Don Cherry: Organic Music, 2xLP, jazz/world classic

$

119

ARTIST: Don Cherry

TITLE: Organic Music (Organic Music Society)

Release Year: 1972

Label: Caprice

Vinyl Color: Black

Record Info: Vinyl: Near Mint-minus (Shiny black vinyl, some dust, no scratches; but significant surface noise is apparent in quiet passages); Cover: Excellent (Wear at spine corners, but not along edges, surface remains shiny; cardstock liner note sheet intact, some small/faint scuffs and staining.)

TRACK LISTING
A: North Brazilian Ceremonial Hymn (traditional), Elixir (Don Cherry), Manusha (Hans Isgren)
B: Relativity Suite (Don Cherry)
C: Terry’s Tune (Terry Riley), Hope (Don Cherry), The Creator Has a Master Plan (Pharoah Sanders and Leon Thomas), Sidhartha (Don Cherry)
D: Utopia & Visions (Don Cherry), Bra Joe from Kilimanjaro (Dollar Brand) + Terry’s Tune (Terry Riley), Resa (Don Cherry)

Personnel: Don Cherry – trumpet, voice, piano, flutes, harmonium, konch; Nana Vasconcelos – percussion, berimbau, voice; Mokie Cherry – voice, tambura; Helen Eggert – voice, tambura; Hans Isgren – sarangi; Maffy Falay – trumpet; Tommy Goldman – flute; Tommy Koverhult – flute; Okay Temiz – percussion; Christer Bothen – dousun gouni, “ganaua guitar,” piano; Bengt Berger – tabla, mridanga, log drum

Notes: If there is such a thing as a “first world music” recording, this two-disc LP set by Don Cherry has a strong claim. A jazz giant in America, Don Cherry had come to the fore as part of the revolutionary Ornette Coleman Quartet and gone on to spread his own version of the free jazz gospel in gigs and discs with Steve Lacy, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Albert Ayler. He worked extensively in Europe, virtually discovering, there, the Argentine saxophone Gato Barbieri, and bringing into his circle the likes of vibraphonist Karl Berger. His Blue Note recordings “Complete Communion” and “Symphony for Improvisers” invented the idea of the avant jazz suite.
In the early ’70s, he settled in Skane, Sweden, with the Swedish artist Moki Karlsson, lived in a schoolhouse and worked on an organic farm/commune. This period marked another leap that is documented in these easy-going, informal records. To quote the liner notes: “The music in this album differs from Don Cherry’s earlier recordings in that it gives a picture of his multi-faceted musical work in Sweden over the past years, as musician, teacher and giver of inspiration.” If these sessions are relatively unpolished, they lay the groundwork for his later achievements -- such as his “Relativity Suite” recording for the JCOA label, parts of which are previewed here -- and the music he would play for the rest of his life, bringing together African-American rhythms and improvisations together with the musical principles of Africa, Asia and Europe.
The Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos brings a meditative ceremonial hymn from his homeland. Han “Isak” Isgren plays the sarangi, which had studied with Indian master Ram Naryan, and Bengt Berger brings his studies of tabla and other Indian drums to the sessions. Although it is widely reported that Don Cherry took up the African harp known as the douss ’n gounni during later trips to Africa, he encountered it during this period by way of Christer Bothen, who had learned the instrument during his own trips to Mali. The Turkish drummer Okay Temiz and trumpter Maffy Falay join in. The Scandinavian saxophonist Tommy Koverhult, little known in the States, is also here. The repertoire includes works by Dollar Brand (later known as Abdullah Ibrahim) and Pharoah Sanders, with whom Cherry had played, not to mention Terry Riley, whose Scandinavian gigs of the period had a indelible impact on the scene. Besides his trumpet, Cherry plays Chinese and other flutes, harmonium, piano and conch shell. Youth choirs and young classical musicians round out the cast of characters. Detailed liner notes by co-producer Jan Bruer in Swedish in English and German translations. Album cover and design by Moki (Karlsson) Cherry, including an inner gatefold collage of the whole clan (presumably including later pop star Neneh Cherry). For the record the disc is often listed in discographies as “Organic Music Society.” The cover says only “Organic Music,” although the inset liner notes sheet is titled “Organic Music Society.”