Don Cherry

Raised amongst Los Angeles' vibrant bebop scene of the 1940s, cornet player Don Cherry played with some of jazz's most important artists and honed a distinct style that saw him delve into Mexican, funk, folk and world music genres. Making his name in Ornette Coleman's groundbreaking quartet in the 1950s, Cherry played with John Coltrane on the album Avant Garde (recorded in 1960) and toured with saxophonist Sonny Rollins before moving to New York, where he became a key player in the modern jazz scene. As a band leader in his own right he recorded the acclaimed albums Complete Communion (1965) and Where Is Brooklyn? (1966) and travelled extensively around Europe and the Middle East, incorporating the local sounds he came across into his own style. He studied Indian and African music and played a Malian guitar called the doussn'gouni, before combining all of his influences in the group Codona, one of the first world/fusion bands. A musical explorer and pioneer, he went on to work with Lou Reed, Ian Dury, Sun Ra and classical composer Krzysztof Penderecki and fathered pop star Eagle-Eye Cherry. Don Cherry died at the home of stepdaughter Neneh Cherry in 1995 aged 56, after suffering with liver disease.

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