The real Don Cherry blindfold
Blindfolds are fun! But usually in the end you have an answer to what you've been listening to. This time you don't. Don Cherry did a recording in Stockholm in 1963 with some unknown musicians. For years I've being searching for answers, but without any luck. Please help me!
Cherry visited Scandinavia in late 1963 with the New York Contemporary Five including Archie Shepp, John Tchicai, Don Moore and JC Moses. For two and a half months their music was to be heard – and the young generation of Scandinavian jazz musicians surely did – and made a great impact on the scene.
The group did gigs at the Montmartre in Copenhagen, recorded for Danish radio and television, made two live albums for the Sonet label, recorded a film with Niels Holt. In Sweden they had a week at Don Pedro in Gothenburg, made a recording for Swedish television which was featured in the program Trumpeten, and they also played for a week at the Golden Circle in Stockholm.
Wherever he came, Don Cherry involved himself with local musicians. In Copenhagen with the Franz Beckerlee Quartet including Hugh Steinmetz and in Gothenburg with Gilbert Holmström. He also met some people in Stockholm. They even recorded an acetate record! But the whole thing is a total mystery.
In mid-November 1963 Cherry went back to New York City. He gave a copy of the acetate to AB Spellman who broadcasted two songs in his show for New York radio station WBAI in the beginning of 1964.
Here is what AB Spellman told his listeners:
For some reason there was a misunderstanding. The group that was featured wasn't the New York Contemporary Five. It sounds that it could have been JC Moses on drums and Don Moore on bass, but there is also a piano and the tenor and alto saxophones are for sure not handled by Shepp and Tchicai as you will hear.
The first song is a seven minute take on the jazz standard Just Friends by John Klenner (lyrics by Sam M Lewis). It was a very popular song from the 1930s. Charlie Parker, the group with John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor, and Sarah Vaughan were among the many artists that recorded it. Let's listen to this version! (Just wait 15 seconds until it starts)
The second song is a bit more advanced. You can hear reminiscences from what Cherry will do later on. But as always it's hard to track down which song it is. Listen for yourself. It's very interesting!
But who is participating? Help me with this! Make a comment! As said I think it's maybe JC Moses on drums and Don Moore on bass, but the rest? A bit amateurish, but also quite free for being from 1963. Going the other way around, in 1963 there weren't that many places outside of the big studios that did acetates I assume. One of them was the studio B.R.A. Studio in Stockholm, where Bengt "Frippe" Nordström, who also recorded with Cherry at this time, was hanging and did recordings. Let us find the answer!
