- Neneh Cherry and The Thing - The Cherry Thing (Smalltown Supersound Records) Rating: 8 (out of 10)
Neneh Cherry has always been a world-class experimenter burning with avant-garde creativity. Her new thing with The Thing actually takes her full circle back to her earliest days as a teenage performer singing with the postpunk outjazz rock outfit Rip, Rig + Panic (named after a Roland Kirk album). Growing up with trumpeter Don Cherry as her dad taught her the importance of keeping options open.
The Thing, a Swedish free jazz trio, led by reedman Mats Gustafsson, were named after a tune written by Don Cherry. As an instrumental unit they are familiar to Vancouver jazz festival audiences but adding Neneh Cherry on vocals takes them to another level entirely. Cherrys presence gives them a punk rock edge and a focus for the fury of their sound. They play mostly covers (Suicide, The Stooges, Martina Topley-Bird, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman) on the disc but rebuild everything from the ground up to suit their sound.
- Don Cherry - Organic Music Society (Caprice Records) Rating: 10 (out of 10)
Never before released in digital form Don Cherrys masterful Organic Music Society documents a time and place when musical minds were wide open to experimentation.
Cherry, one of the original members of Ornette Colemans legendary free bop group, moved to Sweden in the late 60s and married Monica (Moki) Karlsson, a Swedish painter and textile artist. He became stepfather to Karlssons young daughter Neneh and father of Eagle-Eye Cherry - pictures of all four from that time are included in a CD booklet that accompanies the music - EagleEye tries out his fathers cornet in one 1973 photo while in another 1968 shot Neneh dances around the room while her father plays percussion.
The music runs the gamut from ritualistic incantation to folkloric musicology and free jazz - and thats just on the opening track, North Brazilian Ceremonial Hymn, recorded in Copenhagen at 6 a.m. on July 28, 1972, featuring a very young Nana Vasconcelos on berimbau.
The opener was written by Nelson Angelo Calvacanti with other pieces credited to Hans Isgren, Terry Riley, Pharoah Sanders/Leon Thomas, Dollar Brand and Cherry himself. Two tracks feature a youth orchestra recorded at a music camp in Bollnas, Sweden.
Everything flows beautifully on the album with Cherrys musical intelligence and philosophy keeping the various sessions together. Conceptually, the closest comparison may be with what the Art Ensemble of Chicago were doing at the time with their ritualistic theatre performances. The rerelease on Caprice Records features a 24-page booklet with an essay by Chicagos John Corbett documenting how this brilliant music was made - of its time yet completely timeless in scope.
