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Ed Cherry

"An expressive instrumentalist, Cherry has a hip, melodic approach that is a refreshing contrast to guitarists who frequently resort to playing 'finger music', the execution of rapid streams of notes that serve no musical purpose other than to fill space"- Jim Ferguson: Jazztimes - 06/02

Born in New Haven,Connecticut, Ed moved to New York in 1978 to play guitar with Dizzy Gillespie from 1978 to 1992 performing in Gillespie's quartet, big band and with The United Nation Orchestra which recorded the Grammy Award-winning Live at Royal Festival Hall (Enja). Gillespie died in 1993, and Cherry released his first recording as a leader, 'First Take' (Groovin' High). That same year, Ed recorded with Paquito D'Riveras' small group which recorded "Havana Cafe" (Chesky Records). Ed also worked with composer/saxophonist Henry Threadgill for two years and recorded  three cds with Henry's 'Very Very Circus' group.

In 1995, Cherry released his second project as a solo artist, entitled A Second Look (Groovin' High Records). During that same period Ed worked with Hammond organist John Patton recording three critically acclaimed cds with Patton's quartet-'Blue Planet Man','Minor Swing' and 'This ones for Jah'(DIW). From 1997 to 1998, Cherry worked in Roy Hargrove's “Crisol” Latin jazz band, which performed in Havana, Cuba. During this same period, he also worked w/baritone saxophonist, Hamiett Bluiett, recording Bluiett's cd 'With Eyes Wide Open' on Justin-Time records.In 2001, Cherry toured Europe for the first time with his own group. He also released his  cd, 'The Spirit Speaks' on the Canadian Justin Time Records label, inspired by the great jazz organist Jimmy Smith with whom he had also recently worked.Ed was asked to perform at the 'Vodaphone Madarao Jazz festival'in 2002 in Madarao Japan with his quartet featuring trumpeter Jon Faddis.

More recently , Ed toured with the great Hammond organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, recording one critically acclaimed cd, 'In The Beginning' on Pilgrimage Records in 2012. 

Currently Ed has a brand new second recording released on Posi-Tone Records. ('It's All Good' his first release in 2012 for Posi-Tone stayed in the JazzWeek charts for 3 months) his second recording for the label is titled "Soul Tree" ( release date February 19 2016 ) featuring Kyle Koehler on Hammond B3 organ and drummer Anwar Marshall. As of this pre release date, it's already gathering rave reviews.

Ed continues to work nationally and internationally ; concerts, workshops, jazz clubs.

Gear

Victor Baker guitars

Jazzkat and Polytone amplifiers


Tags

25
Album Review

Roy Hargrove's Crisol: Grande-Terre

Read "Grande-Terre" reviewed by Chris May


Increasingly and with growing momentum, right up until he died at the young age of 55 in 2018, Roy Hargrove was a standard bearer for a new kind of African American jazz. The recipe embraced a variety of styles--jazz, Afro-Cuban music, funk, hip hop and soul--and it influenced a generation of musicians in jazz and beyond. But Hargrove never abandoned jazz, the foundation stone of his style. Instead he regarded other genres as part of a rainbow ...

8
Album Review

Hendrik Meurkens: The Jazz Meurkengers

Read "The Jazz Meurkengers" reviewed by Edward Blanco


When one thinks of the jazz harmonica, two names immediately come to mind, the late great Toots Thielemans and the incomparable Hendrik Meurkens whose new project The Jazz Meurkengers fully captures Meurkens' desire to produce a new and exciting swinging jazz album. While Meurkens learned to play the vibraphone first at the age of sixteen growing up in Germany and still does quite well, it is the harmonica that has become his preferred instrument of choice and the one he ...

6
Album Review

Hendrik Meurkens: The Jazz Meurkengers

Read "The Jazz Meurkengers" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Harmonica virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens brought together an outstanding group of musicians in The Jazz Meurkengers, which is a swinging tribute to the allure of hard-bop jazz. Supported by the resourceful and highly adaptable rhythm section of pianist Steve Ash, bassist Chris Berger and drummer Andy Watson, the band was augmented by the impeccable guitarist Ed Cherry on four tracks and bebop tenor saxophonist Nick Hampton on four different tracks giving the ensemble the energy, creativity, and reverence of the jazz ...

3
Radio & Podcasts

Interview With Al Chesis Of The Delta Sonics

Read "Interview With Al Chesis Of The Delta Sonics" reviewed by Steven Roby


This episode features an interview with Al Chesis from The Delta Sonics. Chesis has played in Colorado since the mid-1980s after moving to Denver from Washington, D.C. He played in the Mojo-Matics for five years, opening shows for Albert Collins, Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, Canned Heat, and others.The Delta Sonics music takes a Chicago Blues base and seasons it with Swing, Delta, N'awlins R&B, and some early Rock n' Roll. They were Westword's best blues band in Denver ...

15
Album Review

Steve Turre: Generations

Read "Generations" reviewed by Dave Linn


Generations is a wonderful exploration of the bop and post-bop era. Steve Turre both looks back to his roots while encouraging the next generation of musicians to find their voice. It's a position he's eminently qualified for, considering the artists he has played with and his tenure as a long-time jazz educator. Trombone players have a unique place in the sound created in a small jazz band. Their parts helped blend and define any given melody. On this ...

17
Interview

Ed Cherry: Always Groovin’

Read "Ed Cherry: Always Groovin’" reviewed by R.J. DeLuke


"I liked the look of it--I like the sound--the feel," says renowned guitarist Ed Cherry about the guitar, an instrument he has been playing for more than half a century. He long ago became a first-rate player with a warm sound and joyous approach. He is also diverse. He's played a myriad of styles ranging from the driving bebop of Dizzy Gillespie (with whom he played for over a decade) to the free jazz explorations of Henry Threadgill ...

3
Liner Notes

Ed Cherry: Are We There Yet?

Read "Ed Cherry: Are We There Yet?" reviewed by Andrew Scott


In debates between Kenneth Miller, Richard Dawkins, and the late Stephen Jay Gould, the “stay in your lane" boundaries that separate science from theology/philosophy become particularly porous, revealing the frequency with which individuals intellectually “drift" in order to hold onto seemingly contradictory opinions of truth (empirical, scientific) and belief. Jazz, no less an ideology, has also become “defined" through a series of maxims ("must swing," “must contain the blues," “must prefigure improvisation") that while articulating general truisms perhaps, ...

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12

Recording

Caz Plak To Release Don Cherry & Okay Temiz's Music For Turkish Theatre On Vinyl

Caz Plak To Release Don Cherry & Okay Temiz's Music For Turkish Theatre On Vinyl

Source: Matthew Hutchison

The fourth chapter in the partnership between Turkish jazz percussionist Okay Temiz and Istanbul-based record label Caz Plak is a special release that is seeing light 54 years after its inception. Music For Turkish Theatre, the soundtrack composed by Don Cherry and Temiz and commissioned by the revered novelist and civil rights activist James Baldwin for his and renowned Turkish stage actor/director Engin Cezzar's adaptation of John Herbert's play Fortune And Men's Eyes, will be released by the forefronting jazz ...

9

Recording

Caz Plak To Release Don Cherry Trio 'The ORTF Recordings Paris 1971' On Vinyl

Caz Plak To Release Don Cherry Trio 'The ORTF Recordings Paris 1971' On Vinyl

Source: Matthew Hutchison

The second chapter of Caz Plak's ambitious Turkish Jazz Trilogy will be released next month with three region-specific vinyl LP releases of The ORTF Recordings Paris 1971 by Don Cherry Trio, in line with Caz Plak's curatorial efforts in showcasing the far-reach of Turkish Jazz's influence. The Istanbul-based label has licensed two recordings of Don Cherry's work from the archives of the legendary Parisian jazz label BYG Records. These recordings feature joint performances with long-time Don Cherry Trio members, Turkish ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!

Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they've always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!

Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they've always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...

Video / DVD

Don Cherry in Copenhagen, 1965

Don Cherry in Copenhagen, 1965

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Throughout his career, Don Cherry favored the stubby but warm pocket cornet and was most closely identified with the free jazz and avant-garde jazz movements. In the late 1950s, he recorded with Ornette Coleman (Something Else!!!, Tomorrow Is the Question!, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Change of the Century, This Is Our Music), Paul Bley (The Fabulous Paul Bley Quintet) and John Coltrane (The Avant-Garde). In the '60s, he recorded additional albums with Coleman as well as with Steve ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!

Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they've always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!

Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they\'ve always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!

Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they\'ve always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Jazz Musician of the Day: Don Cherry

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Don Cherry's birthday today!

Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1936 and raised in Los Angeles, where he first began to play the trumpet and later piano. According to Cherry, his upbringing had everything to do with his interest in music: “Yeah, well I was fortunate to have such great parents…because they\'ve always been around music. My Father was a bartender, and he was very much into the music of the swing ...

201

Performance / Tour

Ed Cherry Jazz Clinic and Concert Series @ Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus Tuesday, November 6, 2007 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Ed Cherry Jazz Clinic and Concert Series @ Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus Tuesday, November 6, 2007 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Jazz Clinic and Concert Series @ Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus Tuesday, November 6, 2007 4:00 - 6:00 PM Jazz Guitarist Ed Cherry will lead a jazz seminar as part of Long Island University's Jazz Clinic Series. The series features musicians and music professionals with extraordinary links to jazz history in addition to being outstanding in their own right. The clinics are free and open to the general public. They take place on various Tuesdays, from 4:00 - 6:00 PM, ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Jazz Meurkengers

Cellar Music Group
2024

buy

Grande-Terre

Verve Records
2024

buy

Are We There Yet?

Cellar Music Group
2023

buy

Honoring Pat Martino,...

HighNote Records
2022

buy

Jackpot

Cellar Music Group
2022

buy

Generations

Smoke Sessions Records
2022

buy

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