JazzWax

Don Cherry in Copenhagen, 1965

Throughout his career, Don Cherry favored the stubby but warm pocket cornet and was most closely identified with the free jazz and avant-garde jazz movements. In the late 1950s, he recorded with Ornette Coleman (Something Else!!!, Tomorrow Is the Question!, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Change of the Century, This Is Our Music), Paul Bley (The Fabulous Paul Bley Quintet) and John Coltrane (The Avant-Garde). In the '60s, he recorded additional albums with Coleman as well as with Steve Lacy and on the road with Sonny Rollins before leading his own recording sessions in 1963. Then he formed the New York Contemporary Five.

On tour in late 1964 with tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler and then pianist Dollar Brand at the start of 1965, Cherry wound up in Copenhagen. That October, he jammed on four songs for a Danish radio broadcast, backed by Mogens Bollerup (ts), Atli Bjorn (p), Benny Nielsen (b) and Simon Koppel (d). After, he flew back to New York and recorded Complete Communion for Blue Note with Gato Barbieri (ts), Henry Grimes (b) and Ed Blackwell (d). Then he returned to Europe and a Copenhagen residency until 1968. Going forward, he bounced back and forth between New York and Europe, where he found plenty of work and appreciative audiences.

Now, that four-song Copenhagen jam session in '65 has been released on an EP as Cherry Jam on Japan's Gearbox Records. The music is significant for its bright avant-garde abstraction and cohesiveness as well as the political subtext. Taken from radio-station tapes, the sound is fantastic. The jam was performed on Danmarks Radio, Denmark's national radio station. The songs were Cherry's The Ambassador From Greenland, Richard Rodgers' You Took Advantage of Me, Cherry's Priceless and Alvin Batiste and Cherry's Nigeria.

This recording seems to be the highlight of the other musicians' careers. As good as Bollerup was here on saxophone, his only other jazz recording came in 1969 as a sideman on a Copenhagen date led by John Tchicai. Koppel was on that session as well. Bjørn and Nelson recorded on an single obscure session in 1970 but that was it. Koppel would record on an additional bunch of sessions in '70s and '71 and then dropped off the recording radar until 1997. It's hard to know why these musicians weren't recorded more. Perhaps they simply went on to teach or played in jazz orchestras that weren't recorded, leaving the studio behind.

What's especially gratifying about Cherry Jam is you can hear the broad, blistering influence of trumpeter Clifford Brown on Cherry. Cherry's family had moved to Los Angeles in 1940 from Oklahoma. While Brown was in L.A. with Max Roach in the summer of '54, Cherry attended a jam session held by Brown and drummer Larance Marable at Eric Dolphy's house. Afterward, Brown took Cherry under his wing for a time. As you can hear, Cherry remains woefully underappreciated in the U.S. This album is a solid entry point. [Photo above of Don Cherry by Francis Wolff (c)Mosaic Images]

Don Cherry died in 1995 in Spain of liver cancer at age 58.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Cherry Jam (Gearbox) on vinyl or as a download here. The CD is here.

The tracks also are at Spotify and on YouTube.

JazzWax clip: Here's Nigeria...

Linda, Mina and Khatia

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed actress-singer Linda Lavin for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Linda talked about her childhood in Portland, Maine, and what her musician-singer mother sacrificed by leaving the stage in New York to move north. Linda also talked about her popular late 1970s-'80s sitcom Alice. Linda, as you might imagine from her smile above, is a warm, kind sweetheart. Her new album is Love Notes. [Photo above of Linda Lavin by Bill Westmorland courtesy of Linda Lavin]

Ever the performer, here's Linda at home last October in upstate New York at her new upright piano singing Long Ago and Far Away...

Camille Bertault. Back in June 2019, I featured clips from 2015 of Camille singing John Coltrane's Giant Steps and Hank Mobley's solo on If I Should Lose You. (here and here). [Photo above of Camille Bertault courtesty of Camille Bertault]

Now here's Camille back in October in a video for her album Le Tigre...

For more on Camille, go to her site here.

Jazz From Detroit: Virtual Music Marathon. On Saturday this weekend, from 2 to 7 p.m. (ET), watch live performances by alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, pianist Randy Porter, violinist Regina Carter with pianist Xavier Davis, bassist Robert Hurst’s Black Current Jam; and Balance with Michael Malis on piano and Marcus Elliot on saxophones. Also, see interviews by Mark Stryker, host and the author of Jazz From Detroit (University of Michigan Press). The event will be held at Orchestra Hall, Detroit. [Photo above of Charles McPherson courtesy of Charles McPherson] Tickets are $9 (go here). Performances will be archived for two weeks for on-demand viewing.

Cecil Payne. Last week, Jim Eigo of Jazz Promo Services sent along a link to a rare video of baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne (above) playing All the Things You Are...

CDs you should know about:

Esther Bennett & Terence Collie—Safe Places (TC). This EP features a gorgeous collection of original songs written by English vocalist-lyricist Esther Bennett and pianist Terence Collie in collaboration with various artists. As Esther notes, the music was composed before and during the pandemic and addresses "life indoors searching for love's fulfillness, the celebration of the free spirit and the rejection of the restraints that society often demands of us." Esther and Terence are joined by bassist Richard Sadler, drummer Sophie Alloway, percussionist Matt Hodge and Duncan Lamont Jr. and Hannah Horton on saxophones and flute. I love the integrity and beauty of Esther's voice. Go here.

Here's End of Summer...

Charlie Porter—Hindsight (Origin). Trumpeter Charlie Porter has just released his third album as a leader. The new album follows Immigration Nation, which was voted by Down Beat as one of the best albums of 2020 and winner of a 2020 Grammy. According to Charlie, the new album contemplates "how we act in hindsight to deal with the collateral damage of progress, including the impact of modernization on the environment and the centuries-old struggles with racism, inequality and corruption." Joining Charlie are pianist Orrin Evans, guitarist Mike Moreno, saxophonist Nick Biello, bassists David Wong and Damian Erskine, Behn Gillece on vibes, drummer Kenneth Salters, along with several guest performers including the legendary n’goni player from Africa, Bassekou Kouyate. What I love most about this album is the emotional depth of Charlie's trumpet and the shifting styles of the original songs. Go here.

Here's a promo video...

And here's the title track...

Old New York. Director Raymond De Felitta sent along a fascinating interactive map. Just click on one of the many red dots on the map to see early photos of that location. If you live in New York or used to live here, it will be quite a revelation to see what your neighborhood looked like nearly 100 years ago. Go here.

Mina. Here's Italian pop star Mina singing You Made Me So Very Happy, in 1972...

If you love Mina as I do, here's the entire concert...

And here's Mina in her prime in 1960, singing Gino Paoli's Il Cielo in una Stanza...

Got 34 minutes? Last week I stumbled across Georgian classical pianist Khatia Buniatishvili performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 1 in C major, Op. 15, accompanied by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with Zubin Mehta conducting in July 2015. Astonishing confidence, technique and sensitivity. A classical rock star. Hang in until the very end.

Here she is...

Leonid & Friends: Chicago

The first time I heard Leonid & Friends, I thought for a second they were syncing to Chicago's recordings from the early 1970s. Turns out Leonid & Friends is a Russian-Ukrainian cover band with impeccable ears and talent. Leonid is Leonid Vorobyev (third from left), a Moscow producer, bassist, transcriber and arranger. In concert, the tentet recreates American hits perfectly, but they're probably best known for their precise Chicago covers. What sets them apart is that they work hard to sound exactly like the original recording. They sound just as good on Blood, Sweat & Tears and Earth, Wind & Fire—any pop-rock band with a horn section.

At the dawn of the 1970s, Chicago seemed to be on every AM radio at once. The band produced hit after hit, using a clean wash of acoustic jazz and rock. While jazz-fusion went the electric route, brass-rock bands such as Blood, Sweat & Tears; Tower of Power; Electric Flag; Chase (as in trumpeter Bill Chase); Lighthouse and others relied more heavily on jazz-driven horn sections. Ultimately, Chicago stood out thanks to their songwriting.  

For more information on the Leonid & Friends, go here. To help the performing band survive the current touring crisis caused by the Covid virus, go here. Before Covid, the band toured often in the U.S. It's anyone's guess when people will feel safe enough to return to venue seats.

For now, let's dig Leonid & Friends' Chicago catalog:

Here's Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is...

Here's Beginnings...

Here's 25 or 6 to 4...

Here's Questions 67 & 68...

Here's Make Me Smile...

Here's Dialogue (Part I & II)...

Here's Just You 'n' Me...

Here's If You Leave Me Now...

How would the band sound on Blood, Sweat & Tears? Here's Spinning Wheel...

And here's Earth, Wind & Fire's September...

September featured Leonid Vorobyev (b), Sergey Kashirin (g,lead voc), Igor Javad-Zade (d), Vlad Senchillo (p,el p), Serge Tiagnyriadno (g,backing voc), Ksenia Buzina (backing voc), Maxim Likhachev (tb), Oleg Kudryavtsev (ts), Andrey Zyl (tp), Vladimir Popov (cowbell) and Vladimir Morgovsky (strings group manager).