Donald Eugene Cherry was an American jazz trumpeter. Beginning in the late 1950s, he had a long tenure performing in the bands of saxophonist Ornette Coleman, including on the pioneering free jazz albums The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) and Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation (1960). Cherry also collaborated separately with musicians such as John Coltrane, Charlie Haden, Sun Ra, Ed Blackwell, the New York Contemporary Five, and Albert Ayler.
Pharoah Sanders was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", Sanders played a prominent role in the development of free jazz and spiritual jazz through his work as a member of John Coltrane's groups in the mid-1960s, and later through his solo work. He released over thirty albums as a leader and collaborated extensively with vocalist Leon Thomas and pianist Alice Coltrane, among many others. Fellow saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world".
Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist.
This Is Our Music is the fifth album by saxophonist Ornette Coleman, recorded in 1960 and released on Atlantic Records in March 1961. It is the first with drummer Ed Blackwell replacing his predecessor Billy Higgins in the Coleman Quartet, and is the only one of Coleman's Atlantic albums to include a standard, in this case a version of "Embraceable You" by George and Ira Gershwin.
Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation is the sixth album by jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, released on Atlantic Records in September 1961: the fourth of Coleman's six albums for the label. Its title named the then-nascent free jazz movement. The recording session took place on December 21, 1960, at A&R Studios in New York City. The sole outtake from the album session, "First Take," was later released on the 1971 compilation Twins and subsequent CD reissues of Free Jazz.
Complete Communion is a 1966 album by American jazz composer Don Cherry, his debut as a bandleader and his first release on Blue Note Records.
Gwotet is an album by David Murray released on the Justin Time label. Recorded in 2003 and released in 2004 the album features performances by Murray and the Gwo-Ka Masters with Pharoah Sanders. It is Murray's second album with the Gwo-Ka Masters following Yonn-Dé (2002).
Symphony for Improvisers is an album by American jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, released by Blue Note Records in August 1967. It features Gato Barbieri, Henry Grimes, and Ed Blackwell, all of whom appeared on Cherry's previous album Complete Communion, along with Karl Berger, Jean-François Jenny-Clark, and Pharoah Sanders. Symphony for Improvisers was recorded in 1966. The front cover photograph was taken at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Upper West Side, New York City.
Eternal Rhythm is a jazz album composed by Don Cherry. It was recorded in conjunction with the Berlin Jazz Festival in November 1968.
Ornette! is the seventh album by alto saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, released in February 1962 on Atlantic Records. The album features Scott LaFaro in place of Charlie Haden, who had left the Quartet but would work again with Coleman in the future.
Jewels of Thought is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. It was recorded at Plaza Sound Studios in New York City on October 20, 1969, and was released on Impulse! Records in the same year. The 1998 reissue merged "Sun In Aquarius" into one 27-minute-long track.
El Corazón is an album by jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell recorded in February 1982 and released on ECM later that year.
Eternal Now is an album by trumpeter Don Cherry recorded in 1973 and released on the Swedish Sonet label.
Elevation is a live album by American saxophonist and composer Pharoah Sanders, released in 1973 on the Impulse! label.
Moon Child is an album led by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders recorded in 1989 and released on the Dutch Timeless label.
Live Ankara is a live album by trumpeter Don Cherry. It was recorded in November 1969 at the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and was released on LP in 1978 by Sonet Records. On the album, Cherry is joined by three Turkish musicians: saxophonist and percussion Irfan Sümer, bassist Selçuk Sun, and drummer Okay Temiz. The album was reissued by Sonet on CD in 1996, paired with Eternal Now, with the title The Sonet Recordings.
Live at Cafe Montmartre 1966, Volumes 1, 2, and 3, is a trio of live albums by trumpeter Don Cherry. The albums were recorded in March 1966 at the Cafe Montmartre in Copenhagen, Denmark, and were released by ESP-Disk in 2007, 2008, and 2009. On the recordings, Cherry is joined by saxophonist Gato Barbieri, vibraphonist Karl Berger, bassist Bo Stief, and drummer Aldo Romano. Volume 1 is accompanied by a bonus DVD sampler featuring a variety of the label's artists.
Actions is a live album featuring debut performances of works by composer Krzysztof Penderecki and trumpeter and composer Don Cherry. It was recorded on October 17, 1971, at the Donaueschingen Festival in Donaueschingen, Germany, and was released on LP later that year by Philips. The music was performed by an ensemble called The New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra, composed of top European improvisors. In 1998, the album was reissued on CD by Transparency Records. It was remastered and reissued again in 2001 by Intuition Records.
Mu, First Part and Second Part, is a pair of albums by multi-instrumentalist Don Cherry. The albums, which also feature drummer Ed Blackwell, were recorded in August 1969 at Studio Saravah in Paris, and were released by BYG Records as part of their Actuel series in 1969 and 1970. In 1971, BYG released both parts together as a single box set. Mu was one of the first efforts in what would come to be known as world music.
The Summer House Sessions is a live album by trumpeter Don Cherry. It was recorded in July 1968 at the summer home of musician and recording engineer Göran Frees in Kummelnäs, Nacka, Sweden, after Frees invited Cherry to visit for a series of jam sessions and rehearsals.
