The album, meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic in African-American society, was named "Album of the Year" by Time magazine.Ĭherry died on October 19, 1995, at the age of 58 from liver cancer in Málaga, Spain. In 1994, Cherry appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, on a track titled "Apprehension", alongside The Watts Prophets. Other playing opportunities in his career came with Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill project, and as a sideman on recordings by Lou Reed, Ian Dury, Rip Rig + Panic and Sun Ra. Cherry recorded again with the original Ornette Coleman Quartet on Coleman's 1987 album In All Languages, He also made two albums as bandleader, Home Boy in 1985 and Art Deco in 1988. In 1973, he co-composed the score for Alejandro Jodorowsky's film The Holy Mountain, together with Ronald Frangipane and Jodorowsky.ĭuring the 1980s, he released the recording El Corazon, a 1982 duet album with Ed Blackwell. Ĭherry also collaborated with classical composer Krzysztof Penderecki on the 1971 album Actions. From 1978 to 1982, he recorded three albums for ECM with "world jazz" group Codona, consisting of Cherry, percussionist Naná Vasconcelos and sitar and tabla player Collin Walcott. He studied Indian music with Vasant Rai in the early seventies. Cherry incorporated influences of Middle Eastern, traditional African, and Indian music into his playing. In the 1970s he ventured into the developing genre of world fusion music. Īfter a departure from Coleman's quartet, Cherry often played in small groups and duets (many with ex-Coleman drummer Ed Blackwell) during a long sojourn in Scandinavia and other locations.ĭon Cherry playing a very particular "cornet" at Park Le Cascine, Firenze, Italy, September 1975 (Festival Nazionale dell'Unità)
The band included Coleman's drummer Ed Blackwell as well as saxophonist Gato Barbieri, whom he had met while touring Europe with Ayler, and bassist Henry Grimes. His first recording as a leader was Complete Communion for Blue Note Records in 1965.
gathered much of their freedom of motion from the free harmonic structures." : 289 Cherry co-led The Avant-Garde session which saw John Coltrane replacing Coleman in the Quartet, recorded and toured with Sonny Rollins, was a member of the New York Contemporary Five with Archie Shepp and John Tchicai, and recorded and toured with both Albert Ayler and George Russell. : 45Ĭherry became well known in 1958 when he performed and recorded with Ornette Coleman, first in a quintet with pianist Paul Bley and later in what became the predominantly piano-less quartet which recorded for Atlantic Records. He also toured with saxophonist James Clay. : 134 While trumpeter Clifford Brown was in Los Angeles with Max Roach, Cherry attended a jam session with Brown and Larance Marable at Eric Dolphy's house, and Brown informally mentored Cherry. Career īy the early 1950s Cherry was playing with jazz musicians in Los Angeles, sometimes acting as pianist in Art Farmer's group. This resulted in his transfer to Jacob Riis High School, a reform school, where he first met drummer Billy Higgins. Cherry recalled skipping school at Fremont High School in order to play with the swing band at Jefferson High School. He lived in the Watts neighborhood, and his father tended bar at the Plantation Club on Central Avenue, which at the time was the center of a vibrant jazz scene.
In 1940, Cherry moved with his family to Los Angeles, California.
His father owned Oklahoma City's Cherry Blossom Club, which hosted performances by Charlie Christian and Fletcher Henderson. His mother and grandmother played piano and his father played trumpet. Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to a mother of Choctaw descent and an African-American father.