We use cookies on our website to provide you with the best experience. Most of these are essential and already present.
We do require your explicit consent to save your cart and browsing history between visits. Read about cookies we use here.
Your cart and preferences will not be saved if you leave the site.

Don Cherry

From the very beginning, Los Angeles-raised Don Cherry (1936) displayed an anti-virtuoso attitude that contrasted with the ruling dogmas of jazz music. Cherry shunned both acrobatic exhibitions and radical experiments in favor of humility and pathos (thus appealing more to the rock crowd than to the jazz crowd). His style focused on the idiosyncratic timbres of his pocket trumpet and on languid phrases that evoked ancestral worlds via the abstraction of exotic styles, predating Jon Hassell's "fourth world" music (and the whole world-music bandwagon) by more than a decade.

From the very beginning, Los Angeles-raised Don Cherry (1936) displayed an anti-virtuoso attitude that contrasted with the ruling dogmas of jazz music. Cherry shunned both acrobatic exhibitions and radical experiments in favor of humility and pathos (thus appealing more to the rock crowd than to the jazz crowd). His style focused on the idiosyncratic timbres of his pocket trumpet and on languid phrases that evoked ancestral worlds via the abstraction of exotic styles, predating Jon Hassell's "fourth world" music (and the whole world-music bandwagon) by more than a decade.

John Tchicai Formalibere Bundle
Special discounted 2LP bundle * Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert. * Moving into uncharted waters for the veteran avant-garde imprint, Alga Marghen launches Formalibera, a brand new label dedicated to historically significant artefacts of free jazz, starting with a series of never before released body of archival recording made by John Tchicai in Copenhagen during the 1960s and 70s. The first - “Mc Gub Gub, (I–VIII)”; “Ode to…
Beautiful United Harmony Happening, The Education of an Amphibian
* Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert. * “Beautiful United Harmony Happening” / “The Education of an Amphibian” - the second release by Alga Marghen’s brand new free jazz imprint, Formalibera - is also dedicated to the output of John Tchicai following his return to Copenhagen during the mid 1960s. Comprising two pieces, remarkably, this single LP effectively bookends a rich period of activity for the saxophonist, capturing one …
Symphony for Improvisers
Biggest Tip! 180 gram Vinyl Edition. Recorded in 1966 and released by Blue Note Records in August of 1967, Don Cherry's Symphony for Improvisers features Gato Barbieri, Henry Grimes, and Ed Blackwell, all of whom had appeared on Cherry's previous album Complete Communion. Also featured are Karl Berger, Jean-François Jenny- Clark, and Pharoah Sanders. The abum received a rating of ***** on AlMusic, with reviewer Steve Huey string that, "Even though the album is full of passionate fireworks, there…
"Mu" First Part & "Mu" Second Part
Straight from the vaults of the legendary French imprint, BYG, come astounding deluxe, 180gr. audiophile editions, fully remastered from the original analog tapes, of two of the most beloved LPs in the towering Jazz Actuel series: Don Cherry’s “Mu: First Part” and “Mu: Second Part”. Among the most creatively captivating gestures in the history of jazz, these two duets between Cherry and his longtime collaborator, the drummer Ed Blackwell, are the product of a single, groundbreaking session in Pa…
1964 Recordings
"A long life can contain a certain amount of waste. Live long enough and posterity doesn’t notice the  occasional unproductive gap. A short life adds value to every moment and every creative act. This new  issue of Albert Ayler’s brief association with Don Cherry includes further material from their time in  Copenhagen, a period when the saxophonist daily reinvented the themes that were coursing through  his mind, breath and fingers. These are not a collector’s fetishes. These are fresh document…
Music For Turkish Theater 1970
Huge Tip! Never before released recording of the Sensational and Banned Turkish Theater Play by James Baldwin and Engin Cezzar, Istanbul 1970. Licensed by Gökhan Akçura, author of Engin Cezzar's autobiography, who was personally entrusted with the original master tape by Engin Cezzar. "One of the most shocking and daring plays staged in Turkish theaters was banned by the Istanbul Governorship on February 7, 1970. The ban on the play, which was watched by 30,000 people in 60 days, did not last lo…
Music / Sangam
2024 stock. First time reissue of this forgotten gem from Don Cherry. This unsung album is only known by hardcore fans of Don cherry who considered it as one of his best effort. Heavenly Sweetness do it again! This album was recorded in 1978 in Paris and released only in France in 1981. That was the first meeting between Don Cherry and Indian percussionist Latif Khan and the result is an incredible mixture of jazz and Indian music.
Human Music
*2024 stock* "This 1969 avant-garde collaboration between trumpeter Don Cherry and electronics pioneer Jon Appleton was originally released on legendary jazz producer Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman label. Consisting of four compositions with the titles 'Boa,' 'Oba,' 'Abo,' and 'Bao,' Human Music finds Cherry stretching out on various flutes and African percussion instruments in addition to pocket trumpet. Original artwork. Detailed liner notes." Includes two bonus tracks, "Don" and "Jon". At the d…
The Avant-garde
**Yellow vinyl** Though Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane were two of the prime forces in what came to be known as free jazz, their approaches couldn't have been more different. While Coleman's music dispensed with chords and rejected instrumental virtuosity in favour of unbroken horizontal development of melodic line, Coltrane's music for the most part relied on stacking up chords in blocks and exploring the results with fearsomely complex, passionate harmonic interrogations. However Coltrane w…
Codona Live Willisau, Switzerland September 1, 1978
The magical encounter of three skillful players, right before their self titled debut on ECM. On September 1, 1978, the musical trio Codona performed live in Willisau, Switzerland. This Swiss FM broadcast captured Codona in full flight, with Collin Walcott on sitar, Don Cherry on trumpet, and Nana Vasconcelos on percussion. Their performance weaved a magical web of sound. The opening track, “New Light,” is a 16-minute journey of pure joy
Decision In Paradise
Absolute killer session recorded at Vanguard Studios, New York, September 24 and 28 in 1984, with an intense line-up of some of our all-time-fav players of free music, including of tenor-saxophonist Frank Lowe, trumpeter Don Cherry, trombonnist Grachan Moncur III, pianist Geri Allen, bassist Charnette Moffett, and drummer Charles Moffett, ensures that this music is worth going for. Phrasing is super articulated and the whole vibe is just contagious. Outstanding interaction. The tandem communicat…
"Mu" First Part
** Deluxe 180gr. Black vinyl edition. Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve. Original 1969 BYG album. Mastered to vinyl from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins. Exclusive liner notes by author John Masouri ** Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell, graduates of the revolutionary Ornette Coleman quartet, are in perfect accord on this seminal free jazz set, recorded in Paris during the late sixties. The emphasis, as on all Don Cherry releases, is on the life-giving, often magical qualities of pure sound, c…
"Mu" Second Part
** ** Deluxe 180gr. Black vinyl edition. Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve. Original 1970 BYG album facsimile-edition. Mastered to vinyl from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins. Exclusive liner notes by author John Masouri ** **  Second chapter of Don Cherry’s "Mu" recordings for BYG - a landmark of free jazz improvisation. Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell had both played with Ornette Coleman and contributed to the revolutionary free jazz movement of the late fifties and early sixties. …
Organic Music Society
** Temporary reduced price ** Quoting Dusted magazine "This is not a jazz album. This is the music of ritual. Any resemblance it has to jazz is purely coincidental and passing. This is the sound of utopia, of equality, of the universal egalitarian dream, of the earth, the water, and the life force in all its various guises." and "This is an album of education in practice. Don Cherry spent the summer of 1971 teaching at a youth music camp normally devoted to the study of classical music. Somewher…
Live in Stockholm
2024 Stock. Don Cherry lived in Sweden 1965-1985. This is a live recording made in Stockholm 1968 (and some tracks from 1971) that was supposed to be released in the beginning of the 70's but that has never been released until now! Don Cherry plays together with the best Swedish (as well as Turkish) jazz musicians from that time. World jazz or Multi Kulti, Don Cherry didn't think in genres. At Caprice Records we are very happy and proud that we can now release this music, both on CD and LP for t…
Actions
*2024 stock* Recorded live at the Donaueschingen Music Festival on October 17, 1971, Actions features a truly mind-bending confluence of musicians of the avant-garde, in the broadest sense of the term. Don Cherry -- the brilliant American free jazz trumpeter -- had recently expatriated to Sweden and was finding his way not only among the emerging free-jazz scene of Europe but also within his own constantly expanding musical palette that had begun to incorporate elements of African rhythms, Turki…
Old And New Dreams
Hot on the heels of Old Friends, New Friends comes Old And New Dreams, an operation meant as a new flagship for Ornette Coleman, whose lack of enthusiasm for the project left a gap duly filled by Dewey Redman. The result is this delightful excursion into post-bop outlands that sounds as alive as ever. Two Coleman pieces comprise nearly half of its duration—which is saying much, for like many of ECM’s joints of the 70s, this one breezes by in under 50 minutes. The first Coleman piece, “Lonely Wom…
Complete Communion: Live in Stuttgart 1966
The legendary Don Cherry with his great 1966 quintet featuring Gato Barbieri (tenor sax) Karl Berger (piano) Bo Stief (bass) Aldo Romano (drums) which can also be heard on three fine releases on ESP-Disk, and with the New York Total Music Company in 1968. His quintet was on very fine form at this time, it captures a crucial stage of Cherry’s journey from free jazz to yet wilder territories. The recording was made for radio broadcast and is nice and clear: this is the first time it has been is…
Live at the Hillcrest Club 1958
This record marks a turning point in jazz history. It may be the earliest recorded example of what Ornette Coleman later called "free jazz," and it represents the first rumblings of the revolutionary movement which eventually shifted jazz thinking away from bebop. This double LP includes the complete show recorded live at The Hillcrest Club of Los Angeles in 1958.
Live in Paris - 1971 (The ORTF Recordings)
"Don Cherry delves into Turkish rhythms, accompanied by his long-time Don Cherry Trio members: Turkish drummer Okay Temiz and South African bassist Johnny Dyani. The vinyl LP is manufactured in Istanbul under the guidance of Mr. Okay Temiz, the only living member of this iteration of the Don Cherry Trio. The LP has been remastered from original material housed in BYG Records' vaults by Okay Temiz & Mert Ucer and licensed from BYG Records, France. This LP features the recording by the Don Cherry …
1 2 3 4 5