Brown Rice (album)

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Brown Rice
Don cherry 1975 brown rice lp.webp
Studio album by
Don Cherry
Released1975 (Italy)
1977 (North America, Japan)
Recorded1975
Studio
  • Basement Recording Studio, NY
  • Grog Kill Studio, NY
Genre
Length39:17
Label EMI
Producer Corrado Bacchelli
Don Cherry chronology
Orient
(1974)		Brown Rice
(1975)		 Hear & Now
(1976)
1977 self-titled issue
Don cherry 1977 lp.jpg

Brown Rice, reissued as Don Cherry, is a studio album recorded in 1975 by trumpeter Don Cherry. The album presents a fusion of jazz with rock, African, Indian, and Arabic music. [1] [2]

Contents

Background

The album was recorded across two New York studios: the Basement Recording Studio and Grog Kill Studio. [3] The 1975 issue's artwork features tapestries sewn by Cherry's wife, Moki Cherry. [4]

Release history

The album was first titled Brown Rice for its 1975 release. [1] [2] [5] EMI Records originally released the album in Italy under this title. [2] Horizon Records reissued the album in 1977, re-titling it Don Cherry. [2] [6]

John Snyder and Rudy Van Gelder prepared a digital master at Van Gelder Studio in 1988, and in 1989 A&M Records released Brown Rice on compact disc. [7] The album was reissued on vinyl in 2019. [4]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [1]
Christgau's Record Guide B+ [8]
Penguin Guide to Jazz Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [9]
Pitchfork 9.2/10 [4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [10]
Tom Hull – on the Web B+ [11]

The Allmusic review by Steve Huey called Brown Rice "the most accessible entry point into Cherry's borderless ideal, jelling into a personal, unique, and seamless vision that's at once primitive and futuristic in the best possible senses of both words," concluding that "he would never quite reach this level of wild invention again". [1] Pitchfork called the album "the most focused version" of Cherry's vision, concluding that "in its balance of noise and bliss, beauty and chaos, Brown Rice is true world music". [4] Brian Morton and Richard Cook, writing for The Penguin Guide to Jazz , called Brown Rice "a lost classic of the era and probably the best place to sample the trumpeter as both soloist – he blows some stunningly beautiful solos here – and as the shamanic creator of a unique, unearthly sound that makes dull nonsense of most 'fusion' work of the period.… Exceptional and recommended". [5]

Carl Braurer, writing for Cadence , called the album "Cherry at his finest", but suggested that the title track and "Degi-Degi" were the least successful tracks and would have benefited from shorter running times. [2] The All Music Guide to Jazz , which reprinted Braurer's review, marked the album as a landmark recording. [2] The 1985 Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide negatively described the album as an unsuccessful crossover attempt ruined by "electronic indulgence and poor playing". [10]

Track listing

All compositions by Don Cherry except where noted

  1. "Brown Rice" – 5:15
  2. "Malkauns" (Bengt Berger, Don Cherry) – 14:02
  3. "Chenrezig" – 12:51
  4. "Degi-Degi" – 7:06

Personnel

Carl Brauer noted apparent errors in the album's credits: "Don Cherry does not play trumpet on 'Brown Rice,' but he does play it on 'Degi-Degi,' and for the life of me I can't hear Frank Lowe's tenor on that track." [2]

Additional personnel

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Huey, Steve. Brown Rice at AllMusic . Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Braurer, Carl (1994), Ron Wynn (ed.), All Music Guide to Jazz , M. Erlewine, V. Bogdanov, San Francisco: Miller Freeman, pp.  147–148, ISBN   0-87930-308-5
  3. ↑ Brown Rice at Discogs (list of releases)
  4. 1 2 3 4 Beta, Andy (May 25, 2019). "Don Cherry: Brown Rice". Pitchfork . Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  5. 1 2 Morton, Brian; Richard Cook (2010) [1992]. The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in the 1001 Best Albums. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (10th ed.). New York: Penguin. pp. 424–425. ISBN   978-0-14-104831-4.
  6. ↑ Brown Rice at AllMusic . Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  7. ↑ Brown Rice (Media notes). Don Cherry. Los Angeles: A&M. 1976. 397 001-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  8. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: C". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved February 23, 2019– via robertchristgau.com.
  9. ↑ Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2008) [1992]. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (9th ed.). New York: Penguin. p. 246. ISBN   978-0-14-103401-0.
  10. 1 2 Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 40. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.
  11. ↑ Hull, Tom. "Grade List: Don Cherry". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
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