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32-449: Blissful is the second album by drummer Hamid Drake and his group Bindu. It was recorded on July 12 and 13, 2007, at Soma Electronic Music Studios in Chicago, Illinois, and was issued on CD in 2008 by Rogueart . On the album, Drake is joined by vocalist Dee Alexander , guitarists Joe Morris and Jeff Parker , and double bassists Josh Abrams and William Parker . Lyrics were written by

64-433: A pocket trumpet ), trumpet, cornet , flugelhorn , and bugle . Cherry began his career as a pianist, and continued playing piano and organ as secondary instruments throughout his career. After returning from a musical and cultural journey through Africa, he often played the donso ngoni , a harp-lute with a gourd body originating from West Africa (see ngoni ). During his international journeys, Cherry also collected

96-486: A bandleader in the 1980s: Home Boy (Sister Out) in 1985 and Art Deco in 1988. He recorded again with the original Ornette Coleman Quartet on the first disc of Coleman's 1987 album In All Languages . Other playing opportunities in his career came with Carla Bley 's 1971 opera Escalator over the Hill and as a sideman on recordings by Lou Reed , Ian Dury , Rip Rig + Panic , and Sun Ra . In 1994, Cherry appeared on

128-508: A child decades earlier. Drake worked with Anderson from 1974 to 2010, including on Anderson's 1979 The Missing Link . At Anderson's workshops, a young Hamid met Douglas Ewart , George E. Lewis and other members of Chicago 's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) . Another of the most significant percussion influences on Drake, Ed Blackwell , dates from this period. Drake's flowing rhythmic expressions and interest in

160-574: A leader was Complete Communion for Blue Note Records in 1965. The band included Coleman's drummer Ed Blackwell as well as saxophonist Gato Barbieri , whom he had met while touring Europe with Ayler, and bassist Henry Grimes . After leaving Coleman's quartet, Cherry often played in small groups and duets, many with ex-Coleman drummer Ed Blackwell , during a long sojourn in Scandinavia and other locations. He traveled through Europe, India, Morocco, South Africa, and elsewhere to explore and play with

192-519: A lot of people are home and visiting, and we wanted to create something that people would enjoy at that particular time, regardless of whatever they might be following. I think it just kind of naturally turned into this continuing event. I don't think that we planned it at the beginning." Occasionally, including in 2020, the Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang Duo have also performed a summer solstice concert in Chicago. The duo has released two albums – Ask

224-413: A musical adaptation of William Blake 's poetry collection of the same name . He appeared on Coleman's 1971 LP Science Fiction , and from 1976 to 1987 reunited with Blackwell and fellow Coleman alumni Dewey Redman and Charlie Haden as Old and New Dreams . Old and New Dreams recorded four albums (two for ECM and two for Black Saint ) where Cherry's "subtlety of rhythmic expansion and contraction"

256-607: A quintet with pianist Paul Bley and later in the quartet which recorded for Atlantic Records . During this period, "his lines ... gathered much of their freedom of motion from the free harmonic structures." Cherry co-led The Avant-Garde session which saw John Coltrane replacing Coleman in the quartet, recorded and toured with Sonny Rollins , was a member of the New York Contemporary Five with Archie Shepp and John Tchicai , and recorded and toured with both Albert Ayler and George Russell . His first recording as

288-696: A trumpet player—it's just notes that come out, and every note he plays he looks serious about, and people will go for that, especially white people." According to Cherry, however, when Davis attended an Ornette Coleman performance at the Five Spot Café in Greenwich Village , he was impressed with Cherry's playing and sat in with the group using Cherry's pocket trumpet. Later, in a 1964 DownBeat blindfold test, Davis indicated that he liked Cherry's playing. As leader or co-leader With Old and New Dreams With Codona With Ornette Coleman With

320-816: A variety of musicians. In the late 1960s he settled in Tågarp , Sweden with his wife, Swedish designer and textile artist Moki Cherry. In 1968, Don Cherry taught music classes with guest lecturers, performance collaborators, and workshop leaders from around the world at Arbetarnas bildningsförbund (ABF) House, a Swedish labor movement-run education center. For ten years, Don and Moki Cherry lived and worked collaboratively in an abandoned schoolhouse in Tågarp, holding classes and performances, hosting guests and collaborators, and exploring their concept of Organic Music Society. In 1969, Cherry played trumpet and other instruments for poet Allen Ginsberg 's 1970 LP Songs of Innocence and Experience ,

352-791: A variety of non-Western instruments, which he mastered and often played in performances and on recordings. Among these instruments were berimbau , bamboo flutes and assorted percussion instruments. Cherry's trumpet influences included Miles Davis , Fats Navarro , Clifford Brown , and Harry Edison . Journalist Howard Mandel suggests Henry "Red" Allen as a precedent (given Allen's "blustery rather than Armstrong-brazen brass sound, jauntily unpredictable melodic streams, squeezed-off and/or half-valve effects and repertoire including novelty vocals") while Ekkehard Jost cites Wild Bill Davison . Some critics have noted shortcomings in Cherry's technique. Ron Wynn writes that "[Cherry's] technique isn't always

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384-595: Is notable for his subtlety and flair. Drake's questing nature and his interest in Caribbean percussion led to a deep involvement with reggae. Hamid Drake (birth name Henry Lawrence Drake) was born in 1955 in Monroe , Louisiana , and when he was a child his family moved to Evanston , Illinois . There, he started playing with local rock and R&B bands, which eventually brought him to the attention of Fred Anderson , an older saxophonist who had also moved to Evanston from Monroe as

416-594: Is the group Phat Jam along with human beat boxer and rapper Napoleon Maddox. Drake also works with Maddox in the jazz hip hop group ISWHAT?! . Drake performs with European jazz groups, recording with Hungarian musicians such as Viktor Tóth and Mihály Dresch . In addition to the drum set, Drake performs on the frame drum, the tabla, and other hand drums. Since 1991, Drake has collaborated with fellow percussionist Michael Zerang to present annual winter solstice concerts. Both musicians have been committed to return to Chicago, from wherever they may be performing, to stage

448-540: The New York Contemporary Five , and Albert Ayler . Cherry released his debut album as bandleader, Complete Communion , in 1966. In the 1970s, he became a pioneer in world music , with his work drawing on African, Middle Eastern, and Hindustani music. He was a member of the ECM group Codona , along with percussionist Naná Vasconcelos and sitar and tabla player Collin Walcott . Chris Kelsey of AllMusic called Cherry "one of

480-768: The Red Hot Organization 's compilation Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool , on a track titled "Apprehension", alongside the Watts Prophets . This album, meant to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among African-Americans, was named "Album of the Year" by Time . Cherry died of liver cancer in Málaga , Spain, on October 19, 1995, at the age of 58. Cherry was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 2011. Cherry

512-517: The Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles , where his father tended bar at the Plantation Club on Central Avenue , at the time the center of a vibrant jazz scene. Cherry recalled skipping school at Fremont High School in order to play with the swing band at Jefferson High School . This resulted in his transfer to Jacob Riis High School, a reform school , where he met drummer Billy Higgins . By

544-621: The 18th-century poet Ramprasad Sen , and were excerpted from Mother of the Universe: Visions of the Goddess and Tantric Hymns of Enlightenment by Lex Hixon . In a review for All About Jazz , Lyn Horton wrote: "In every song, long or short, an intricately diverse instrumentation conveys a sacred message of Kali, the Hindu Mother goddess... Drake's miraculous infallibility as percussionist and drummer can never dissolve; he blazes his path into

576-482: The 1971 album Actions . In 1973, he co-composed the score for Alejandro Jodorowsky 's film The Holy Mountain , together with Jodorowsky and Ronald Frangipane. At the end of the 1970s, the trio Organic Music Theater (with Gian Piero Pramaggiore and Naná Vasconcelos ) had an intense live activity in Italy and France. In 1982, Cherry released the duet album El Corazon with Ed Blackwell. He also released two albums as

608-889: The 1990s, Hamid Drake was widely regarded as one of the best percussionists in jazz and improvised music. Incorporating Afro-Cuban, Indian, and African percussion instruments and influence, in addition to using the standard trap set, Drake has collaborated extensively with top free jazz improvisers. Drake also has performed world music ; by the late 1970s, he was a member of Foday Musa Suso's Mandingo Griot Society and has played reggae throughout his career. Drake has worked with trumpeter Don Cherry , pianist Herbie Hancock , saxophonists Pharoah Sanders , Fred Anderson , Archie Shepp and David Murray , and bassists Reggie Workman and William Parker (in many lineups). Drake studied drums extensively, including eastern and Caribbean styles. He frequently plays without sticks, using his hands to develop subtle commanding undertones. His tabla playing

640-651: The Sun (1996) and For Ed Blackwell (2015, recorded in 1995). Don Cherry (trumpeter) Donald Eugene Cherry (November 18, 1936 – October 19, 1995) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist. Beginning in the late 1950s, he had a long tenure performing in the bands of saxophonist Ornette Coleman , including on the pioneering free jazz albums The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) and Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation (1961). Cherry also collaborated separately with musicians including John Coltrane , Charlie Haden , Sun Ra , Ed Blackwell ,

672-408: The bandleader position with no less acuity." Ed Hazell of Point of Departure stated: "The music is of a piece with the spiritual vision... This album is like one of Ellington's Sacred Concerts , a very personal work that moves from a particular religious basis to a universal message. You don't have to be a believer to get it." The Free Jazz Collective' s Stef Gijssels noted that the album finds

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704-576: The early 1950s Cherry was playing with jazz musicians in Los Angeles, sometimes acting as pianist in Art Farmer 's group. While trumpeter Clifford Brown was in Los Angeles with Max Roach , Cherry attended a jam session with Brown and Larance Marable at Eric Dolphy 's house, and Brown informally mentored Cherry. He also toured with saxophonist James Clay . Cherry became well known in 1958 when he performed and recorded with Ornette Coleman , first in

736-1212: The interior landscape of percussion and shared deeply in Mr. Cherry's grasp of music's spiritually infinite transformational possibilities. Drake worked extensively with him from 1978 until Cherry's death in 1995. Drake was one of the founders, along with Foday Musa Suso and Adam Rudolph , of The Mandingo Griot Society. His other frequent collaborators include New York bassist William Parker , saxophonist David Murray , composer and percussionist Adam Rudolph , German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and drummer Michael Zerang . Drake has played and/or recorded with: Don Cherry , Pharoah Sanders , Fred Anderson , Herbie Hancock , Archie Shepp , bassist William Parker (in many lineups), Reggie Workman , Yusef Lateef , Wayne Shorter , Bill Laswell , David Murray , Joe Morris , Evan Parker , Paolo Angeli , Peter Brötzmann , Jim Pepper , Roy Campbell , Matthew Shipp , Sabir Mateen , Rob Brown , Mat Walerian , Marilyn Crispell , Johnny Dyani , Dewey Redman , Joe McPhee , Adam Rudolph , Hassan Hakmoun , Joseph Jarman , George E. Lewis , John Tchicai , Iva Bittová , Ken Vandermark , and almost all of

768-532: The members of the AACM . These diverse artists all play in a broad range of musical settings which allows Drake to comfortably adapt to north and west African and Indian impulses as well as reggae and Latin. Although engaged as sideman, he has also devoted his energies and creativity as a band leader; focusing on his own groups and projects such as Bindu and Indigo Trio. Drake has frequently appeared with jazz legend Archie Shepp in various configurations. The most common

800-494: The most efficient; frequently, his rapid-fired solos contain numerous missed or muffed notes. But he's a master at exploring the trumpet and cornet's expressive, voice-like properties; he bends notes and adds slurs and smears, and his twisting solos are tightly constructed and executed regardless of their flaws." Jost notes the tendency for writers to focus on Cherry's "technical insecurity", but asserts that "the problem lies elsewhere. Perfect technical control in extremely fast tempos

832-494: The most influential jazz musicians of the late 20th century." Cherry was born in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , to a mother of Choctaw descent and an African-American father. His mother and grandmother played piano and his father played trumpet. His father owned Oklahoma City's Cherry Blossom Club, which hosted performances by jazz musicians Charlie Christian and Fletcher Henderson . In 1940, Cherry moved with his family to

864-406: The players "completely merging jazz with world music," and described the seven tracks as "full of energy, rhythmic complexities, while still being unbelievably pure and authentic." However, he called the lyrics "awful" due to the fact that "Ramprasad's poetry is not only not very poetic, it's also not very lyrical, with lots of abstract words and unequal rhythm." Hamid Drake By the close of

896-496: The roots of the music drew like-minded musicians together into a performance and educational collective named the Mandingo Griot Society , which combined traditional African music and narrative with distinctly American influences. Don Cherry , who Drake first met in 1978, was another continuing collaborator. After meeting Cherry, Drake and fellow percussionist Adam Rudolph travelled with Don to Europe, where they explored

928-451: The solstice event which commemorates the northern hemisphere's shortest day. (In most years, about a week later Drake performs again in Chicago with the DKV Trio .) About the winter event Drake has said, "The solstice is an important time for all people of any religion or race, because it's about the cycling of the earth itself, and nobody can really claim that. It's a time of the year when

960-591: Was married to Monika Karlsson ( Moki Cherry ), a Swedish painter and textile artist, who also occasionally played tanpura with him. His stepdaughter Neneh Cherry , his step-granddaughters Mabel and Tyson, and his sons David Ornette Cherry, Christian Cherry, and Eagle-Eye Cherry , are also musicians. David Ornette Cherry died from an asthma attack at the age of 64 on November 20, 2022. Don Cherry practiced Vajrayana Buddhism. Cherry learned to play various brass instruments in high school. Throughout his career, he played pocket cornet (though he identified this as

992-518: Was more or less risk-free as long as the improviser had to deal with standard changes that were familiar to him from years of working with them.... In the music of the Ornette Coleman Quartet—a 'new-found-land' where the laws and habits of functional harmony do not apply—there is no use for patterns that had been worked out on that basis." Miles Davis was initially dismissive of Cherry's playing, claiming that "anyone can tell that guy's not

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1024-521: Was noted. In the 1970s, Cherry ventured into the developing genre of world fusion music. Cherry incorporated influences of Middle Eastern, African, and Indian music into his playing. He studied Indian music with Vasant Rai in the early seventies. From 1978 to 1982, he recorded three albums for ECM with "world jazz" group Codona , consisting of Cherry, percussionist Naná Vasconcelos and sitar and tabla player Collin Walcott . Cherry also collaborated with classical composer Krzysztof Penderecki on

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