Don Cherry was always evolving, both a teacher and a student, moving on a musical and personal journey through many related but different landscapes. In the six years (1970 to 1976) when I knew him well, he was exploring a holistic fusion of life, art, and sound developed with his wife, Moki Cherry. For much of that time they worked out of their base in an old schoolhouse in southern Sweden.
As part of his evolution as a musician Don was always collecting and studying instruments from across the globe: the doussn’gouni (Malian hunter’s harp), bamboo flutes, and various percussive instruments. He learned through the exchange of tapes and travel/sharing with other musicians. His 1975 album Brown Rice exemplified this synthesis, incorporating Indian scales, Middle Eastern modalities, and African rhythmic structures well before the tag “world music” even existed. Collaborations with Turkish drummer Okay Temiz further cemented Cherry’s commitment to what he viewed as a universal musical language, unencumbered by geographic or genre boundaries.
Don’s weakness was his on-and-off heroin addiction, which Moki fought against through her love and attempting to keep him physically separated from the people and places that encouraged him to backslide. It was not an easy life, but he was a man who gave a lot to the people he cared for, and I was grateful to be in his and Moki’s creative family for the years that I was.
I love these photos. What a wonderful subject matter. Sorry to hear about yet another jazz musician plagued by heroin. Gotta love someone who names his son Eagle Eye. I read up on Moki and learned that she designed sets for the Apollo Theater in Harlem. What an interesting couple!