Jazz Archives

Not counting a couple of sessions he co-led with John Coltrane and Albert Ayler, Complete Communion was the first album Don Cherry recorded as a leader following his departure from the Ornette Coleman Quartet. It was also one of the earliest showcases for the Argentinian tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri, who Cherry discovered during a stay in Rome. While the music on Complete Communion was still indebted to Coleman's concepts, Cherry injected enough of his own personality to begin differentiating himself as a leader. He arranged the original LP as two continuous side-long suites, each of which incorporated four different compositions and was recorded in a single take. In practice, this meant that several melodic themes popped up over the course of each side; all the musicians free-associated off of each theme, engaging in intense, abstract dialogues before moving on to the next. As the album's title suggests, every member of the group not only solos, but shares the total space selflessly. Bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Ed Blackwell both play extremely active roles, especially Grimes, who solos powerfully and sometimes carries the main riffs. Often the music sounds more like a conversation, as opposed to a solo with support, because the musicians make such intelligent use of space and dynamics, and wind up with a great deal of crackling, volatile interplay as a result.
The leader remains recognizably himself, and his burnished tone is a nice contrast with Barbieri's fiery approach; for his part, Barbieri's playing has a lot of speechlike inflections, and he spends a lot of time in the upper register of his horn, which makes him sound quite similar to Ornette at times. As a whole, the project comes off remarkably well, establishing Cherry as an avant-garde force to be reckoned with in his own right.

:::Review by Steve Huey:::

Don Cherry - Complete Communion (1965)

1. Complete Communion 20:38
a. Complete Communion
b. And Now
c. Golden Heart
d. Remembrance

2. Elephantasy 19:36
a. Elephantasy
b. Our Feelings
c. Bishmallah
d. Wind, Sand and Stars

Credits
Bass - Henry Grimes
Cornet, Composed By - Don Cherry
Drums - Edward Blackwell
Saxophone [Tenor] - Leandro 'Gato' Barbieri

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