Name: The Summer House Sessions
Brand: Don Cherry

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

BF 024CD

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2021-06-18

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Secre­tly

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

769791978034

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Total Cap

2 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

BF 024LP

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Black

2021-11-12

Forced Exposure

769791978027

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1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

Artist

Don Cherry

Genre US

Jazz

Label US

Blank Forms

Don Cherry was an American avant-garde jazz trumpeter, born on November 18, 1936 in Oklahoma City. He had a prolific career and is best known for his long association with Ornette Coleman. Cherry's musical influence extended beyond his own work, as he was the father of Jan Cherry, David Ornette Cherry, and Eagle-Eye Cherry, and stepfather to Neneh Cherry.
Cherry's innovative approach to trumpet playing helped shape the avant-garde/free jazz movement. His unique style combined elements of traditional jazz with experimental techniques, pushing the boundaries of the genre. Throughout his career, he collaborated with numerous renowned musicians and left a lasting impact on the world of jazz.
Despite his untimely death on October 19, 1995 in Malaga, Spain, Don Cherry's legacy continues to inspire aspiring musicians and jazz enthusiasts worldwide. His contributions to music will always be remembered and celebrated.

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In 1968, Don Cherry had already established himself as one of the leading voices of the avant-garde. Having pioneered free jazz as a member of Ornette Coleman’s classic quartet, and with a high profile collaboration with John Coltrane under his belt, the globetrotting jazz trumpeter settled in Sweden with his partner Moki and her daughter Neneh. There, he assembled a group of Swedish musicians and led a series of weekly workshops at the ABF, or Workers’ Educational Association, from February to April of 1968, with lessons on extended forms of improvisation including breathing, drones, Turkish rhythms, overtones, silence, natural voices, and Indian scales. That summer, saxophonist and recording engineer Göran Freese—who later recorded Don’s classic Organic Music Society and Eternal Now LPs—invited Don, members of his two working bands, and a Turkish drummer to his summer house in Kummelnäs, just outside of Stockholm, for a series of rehearsals and jam sessions that put the prior months’ workshops into practice. Long relegated to the status of a mysterious footnote in Don’s sessionography, tapes from this session, as well as one professionally mixed tape intended for release, were recently found in the vaults of the Swedish Jazz Archive, and the lost Summer House Sessions are finally available over fifty years after they were recorded.

On July 20, the musicians gathered at Freese’s summer house included Bernt Rosengren (tenor saxophone, flutes, clarinet), Tommy Koverhult (tenor saxophone, flutes), Leif Wennerström (drums), and Torbjörn Hultcrantz (bass) from Don’s Swedish group; Jacques Thollot (drums) and Kent Carter (bass) from his newly formed international band New York Total Music Company; Bülent Ates (hand drum, drums), who was visiting from Turkey; and Don (pocket trumpet, flutes, percussion) himself. Lacking a common language, the players used music as their common means of communication. In this way, these frenetic and freewheeling sessions anticipate Don’s turn to more explicitly pan-ethnic expression, preceding his epochal Eternal Rhythm dates by four months. The octet, comprising musicians from America, France, Sweden, and Turkey, was a perfect vehicle for Don’s budding pursuit of “collage music,” a concept inspired in part by the shortwave radio on which Don listened to sounds from around the world. Using the collage metaphor, Don eliminated solos and the introduction of tunes, transforming a wealth of melodies, sounds, and rhythms into poetic suites of different moods and changing forms. The Summer House Sessions ensemble joyously layers manifold cultural idioms, traversing the airy peaks and serene valleys of Cherry’s earthly vision.

In the Swedish Jazz Archive quite a few other recordings from the same day were to be found. Some of the highlights are heard as bonus material on the CD edition of this album. The octet is augmented by producer and saxophone player Gunnar Lindqvist, who led the Swedish free jazz orchestra G.L. Unit on the album Orangutang, and drummer Sune Spångberg, who recorded with Albert Ayler in 1962. The bonus CD also includes a track without Cherry featuring Jacques Thollot joined by five Swedes including Lindqvist, Tommy Koverhult, Sune Spångberg, and others.

With liner notes by Magnus Nygren and album art featuring a cover painting by Moki Cherry: Untitled, ca. 1967–68.

Organized in conjunction with Organic Music Societies, a Blank Forms project that also includes a book, art exhibition, and performance series.

Track list: 1. Summer House Sessions Side A 2. Summer House Sessions Side B 3. Untitled Summer House Session 1 (CD only) 4. Untitled Summer House Session 2 (CD only) 5. Untitled Summer House Session 3 (CD only) 6. Untitled Summer House Session 4 (CD only)

The Summer House Sessions

Music US

Buy Don Cherry - The Summer House Sessions (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.