Don Cherry
Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...
on
Jazz Composer's Orchestra
The Jazz Composer's Orchestra was an American jazz group, founded by Carla Bley and Michael Mantler in 1965, to perform orchestral avant-garde jazz.
Its origins lay in the Jazz Composers Guild, an organization founded by Bill Dixon which grew out ...
Records which was released in 1973.
Background
Having appeared on the first two JCOA records by
Michael Mantler
Michael Mantler (born August 10, 1943) is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music.
Career: United States
Mantler was born in Vienna, Austria. In the early 1960s, he was a student at the Academy of Music and V ...
and
Carla Bley
Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936) is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera '' Escalator over the Hill'' ...
, Cherry was commissioned to write the third one in 1970. He used many of the same musicians who contributed to the first two records and molded into a suite a string of the pieces he'd been composing and performing in the previous few years. Studying with Pandit Pran Nath, Cherry was increasingly using Indian karnatic singing in his recordings and concerts and he starts the album with a similarly derived chant."
Reception
Jazz critic
Scott Yanow
Scott Yanow (born October 4, 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author. Allmusic Biography/ref>
Biography
Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles.
Since 1974, he was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles a ...
wrote: "Highlights include Selene Fung's lovely work on the
ching
Ching may refer to:
People
* Ching (given name), a unisex name
* Ching (surname), a romanization of some Chinese surnames such as Cheng and Zhuang
* Ching Hammill (1902–1925), American football player
* Ivan Ching Johnson (1898–1979), Canadia ...
, a Chinese koto-like instrument, and
Ed Blackwell
Edward Joseph Blackwell (October 10, 1929 – October 7, 1992) was an American jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana, known for his extensive, influential work with Ornette Coleman.
Biography
Blackwell's early career began in New Orleans ...
marching
Marching refers to the organized, uniformed, steady walking forward in either rhythmic or route-step time; and, typically, it refers to overland movements on foot of military troops and units under field orders. Marching is often performed t ...
patterns on the concluding number. While not as breathtaking or cohesive as his '' Eternal Rhythm'', ''Relativity Suite'' almost matches that release in its first half and contains many a worthwhile joy."
In a
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
review of a live performance preceding the recording session, John S. Wilson described the music as "a mixture of charming, folklike melodies with a distinctly African tinge, of strong, compelling rhythms and, as occasional counter point, excursions into the clamorous, shrieking fury characteristic of avant-garde jazz." He stated: "The work itself and Mr. Cherry's conception of its presentation are so kaleidoscopic that a single hearing is simply an introduction to the materials used. It is music that can, and should, be heard repeatedly, not only for the variations that Mr. Cherry develops from performance to performance, but also for the rich lode of lyrical beauty and rhythmic stimulation with which he has filled it."
Writing for The Free Jazz Collective, Stef Gijssels noted that, with ''Relativity Suite'', "Instrumental perfection and precision were not herry'sprimary focus, but rather the creation of a sonic universe that was new, global, inclusive with the ambition to create something universal and spiritual, not imposed out of some cerebral and abstract concept, but grown organically from the already existing sounds of many cultures."
Don Cherry
Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...
conductor
Conductor or conduction may refer to:
Music
* Conductor (music), a person who leads a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra.
* ''Conductor'' (album), an album by indie rock band The Comas
* Conduction, a type of structured free improvisation ...
,
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...
,
conch
Conch () is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point at both ends).
In North Am ...
, voice,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
soprano saxophone
The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, so ...
, alto saxophone, voice
*
Carlos Ward
Carlos Ward (born May 1, 1940 in Ancón, Panama) is a funk and jazz alto saxophonist and flautist. He is best known as a member of the Funk and disco band BT Express as well as a jazz sideman.
Biography
Ward was raised in Panama City, and at a ...
Frank Lowe
Frank Lowe (June 24, 1943 – September 19, 2003) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer.
Biography
Born and brought up in Memphis, Tennessee, Lowe took up the tenor saxophone at the age of 12. As an adult he moved to San Fra ...
–
tenor sax
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
, voice
*
Dewey Redman
Walter Dewey Redman (May 17, 1931 – September 2, 2006) was an American saxophonist who performed free jazz as a bandleader and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett.
Redman mainly played tenor saxophone, though he occasionally also played ...
French horn
The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
*
Brian Trentham
Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world.
It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word m ...
–
trombone
The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrat ...
tuba
The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th&n ...
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
viola
; german: Bratsche
, alt=Viola shown from the front and the side
, image=Bratsche.jpg
, caption=
, background=string
, hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow
, range=
, related=
*Violin family ...
*
Nan Newton
Nan or NAN may refer to:
Places China
* Nan County, Yiyang, Hunan, China
* Nan Commandery, historical commandery in Hubei, China
Thailand
* Nan Province
** Nan, Thailand, the administrative capital of Nan Province
* Nan River
People Given ...
– viola
*Pat Dixon –
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking ...
–
bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gu ...
*
Carla Bley
Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936) is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera '' Escalator over the Hill'' ...
–
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...
*
Ed Blackwell
Edward Joseph Blackwell (October 10, 1929 – October 7, 1992) was an American jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana, known for his extensive, influential work with Ornette Coleman.
Biography
Blackwell's early career began in New Orleans ...
–
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
*
Paul Motian
Stephen Paul Motian (March 25, 1931 – November 22, 2011) was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer. Motian played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties.
He first came to prominence in the ...
-
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
ching
Ching may refer to:
People
* Ching (given name), a unisex name
* Ching (surname), a romanization of some Chinese surnames such as Cheng and Zhuang
* Ching Hammill (1902–1925), American football player
* Ivan Ching Johnson (1898–1979), Canadia ...
Production
*Producer: Don Cherry and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra
*Publisher: Eternal River Music (BMI)
*Engineer: Eddie Korvin
*Studio: Blue Rock Studio, Greene Street, Manhattan, New York
*Cover: Quilt designed and handmade by Moki Cherry photographed by Gregory Reeve
*Back cover photography: Don and
Eagle Eye Cherry
Eagle-Eye Lanoo Cherry (born 7 May 1968) is a Swedish singer and stage performer. His 1997 single "Save Tonight" achieved commercial success in Ireland, the United States and the United Kingdom, and was voted song of the year in New Zealand. Cher ...
by Jonathan Sa’ada
External links
*Article by jazz journalist Howard Mande *Jazz Composer's Orchestra at All Music []
References
{{Authority control
1973 albums
Don Cherry (trumpeter) albums
Jazz Composer's Orchestra albums
JCOA Records albums