Dane Bo Stief was the house bassist at Café Monmartre at the time and he contributes some reminiscences to the liner notes but Russ Musto’s claim that Cherry was a founder of “world music” seems to stretch the internationalism of the members of the rest of the band a little too far.

The Argentinean Gato Barbieri plays sax on this date. He was influenced at that time by the likes of Coltrane, Ayler, Rollins, Sanders so you’re not getting any of that jazz-pop of his 1970s albums, like Caliente!. The rest of the band is made up of Italian drummer Aldo Romano and German vibraphonist Karl Berger.

‘Cocktail Piece’ is apparently a mix of compositions by Cherry and Coleman but what the liner notes do point out, and it’s clear from the performance, how much rehearsal time is needed to put together such ‘improvisations’. Karl Berger stands out immediately and Barbieri goes for it big time. The last third of this track contains part of ‘Elephantasy’ that Cherry later recorded for Blue Note as Complete Communion, released in ‘66 with Barbieri leading a quartet.

On the introduction to the third track, Cherry says, “we have just recorded this on Christmas Eve in New York City for Blue Note Records, we call it ‘Complete Communion’”. The longest of all the tracks, unsurprisingly chaotic in parts but surprisingly, slipping into Herb Alpert’s hit, ‘A Taste Of Honey’. Complete communion you might say and worth it for the d’n’b and vibes section alone.

There’s the same ‘cocktail’ theme with ‘Neapolitan Suite’, God and the Devil (not sure who’s in these roles) and the set ends on a short reprise of ‘Cocktail Piece’.

For goatee strokers, ‘Free Improvisation: Music Now’ was a template for his next Blue Note album, Symphony For Improvisers, which was recorded six months later at Rudy Van Gelder Studio and released in 1966. Berger must have made a big impression as this time he was on the session along with Barbieri and Sanders. The Ayler influences are prominent and the theme that was recorded as ‘Lunatic’ is a reference to reaction of audiences on Cherry’s first trips to Europe (blimey, what were they like at home then?).

Cherry died in 1995 in Malaga, Spain and while he’ll be remembered for his long association with Ornette Coleman and, depending on your age group, being the father of Neneh Cherry and Eagle-Eye Cherry, this album is a timely reminder of what a ground breaker he was.

If you’re thinking “ESP-Disk is still too weird and far out for my taste..”, luckily there’s a DVD sampler that comes as a bonus disk featuring loads of excerpts from the entire ESP catalogue. OK, some off it is still out there but I’d recommend you check out their other releases, especially the Albert Ayler albums and forthcoming albums by Norman Howard (one of the members of the Cleveland new music community with Ayler) with an unreleased album from 1974 and The Hilverson Session featuring Ayler, Cherry, Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray. Not for the faint hearted they say, but we know, music is the healing force of the universe.

Hectic Mix nominations: ‘Neopolitan Suite: Dios E Diablo’, ‘Free Improvisation: Music Now’, ‘Complete Communion’

Reviewed: Don Cherry — Live At Café Monmartre 1966 (ESP Disk) Cat. No. ESP 4032 Release date: August 2007
Tracklisting:
1 Intro (0:36)
2 Cocktail Piece (13:11)
3 Neopolitan Suite: Dios E Diablo (7:26)
4 Complete Communion (13:20)
5 Free Improvisation: Music Now (10:46)
6 Cocktail Piece (End) (2:28)

Don Cherry biography at www.jazzinstitut.de
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www.gatobarbierinewsletter.com
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www.karlberger.com
www.bostief.com