot es a nd t on es , N at H e nto ff 's l in er n ot es /o r O rn et te C o le m an 'sC ont empo ra ry a lb um s: SOMETHING ELSE, d at ed J un e 7, 1958,an d TOMORROW IS THE QUESTION, da te d S e pt ember 14,1959,an d Down Beat i nt er vie ws c on du cte d b y L eR oi J on es ( Am ir iB ar ak a) in th e N ov em be r 21,1963 i ss ue , M ik e H en ne ss ey int he J u ly 28,1966 is su e, H ow ar d M an de l in th e J uly 13,1978is su e a nd L ee J es ke in th e J un e, 1983 issue.

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Cherry and Grimesat the December 24, 1965 session.

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TH E O RIG INAL L INER NOTESFO R C OM PL ET E C OMM UN IO NBST-84226

Don Cherry describes his intent as a composer in the twocompositions:

COMPLETE COMMUN ION"This is the way in presentation and performance for eachsound to have a completeness in emotion and color to connect

the overall oneness, which makes up our complete commun-ion."

ELEPHANTASY"A fantasy dealing with direct emotion, loosely controlled,

leaving each listener the freedom tobring his imaginationinto play."For several years, it was difficult for Don Cherry to get

listened to as Don Cherry. He had come East in 1959 withOrnette Coleman, and sovolcanic was Coleman's impact onthe jazz scene that Cherry atfirst was heard mainly as anadjunct ofthe man with the plastic alto. Gradually, as Cherrywent his own way,playing for a time with Sonny Rollins andthen leading and co-leading his own groups, it becameapparent that Cherry'sjazz voice was a singular one.As Sonny Rollins has noted, "Don is a very individual

musician. For a time I had the tendency tolump Don andOrnette together. But now I've discovered that Don is amusician in his own right."The odyssey ofthat musician began in Oklahoma Cityon

November 18, 1936. His parents-his father, Negro and hismother ofChoctaw Indian descent-had originally come fromMuskogee. In Tulsa, Don's father was a bartender in his ownbar, and almost fromthe time they could walk Don and hissister were performers. Dancers at first. In 1940, the Cherrysmigrated to Los Angeles, and there Don's father was headbartender at the Plantation Club where such big bands asthose ofJimmie Lunceford, Blly Eckstine nnd Artie Shawplayed.After having taken piano lessons, Don started on comet in

junior high school. In 1950, with a friend, alto saxophonistGeorge Newman, Don formed a combo. In the group atvarious times were such later jazz postgraduates as BillyHiggins, Lawrence Marable and bassist Harper Cosby.Whilein high school, Don studied under Samuel Brown,a musicteacher at Los Angeles' Jefferson High School, who hasinstructed Frank Morgan, Art Farmer, the late Wardell Grayand Hampton Hawes, among other jazzmen on the ascent.Donalso gained experience through playing in Brown's band.From Ornette Coleman's wife, Jayne, who lived in his

neighborhood Don was exposed to a flowofthe seminal'modem jazz recordings ofthe time, and he soonmet Ornette.Don was sufficiently a pro at this point totake his first roadjob withJames Clay, and they toured the WestCoast andCanada. Returning to Los Angeles, both Clayand Cherrybegan studying with Ornette. Don's association with Colemanbecame strengthened as he played with him on Ornette's firstjazz engagement (inVancouver) and then participated inOrnette's first recordings.For some six years, Cherry was an integral part ofthe

Coleman microcosm. Then he joined SonnyRollins, went to

Barbieri at the December 24, 1965 session.

Europe with Sonny and now is a major force on the Europeanmusical scene, touring extensively, from Lapland to NorthAfrica.As listeners have learned tohear Don Cherry as himself,

the man's musical and personal qualities have becomeclearer. The two,ofcourse are extensions ofeach other, andan astute description ofthose qualities appeared in JacquesCreuzevault's review ofDon in [azz-Hot: "Don Cherry isanimated by a joy in living and an extraordinary capacity forenthusiasm. He thinks only ofplaying. He immediately,moreover,put everybody at ease by his graciousness .... It is apleasure withoutprice to meet an American musician whodoes not regard himself as a 'star' and for whomthe onlythings that count seem to be music and friendship."And itis that quality-an openness tolifeand tothe

music in life--that I remember frommy first talks with Dononthe WestCoastin 1958. Later, I would see him in NewYork. He was scuffing, there were few if any jobs, but whenwemet, he'd talk enthusiastically about a new piece he waswriting ora new musician he'd heard. And now that he isfinally getting at least some ofthe recognition he merits thatgraciousness ofwhich Creuzevault speaks continues tocharacterize Don's personal style.The music on this album came fromCherry's European

travels and fromhis experiences during those journeys withall manner ofpeople ofdifferent races and fromdifferentcountries. "Nowadays," says Don, "you can bring the wholeworld into one room, and this capacity for unity is an elementthat jazz. has alwayshad for me. Even more sonow that I'vehad all these different experiences."The essence ofboth these compositions, Complete

Communion and Elephantasy, is Don's conviction that jazz isindeed an international language and can thereby, if it isplayed with open feeling, bring people together. "Even inprehistoric times," Don points out, "before there was song ormusic ofany kind in any formal sense, people--even thoughthey fought for food-would still come together and hum intogetherness."A specific illustration ofmusicians ofvastly different

backgrounds being able to come together in jazz is thepresence onthis album ofLeandro "Gato" Barbieri, a tenorsaxophonist who is originally fromBuenos Aires. He met Donin Rome in 1963 when Cherry appeared there with SonnyRollins. On hearing "Gato" play Cherry felt immediately thathis was a musical voice with which Don could join inwhat heregards as complete communion. "Gato's" backgroundcomprises experience in classical and folk music as well as in

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Blackwell at the December 24, 1965 session.

pertorrned HV-jUvUqatEuropean jazz fest ival s with a wide range ofleading Ameri -can jazzmen,. f rom Woody Herman to Art Blakey. He is now apartner of Don's in the latter 's current combo, and Cherryregards him as "one ofthe leading jazz musicians emergingfrom the European scene because ofthe originali ty of hisconception. " The two other par ticipants, Henry Grimes andEdward Blackwell , are among the most resourceful andflexible musicians involved in the new jazz.

As for the music i tsel f, it is Don's bel ief that the l is tenerought not to have detailed guidel ines drawn for him. Thebasic way to li sten is with one's emotions . The foundation ofthe new di rect ions in jazz i s feeling . As Albert Ayler haspointed out , "I t' s not about notes anymore. I t' s about feel-ings." Of course, note s are still part of the grammar of the newmusic, but analys is of those notes and how they are in terre-lated should be subsidiary to a listener's capacity to be asopen in his emotions as the players are.

When Don, for example played in Amsterdam a couple ofyears ago, the knowledgeable British critic, Michael James,descr ibed that n ight for Jaz z Mon th l y. Of the art is ti c value of6

the performance James wrote: "I would say without hesitationtha t it was substantial, but hasten to add that this is in part anemotional r eaction and that I should need to be exposed tothis music for somewhat longer than a single evening if I wereto be able to rational ize, to the fullest extent, my inst inctiveenthusiasm." Fair enough. But I don't see any need to hastenthe time when full rat ionalization takes place. I wouldsuggest, therefore, that you listen with your emotions, withyour inst incts . And as happens in any expressive medium,each listener will find in this music different connotations,di fferent vi sceral react ions. Just as each player brings to hismusic the kind of person he is, so does each listener. And inthat respect, the communion which Cherry emphas izes is acommunion ofindividuals, linked by experiencing the samemusic, but each experiencing i t h is own way.Accordingly, I wil l not attempt here an analytical descr ip-

tion of this album but rather an indication of my own-emotional-reactions. The exhilarating feeling, for example,of continual dialogue, real dialogue, throughout CompleteCommunion . Between the horns. Between the horns and therhythm section . Between each soloist and the rhythm section.

Tobe sure, all previous jazz has been dialogue inwhole orin part.But in the new jazz, as here, the conditions for conversation havebeen greatly extended. The previous ground rules-c-of harmony, of"permissible" textures, ofmedolic development, ofbeat-havebeen stretched to the expressive capacities ofeach player,

Don's playing reveals the incisive lyr icism that marked hiswork from the start, but he has grown in assurance . Not onlytechnical assurance, but in the sel f-assurance that has comefrom finding himself through his t ravels in recent years andalso from finding exis tent ially that music is in fact a bridgebetween men ofdivergent backgrounds. Don is now playingcornet, an inst rument he prefers because " the metal' s softer ,you get a far better sound." And on that instrument he hasacquired a remarkable f lexibi li ty-of l ine, of texture, of t ime.Barbier i is immediately impress ive- the surging thrus t of

his attack, the freedom with which he explores those speech-like sounds which increasingly heighten the impact of thenew jazz, and the way he is able to move authoritat ivelythrough time on the strength of a secure inner pulse. And asis also common in the new jazz, the bass and drums are f reeto bring their individual concept ions into full in terplay in thedialogue. Blackwel l and Grimes do much more than keept ime. They are full -scale contr ibutors to the dialogue insidethe steadily evolving, undulating time of this particularcollective musical experience.For th is l istener , part of the fascination of the new jazz is

the unexpected convergences ofthe voices; their subsequentdeparture in separate directions that are s til l par t of thewhole; and throughout, the sustain ing ofa cohesion that i sfundamentally emot ional rather than programmatic ortechnically blueprinted.

Elephantasy is another extended conversation, but not ananarchic one. Like Complete Communion , its perpetual soundsand shapes ofsurprise hold together with a buoyant ease. Theconvergences ofthe horns, as inthe first piece, are like semi-colons as the dialogue flows on, soaring, slowing down, accelerat-ing, turning back on itself, leaping ahead. Again, the command ofBarbieri-his exuberant assurance in this new jazz language--isan extraordinarily convincing demonstration of Cherry's belief thatthrough the added freedom ofthe new jazz, i t is even morepossible tobring the whole world into one room. Note too, inElephamasy as in Complete Communion , the supple use ofdynamics=both in ensemble passages and in solos.They too arepart ofthe subtle punctuation ofthis free--but organicallystructured-ejazz language.

And for those who mourn, as always happens when newdi rect ions are being taken, that the old "values" have beenjet ti soned, li sten! The "cry" ofjazz s ti ll powers these horns .As dothe imperative textures ofthe blues. And what ofswing?Listen again to the whirling pulsations within pulsationswith in pulsations The beat i s now, in fact, more natural, morelike breathing, changing as the emotions change, intersectingwith individual internalizations oft ime-and all with in anoverall sharing of this t ime and this place. This experience ofdirect, complete communion./,-,\ ~

- Nat Hentoff


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Cherry and Sanders at the September 19, 1966 session.

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T HE O RIG IN AL U NE R N OT ES FO RSYM PHONY FOR IM PROV IS ER SBST84247

The New Music is no longer new, not as a phenomenon: Ithas been, after all, more than ten years since the JohnCol trane sound was f ir st heard in New York. Cec il Taylo rrecorded Ja zz Advanc e on the now defunc t Transit ion labe l inSeptember, 1956, and Orne tte Co leman and Don Cherry cutS om eth in g E ls e one year la te r. Since then, a lot has happenedto the New Music and to the New Musicians. The Music hasgrown in to the b iggest sound in the wor ld, a force that movesa ll weight s, the superior "serious" music in the Western worldbecause it s roots , ou t of Afri ca , a re ou t of the East; a vi ril enew fonn in a century which discards its old forms like usedup Kleenex t issues

The number of New Musicians has likewise g rown. Theynumber a few hundred, and that number swells with theb ir thrate . The Mus ic is na tiona l and int erna tiona l, as theenclosed record wil l attes t. Here are assembled musiciansf rom France , Gennany, Argentina and from places as farapart i n the U.S. as New York, Phi lade lph ia , New Orleans,Little Rock and Los Angeles. It is not uncommon to run intot eenaged mus ic ians f rom small towns in the midwest who arevery advanced indeed, knowledgeable about the music andit s herit age , copying such old mas te rs as Sonny Murray orEr ic Dolphy , f luent in music tha t swings bu t has no beat tha tyou could coun t, i s struc tu red but has l it tle melod ic con tent ,has far more d is sonance than consonance in it s sound.

Typical ly, some token and belated recognition is nowfor thcoming , several years af te r the fac t. There are s til l only ahandful o f jobs fo r every hundred musicians, and the ai rspace devoted to the New Music i s st ill negl igibl e bu t thes trength o f the Music is unden iable , and a t l as t a few nationalmagazines have devo ted some small space to i t.

A clue ofthe strength, depth and breadth ofthe New Music isthe number ofmusicians who have grown tomaturi ty in i t. Foursuch musicians are represented here: Don Che rr y, Hen ry Grimes,Pharoah Sanders and Ed Blackwell all have handled several jazzdisciplines at various points in their careers but have spent most ofthe last decade oftheir still young lives working in the mil ieu ofthe New.Each has that big, mature ear that makes for virtuosity ina jazzman; each is a lender onhis instrument, influencing intechnique and style not only the younger musicians, but also theircontemporaries and those ofthe antecedent generation who wantto keep their tradition alive in these times. Their influence is thatpervasive.

To make an admit tedly dangerous genera lizat ion, I th ink i tis fair to say that Ed Blackwell is the leader of one of the twoimpor tant school s of New drumming . Sonny Murray leads theother and there are , as there should be, several beauti fuldrummers both in between and someplace else. "Everythingis everything," say the musicians, "everyone is everywhere."Murray and hi s progeny want to d issec t time; Blackwell andhis folk want to elaborate on it. Here in Don's S ym ph on y F orImprovisers, Blackwell is in hi s natural env ironment , abri ll iant , pulsating, undulat ing music that swells and ebbs,changes the volume and shape of its sound. One is tempted top ic ture Ed's hands as the energy and f low ofa moun ta in8

Blackwell at the September 19,1966 session.

screamer ofthe reeds. He somehow manages totranslate totenorand piccolo that immense vocabulary ofmanipulated sound wecame to admire somuch on tenor saxophone. Ironically, two yearswith John Coltrane pater fanrilias ofcontemporary saxophoneplayers , has finished offthe Coltrane sound in his hom andbrought out the Pharoah sound. His ski ll in pul ling fromthe homunheard ofsounds in art iculate order ata hundred miles an hourdefies description. See him inperson the next t ime he's inyourneighborhood, and you'll be shocked, I 'm sure, atwhat he can do.He absolutely killsme, is a ll I can say.

We heard Leandro "Gato" Barbieri (that 's an Argentineanname for you) in Don 's f ir st recorded ex tended work, Com-p le t e Communi on (Blue Note 4226) and he is as germane onthi s record ing as on the other. Gato' s i s the big open sound ;the long, almost legato wail. He admittedly got tosound this waybyworking with Don and some ofthe other New Musicians invarious parts of) Europe as did Karl Berger and Jenny Clark.

stream, but that would be a bit too much, wouldn't it? Butthere i t is , t ha t patent ed unpressed f low of Blackwell' s, t ha tincredibly correct attention to detai l, that adaptabil ity whichonly the fas test and most di sc ipl ined ofhands can maint ain .Pushing upward into the st rong pu lse of Henry Grimes andh is able French ass ist ant , J enny Clark , Blackwell makes thi srhythm section something other than an accompanyingmetronome. "He p lays rhythm rather than time," says Don.

Henry Grimes is thought by his contemporaries tohe thepremier bassist ofthe day. "Henry's a giant," said Cecil Taylor, aman who dispenses praise with exceptional stinginess. Grimes,like Cherry, has been in the vanguard ofjazz bassists for ten yearsnow,and every day has been a day ofgrowth. His intelligence,strength and virtuosity sustain, from the first chord tothe last, theimpeccable vitality ofthis record.

Pharoah "Lit tl e Rock" Sanders has, i n my op in ion, takenover the late Eric Dolphy's role as the torch-mouthed


10/13

At the September 19, 1966 session.

9


11/13

Crimes at the September 19, 1966 session.

Itwas during this time that some of the tunes used in thiswork were wr itt en, tunes like M a nh atta n C ry and Lunatic("that's what they called us when they first heard us inEurope: lunatics.") Ift he per formances of Barbie ri Clark , andBerger seems in timate with th is most di ff icult mus ic , thereason is that these men were all in Don's "European" group,and, despi te severe l inguistic difficult ies, they worked closelywi th h im over a per iod of months.

Al l of wh ich says something about Cherry' s approach tothe related problems ofcomposition and group leadership: whenhe hears a tune, he hears specific voices singing i t. He also hearshis tunes, and the improvisational implications ofthose tunes,connect ing into the fabric ofa larger form, hence a S ym p lw ny F o rImprovisers. It is also to be considered in studying the form ofthiswork and the use ofthe word ' 'Symphony' ' in i ts t it le that the LP10

has become a jazz formin i tself in the last decade, with ~usiciansplanning a forty minute presentation ofimprovisation as anenduring work, as opposed to the inhibiting brevity ofthe "single,"and the throw-away nature ofunrecorded nightclub work.

In S ym p lw ny F o r I mp ro vis er s as on Comp le te C ommun io n ,Don has carried this idea of the LP as a form to its logicalconc lus ion, and thereby he has made one of those suddeninnovations that jazz history is so full of. He has done this bye limina ting the separa ting hiatu s be tween the tunes so tha tthere is no loss of improv isa tiona l energy , leav ing the recordas a uni t, in tact and self -suf fi cient, and by organizing thesound so that the var ious c limaxes, coll ec tive , solo, duet, e tc .come ou t o f the improvi sa tion in such a coordinated way tha tthe piece, in toto, is balanced.

Cer ta in ly others have been working with the long form in

jazz. Cec il Taylor for one , o ften in l ive performance, movesfrom one tune to the other without an interval, and several ofthe New Musicians have recorded LPs wherein extendedimprov isation t akes up a t l east one s ide of the record (Omet teColeman and John Coltrane have each devoted two sides ofan LP to one long "free" improvi sa tion) . But Don Cherry has,with Compl et e C ommun io n and S ymplwn y Fo r Impr o vi se rs ,app li ed h is excel lent composer 's ear to more int egral music.One way ofdoing thi s was to reint roduce the thematicmaterial at s trategic points in the improvisation: "we impro-vised from the flavor of the tune, from the mode, and thethemes come back from t ime to t ime, so tha t i t' s defini te ly oneth ing tha t we made, no t e igh t."

All o f thi s is typ ical o fDon Cherry' s work, no t only wi thh is own groups but a lso wi th majo r saxophoni st s of the day:Coleman, Coltrane, Rollins , Ayler, Sanders , Shepp, Brownand so on. For several years now he has been the leadingtrumpet stylist of his generat ion, a remarkably consistentperformer who always p ropels those for tunate enough to workwith him to meet his own standard of excellence. In an era sodominated by saxophoni st s tha t b rass sometimes seems tobeon the verge o fext inction , Don , l ike Miles Davi s, has shownthe saxophoni st s up for what they cannot do . When the saxesare f ir ing, Don is slurring when the alto is so high above theregi st er tha t i t sounds l ike a whi stl e, Don i s imit ati ng thehuman vo ice in song ; when the t eno r is making some f lippedout confessional, Don is making bri ll iant ly understated jokes.Such wi t and sub tl ety are rare in today's mus ic , which makesDon Cherry a big and vital man.

-A. B. Spellman

Cherry and Sanders at the September 19, 1966 session.


12/13

At the September 19, 1966 session.

TH E O RIG IN AL L IN ER N OTE SFO R W HERE IS BRO OKLYN ?BST84311

The most rewarding state oftoday's music is its newnesswhatever its categories, the new thing as today's jazz com-poser and performers are called isjust as the title, theseinventors seek to express the jazz state ofinventors, it is at itsmosthigh and has been for the last fiveyears, Don Cherry hascertainly had his position in this new music overa decade ormoreas it has been for the other players onthis album,Blackwell, Pharoah and Henry are some ofthe best inventorsofthis new music. For those who might not knowthe insidemeaning ofthe term (thenewthing), one ofthe easy waysofremembering its meaning is "a music in which one inventsthat outdates their ownwriting or playing, without using therules ofrepetition." And this music has root in this formjustas man has broken awayfromthe earth gravity toseek otherforms ofmatter so has the form ofexpression in all communi-cating thoughts, Don Cherry is a man ofcreative inventive-ness and itwould be unnatural for him not toseek and bringabout the newer forms in his talent as a composer andperformer the compositions as well as their titles are all in theform ofthe new thing, in music ofthe improvising world.These men playing here can alwaysbe counted onfora firstclass performance because love lives in their heart for thetrue expression ofthe human warmth, the many unknownmusicians tothe world are not unknown in the heart ofmusicians on this record and these kind ofbeings bring theunknown musician to the heart ofthe worlds ofmusic lover.The future ofimprovised music and its many written formsshall never become outdated as in the images ofstylesbecause the live force ofcreating is becoming its ownexistence. Blessed are the musicians oftomorrow becausetoday's musicians are building the eternal houses ofbeingand DonCherry, Edward Blackwell, Pharoah Sanders andHenry Grimes doexist as their existence is in the form ofmusic, ifyou question the meaning and placement ofthismusic in your life living, then you have been baptized, ifthemusic doesn't cause you to question its meaning andplacement in your life don't blame Cherry, Blackwell,Pharoah and Henry.

-Ornette Coleman

11


13/13

T H E C O M P L E T E B L U E N O T E R E C O R D IN G SO F D O N C H E R R YM Q 3 1 4 5 ( lP )M D 2 1 4 5 ( C D )LP:Record One - Side A: Record One - Side B:1. Complete Communion (A) 20:4Da. Complete Communionh.AndNowc. Golden Heartd. Rememhrance

Record Two - Side A :

1.Elephantasy (A) 19:37a. Elephantasyh. Our Feelingsc. Bishmallahd. Wind, Sand And Stars

Record Two - Side B:1. Symphony For Improvisers (B) 19:43a. Symphony For Improvisersh . Nu Creat ive Lovec. What's Not Seriousd. Infant Happiness

Record Three - Side A :

1.Manhattan Cry (B) 19:20a. Manhat tan Cryh. Lunaticc. Sparkle Plentyd.Omnu

Record Three -Side B:1. Awake Nu (C ) 6:522. Taste Maker (C) 6:453. The Thing (C ) 5:48CD:Disc One:

1.There Is The Bomh (C ) 4:492. Unite (C ) 17:45

Disc Two:1. Complete Communion (A) 20:40a. Complete Communionh. And Nowc. Golden Heartd. Remembrance

2. Elephantasy (A) 19:37a. Elephantasyh. Our Feelingsc. Bishmallahd. Wind, Sand And Stars

3. Symphony For Improvisers (B) 19:43a. Symphony For Improvisersh . Nu Creative Lovec. What's Not Seriousd. Infant HappinessT OT A L T IM E : 60:03

ALL COMPOS IT I ONS BY DO N CHERRY

1.Manhattan Cry (B) 19:20a. Manhattan Cryh. Lunaticc. Sparkle Plentyd.Omnu

2. Awake Nu (C ) 6:523. Taste Maker (C ) 6:454. The Thing (C) 5:485. There Is The Bomb (C ) 4:496. Unite (C) 17:45

TOTALT IME : 61:30

DISCOGRAPHY(A) Don Cherry (comet), Gato Barbieri (ts), Henry Grimes (b),Ed Blackwell (d).

December 24, 19651675 (tk2) Complete Communion

a. Complete Communionb. And Nowc. Golden Heartd. Remembrance

1674 (tk3) Elephantasya. Elephantasyb. Our Feelingsc. Bishmallahd. Wind, Sand And Stars

all titles also on Blue Note (Sp)HBN(S)451-05, (Port)l1C-074-83035.

BST84226

(B) Don Cherry (comet), Gato Barbieri (ts), Pharoah Sanders (ts,piccolo), Karl Berger (vbs, p), JeanFrancois Jenny-Clark (b),Henry Grimes (b),Ed Blackwell (d).

September 19,1966

1786 (tk2) Symphony For Improvisersa. Symphony For Improvisersb. Nu Creative Lovec. What's NotSeriousd. Infant Happiness

1787 (tk5) Manhattan ClYa. Manhattan Cryb. Lunaticc. Sparkle Plentyd.Omnu

all titles also on Blue Note (J)BNJ71048, (J)GXK-8150, (Port)l1C-076-83119.

BST84247

(C ) Don Cherry (comet), Pharoah Sanders (ts, piccolo), Henry Grimes (b),Ed Blackwell (d).November 11,1966

1783 (tk12) There Is The Bomb1784 (tk14) Unite1785 (tk15) The Thing1786 (tk16) Awake Nu1787 (tk17) Taste Makerall titles also on Blue Note (E) BNS40027.

BST 84311, (Du) 1A158-83395/8

A LBU M I NDEXBST-84226BST-84247

C OM PL E TE C O MMUN IO NS YM PH O N Y F O R I M PR O VI SE R S

BST-84311 W H ER E I S B R OO K LY N ?1A158-83395/8 4 0 Y E AR S O F J AZ Z/ HI ST OR Y O F B LU E N OT E-B OX 4 (Dutch four-LP set)

Orig inal sessions produced hy Alfred LionReissue produced hy Michael CuscunaExecutive producer: Charlie LourieRecording engineer: Rudy Van GelderRecorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cl iffs, New JerseyAll photographs hy Francis WolffDesign direction: Richard MantelDesign production: InkWell, Inc.

Masters appear courtesy ofBlue Note Records , a divi sion of Capitol Records , Inc., underlicense from CEMA Special Markets1993 CEMA Special Markets, Product of CEMA Special Markets, a subsidia ry ofCapitol -EMI Music, Inc. All r ights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a vio lation ofapplicahle laws.1993, Mosaic Records, Inc. All r ights reserved.

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