Sunday 1 September 2019, 2pm
David Cherry is visiting London to record a new album, but also to teach and pass on some of his father's - late jazz musician Don Cherry's - approaches to learning and playing music. Together with his niece Naima Karlsson he convened an eclectic group of musicians to study some of Don's tunes and we are delighted that he has agreed to play this very special, last minute Matinee Show.
The concert came about after a recent workshop at Cafe OTO Project Space with David Ornette Cherry and the musicians involved. The workshop was organised by David’s niece Naima, whose intention is to learn and share the music, art, and teachings of her grandparents Don and Moki Cherry in ways that can continue to pass on their inspirations and philosophies.
Organic Notes Ensemble:
Kenichi Iwasa
Maxwell Sterling
Paul Simm
Seymour Wright
Billy Steiger
Ute Kanngiesser
David Ornette Cherry is a musician, composer and educator who grew up in Watts, California and now lives in Portland, Oregon.
The pulses and melodies that arise from his jazz, classical, African, world music background, and from playing with some of the great jazz artists of our times, speak about our human experiences through the the language of sound. He listens with an open heart and fresh mind to his collaborators and the world around him in a way that makes his compositions not only music, but a way of life, a positive form of energy, and a way to connect. He has won the 2003 ASCAP- Chamber Music America Award for adventurous Programming of Contempory Music and trains young musicians in world music, theory, and piano.
David was born the same year Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry recorded their first album, SOMETHIN ELSE. The ambient music streaming through his childhood was generated by the early collaborations of his dad, Don Cherry, with Coleman and the musicians who visited his parents' Mariposa Avenue home in Los Angeles. However, it was a wood-chopping accident one summer in Sweden that sealed David's musical fate as he was confined to music study and later performing with his Dad at the age of sixteen years old.
Other collaborations have included Ed Blackwell, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins, Dewey Redman, Phil Ranelin, Justo Almario, Thara Memory, Glenn Moore, Carlton Jackson, Kamau Daaood.
He sees himself crossing borders drawing from the past - building a passageway to jazz of the future. David states, "The music never stopped. Jazz is dynamic. It is a continuum that expands and takes from the players and composers so they can add their little something to the art. It's not about JUST referencing the past. It's about keeping the momentum going like a ball that keeps rolling along."
He further states, "My compositions are a musical fusion of cultures laid firmly down on a foundation of purely garage-style beats. It's a union of textures, sounds, lifestyles, surroundings, and messages in a universal language emphasizing a positive state of mind."
Acoustic piano, electronic keyboards, melodica, wood flute and douss'n gouni are his instruments.
Kenichi Iwasa and Maxwell Sterling first began playing music together with Naima Karlsson and Neneh Cherry, celebrating the art and music of Don and Moki Cherry.
Through their love of improvised music and interest in obfuscating genres and traditions, they began collaborating on various performances- from catwalk shows for Louise Gray, to performance work with Linder Sterling.
Kenichi Iwasa is known for his legendary Krautrock Karaoke night as well as being a sought after collaborator throughout Europe. Maxwell Sterling is a composer and sound artist, releasing his debut album, ‘Hollywood Medieval’ in 2017.
Seymour Wright is a saxophonist. His work is about the creative, situated friction of learning, ideas, people and the saxophone – music, history and technique – actual and potential.
Seymour's solo music is documented on three widely-acclaimed collections - Seymour Wright of Derby (2008), Seymour Writes Back (2015) and Is This Right? (2017).
Current projects include: @xcrswx with Crystabel Riley; abaria with Ute Kanngiesser; [Ahmed] with Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip and Pat Thomas; GUO with Daniel Blumberg; XT with Paul Abbott; The Creaking Breeze Ensemble; a trans-atlantic duet with Andy Guthrie, and, with Jean-luc Guionnet a project addressing an imaginary lacunae in Aby Warburg's Atlas Mnemosyne.
@xcrswx
Billy Steiger was born in Howth on the 16th December, 1986. Now he plays the violin.
“Then he sat down by a pond and began to play a tune. As he played, the most extraordinary thing happened. One by one the fish in the pond began to jump out and fly about in the air. And what is more, they were all different colours and they were singing to the music.”
Patrick, Quentin Blake.
https://billysteiger.bandcamp.com/
Ute Kanngießer is a London based cellist and composer from Germany. Over the years, she has carefully deconstructed her classical roots and almost exclusively performs unscripted, improvised music. Much of her work has evolved in relationship with other art forms such as film, poetry, dance and site specific work. She is interested in the vast expressive possibilities of her instrument in relation to body, space, and others, always looking to rediscover or redefine what is musical/lyrical in this moment in time.
Recent releases include Blue Monday - a collaboration with writer Zara Joan Miller - on New York label Reading Group.
