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Don Cherry: Symphony for Improvisors
The recording quality is, as you'd expect, impeccableand in addtiion to Spellman's original notes we have further enlightenment from Rudy Van Gelder, who provides valuable insight into the music itself. The title is a bit misleading, suggesting much more intricate music played by a much larger group than is the case. It's really a small (though top notch) band mostly blowing free over rudimentary forms. The biggest marvel about it, aside from some of the inspired playing, is its seamless movement from one piece to the next and how lightly, yet sometimes emphatically, the composed music coexists with the improvised.
Cherry's writing here is still redolent of the influence of Ornette Coleman, but otherwise he stepped out of the big man's shadow and assumed the mantle of leader with confidence and strength, assembling a strong group that includes Pharoah Sanders, Gato Barbieri, Henry Grimes, Karl Berger, Jean-François Jenny-Clark, and the titanic Ed Blackwell, who gives the sometimes raucous music the rhythmic underpinnings found in all great jazz. Cherry's trumpet playing is also at it's best: loose, lyrical and hair-raising at times.
Track Listing
Symphony for Improvisers: Symphony for Improvisers/Nu Creative Love/Wha; Manhattan Cry: Manhattan Cry/Lunatic/Sparkle Plenty/Om Nu.
Personnel
Don Cherry
trumpetGato Barbieri: tenor saxophone; Karl Berger: piano, vibraphone; Ed Blackwell: drums; Don Cherry: trumpet, cornet; Henry Grimes: bass; Jean-Fran
Album information
Title: Symphony for Improvisors | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: Blue Note Records
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