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Imagination and a passion for exploration made
Don Cherry one of the most influential jazz musicians of the late 20th century. A founding member of
Ornette Coleman's groundbreaking quartet of the late '50s,
Cherry continued to expand his musical vocabulary until his death in 1995. In addition to performing and recording with his own bands,
Cherry worked with such top-ranked jazz musicians as
Steve Lacy,
Sonny Rollins,
Archie Shepp,
Albert Ayler,
John Coltrane, and
Gato Barbieri.
Cherry's most prolific period came in the late '70s and early '80s when he joined
Nana Vasconcelos and
Collin Walcott in the worldbeat group
Codona, and with former bandmates
Charlie Haden and
Ed Blackwell, and saxophonist
Dewey Redman in the
Coleman-inspired group
Old and New Dreams.
Cherry later worked with Vasconcelos and saxophonist
Carlos Ward in the short-lived group
Nu.
Born in Oklahoma City in 1936, he first attained prominence with
Coleman, with whom he began playing around 1957. At that time
Cherry's instrument of choice was a pocket trumpet (or cornet) -- a miniature version of the full-sized model. The smaller instrument -- in
Cherry's hands, at least -- got a smaller, slightly more nasal sound than is typical of the larger horn. Though he would play a regular cornet off and on throughout his career,
Cherry remained most closely identified with the pocket instrument.
Cherry stayed with
Coleman through the early '60s, playing on the first seven (and most influential) of the saxophonist's albums. In 1960, he recorded
The Avant-Garde with
John Coltrane. After leaving
Coleman's band,
Cherry played with
Steve Lacy,
Sonny Rollins,
Archie Shepp, and
Albert Ayler. In 1963-1964,
Cherry co-led
the New York Contemporary Five with
Shepp and
John Tchicai. With
Gato Barbieri,
Cherry led a band in Europe from 1964-1966, recording two of his most highly regarded albums,
Complete Communion and
Symphony for Improvisers.
Cherry began the '70s by teaching at Dartmouth College in 1970, and recorded with
the Jazz Composer's Orchestra in 1973. He lived in Sweden for four years, and used the country as a base for his travels around Europe and the Middle East.
Cherry became increasingly interested in other, mostly non-Western styles of music. In the late '70s and early '80s, he performed and recorded with
Codona, a cooperative group with percussionist
Nana Vasconcelos and multi-instrumentalist
Collin Walcott.
Codona's sound was a pastiche of African, Asian, and other indigenous musics.
Concurrently,
Cherry joined with ex-
Coleman associates
Charlie Haden,
Ed Blackwell, and
Dewey Redman to form
Old and New Dreams, a band dedicated to playing the compositions of their former employer. After the dissolution of
Codona,
Cherry formed
Nu with Vasconcelos and saxophonist
Carlos Ward. In 1988, he made
Art Deco, a more traditional album of acoustic jazz, with
Haden,
Billy Higgins, and saxophonist
James Clay.
Until his death in 1995,
Cherry continued to combine disparate musical genres; his interest in world music never abated.
Cherry learned to play and compose for wood flutes, tambura, gamelan, and various other non-Western instruments. Elements of these musics inevitably found their way into his later compositions and performances, as on 1990's
Multi Kulti, a characteristic celebration of musical diversity. As a live performer,
Cherry was notoriously uneven. It was not unheard of for him to arrive very late for gigs, and his technique -- never great to begin with -- showed on occasion a considerable, perhaps inexcusable, decline. In his last years, especially,
Cherry seemed less self-possessed as a musician. Yet his musical legacy is one of such influence that his personal failings fade in relative significance. ~ Chris Kelsey & Craig Harris