About

Don Cherry is about as vital a figure as there is to find in the world of free jazz. He was the man on an endless string of classic Ornette Coleman records -- The Shape of Jazz to Come, Twins, so on and so forth -- and then played on Coleman's later greats like 1971's Science Fiction and Broken Shadows. He also made his name as a frontman, releasing The Avante-Garde, his collaboration with John Coltrane, Complete Communion and other great albums. But Cherry, like so many jazz greats, got even more exploratory as he aged, and 1972's Organic Music Society is as far out there as Cherry ever got…

…The album was recorded with Swedish musicians while Cherry was living in Sweden with wife Moki Karlsson. Cherry lived and played there a long while, and his influence is deep in Swedish jazz circles, but Organic Music Society also reaches beyond that to African, Turkish, and Brazilian instrumentation, Indian religion and philosophy, and even back to American jazz.

The way in which the album was recorded reflects Cherry's wandering ear. Only two tracks were recorded in proper studio settings, while the rest were recorded in different live settings. The collaborations here also check in from all over the map, from Cherry's work with composer Terry Riley -- two versions of Riley's "Terry's Tune" appear here -- to percussion from Turkish musician Okay Temiz to Brazilian berimbau player Nana Vasconcelos. With so many different players and parts, the one true charm of Organic Music Society is its loose unpredictability. The album's title suggests the commune-like settings in which the album was made, and Cherry and his cohort indeed explore deeply here with no eye for a conclusion, no eye for an answer. – Pop Wire Music