Jazz Archives

For his second album, Symphony for Improvisers, Don Cherry expanded his Complete Communion quartet -- tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri, bassist Henry Grimes, and drummer Ed Blackwell -- to a septet, adding vibraphonist Karl Berger, bassist Jean François Jenny-Clark, and tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders (who frequently plays piccolo here). The lineup has a real international flavor, since Barbieri was from Argentina, Berger from Germany, and Jenny-Clark from France; Cherry had gigged regularly with all three during his 1964-1965 sojourn in Europe, and brought them to New York to record. With all the added firepower, it's remarkable that Symphony for Improvisers has the same sense of shared space and controlled intelligence as its predecessor, even when things are at their most heated. Once again, Cherry sets up the album as two continuous medleys that fuse four compositions apiece, which allows the group's improvisational energy and momentum to carry straight through the entire program. The "Symphony for Improvisers" suite is the most raucous part of Cherry's Blue Note repertoire, and the "Manhattan Cry" suite pulls off the widest mood shifts Cherry had yet attempted in that format. Even though the album is full of passionate fireworks, there's also a great deal of subtlety -- the flavors added to the ensemble by Berger's vibes and Sanders' piccolo, for example, or the way other instrumental voices often support and complement a solo statement. Feverish but well-channeled, this larger-group session is probably Cherry's most gratifying for Blue Note.

:::Review by Steve Huey:::

Don Cherry - Symphony For Improvisers (1966)

Symphony For Improvisers (19:40)
1a Symphony For Improvisers
1b Nu Creative Love
1c What's Not Serious
1d Infant Happiness
Manhattan Cry (19:17)
2a Manhattan Cry
2b Lunatic
2c Sparkle Plenty
2d Om Nu

Credits
Artwork By [Art Direction And Design] - Michael Boland
Artwork By [Cover Design] - Reid Miles
Artwork By [Creative Direction] - Gordon H Jee
Bass - Henry Grimes , Jean-François Jenny-Clark
Composed By - Don Cherry
Cornet - Don Cherry
Drums - Edward Blackwell
Other [Original Liner Notes] - A. B. Spellman
Other [Reissue Liner Notes] - Bob Blumenthal
Photography [Cover Photograph, Liner Photographs] - Francis Wolff
Producer - Alfred Lion
Recorded By, Remastered By - Rudy Van Gelder
Reissue Producer - Michael Cuscuna
Saxophone [Tenor] - Gato Barbieri
Saxophone [Tenor], Piccolo Flute - Pharoah Sanders
Vibraphone, Piano - Karl Berger