Don Cherry Stretches Out On Mu

The most adept musicians in any genre are capacious of creating work that sounds expansive while remaining simplistic. Looking back at the development of man and its historical march to whatever counts as a stringently defined culture, there’ve got to be endless instances of people creating music – for whatever purpose – but doing so with only the most simple instruments. The drawn back instrumentation, though, when rendered with fervor should amount to some of the most beautiful music ever dispensed. There’s a sort of religiosity that goes along with that, and that’s probably why Don Cherry’s work moved towards that feel as his career progressed.

Being counted as one of jazz’s black musicians to turn his focus back to Africa, the albums Cherry issued in the latter part of the sixties and into the seventies took on the mantle of spiritual jazz. It’s not a term the cornet player would have used most likely. But after people began weighing down John Coltrane’s performances with the tag it continued to spread. And while Cherry doesn’t title his work with names that summon images of the East, there’s unquestionably a new spirit entering his work at around the time he headed back to the mother land.

One of his most enduring and popular works, Mu, as recorded in a duo with percussionist Ed Blackwell takes in a wide swath of the pairings abilities. Any sort of combination of sound is approached at one time or another. Every tempo examined and dispatched. Seeing as the disc was initially issued on the Actuel imprint, it shouldn’t be a tremendous surprise. But there are still moments spread over the album which are going to leave listeners wide eyed.

After the drum heavy opener, Mu moves into “Amejelo,” which initially doesn’t sound different than its predecessor. When Cherry kicks in with a flute, though, the song’s transformed from a muscular discourse on free improve into a slight, but thoughtful rumination on the possibilities of playing subtely with only the most base instruments available.

Drumming is surely the oldest musical output man has. And the flute can’t be too much newer an invention. With Blackwell and Cherry listening to each other as much as directing the action here, this early track points towards everything the pair can possible work out in such a setting.

There’s roughly an hour’s worth of other music here on Mu. But hitting the repeat button doesn’t sound like a bad idea.