Search - Don Cherry :: Cool

Interesting anthology of hard to find material

Allan MacInnis | Vancouver | 11/06/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In the late 60's, Don Cherry's music opened up considerably. After having released several albums that were still highly influenced by his time with Ornette Coleman, he recorded MU with Ed Blackwell in Paris -- an album that I think marks a turning point in his music (see my review). He seemed to be trying to rethink jazz, stripping it to its essentials -- it's a neoprimitive jazz album, as reminiscent of tribal music as free jazz. After arriving at something so primal, Cherry began, in subsequent years, to import into his music ideas, musical traditions, instruments, and techniques from many diverse sources -- from Tibet, from Southeast Asia, from India, and from Native Indian cultures. He also began to explore his own range as a musician, singing, playing piano, gamelan, varied flutes, and taking up the doussn'gouni (which happened a little later, I think). COOL offers us cuts from this time period. There are a couple of tracks off MU; the remainder of the CD is composed of material from two very hard to find BYG's of the early 70's, ORIENT and BLUE LAKE, which have some of the most "out-there" experiments Cherry would record (and Tibetan chant DOES sound pretty "out-there" in a jazz context). These tracks are live, and ever-so-slightly murky; but the material is fascinating, and likely never again to show up on CD release. Anyone interested in Cherry or in jazz that pushes boundaries should pick this up. It fills in important gaps in what is available of Cherry's recorded output, and is fine listening, to boot."

If You Really Love Don Cherry

John Simley | Bentonville, Arkansas, United States | 11/09/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Don Cherry had several lost years between about 1965 and 1973. He toured Africa and the Near East, and returned to the U.S. (after a self-imposed exile to protest Vietnam) with startling musical depth. His 1973 recording for Horizon, "Don Cherry" (out of print) is probably his best recording. THIS record, "Cool," sounds like a relic from those lost years. It is a series of live recordings, some with Cherry playing an American Indian flute, accompanied by a busy drummer. The rest feature Cherry on piano and voice (singing African chants), accompanied by bass and drums. The audience is small and the sound quality is a bit thin. And, with banter about government efforts to poison the Indians' crops, I can't imagine where Don Cherry is coming from. If you really love Don Cherry, give this three stars. Otherwise, take a pass on this."