Mu, First Part

1. Brilliant Action

2. Amejelo

3. Total Vibration

4. Sun of the East

5. Terrestrial Beings

Mu, First Part,Don Cherry,Get Back Italy,Avant-Garde,Avant-Garde Jazz,Free Jazz,Jazz,Pop,World Fusion

Jazz

Music

jazz

Tracks:

Brilliant Action
Amejelo
Total Vibration
Sun of the East
Terrestrial Beings
Mysticism of My Sound
Medley: Dollar Brand/Spontaneous Composing/Exert, Man on the Moon
Bamboo Night
Teo-Teo Can
Smiling Faces, Going Places
Psycho Drama
Medley: Theme: Albert Heath/Theme: Dollar Brand/Babyrest, Time for...

Album Description

UK reissue of 1995 compilation that combines both of the great jazz innovator's 1969 releases together on one CD. Possibly one of the first albums to put 'world music' on the map. Highly recommended! 2001 release.

Customer Reviews:

Classic Duets.......2003-04-16

Don Cherry's music has lately been slowly trickling out on CD. This excellent Duet recording with Ed Blackwell brings together the two "Mu" albums recorded in Paris in 1969. The chemistry of these two Musical Masters is great. Cherry's trumpet is big, bold and as vibrant as ever - darting and diving while Blackwell provides a perfect catalyst for explosive interactions. I especially enjoy Cherry's Bamboo flute and Piano sprinkled througout this disc. I love the way the sound shifts to different cultures without losing Cherry's unique vibe. This music is very tasteful and you can easily lose yourself in its' beauty. These two artist paint vivid musical pictures with plenty of textures and great color. Cherry and Blackwell are very insightful and intuitive throughout the recording. There are no weak moments. I wish someone would do a complete box set of all of Cherry's music. He was definitely a well respected musician around the globe, but still goes under-appreciated here at home.

If you enjoyed the duet recordings of Ornette Coleman (Soapsuds, Soapsuds) or Charlie Haden ("Closeness" Duets & The Golden Number), You will enjoy listening to this music. Great recording - 4 1/2 Stars.

Mu First Part / Mu Second Part
Average customer rating:

Great disc, see ORIENT

CD Mix-up at Factory

Mu music!

delightful duos, Pan-African diaspora music

Out Of Sight!

Mu First Part / Mu Second Part
Don Cherry
Manufacturer: Varese Sarabande
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | International | Styles | Music
Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Jazz | Styles | Music
Jazz Fusion | Jazz | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00005O54J
Release Date: 2001-09-18

Tracks:

Brilliant Action
Amejelo
Total Vibration
Sun of the East
Terrestrial Beings
Mysticism of My Sound
Medley: Dollar Brand/Spontaneous Composing/Exert, Man on the Moon
Bamboo Night
Teo-Teo Can
Smiling Faces, Going Places
Psycho Drama
Medley: Theme: Albert Heath/Theme: Dollar Brand/Babyrest, Time for...

Amazon.com

Originally released in 1969 as separate LP's, Mu documents the album-length duos of trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell, both members of the Ornette Coleman quartet. This was a radical concept at the time, but the duo's empathy and stark beauty won many converts, leading to a spate of duo concept albums in the future. Cherry's darting, dancing trumpet and Blackwell's melodic polyrhythms are perfect foils, as each man has a gift for creating rifflike patterns that congeal and coalesce. Cherry substitutes flute and piano on several cuts, adding variety and additional colors to their obvious simpatico. The flute cuts, in particular "Amejelo" and "Bamboo Night," presage Cherry's later ventures into various ethnic strains of world music. --Wally Shoup

Customer Reviews:

Great disc, see ORIENT.......2003-01-24

I had this COOL review of MU that I wrote an' I'm still bummed about it bein' lost when Charly folded. See my ORIENT review to get my take on MU and its place in Cherry's development; my theory is that basically after free jazz, Cherry was seeking foundations for an order in jazz that didn't emerge from the canonized baggage of western tradition, that grew up organically like life itself, and ended up naturally turning to tribal music, to a sort of neoprimitivism; this means making a recording that could afford to be far more lyrical, gentle, and playful than "free jazz" per se, tho' it's still ostensibly free jazz, I suppose. ORIENT, which, if th' gods are willing, will remain reissued for awhile, is the next step in this development; having found a place to begin again, Cherry begins really enthusiastically experimenting with incorporating "world" elements into his music, from Tibetan chant to African thumb pianos. MU, tho', is the beginning of that movement, and it's always exciting to hear. By the way, the trippy art is by Cherry's wife, Mocqui (I think I'm spelling that right). Try to see the European import cover for BROWN RICE some time, for a REALLY beautiful example of her work.

CD Mix-up at Factory.......2003-01-04

Fuel 2000 Records simultaneously released this CD and the Art Ensemble of Chicago's "A Jackson in Your House/Message to Our Folks" but the manufacturing plant mixed up the two titles and switched the music. The Art Ensemble's music (which is excellent in its own right) inadvertently appears on this disc and vice versa. The defective CDs have black lettering on white background, whereas correct discs have been made with light blue background instead of white. So if you're not familiar with Cherry and/or the Art Ensemble, check your disc! Oh, by the way, this Cherry disc is excellent as well.

Mu music!.......2002-11-26

Don Cherry is mostly known as a trumpeter & sideman to Ornette Coleman, here he branches out into different sound territories on a whole bunch of instruments, most notably proving himself an excellent pianist. The Mysticism of My Sound displays this perfectly, somewhat reminiscent of Herbie Hancock's Cantalooupe Island. He is more than ably supported by Ed Blackwell who in that classic Ornette quartet when alternating from Billy Higgins, he was always the louder, harder-hitting one. Here the patterns are more in a "world music" style, though before the term was coined & before it became Ikea soundtracks. The comparisons to the mighty Interstellar Space make sense on some tracks though nowhere near as earth-shatteringly ferocious. MU [also the title of a Sun Ra song coincidentally from 1969 & the band Beefheart's guitarist Jeff Cotton formed post- Trout Mask] has a very distinct sound, the likes of which hardly anyone seems likely to repeat. It also was the 1st release [well, vol 1 anyway] on the important free jazz label BYG/Actuel. But the personal satisfaction you'll get should well outweight such trivia. Dig in.

delightful duos, Pan-African diaspora music.......2001-11-18

This is an attractive re-packaging of an earlier Charly CD, with a suitably psychedelic cover, appropriate to the music's origins in the late 1960s when Cherry was becoming a global nomad (he wound up in Scandinavia for many years). Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell played together with Ornette Coleman before Ornette's historic first recordings. Billy Higgins played on "The Shape of Jazz to Come" (1959) but Blackwell had been there first, and appeared with his distinctive New Orleans rhythms on "This Is Our Music" (1960).

Cherry and Blackwell, who sadly have both passed on, always played subordinate roles in Ornette's quartet, but on this date they play as equals. Both were interested in "world music," and Blackwell was interested in all the branches of Pan-African rhythm (polyrhythms!) and percussion. There are jazz aspects to "Mu," but as in Mingus, other elements are blended -- not only the blues in this case, but further back to folk musics of Africa. There is tremendous playfulness here, as well as respect. Cherry and Blackwell would team up again over a decade later for "El Corazon" on ECM, also fantastic and well worth checking out. And by all means, don't neglect the records by Old and New Dreams either, which brought Cherry and Blackwell together with Charlie Haden and Dewey Redman in the 1970s as Ornette went electric...

Out Of Sight!.......2001-11-12

The idea of duo sessions between woodwind & percussion or brass & percussion was definitely in the air during the mid to late 1960s. John Coltrane, for example, had been experimenting with the duo format with drummer Rashied Ali (Interstellar Space) and before that with Elvin Jones. In fact if you like Interstellar Space, you'll groove on this. Unlike the Trane/Ali date, this particular session allows for plenty of open space amidst periods of fury; and Cherry alternates between trumpet, piano and flute throughout the album. Combined with great drumming and percussion from Ed Blackwell (who can swing and play beautiful African-inspired polyrhythms) Cherry creates sounds that have one foot in the avant-garde jazz of the late 1960s and the other foot in world music. Essential for fans of Don Cherry and others who have an interest in free jazz.