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Alternative Guitar Summit: Honoring Pat Martino, Volume 1
by Jack Bowers
Each year the Alternative Guitar Summit, led by Joel Harrison, presents a concert to honor a living jazz composer/guitarist. That wasn't possible in 2021, however, as venues in and around New York City were shuttered tight by the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, it was clear that the chosen honoree, the great Pat Martino, was gravely ill and might not have another year to live. With that in mind, members of the Summit took their guitars straight to a studio to record ...
read moreEd Cherry: Soul Tree
by C. Andrew Hovan
If there were a reward given for the most consistently underappreciated guitarist with the longest staying power, it would have to go to Ed Cherry. Most known for his fifteen-year stint with Dizzy Gillespie back in the '80s and '90s, Cherry has been constantly active, but criminally undocumented as a leader throughout most of his career. Soul Tree is only his fifth album under his own name, but let's hope that Cherry has found a home with Posi-Tone that will ...
read moreEd Cherry: Soul Tree
by David A. Orthmann
Like any jazz recording worth its salt, Ed Cherry's Soul Tree, his second release for the Posi-Tone imprint, impresses on more than one level. Cherry's interpretations of often performed jazz standards--Mal Waldron's “Soul Eyes," Dave Brubeck's “In Your Own Sweet Way," Horace Silver's “Peace," among others--are exceptionally well drawn and stand up nicely in comparison to other versions. The disc's ten tracks include two of the leader's original compositions. For the most part Cherry keeps things relatively simple, illuminating the ...
read moreEd Cherry: It's All Good
by Dan Bilawsky
Guitarist Ed Cherry is best known for his lengthy, decade-plus tenure with trumpet titan Dizzy Gillespie, but his work with another heavyweight of a different ilk--organist Big John Patton--is a more obvious influence on It's All Good. Cherry played the important role of Patton's guitar-playing foil during some of the legend's '90s comeback sessions and he acquired a deep understanding of the organ group dynamic through osmosis during this period. Patton's '90s work dealt with some outlying ...
read moreEd Cherry: It's All Good
by Bruce Lindsay
Guitarist Ed Cherry has been playing professionally since the early '70s, as a sideman to musicians such as Tim Hardin, Jimmy McGriff, Henry Threadgill and Jimmy Smith. Most famously, he spent over fifteen years in Dizzy Gillespie's band, remaining with the group until the trumpeter's death in 1993. Perhaps because of his busy career as a sideman his discography as a leader is small, with just three albums before It's All Good, the most recent being The Spirit Speaks (Justin ...
read moreEd Cherry: The Spirits Speak
by C. Andrew Hovan
It’s really a shame that so few jazz followers are aware of the talents of guitarist Ed Cherry. He’s been on the scene for quite some tine now, playing gigs with such name artists as Sam Rivers, Paquito D’Rivera, and Tim Hardin, not to mention the fourteen years he spent as a sideman with the legendary Dizzy Gillespie. The Spirits Speak is only the third set as a leader to be cut by the 47-year-old guitarist since Gillespie’s death in ...
read moreEd Cherry: The Spirits Speak
by Jim Santella
Straight-ahead guitar from a veteran will do it every time. Ed Cherry's latest recording brings back the spirit of the jazz organ combo. Influences such as Grant Green and Wes Montgomery make themselves known right away. Cherry also credits Sonny Sharrock and Jimi Hendrix among his influences. His “Woo!/Sharrock" rocks the joint in tribute, with high-energy, electronic power. The guitarist settles into a powerful groove and seems to have fun ripping one way and the next. Partners Joe Ford and ...
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